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. Affiliate marketing is a very large industry and has become a key source of online income for many thousands of professional bloggers. With more and more online businesses becoming involved in affiliate marketing, more opportunities have arisen for bloggers, like you and I, to make money with their blog. and to ultimately create passive income streams.
The benefits of affiliate marketing are numerous. It is a cost-effective way to drive more traffic to your website, and it is also a great way to build relationships with your customers. Affiliates can earn commissions on sales they refer, and they can also earn commissions on products they refer to other websites. Affiliates can also earn money through pay-per-click programs, which pay them for each click they generate. Additionally, affiliates can earn money through referral programs, which pay them for each customer they refer to a merchant’s website. Finally, affiliates can earn money through affiliate networks, which pay them for each sale they refer to a merchant’s website. Affiliate marketing is a great way to generate additional income for your business, and it can be a great way to build relationships with your customers.
