Affiliate Marketing Defined Part I

There have been many descriptions of affiliate marketing floating around but there is actually a simple description that describes this huge internet business model. Affiliate marketing is an arrangement set up between a merchant who is vending a product or service and a sales person (Affiliate) who wants to sell that product or service for a commission. Affiliate marketing is the easiest way for the average person, who has very little or no money to start, to start his/her own internet business.

Affiliate marketing has become more popular in the past few years largely because it is a very easy way for a person to start his or her own internet business with very little initial investment and a huge potential for return on investment. it is good for the merchant because he/she can have a huge team of sales people selling his/her product or service and not have to invest any money on advertising or promotion. Numerous new affiliates fail because they do not inform themselves on what affiliate marketing is and how it works.

Many people have the erroneous idea that affiliate marketing is selling and advertising. Granted, selling and advertising are a essential parts of any affiliate marketing program because without either you don't really have a business. Selling is essential, for without sales you are not making money. Advertising is also essential because without advertising you are making no sales. No advertising, no sales, no business.

Promoting and advertising a product or service is an essential piece of any business but these are only two facets of a complex formula. Affiliate marketing is a lot like a retail store. In essence, the retailer is an affiliate for each product or service he/she sells in his/her store. The retailer allies with the manufacturer of the individual products he/she is selling then spends his/her money advertising "The Store" and individual products in order to get traffic and ultimately, sales.

Some companies will even pay for each guest you drive to their site whether or not they purchase anything. There are two categories of affiliate marketing; there are affiliate networks which are comprised of a collection of affiliates and a collection of merchants and then there are individual affiliate programs that are made up of a merchant and his affiliates. Both function well, the potential affiliate should experiment with both categories to find out which fits his/her personal needs and character.

The affiliate networks are probably best described as the Sams or Wal-Marts of affiliate programs. They present a vast assortment of affiliate programs in one location where the individual merchant may only have just a few affiliate products to choose from. Some affiliate marketers will use a grouping of the two as they increase their labors to more than one affiliate program. The networks do not offer all programs that are in existence thus the fact that you will always have individual merchants out there.

A merchant or affiliate can connect with one of these networks just by simply navigating to one or to all and signing up. When a merchant signs up the network will handle keeping track of all the affiliates and paying their commissions. On the affiliate side, affiliates can sign up for one or many programs right there in one place which makes life for the affiliate marketer much.

The benefits are great. All you do is supply the product or service. The network lists your product or service on its network and affiliates sign up to promote your product or service. A merchant can potentially gain hundreds or even thousands of affiliate sales people in a short period of time. Once an affiliate signs up to promote your product or service it would be a good practice to visit the affiliate site to make sure the topic is compatible with your product or service. This practice will help guarantee additional sales for your product or service.

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