Let's say you owned a popular knitting blog that saw 100,000 hits per month, and a knitting supply company contacted you about promoting their needles and yarn on your website. As an affiliate, you'd place links to their products throughout your blog content. In this case, you'd receive affiliate income if a visitor landed on your blog and took an action — either a click, form submission, or purchase.
Finally, you’ll want to do some research to figure out if there are affiliate programs within your niche. You’ll be able to monetize almost any niche with display ads, but the real money online comes from affiliate sales, so you’ll want to ensure there are a handful of products you can promote.

Let’s look at an example. Say I sign up for and get accepted into the Pit Boss Affiliate Program. I go to the Pit Boss affiliate portal and they give me unique links (for grills, pellets, etc) that I can use on my blog. I post a recipe using my Pit Boss on my blog and include an affiliate link to the grill I used in various places on my post. Thank link goes to the product page of the grill I used. Someone reads my blog post and decides they want the same grill I have so they click my affiliate link and it takes them to that grill on the Pit Boss site. They purchase that grill. I get a commission on that sale because I assisted in that sale. I have a full time job that I’m not ready to leave. So I use affiliate marketing as a supplement to my income. It’s my side hustle. Sometimes it’ll take care of my gas money for the month and sometimes it’ll take care of the mortgage and my car note too. I’m not at the point where I’m making six (or even five) figures yet. But a LOT of people use affiliate marketing as their full time job and sole source of income and I believe it. Maybe one day I’ll be at that point but until then, it’ll remain a fun side hustle.
Smart marketers are always looking to maximize the clicks on their affiliate offers so that they can convert cold traffic into subscribers, leads and customers.