The internet introduced new ways of earning money and new forms of businesses that are very advanced and utilizes high technologies. Different strategies for businesses are developed and that includes affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketing is the affiliation connecting website owners and merchants whereby the merchant offers the website owner a commission fee arrangement for connecting to the merchants site to offer goods or services for sale.
Affiliate marketing is now a popular method of promoting web businesses. The affiliate is being rewarded for every visitor, subscriber or costumer provided through his efforts. It is a modern variation of the practice of paying finders-fee for the introduction of new clients to a business.
With affiliate marketing, a merchant recruits content sites to a partner with them as affiliates in exchange for rewards or commission. The merchant provides their links to their affiliates, advertising banners and assigns commission for each click-through to their sites, purchase of their products and subscription to their service that is generated form the links.
The compensation may be made based on a certain value for each visit or pay-per-click, registrant or pay-per-lead and a reward for each costumer or sale or pay-per-sale.
The affiliate publishes websites so they are also known as publishers and merchants advertise on affiliate sites, so they are also called advertisers.
Merchants and publishers benefit form this unique arrangement. Website owners have the opportunity to earn money through their niche audience, and the merchants get a more measurable, precise and targeted means of advertising their products or services.
Affiliate marketing is a new and revolutionary method for driving profits through revenue sharing relationships between online merchants and content sites. Affiliate marketing pushes products and services out to the consumer on virtual shelf space across the web and creates opportunities for merchants to generate sales for the affiliates to earn revenue from the sites and for the consumers to find the products and services they want on the web.
Affiliate marketers, utilizes several networks. They evaluate new networks and individual programs. Merchants who are considering adding an affiliate strategy to their online sales channel should research the different technological solutions available to them. Some types of affiliate management solutions are standalone software, hosted services, shopping carts with affiliate features and third party affiliate networks.
Some advertisers join networks to jumpstart their affiliate marketing efforts while others create their own in house programs to offer publishers money making opportunities. Publishers can join the networks to have access to those merchants affiliate programs.
Affiliate program is a partnership with an online merchant who compensates for any sales that is sent that trade via links on the site. It is an easy way to earn money off traffic to the site. With affiliate program, earning potential is not limited to sales; it can also refer other affiliates. The merchant will pay a percentage of all the sales that is referred.
Affiliate marketing uses few marketing terms like cost per sale, cost per lead, cost per click and cost per one thousand impressions.
In cost per click (CPC), a visitor to the affiliates website clicks on a merchants banner and visits the merchants website. In cost per sale (CPA), a visitor by the affiliate purchases goods and services form the merchant.
In the cost per lead (CPL), a visitor referred by the affiliate completes a form on the merchants website and in the cost per one thousand impressions (CPM). Merchants pay a set rate for the display of one thousand of their banner or advertisement.
In the early days of affiliate marketing, many internet users held negative opinions due to the tendency of affiliates to use spam to promote the programs in which they were enrolled. As affiliate marketing has matured, many affiliate merchants have refined their terms and conditions to prohibit affiliates from spamming.
Through affiliate marketing, merchants can place their advertising banners and links on content sites worldwide and only pay a commission when those links generate a sale or qualified lead.
The most attractive aspect of affiliate marketing is that no payment is due to an affiliate until results are realized.