If you ask yourself this question right now, you are actually at the beginning of an exciting (and profitable) journey that – if you dare to take it, and I hope you will – will change your current life, and your understanding of how you can earn your money.
First of all, here is the “official” description of the term:
“Affiliate Marketing” is a method by which an individual gets paid for successfully promoting another persons product or service. This method allows a new internet marketer to make money online without the headaches of product development, website design, or customer service. The marketer is paid when a particular act such as a submission or purchase is made.”
Affiliate Marketing is really a form of Internet Marketing. Basically you are selling other peoples products through the Internet and get a percentage of the sale price in return. Easy!
So how does Affiliate Marketing work?
Here are the general steps of the process of Affiliate Marketing:
You have to find a product you want to promote
There are many Affiliate programs online which you can join. Places like Commission Junction, Linkshare, ShareASale and Clickbank are sites that are full of merchants looking for Affiliates to promote their products for a commission. You can find many more Affiliate Programs on the Internet, I have just listed the major 4 here.
You join the merchant as an Affiliate You will be given a unique Affiliate ID and a special link from the merchant to promote their product online.
The website link you will be given from the merchant contains your special affiliate ID, so when somebody clicks on your link and buys the product, the merchant knows exactly that YOU were the referrer of the sale and can pay you the commission.
You promote the product with your Affiliate links.
The promotion of the product you have chosen is the most important part of Affiliate Marketing. In which ways and how effective you promote will determine your success! There are so many ways in which products can be promoted online (writing articles, building your own website, creating a blog or Squidoo page promoting the product, pay-per-click marketing, building a list of subscribers and then market to them…), – I won’t go into them here. That is stuff for another article! But I can tell you that EFFECTIVE PROMOTING is something that every Affiliate Marketer will have to learn, and to do this right is the essence of Affiliate Marketing and absolutely crucial to success.
People click on your Affiliate links, buy the product(s) and you get paid commission
Commissions can be paid in different ways. Most merchants will either pay you by check once your commissions reach a certain threshold, or through Paypal. And it is such a thrill to get these payments!
I hope I have answered your questions on “how does Affiliate Marketing work” and you have now a better understanding of it.
By: Petra Weiss
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