What is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is an Internet-based form of marketing involving three parties:
1. A merchant/product seller
2. An affiliate of the merchant
3. The customer
The role of the affiliate marketer is to act as ‘middle man’ between the customer and the merchant by ‘preselling’ that potential customer on the merchant’s product before referring him to the merchant’s web site.
Affiliate marketing can also be viewed as a form of advertising and traffic generation. Typically, the affiliate uses his own (or another) web site in order to drive traffic to the merchant’s web site.
So, what’s the benefit in all of this to the affiliate?
Affiliates get paid commissions for their referrals. Any time an affiliate sends a paying customer through his affiliate link, he earns a commission in the form of a percentage of the sale.
For example, let’s say you referred a customer to a merchant’s web site and that customer purchased a $200 product on which you earn a 50% commission per sale. You would make a profit of $100, plus or minus any expenses you laid out on advertising.
How does affiliate marketing benefit the customer?
Some people dislike the idea of affiliate marketing because they are averse to the idea of a stranger earning a profit off the purchase. However, when done correctly, affiliate marketing benefits the customer in several ways and the affiliate’s commission is well deserved.
First, an affiliate can introduce a potential customer to solutions he might not have discovered on his own. Second, the affiliate often provides an extra layer of information to the potential customer, which helps ease the buying process. Lastly, some affiliates are able to work out exclusive deals with their affiliated merchants, allowing them to pass discounts along to their customers.
The most important thing to know about affiliate marketing, however, is that it can form the basis of a very rewarding and successful home-based Internet business. So, if you like the idea of becoming an affiliate, continue to explore the subject. It just might be the business opportunity you’ve been waiting for!
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