How does affiliate marketing work?
Affiliate marketing is the act of promoting another person’s product or service online. You simply sign up for a free affiliate account with a vendor or an Affiliate Network (Clickbank, PayDotCom, Commission Junction). You are then given an affiliate link with your referral ID in it.
When a visitor clicks on your affiliate link, he is sent directly to the merchant’s website. Should he choose to make a purchase, you will earn a commission for the sale.
Affiliates can promote both physical products and digital goods. However, you can earn higher commissions from promoting digital products, 10% – 75%, because there are no shipping costs to worry about. Products are instantly downloaded.
Some affiliates promote cost-per-action offers, also known as CPA marketing. With CPA marketing, a person doesn’t even have to buy the product for an affiliate to earn money. The individual simply has to perform an action, like entering his email into a form or providing a zip code.
The information provides the vendor a lead, a potential customer if you will, while the affiliate is compensated for bringing in that lead. CPA marketing is very popular with a lot of affiliate marketers.
Of course, every affiliate marketer needs traffic just to get someone to visit his affiliate link. That’s a marketing feat all by itself. There are literally thousands of programs that are willing to teach you how to promote products via various advertising and non-advertising means and to master making money online…for a price.
Be sure to scrutinize programs carefully. Some are downright scams. Others have poor customer service. Still others are poorly organized, confusing and lacking important details. Go with a program that has a good reputation and satisfied customers.
Depending on your learning style, you may actually want to invest in affiliate coaching. It’s worth the investment to avoid wasting time and money learning things the wrong way.
Signing up for the program An affiliate can sign up for a merchant’s program either directly on the merchant’s site, if that is where they run the program, or through the third party intermediary. Most affiliate programs are free. However, due to spamming, and to insure the affiliate’s site matches the merchant’s, some merchants will now investigate the affiliate’s site before they allow them to join their affiliate program. It is not unusual for a merchant to decide against allowing someone into the program. They may not have enough traffic or their site may not relate to their own. Your Affiliate ID If the merchant accepts the affiliate, the affiliate is then given an affiliate ID or code that allows them to promote the website. This ID is found on all marketing and promotional tools offered by the merchant including banners, text links, and graphics. Some merchants allow the affiliate to customize their link by adding their own name. Because this ID is found on all the marketing too
