Friday, 4 April 2008

What Is Affiliate Marketing?

By Christopher Stigson

A huge business online is built from affiliate marketing. The definition of affiliate marketing varies, but it always means the same thing.

Affiliate marketing is a deal between a merchant and an affiliate's website or non-website. Affiliate marketing is a proven long-term, low-cost, abundant marketing method used for many years.

It's mainly used for building extra cash on already established sites, but it's also used soley as a business model. People are constantly trying to make money with affiliate marketing and try all kinds of methods and techniques.

The more common mistakes newbie affiliate marketers make is having trouble understanding the marketing techniques. Affiliate marketin is often misunderstood. One big misconception is the one called "selling", even when selling is such a vital part of any business operation.

Another is that affiliate marketing is commonly linked with "advertising".

While the importance of advertising in marketing a certain product is not to be underestimated, the fact of the matter is, advertising like selling, is merely a part of the many functions of marketing.

Affiliates get paid from visitors, subscribers or sales made by his efforts.

As affiliates only get paid upon proven results it's very nice for merchants to have affiliate programs. The payout is only done AFTER a potential sale, lead or visitor is created thus compensation is based on the visitor value.

Affiliate marketing is typically being run by affiliate networks and this affiliate networks are composed of two functional bodies, the group affiliates and the group merchants. Each has their special function and role when it comes to affiliate marketing.

The affiliate network in the example is acting as a middle man third party. They are merely integrating the affiliates and merchants. The affiliate networks only show the merchant's campaigns to potential affiliates.

The affiliate network also collects commission fees from the merchant and then pays the affiliates which are part of the program.

Merchants are website owners who to take advantage of having perfomance based marketing. Being a merchant has many benefits.

First, the merchant maintains and operates the affiliate program. If it would be extracted, the merchant needs to do their part by researching interested affiliate websites to ensure that they are a good fit for that particular website.

When merchants find a match for their merchandise they hold the key to increased revenue. Now the merchant has access to markets and customers without having to spend a lot of time and energy doing research.

Banner ads on affiliate sites are not distracting to the site user. It might produce interest for that product and drive the consumer to the merchants' website.

It is also the merchant who decides how much he is willing to pay for each sale that results from a visitor sent from an affiliate.

Being an affiliate too has clear benefits, and affiliates are just website owners who promote one or more of a merchants products for profit.

There are plenty of affiliates who earn a full-time living online. It's not the easiest task in the world, but it has proven viable more than once. A few metrics the affiliate would want to know include the commission, expected time of payment and also how long the affiliate contract is.

The affiliate has also the responsibility to stand for the merchandise their user based would be most interested in. For example, if the site has a user base of mainly stay-at-home mothers, then on-line job openings such as surveys would be a good match for them.

The previous group would also like sites that relate to childrens products or information about that. Merchants usually have at least a couple best-seller items, and should have personal support for their affiliate. There is always a mutual benefit for affiliates and merchants in any sales promotion.

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