About Affiliate Marketing Programs

Affiliate Marketing Explained

Affiliate marketing is an excellent opportunity for a website or blog owner to generate additional income. It is a revenue sharing agreement between a merchant and a website publisher where the publisher agrees to promote the merchant’s products and services for a fee. The fee is in the form of profit sharing and is paid out as a percentage of each sale that is made through the merchant’s advertisements on the publisher’s website.

Many online merchants offer website publishers the opportunity to sign up for their affiliate program. When a publisher applies for the affiliate program the merchant will review the publisher’s application as well as their website. If the application is approved the merchant will send the publisher a log in I.D. and a password. This will allow the publisher to log into the merchant’s site and choose from a variety of promotional links. It is also where the sales and earnings are tracked. When a merchant accepts the application the website owner or publisher is considered to be the merchant’s “affiliate”.

The main benefit of an affiliate agreement is the freedom the publisher has to choose from a variety of merchants. With careful review and consideration a publisher can find a product or service that is complementary to their website’s genre. There are also a wide variety of ad styles to choose from including banner ads, skyscraper ads, square ads or text only ads. Once a publisher has been approved by a merchant they can strategically choose their advertising links for placement on their site.

When a sale is made through an advertising link on the publisher’s website the merchant pays the publisher a percentage of the sale. The percentage paid to the publisher depends on the merchant. Some merchants will offer five percent of every sale to the publisher while other merchants will offer twenty-five percent. The amount of money an affiliate will make from a merchant depends on the traffic that the website generates as well as the product the affiliate is promoting. It is critical that the product is related to the website. For example if you are running a parenting website you will want to enter into an affiliate agreement with a merchant that is selling parenting or child related products and services.

There are also third party companies that connect website publishers with online merchants. This is another great opportunity for website publishers looking for a variety of merchants to connect with. It allows the publisher to enter into an affiliate agreement with numerous merchants at one time rather than seeking out each merchant individually.

Affiliate marketing is a revenue generating opportunity that can be extremely profitable for both the publisher and the merchant. The income generated will depend entirely on the publisher’s site, the traffic, the advertising placements and the product being promoted.

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Comment by Umer | 2011-06-26 20:51:23