Affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based marketing in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought by the affiliate’s own marketing efforts. The industry has four core players: the merchant (also known as ‘retailer’ or ‘brand’), the network (that contains offers for the affiliate to choose from and also takes care of the payments), the publisher (also known as ‘the affiliate’), and the customer. The market has grown in complexity to warrant a secondary tier of players, including affiliate management agencies, super-affiliates and specialized third party vendors. Affiliate marketing overlaps with other Internet marketing methods to some degree, because affiliates often use regular advertising methods. Those methods include organic search engine optimization (SEO), paid search engine marketing (PPC – Pay Per Click), e-mail marketing, content marketing, and (in some sense) display advertising. On the other hand, affiliates sometimes use less orthodox techniques, such as publishing reviews of products or services offered by a partner. Affiliates are paid either by the merchants or the network, depending on the agreement. Affiliate marketing has grown quickly since its inception. The e-commerce website, viewed as a marketing toy in the early days of the Internet, became an integrated part of the overall business plan and in some cases grew to a bigger business than the existing offline business. According to one report, the total sales amount generated through affiliate networks in 2006 was £2.16 billion in the United Kingdom alone. The estimates were £1.35 billion in sales in 2005. MarketingSherpa’s research team estimated that, in 2006, affiliates worldwide earned US$6.5 billion in bounty and commissions from a variety of sources in retail, personal finance, gaming and gambling, travel, telecom, education, publishing, and forms of lead generation other than contextual advertising programs.
Affiliate marketing is a great way to make money online. It is a performance-based marketing strategy in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate’s own marketing efforts. Affiliate marketing is a great way to generate passive income, as it requires minimal effort from the affiliate. Affiliates can earn money by promoting products and services from other companies, and by referring customers to those companies. Affiliate marketing is also a great way to build relationships with other businesses, as it allows affiliates to promote products and services from other companies in exchange for a commission. Additionally, affiliate marketing can be used to increase brand awareness and to drive traffic to a website. Affiliates can also use affiliate marketing to increase their own visibility and credibility, as well as to build relationships with other businesses. Affiliate marketing is a great way to make money online, as it requires minimal effort from the affiliate and can generate a steady stream of income.
