You've heard of pay-per-view, pay-per-person and pay-per-hour. But what on earth is pay per click?

Modern marketing is all about the Internet--and pay per click affiliate programs make let marketers use the Internet to its full potential. "Pay per click" simply means that an affiliate is paid for an Internet hit, or "click", that he or she is responsible for.

Let's assume that, as an Internet affiliate, you own a website with key words to attract search hits. When a person visit the your website, then "clicks" onto the link of another business, you receive a small fee. The average payment per click is around two cents. If the click leads to a purchase, you'll earn more. Pay per click affiliates benefit from efficient and effective marketing that's much cheaper than traditional advertising methods.

Pay per click affiliate programs pay a small fee for every visitor sent to a designated website. There is an adjacent pay per click affiliate program, called "second page click", wherein you would be paid if your visitor clicks on a link on the affiliate page. This may all sound quite confusing, but pay per click affiliates find it an easy way to promote their products and websites, and make a little extra cash.

If you are considering joining a pay per click affiliates program, be sure to read all of the details. You need to have a solid understanding of what's expected of you, and what you can expect to get in return. This is especially important if you will be taking part in a second page click program, which can decrease your revenues by as much as eighty percent.

One of the best and most popular pay per click affiliate programs is found at http://overture.com. When you sign on at Overture, you'll find features to help you get started in the pay per click affiliates program. Overture offers several demos to get your website started with the program, as well as samples of affiliate websites. You can visit these affiliate pages, read a general description, and view their income history.

As a member of a pay per click affiliates program, you'll learn which keywords are getting hits on your website, and which are not. Having this information will help you adjust your website content to feature more popular keywords and get more hits. Naturally, more search hits for your website will lead to more income from your pay per click affiliate program. Programs like Overture offer a great keyword search service. Just type in the words you've chosen, and Overture will suggest optional keywords to boost your website content and increase the number of hits it receives.

There's more to becoming a successful pay per click affiliate than just creating a button and leaving it alone. To earn a substantial income, take the time to do the research, create a great site, and keep on top of it to generate more hits. The work you do today will pay off in profits for you and your affiliates.