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Affiliate Marketing Programs Explained

Affiliate marketing is the process whereby a web site owner (the affiliate or publisher) promotes the products or services from other web sites (the merchant or advertiser) by linking to those sites with a unique URL link.

In return, the affiliate may earn payment for

  • the sale of products, and/or
  • generating a qualified "lead" for the merchant to follow up on, and/or
  • directing traffic to the merchant's web site.

How does it Work?

Publishers enter into an affiliate arrangement with an advertiser - either directly with the advertiser, or indirectly through a range of affiliate program management providers such as Commission Monster (Australian based).

Each advertising banner or text link can be tracked by a URL unique to the affiliate, and affiliates place these URLs on their web pages.

When a visitor to an affiliate's site clicks on the banners or text links, the transaction can be tracked. The merchant can easily identify which affiliate sent the visitor and the result of that visit, and the affiliate is able to identify how many people they have sent as a result of specific advertisements.

Depending on the arrangement made with the advertiser, the affiliate may earn a commission for

  • any purchase made by the visitor, or
or may earn a set rate for
  • the referral to the merchant web site (a click-through), or
  • an enquiry made by the visitor (lead campaign)
Again, depending on the affiliate program, publishers may receive payment weekly, monthly, or quarterly, or perhaps even only after a certain minimum amount is reached.

Affiliate marketing creates opportunities

  1. for affiliates to earn revenue from their web sites, and
  2. for merchants to generate more sales by having a much larger sales "team" working for them, and
  3. for consumers to more easily locate products and services using the Internet.
which is why they are popular on the Internet...

But how effective are they?

Well... it depends! What? Were you expecting a definitive answer? :)

Sorry... it's not that simple... and does depend on lots of variables. If you really want to know, you DO have to keep reading... and form your own opinion on whether affiliate marketing will work for you!

* NEXT - Early Affiliate Experiences

My early experiences in publishing affiliate programs were interesting to say the least! More...

 * BACK - Affiliate Programs Index Back to Affiliate Programs Index of Articles