What Is Affiliate marketing ?

What Is Affiliate marketing ? the affiliate marketing is when you promote another company’s / personal website in return for a commission.  This commission can be generated in a number of ways, though the most common is when a sale, lead, or click is actually made from your advertising methods.  Less popular ways of getting commission could be based on if a company’s URL has received a click, or if their ads received impressions, (which are simply the number of times an ad has been viewed).  Either way, promotional methods would be the same regardless of how commission is generated.  This means you would either advertise the URL directly or use the URL within a banner.  In both cases the URL would contain special coding that would trace back to your affiliate account.  This is done so you can be properly credited if your visitors take the actions that a company desires.  

Most of the major companies on the Internet are using affiliate marketing.  However, they do not necessarily advertise their affiliate opportunities blatantly.  Most of the time you’ll have to scroll down to the bottom of the site, where you’ll find in smaller font ‘Affiliate Program,’ ‘Affiliates’ or similar wording.  For example, take a look at the screenshot below of the bottom portion of the site BestBuy.com.  

Can you see where the circle is?  This is where you would go to find information about BestBuy.com’s affiliate program.  If you were to click on this link, you would be taken to a signup page.  On this page you would have to enter in general information such as your name, address, telephone number and site information.  Once this info is submitted, you’ll have to wait a few days to see if your site is approved.  Indeed, this process is the same for virtually all types of affiliate programs whether it’s BestBuy.com’s or another website.  

If you’re not interested in signing up for affiliate programs through an individual company’s website, you can consider joining an affiliate network.  With an affiliate network, you can apply for more than one company at the same time.  But first, you must get approval from the network itself.  You do this by offering the same information as you would if you were applying to an individual affiliate program.  This would be your name, address, telephone number and site information.  You may also need to fill out a Form 1099, depending on the affiliate network.  Once you get approved, you’ll get access to an account manager where you can start applying for the affiliate programs of specific companies. 

One of the most popular affiliate networks around is Commission Junction.  All you really need to get approved with them is a URL, which, (as you will learn about later in this e-book), you can get through a web hosting company or a domain name service.  After you provide this information, they’ll let you decide what companies you want to work for.  When you are ready for this step, everything will be conveniently laid out for you categorically.  The screenshot below provides a visual of some of the many categories CJ allows you to choose from for your affiliate programs. 

Another widely-used affiliate network is Clickbank.  Signing up with Clickbank is easier than even signing up with Commission Junction, since a URL is not required and the approval process is done instantly.  However, Clickbank is not as extensive as Commission Junction.  All you are able to sell through them are e-books and software.  Yet, the network has over 10,000 of these products, giving you great latitude for what you should promote.