What Is Affiliate Marketing?


Affiliate marketing refers to the promotion of products or services through affiliates. Affiliates are usually other webmasters and ezine editors who choose to act as sales people on behalf of their principals for a commission on every sale.

There are mainly two types of affiliate marketing programs: the one-tier program and the two-tier programs. In one-tier programs the affiliate earns on a per referral basis and cannot recruit sub-affiliates to assist. In two tier programs not only the affiliate earns from his/her direct referrals but also gets a percentage commission from referrals by co-affiliates who join the program through him/her. It is also possible to have multi-tier affiliate programs but these are not yet prevalent.

If you are an online entrepreneur or marketer and you have your own website then you can also promote your business and increase your sales through affiliate marketing. You will need an attractive and genuine product plus credible sales copy plus the appropriate software to set up an affiliate marketing program. Set out the program's terms and conditions,frequently asked questions and online registration form and post them on your site and let prospects read and be able to join if they are satisfied with your affiliate program.

Apart from providing details about your affiliate marketing program on your website you need to send out the word out there that you have a lucrative and working program. Of course you could advertise in ezines or through ezine ad networks and high traffic websites. You will also need to register your program with affiliate program directories and networks such as www.associateprograms.com and www.comissionjunction.com so that prospects searching for new opportunities can find yours. You could also write reviews and articles and post them in free articles databases and request editors to publish them in your ezine.

If you have no products of your own and no website but want to earn money marketing affiliate programs you can set yourself up and succeed as an affiliate marketing. You would have to learn the ropes of online marketing and invest time, money and efforts to earn legitimate income from promoting other people's products.

You can look for a product(s) in high demand, register as an affiliate and start promoting the products using various marketing strategies. How do you know what is in high demand and what can be a successful product to market could be found mainly through considered research. It is generally accepted that information products such as ebooks, special reports, etc sell well on the internet. To discover what particular infoproducts are suitable for you, conduct some research at online marketing forums such as www.warriorforum.com. You can read existing messages already posted there and ask questions to find out more. You can also search at affiliate program network sites such as www.commissionjunction.com, www.associateprograms.com, www.clickbank.com and www.google.com.

To assist you select the most appropriate affiliate program here are further tips:

The product must be genuine and legal so that you do not encounter legal problems.

The minimum payout should not be too high to make you wait for too long for the paycheck or to struggle too much to send referrals.

The product should not be too new as to make prospects tarry in making the buying decision or too old that almost everyone has bought it.

The price should not be too high as to make people unable to afford thus making you not get any or very few referrals or the product is too cheap that your commission is too little such that you would have to make many referrals to earn a decent income.

Does the affiliate program have one -tier or several tiers? The more tiers the program has and ability to earn residual income the better.

Do you have to pay or purchase anything to join the program? Purchasing may be fine for you to know the product but paying to join isn't.

Ideally you should have your own website where you would post reviews and links to your affiliate programs. Use your own domain name when setting up the website to look professional. Since many of the visitors to your website will be there for a few seconds and may never return again, it is advisable that you capture their names and addresses so that you can further enlighten them on your programs and offers. This could be mainly through a regular ezine or an automated autoresponder ecourse.

Provide a means for prospects to contact you in case of any queries and reply promptly and courteously. Promote your website constantly and track your affiliate statistics regularly to gauge your performance. Ensure your links and banners are working and your affiliate ID is correct in all your links. Use text links more than banners as the latter are less effective nowadays due to their proliferation and distractive nature.

About The Author

Dhiraj Bhikoo is a successful internet marketer.He helps people retire faster by building a free search engine friendly website for top search engine rankings.


More Resources

Basics of Affiliate Marketing
Whether you realize it or not, if you've been on the Internet today, you have encountered affiliate marketing. If you have ever "clicked thru" one site to order something from another, the first site probably received a portion of the sale.
How to Succeed With Any Affiliate Program
In the early days before the internet was born, starting a business was like taking a giant leap into the unknown. Aside from the involved time and money, it also causes lots of worry.
Do You Make These Mistakes With Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate Marketing is a very lucrative business online, especially where it concerns Affiliate Internet Marketing.Today I bring you some rare and everyday mistakes that are keeping you from making a killing with affiliate marketing.
Safe Surfing in Shark Invested Waters
Paid to surf sites are washing across the Internet like a tidal wave. As powerful waves settle, new sites pop up out of the foam like tiny islands.
Affiliate! Discover Why You Are Losing $600 Each and Every Month!
Link bypassing is the number one trap affiliates fall into online. Also known as the "affiliate links theft".
How To Make Affiliate Sales In 15 Minutes
If you are one of the 98.6% of affiliate members that never make one cent from affiliate sales or make small $5.
How to Choose a Reliable and Profitable Affiliate Program
There are literally thousands of affiliate programs on the Net. Here are eight important points that every affiliate webmaster should take into account when choosing a reliable and profitable affiliate program.
Home Business Affiliate Marketing
How would you like to make money with a Home Businesswithout ever having to sell anything? There are lots of people earning thousands of dollars doing just that. There are very few home businesses that are easier or cost less than affiliate marketing.
How to Grow Your Affiliate Marketing Business
Affiliate marketing is a large business in the internet today that involves a partnership between a merchant and one or more affiliates, in which the affiliates advertise or promote the merchant's product and services free of charge until a customer is gained.Then, a part of the profit received by the merchant from that customer will be given to the affiliate as commission.
Whats LinkShare, And Do I Need To Use It?
Online affiliate marketing is one of the most effective, cheapest and fastest ways to promote merchandise. With millions of people getting access to the Internet everyday, there's a great chance for a merchant to introduce his products and services to a wider market, thereby, maximizing his revenue.
Affiliate Marketing Nightmare - Dont Let This Happen To You!
Everyone knows that affiliates can make or break a company's success rate. Ken Evoy has a whole army of people motivated to earn click-through commissions on his Site Sell program.
One Little-Known Secret to Wealth the Gurus Never Told You About!
When I started my internet marketing career, I knew that in order to succeed online I had to duplicate what my mentors were doing.I had read several popular ebooks at that time, written by marketing gurus, and each of them explained how to research niche markets in order to find out what products to create or sell.
Affiliate Programs - Can I Really Make Money?
If you have been looking around the internet for a while in search of ways of making money you cannot fail to have seen the words "join our free affiliate program" - probably followed by something about making thousands of dollars a month!If you are like me you were a mixture of skeptical, intrigued, excited and also thinking "could this work for me?"
Make 100% Commission on Your Affiliate Sales!
If you've been involved in making money on the internet, you will no doubt have tried affiliate marketing at some point. For the uninitiated, affiliate marketing is the process of selling another person's product for a percentage of the product cost.
Choosing The Right Affiliate Program
Choosing the right affiliate program is vital for your success. We don't want to end up with lemons, right? It is not advisable to invest time and effort into something that will not yield the best return for the energy expended.
Writing About How Easy Affiliate Marketing Is, Dont Make It So
It seems that the VERY popular fashion of article writing is not unlike real world clothing fashion in that; the same things keep coming around with seasonal regularity. In fact, more so with the fast paced development of the 'home business' or 'work at home' article topic conveyor.
Affiliate + Blogs = Money
I've been an affiliate for a long time, trying different ways and many different sites to make money. When I first started there were many things I didn't know and it seemed like I was banging my head against the wall just to make a few dollars.
Six Power Tips on Resell Rights
If you are planning to take the path of the reseller in your Internet Business undertakings, you will do well to use these power tips I have laid out for you. I hope you will find them useful as they have been for me.
10 Things WalMart Teaches About Affiliate Marketing
We already know about wal mart because of their ads in local papers, on billboards, on the radio and TV. So finding a local Wal Mart is easy, andso should it also be easy to find your web site.
Affiliate Marketing Step... Set Yourself Apart from the Rest.
I'm sure you've heard the expression, "This is where you separate the men from the boys."It's usually used when you're faced with some ridiculous stunt like jumping off a bridge with a rubber band tied to your foot.
Three Critical Affiliate Marketing Tips For Higher Commissions!
Affiliate marketing is quickly becoming a very specialized form of online business. It seems that people all over the Internet are clamoring for more affiliate tips.
5 Affiliate Marketing Facts of Life
Affiliate Marketing (AM) is fast becoming a major trend in line business. With the internet still in its adolescent years, it has already established itself as an extremely viable career opportunity, bridging the advertising gap for companies, while providing much sought-after work at home revenue.
Are Affiliate Riches Within Your Grasp? Discover How to Cash in Starting Today
There is some speculation about how much money you can earn online without your own product. Although marketing your own digital product on the Internet can be very lucrative, there is no reason why you and I can't profit mightily using creative methods that offer real value to Internet surfers.
Affiliate Marketing at a Glance: Helpful Hints
Regarded as one of the choice Internet marketing systems offered to small businesses, affiliate marketing has caught the attention of accomplished entrepreneurs across the globe. With virtually no risk involved in the affiliate marketing game, payment is made only after results are provided.

More Affiliate Revenue Information:

Related Articles

Discover The Affiliate Program thats Right for You
Are you looking for a profitable Affiliate Program?When you start to examine the possibilies for your homebased business, it is easy to be overwhelmed with the sheer number of "opportunities" available. A search for "Affiliate Programs" in Yahoo alone, will yield over nine million matches!As with anything worthwhile in life, starting a homebased business using affiliate programs, should not be done without doing some homework.
5 Essential Tools of the Successful Affiliate Marketer
In the time I have been running my internet home business I have realized that there is a wealth of information available about 'working at home'. Unfortunately a lot of this info does nothing more than waste your time and money.
Making Money Online With Affiliate Programs
If you are like most work from home internet business owners you want your web site to be making you as much money as possible. The choice of affiliate programs that you choose to promote on your web site will determine how much money you actually make, and the options to you are endless.
Mining For Gold With The Best Affiliate Programs And Hitting Pay Dirt
Colin McDougall tinkered around with affiliate programs earning a few dollars, nothing much to write home about, even had his own e-commerce site, known as the man's mall. In theory that site was supposed to offer all sorts of gadgets for guys.
22 Questions to Ask Before You Use Any Shopping Cart System
Many seasoned professional speakers agree that you can make more money selling your knowledge in the form of products than you can speaking.You can use traditional methods to sell products such as direct mail, catalogs and advertising.
6 BIG Benefits To Selling Big Ticket Items As An Affiliate
Today, we'll cover another set of benefits to selling Big Ticket items. BUT? this time we'llspecifically focus on the benefits of selling Big Ticket items as an AFFILIATE.
Big Ticket Items - 6 More BIG Benefits To Selling As An Affiliate
Today, we're going to cover 6 More BIG Benefits to selling Big Ticket items as an AFFILIATE.First, we had better define both Big Ticket Item and Affiliate.
Why You Dont Succeed As An Affiliate ?
Affiliate Program have exploded on the internet. Thousand of people join them every day.
The Best Affiliate Programs Increase Your Website's Earnings Potential
Taking full advantage of your website's earning potential is as simple as making use of the best affiliate programs available on the Net. Business websites and personal websites can both use affiliate links to earn additional revenue and make the most of their webspace.
Joint Venture 101 - The Quickest Way To Build Your eBusiness - PART 1
This article reveal the same techniques that many Internet marketing experts uses every day to make millions of dollars in profits - no kidding! In my own opinion it is the most profitable and powerful concept ever used on the Internet field. So, stay close and read it carefully.
Understanding Affiliate Programs
Affiliate programs are commonly misunderstood, in order to understand affiliate programs lets start with terminology. For clarification purposes, an affiliate is defined as any "referrer" or website that promotes a product in an effort to earn revenue.
9 Steps to Success in Affiliate Marketing
1.Join an Affiliate Program: Join programs that interest you personally.
Affiliate Communication
Communication is Key!When building an affiliate network communicating with affiliates is important for merchants to maintain a good relationship. An affiliate's web site targets visitors, who may not necessarily view a merchant's web site, and therefore expands a merchants market.
Convert Your Passions Into Dollars
On Cyberspace (Internet), there is a method from which you can make thousands of dollars per month without needing to have your own product or service. This method is highly flexible, and can be used in different forms to produce income by different people with different knowledge and skills.
What Is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing refers to the promotion of products or services through affiliates. Affiliates are usually other webmasters and ezine editors who choose to act as sales people on behalf of their principals for a commission on every sale.
Never Too Old
My great granddaughter said I was too old to learn to use a computer.The trouble with the younger generation is that, they think that just because you are getting old, you are also becoming stupid.
The Affiliate Interview - Do You Have What It Takes?
So you have decided to start up your own home business and after hours of searching you have decided on the program you are going to join.Now stop and take check before you rush in.
Can You Really Make A Substancial Income With An Affiliate Program ?
Affiliate Program are the easiest way to make a substancial income on the internet.Affiliate Program have exploded on the internet.
Affiliate Program Mastery: Learn How To Build Internet Capital Goods for Free
As I mention in almost all of my articles, 97% of Internet marketers never make a cent online. I mention this simple fact because it has a lot of power--it has the power to completely discourage people who are not succeeding, and it also has the power to encourage those same people who are failing to learn, so that they can succeed.
WEBMASTERS - Earn Money With Affiliate Links
If you have a website with some traffic, you can make money by having links to merchants' online shops on your site.If someone goes through your links into the shop of the merchant, and buys something, you earn commission from the sale, between 5% and 40% depending on type of merchant.
The Affiliate Model - How To Make Money As An Affiliate
Affiliate programs are a very easy and effective way to make money on the Internet right? so how do they work?Essentially, affiliate programs are a way that you can promote other people's products and get paid a commission for promoting them. You can get paid to promote almost any type of product and service on the web.
Affiliate Program Basics
Affiliate Program is a ground floor opportunity. All you have to do is send visitors to your affiliate web site by placing a textlink or banner on your website and receive a commission on each sale, without the complication and expense of selling anything yourself.
Selling Merchandise On Your Website
If you take away poker, dating, and naked ladies, custom merchandising is the big success story of the Internet. The ultimate combination of e-commerce and affiliate marketing, millions of websites around the world turn to online merchandising companies - both to market their URL and to extract some cash from loyal visitors.