What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a way to act as a freelance salesperson. You
refer people to another seller and receive a set commission for your
efforts. That's about it really. The latest advance comes in the form of
online affiliate marketing. The industry is incredibly accessible online
and fairly easy for newcomers.
Affiliate marketing has been around for awhile. Avon and Tupperware
basically operated on this idea, with minor deviations. They both used
small, independent sales agents to bypass the retailers and ultimately
earn a sizable profit. The reason for this was fairly simple. Affiliates
are only paid when they sell. This means that advertising on the local
scale is their problem. That's a pretty secure setup.
This all works around to modern Internet marketing. It still works on
the same premises. Online businesses outsource their sales department to
affiliates in the program. This is often carried out through another
third party directory to act as a bit of an escrow service. The business
then establishes a tracking method for the sales. This usually just
takes the form of a special link. If an interested customer clicks on
the link, they will be routed to the business' web page as usual. The
difference is that a little tracking cookie will monitor their basic
actions and report whether they actually make a purchase or complete the
necessary action. If they do, then the affiliate's account is credited
and the money is paid out later.
An example may be the best way to really explain this. Let's say that
there's an e-book about parakeet training. E-books (books in a digital
form) are very prevalent in affiliate circles. The book costs $20. They
will pay $4 for each paying customer you refer. You sign up as an
affiliate and receive your little link. Now you have a lot of options.
If you want, you could start a little website giving some minor tips
about parakeet training. Then you'd include a little note “to find out
more...check out this e-book.” You could also use a newsletter to spread
the link, you could buy advertising through Google, you could use forum
posts to spread your links (as long as you don't spam). The point is
that you do what you can to get your link around. With any luck, the
sales will start to roll in and you'll collect your commission on the
next pay cycle.
That's basically what affiliate marketing is. You are advertising and
effectively selling another person's product in return for a commission.
You are a freelance salesperson. You aren't tied to any inventory or
even any retailer. There's obviously some trade-offs involved. You could
make more money with your own store, but you would have to commit more
time and money without any guarantee of a monetary reward. It may not be
perfect for everyone, but it is definitely possible for someone to
easily get into affiliate marketing without any major commitment. |
