Understanding Affiliate Marketing – The Basics
August 3rd, 2009Affiliate marketing is a type of marketing that takes place online where an online merchant gives a small amount of money to a website it’s affiliated with for every transaction that comes to them as a direct result of the affiliate website’s efforts.
While a good number of e-tailers fail to see affiliate marketing as an effective way to increase traffic to their sites, affiliates are more often than not part of a merchant’s online marketing program. In fact, a great many merchants prefer this marketing method because of the reduced financial risk involved. Further, affiliate marketing often compliments the other more mainstream internet marketing strategies such as search engine optimization, autoresponders and paid search.
Arguably, affiliate marketing has a greater impact when used with other internet marketing methods including: SEO, Google Adwords and e-mail marketing. Those websites that employ Web 2.0 methods, 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 hierarchical and pay out within a certain pecking order. Some employ two-tier programs, but this is rare Unlike multi-level-marketing (MLM) or network marketing programs, there are also very few requirements to become an affiliate.
Currently, it is commonplace for merchants to use the cost per sale (CPS) method. Here is how the process works: if a customer clicks on a link to the merchant at the affiliate’s site and subsequently purchases goods or services from the merchant, the affiliate marketer receives a fee. Cost per mile are previously used compensation methods that have become virtually extinct in affiliate marketing.
Currently a self-regulated marketplace, affiliate marketing is often considered to be run by those on the fringes of online marketing. The most successful affiliate marketers adopt a “pioneer” attitude early on which could be the main reason why there still is no real code of conduct for affiliate marketers.
As a conclusion, almost anyone can be an affiliate marketer at the comfor of their home. I personally know many successful marketers who are affiliates so there is no reason why you cannot do it.
Affiliate Marketers often use tools associated with Article Marketing because Unique Articles can explode massive amounts of traffic to the affiliates review websites.
