| Defining Affiliate Marketing |
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Affiliate marketing is a great way to create a source of revenue, or an entire business online. Basically, an affiliate markets someone else's product or service and is rewarded for each visitor or subscriber found through their efforts. Generally, the affiliate is rewarded with a percentage of each sale generated through their site or email list. This works well for the affiliate who doesn't have to develop products or handle delivery (fulfillment). It's also a great deal for the merchant since no fees are paid to the affiliate until they see results. It's not unusual for e-commerce sites to run their own affiliate marketing programs, although most e-commerce vendors use a third-party service like ClickBank or CommissionJunction that will track the traffic and sales created by the affiliate. Many companies have used affiliate marketing successfully, often seeing an increase in revenue of 15-20% of a vendor's online revenue. Unlike network marketing, affiliate marketing programs are usually one tier--that is, you do not receive commissions for recruiting additional affililates under you. There are several possibilities available for merchants who are considering offering an affiliate strategy. These solutions include stand-alone software, online shopping carts with affiliate features, hosted services, and third-party affiliate networks. Early affiliate marketers made use of spam, but most legitimate merchants have refined their terms and conditions to prohibit the affiliates from using this illegal activity. Affiliates toady are building successful businesses by generating web pages that are devoted to keywords and keyword phrases related to the product. This allows the search engines to target their sites, but also requires that an affiliate marketer rotate and update content on a regular basis. Otherwise, they are penalized by the search engines. The concept of affiliate marketing is responsible for generating a lot of new business worldwide and is expected to continue to evolve. It offers an affiliate the opportunity to align with a company that is already well established in the market, and it offers a win-win situation for everyone involved. Successful affiliate marketers generally work hard at creating useful websites with compelling sales copy. Merchants may offer training and timely advice, but promoting the website or business is the responsibility of the affiliate. |
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