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 $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.
Starting an affiliate program can be a great way to increase your online presence and generate more sales. To get started, you’ll need to decide on the type of program you want to offer, create a tracking system, and recruit affiliates. Once you have these pieces in place, you can start promoting your program and tracking your results. When deciding on the type of program you want to offer, consider the type of products or services you are selling and the type of affiliates you want to attract. You can offer a pay-per-sale program, where affiliates are paid a commission for each sale they generate, or a pay-per-click program, where affiliates are paid for each click they generate. You can also offer a combination of both. Once you have decided on the type of program you want to offer, you’ll need to create a tracking system. This will allow you to track the performance of your affiliates and ensure that they are being paid accurately. You can use a third-party tracking system, or you can create your own. Finally, you’ll need to recruit affiliates. You can do this by reaching out to influencers in your industry, or by using an affiliate network. Once you have recruited affiliates, you can start promoting your program and tracking your results. You can use email campaigns, social media, and other online marketing tactics to reach potential customers. By tracking your results, you can see which tactics are working and which ones need to be improved.
