Although there are many different compensation methods with Affiliate Marketing, the fundamentals are always the same.
A Seller offers payment to individuals for either finding Customers "Pay Per Sale" or Prospects "Pay Per Lead".
How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?
The concept is simple Affiliates (you) join the Sellers affiliate program & are given a special URL Link that has an "identifying" tracking code inserted.
The Affiliate then publishes this individual URL Link on their blog, webpage or any medium they choose.
The Affiliate will promote the product or service on their site encouraging their visitors to click on the special link. When visitors click the link & arrive on the vendors site a Cookie is automatically set on their computer. Once the cookie is set this visitor is assigned to the Affiliate that sent them to the seller.
If this visitor buys the product or products, the Affiliate will be credited with the sale & receive a percentage of the sales value.
The cookie on the visitors computer also ensures that if this potential customer does not buy on their initial visit, but returns & buys within a set time period the affiliate will still receive credit for the sale.
Advantages of Affiliate Marketing
Vendors not only increase their online presence with many more links pointing to their site but they can also greatly reduce their advertising costs while increasing sales.
Affiliates can make money online without having a product, or needing to offer customer support.
If you are considering online marketing as a suplimentary form of income, (Second Job) the requirement of offering customer support can be very difficult, Affiliate Marketing solves that issue & is great for Newbies.Ok so where do you start?
Affiliates - Affiliate Promotion can be incorporated into almost any form of online media, some not even requiring a website, Squidoo Lenses, Twitter & Yahoo Answers to name just a few.
Join a couple of Affiliate Networks, make sure you choose products that compliment your websites content. If you have a particular product in mind also perform a web search for "product name affiliate" or "product name partner" this will find the Vendors that are running their own programs.
Vendors - As a vendor it is necessary to either run your own affiliate program or join an established Affiliate Network.
If you don't yet have a web store I would suggest you read the features of any web store software you are considering to ensure it incorporates an Affiliate Program.
Affiliate Networks
Joining an Affiliate Network saves vendors the trouble of finding their own affiliates, these networks have thousands of active affiliates looking for products to promote.
How Does Affiliate Marketing Work? Make Money Online With Affiliate Marketing