Affiliate Marketing is a process whereby a person writes an advertisement linking to a merchant’s website. An affiliate promotes his website by driving potential customers to this site using links or ads. If a visitor buys or downloads a product advertised on the affiliate’s website, the affiliate receives payment, such as ‘Pay-Per-Sale,’ ‘Pay-Per-Lead,’ or ‘Pay-Per- clicked’ receives a desirable amount, commonly known as affiliate compensation.
Another way to look at the affiliate marketing process is to look at it as e-Commerce; a person sells products and services via his website, and e-Marketing or affiliate marketing assesses how much leads or sales the ad has channeled to the given online merchant.
The affiliate-marketing relationship between online merchants and affiliates is becoming increasingly complex, especially with the proliferation of affiliate-marketing networks. But with the right program, the relationship can be extremely beneficial to both parties.
For affiliates, the ideal affiliate marketing program would be one in which a merchant is careful to pay his affiliates regularly, which is a freelancing arrangement that is significant to the commission rates of the affiliates. For the affiliate, it would be any program that is credible and holds the value of an affiliate’s website traffic.
Merchants can promote their affiliate programs through an affiliate marketing network, a Website that offers marketing tools such as software, banners, and special links for the affiliate’s use. The associate participates in the system, and by using these tools, he promotes his merchant’s site. If a visitor clicks on the affiliate’s banners or the link and buys the product or service provided on the merchant’s website, resulting in a sale, the affiliate receives a commission. The affiliate does not need to worry about the physical delivery of the product or the customer service side of the online merchant’s website.
Each affiliate-merchant relationship comes with unique considerations and should be carefully analyzed before signing a working agreement. These programs are extremely important for merchants on the Internet today. It places the products and services the merchants provide
in front of a huge targeted audience, which can easily convert into sales.
