An Overview Of Affiliate Marketing
August 19th, 2009Affiliate marketing is an online marketing practice where a business gives a small amount of money to a website it’s affiliated with for each customer they draw to make a transaction on the business’ website as a direct result of the affiliate website’s efforts.
While a great deal of merchants still downplay this strategy for the revenue generator that it is, affiliates are more often than not part of a merchant’s online marketing program. The fact is, a great many merchants prefer this marketing method because of the reduced financial risk involved. Also, affiliate marketing works alongside the other more mainstream e-marketing practices such as Social Networking, e-mail marketing and paid search. It can also involve Master Resell Rights
Here’s something for you to know, affiliate marketing is at its most effective when used strategically alongside these other popular online advertising methods: organic search engine optimization, PPC Marketing and e-mail marketing. Sites that use Web 2.0 concepts, such as blogging, user communities and RSS feeds have integrated affiliate marketing methods with great success as well.
Affiliate marketing networks are quite varied in structure. Most are one-tier and pay affiliates commission based on a hierarchy of partners and sub-partners. Very few use two-tier programs Not to be confused with multi-level marketing (MLM) or network marketing programs which have more requirements in order to get paid a commission, affiliate marketing programs have few requirements for involvement.
As far as affiliate compensation, it is commonplace for merchants to use the cost per sale (CPS) method. Here is how the process works: if a customer visits an affiliate marketer’s website, clicks on a link sending them to the merchant’s site and then performs a transaction at the merchant’s site, the affiliate marketer is paid. Cost per mile are previously used compensation methods that have become virtually extinct in affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketing is regulated internally by the marketplace and its most successful entrepreneurs. Those affiliate marketers who do well work as homesteaders much like their predecessors in the “Wild Wild West” which could be the main reason why there still is no real code of conduct for affiliate marketers.
I believe that affiliate marketing is still a great way for anyone who is interested in making money online. I personally know many successful marketers who are affiliates so there is no reason why you cannot do it.
April 4th, 2010 at 1:50 am
Affiliate marketing has the potential for generating passive income streams, but you unquestionably will need to invest some time and effort in the beginning to get your strategies in place.