Do you have a favorite restaurant? Do you sometimes recommend that restaurant to friends?

Wouldn't it be great if you get a 25% finder's fee every time your friends ate at the restaurant you recommended?

To sweeten the deal, let's say your friends even get special discounts for mentioning your name!

Sounds good?

Well, that's exactly how online poker affiliate programs work.

If you become an online poker room affiliate, you will get a 20-35% cut of the profits generated by the people you referred to the room. You will get paid every time they play poker--for the the rest of their lives.

And the people you referred will also get special bonuses generally not available to the public. A win-win all around.

The best thing about affiliate programs is that they are absolutely free. There are no obligations to buy anything and you don't have any overhead costs. You are basically starting your own business without investing a dime.

And yet, despite the zero start-up costs, the earning potential can be staggering.

If you only add one new player a month, in three years you'll have 36 players earning money for you.

If some of them become regular players, you can easily earn hundreds or thousands of dollars per month; and if a couple of them turn out to be prolific players, you may even earn up to tens of thousands of dollars per month.

Still have questions about these programs? Here are answers to some of the common questions people have about becoming online poker affiliates:

Aren't these poker affiliate programs too good to be true?

Affiliate marketing is not a novel idea. Amazon, Ebay, Barnes & Noble, and Netflix are just a few of the examples of big corporations using affiliate marketing programs to expand their businesses.

When you refer customers to Amazon or an online poker room, you are doing them a great service, and you deserve to get paid.

Is the sign-up process a hassle?

It really isn't. The whole process takes less than five minutes. Generally, you only have to provide your name, contact information, and instructions on how you prefer to be paid.

You will not have to provide any sensitive information like your birthdate, social security number, or credit card numbers.

I'm not good at selling stuff and I hate being a salesperson!

You are not selling a room. You are giving money away.

As an affiliate, you will be able to offer bonuses to your friends that may not be available to the general public. You may also get advance notices of special promotions such as freeroll tournaments or free merchandise giveaways.

By passing along the special bonus and promotional information, you are doing your friends a favor.

Moreover, given poker's growing popularity, many of your friends are probably already thinking of visiting an online poker room. If they are going to do it anyway, why shouldn't you benefit from it?

But I don't have a website!

You do not need a website to promote online poker. Many poker affiliate programs give out unique bonus codes that affiliates can use to attract players.

For example, you may get a bonus code called FREECASH from Party Poker. Tell this code to others, and every time someone puts down FREECASH when signing up with Party Poker, that person will become your player.

You can tell this code to your poker buddies; mention it to your coworkers; email it to your second cousin; put it down on your blog; or scribble it in the men's room. If someone uses it, you will get the credit.

(And the new player will remember to put down the bonus codes, because he will get additional bonuses for using the bonus code.)

Will I be responsible for customer support?

Once you refer the player to the poker room, your job is done. You are not responsible for anything more after that.

What about the "refer a friend" programs?

"Refer a friend" programs are inferior to affiliate programs in many ways.

First, "refer a friend" programs generally pay less.

Second, "refer a friend" programs only give the referrer a one-time bonus, while affiliates can receive a lifetime of revenue.

Third, "refer a friend" programs require the referrer to jump through certain hoops before the poker room will pay for the referral. Generally, the referrer has to play a certain number of raked hands before they can get paid for their referral.

Affiliates, on the other hand, get paid immediately after someone signs up.

Which program is the best and where do I sign up?

Tradal.net (a division of Empire Online) is the best affiliate program I have ever worked with. (sign up now)

I have been with Empire Poker for over three years. Empire Poker has always offered me great support and, more importantly, my checks from them are always getting bigger.

Empire Poker pays you 20-25% of the lifetime revenue generated by the players you signed up. Instead of revenue sharing, you can also select to get paid $65-75 flat fee for each player referred.

Empire Poker is easy to promote because it offers great new player incentives, such as a 20% sign up bonus, daily $500 freeroll tournaments, and World Series of Poker satellite entries.

Another decent program is the Referback Network, which promotes Gaming Club Poker. (sign up now)

Gaming Club Poker offers affiliates 25-35% lifetime revenue generated by real money players.

Joining online poker affiliate programs is a flexible way to make some cash

Maybe you are a terrible affiliate and you only managed to sign up your girlfriend and your cousin. You end up making a mere $20 a month. Well, that's still $20 in your pocket every month for mentioning a bonus code, twice.

Most likely you will be able to sign up a dozen players and end up enjoying a couple of hundred dollars of extra income per month. Or, if you get lucky and sign up the next Chris Moneymaker, you may make a small fortune off just that one player.

Either way, you'll be making money doing something you already do for free on behalf of your favorite movies and restaurants.

But given that Pizza Hut and George Lucas are not paying you every time you send them a customer, perhaps you might consider making some cash by spreading the word about onilne poker instead.