Free Article: Affiliate Marketing

You are here:
Directory | Affiliate Marketing |

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing has been a life-saver for many and internet affiliate marketing continues to grow at astounding rate. One of the most famous affiliate programs is the Amazon Associates Program. It was one of the first on the Internet to gain popularity and continues to be successful to this day. Indeed, it could be said that Amazon would struggle without it!

The most basic definition of affiliate marketing is that an agent resells the products/services of a seller in return for a small percentage of the price paid.

There are many affiliate programs that are multi-level or multi-tier. These multi level marketing affiliate programs allow the affiliate (reseller) to recruit another affiliate and in return gain a small percentage of their income. This method of marketing appears to have the most success as it drives the entrepeneur to build a team to boost their earnings.

Over the last few years we have seen the birth of the Super Affiliate, these guys make as much money in a month as most other manage in a year, or, in some cases, several years!

There are a great many advantages to the affiliate system that can not be matched by others. The overheads are minimal for the marketeer, all they really need to do is build a web site, promote it and, in some cases build an opt-in list. This sounds ever so simple but a great deal of knowldge needs to be gained to become a successful affiliate.

The main advantage to the producer of the goods/services is the recruitment of an aggressive and enthusiastic sales team at a minimum cost. In many cases this sales team increases organically as affiliates sign up more affiliates (in the past often compared to a pyramid). There is also the advantage that the sales team is self-employed and often working from home and are not, strictly, employed by the producer - the advantages of this are countless.

Affiliate Marketing & Cookies

Affiliates just love cookies, not those you find in a jar but those that are set on the computers of visitors to a web site. Internet affiliate marketing is really the transfer of web traffic. To trace the behaviour of the refered visitor a small file, called a cookie, is "set". The cookie contains details of the visit to the site which include the date, what pages have been visited and, most important, the affiliate's reference code.

Sometimes your sale is not made on the first visit. The referal you sent to the site bookmarks it and moves on and you lose the sale - right? No wrong! When the referal revisits the site the old cookie is pulled from their internet browser's cache. As it contains the affiliate's code if a sale is made it can be credited to that affiliate.

Sadly there are many things that are dependant upon the sale being attributed to the affiliate. Cookies usually have a limited life of around a month. Sometimes they are set for a full year but if the visitor clears their cache the cookie is gone :-(

Which Affiliate Marketing Program?

If you are considering affiliate marketing you should spend the time learning about it as much as you can before you approach the first affiliate marketing company. Read as much as you can. Try to find out the best affiliate marketing program for you.

Then, when you have a shortlist see if you can find out which are the most successfull. Remember, it is your time and, if you want to make money online, you will need to spend your time wisely. It can be absolute disaster if you devote your energies into promoting a product/service that nobody wants!

To avoid failure it is worth considering affiliate marketing networks. Take a look at Commission Junction where you can sign up for a large number of affiliate programs from the one source. Their affiliate management program is superb and they will keep you well informed in the latest developments and the newest programs available.

Below are a series of articles about various aspects of affiliate marketing to help you on your quest to creating an income online.

Related Affiliate Marketing Articles: