Affiliate marketing is a new twist on an old concept – commission-based sales. At its simplest, it is a partnership between a merchant and a salesperson where the merchant rewards the salesperson, or affiliate, based on some measure of performance....
What Is Affiliate Marketing?
by: Paul Colligan
Affiliate marketing is a new twist on an old concept – commission-based sales. At its simplest, it is a partnership between a merchant and a salesperson where the merchant rewards the salesperson, or affiliate, based on some measure of performance – usually a sale, but in some cases for leads or website traffic.
The first mainstream affiliate marketing system on the internet was launched by Amazon.com, offering Amazon "associates" the opportunity to receive a commission for each book they sold for the company. Since then, many thousands of companies have created their own affiliate programs, encouraging online publishers and salespeople to earn commissions through their partnerships.
There are many publishing and sales professionals who are successful affiliate marketers, but they are certainly not the only people participating in the industry. There are also many "amateur" affiliates – people who build a website, or create an online newsletter, or in some cases simply email their friends and recommend a product or service. In many instances, it's no different to recommending a particular brand or store – except that if somebody follows the affiliate's advice, they're rewarded for it.
Affiliate marketing may involve a number of different strategies and techniques, from building entire online storefronts offering the affiliate merchant's products, adding some form of advertisement to an existing website, to something as simple as making recommendations in an email and including a special affiliate link that ensures that the merchant credits them for the sale.
The growth of affiliate marketing is constantly increasing, as new merchants discover the value of increasing the size of their sales force by creating partnerships with online publishers. This is especially true of merchants whose products or services may appeal to a particular niche market. How better to become established within that niche than by working with companies and individuals who already know the market because they're part of it?
About The Author
Paul Colligan, the Affiliate Guy, can be found online at http://www.theaffiliateguy.com. He affiliate marketing megasite at http://www.affiliatemarketingworld.com is a popular destination to many.
(NC)-As the first smog alert warnings of the season approach, Canadians are being urged to use ethanol-blended fuel to alleviate the urban smog problems plaguing many parts of the country. Many regions such Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and most pa....
Read more
Low Speed impacts are those that take pace at speeds under 10 MPH. There’s often little (if any) visible Property Damage done to the rear of ones motor vehicle. However, those who are struck (especially in the rear) often have injuries, especially....
Read more
Remember back when selling online was a new experience? Dealers tried everything to sell their vehicles online. Today’s market has expanded to include several hot online marketplaces but there is the largest online marketplace, Ebay. Ebay has e....
Read more
Remember back when selling online was a new experience? Dealers tried everything to sell their vehicles online. Today’s market has expanded to include several hot online marketplaces. The largest online marketplace is Ebay. Ebay has evolved in....
Read more
What does BPU™ stand for? (BPU™ is a trademark of SupraStore.com)Basic Performance Upgrades. These modifications are: A full length three inch down-pipe (with or with-out high flow cats), 3” (75mm) or bigger cat-back exhaust system, raised boost....
Read more
