An affiliate income refers to a check you can receive from a company each month that represents a percentage of the amount of money customers spend in purchasing that company's product or service. This is based on the customers that you refer to the company's website that actually do make a purchase. In order to get started in this type of online business, your first step is to find a product that you can write about and join a free affiliate marketing program for that product.

Once you find a product and a program that pays well, then you can get started in setting up a website related to it. There are many ways to look at the type of product that you get started with. Some affiliate marketing programs pay well, but you have to think of how many people will actually buy these products. You can look at products you know that people will buy and then do a search for affiliate programs related to these. Some examples of affiliate programs that will give you a second income are travel, fitness, books and home improvement products. There are also online education programs that pay well when it comes to an affiliate income.

With the world becoming a global village because of the cheap airfares being offered all over the world, travel destinations is one of the most commonly searched term on the Internet. Select a place that you can write about and join an affiliate marketing program such as Travelocity. Each time a customer purchases hotel, car or airline reservations as a direct referral from your site, you get paid. In the case of Travelocity, this is $5.00 for each purchase, so you would only need 20 people buying from your site to make $100. All you have to do is have a domain name and a website to get started. You can make money 24 hours a day while you are sleeping, partying or playing golf.