Affiliate Marketing - How It Works

Affiliate Marketing – What Is It?

Affiliate Marketing is basically a marketing campaign by large companies or businesses looking for ways to increase their sales and profits thru online marketing strategies. Affiliate marketing is a big money saver for these companies because unlike conventional methods where the businesses paid for the advertising whether or not the product sold, business owners only pay when a specific result is achieved.

Affiliate Marketing usually takes place in three forms:

- Pay per Click

- Pay per Lead

- Pay per Sale

How they Work –

Pay Per Click – the affiliate (publisher) places a coded link on their website that they have obtained from the business site. Each time a visitor to their website clicks this link or ad, the affiliate receives a certain amount of revenue for that click. It is usually a very small amount a cent or two.

Pay Per Lead – the affiliate (publisher) is paid a commission by the business when a customer signs up at the business site. However, this doesn’t mean that a sale has to be made; a lead sometime qualifies for as little as an email address.

Pay Per Sale – the affiliate is only paid when there is a definite sale. This type of agreement is most favourable by the businesses it is a guaranteed sale and least favoured by the affiliate (publisher). The only way the affiliate gets paid is when the sale goes through.

One of the most biggest and profitable online marketers is Amazon.com. Being one of the earliest companies to adapt to this form of marketing, Amazon.com has hundreds of thousands of affiliate relationships. Many businesses that exploded into internet marketing in the following months and years patterned their marketing strategies after them.

Sometimes businesses will use an online community such as Craiglist to find affiliate marketers for their products by placing ads on the boards. Affiliates can find potential leads by posting in the services section or the resumes section of this community bulletin board.

Payment for affiliate marketing usually is a cheque but there are companies that pay you through the various online payment choices such as paypal, alertpay, to your credit card or debit and various other types. Before signing up for affiliate marketing be sure to check whether or not you are satisfied with the payment amounts and how you are to be paid.