Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Affiliate Marketing and its Advantages

By Clint Larlee

Affiliate marketing was around long before the internet was ever invented. It was called Revenue Sharing but worked much the same way. But the internet has made this kind of marketing ultra effective! It was this style of marketing that helped build many of the internet giants you see today like Amazon, Google and Yahoo just to name a few. Most online businesses use model as the staple of their marketing plan.

Online merchants enjoy the many advantages affiliate marketing. It is a trouble free way to create an army of well trained and highly motivated sales reps in a very short time, at virtually no cost. There are no interviews required in the hiring process. The training is completed online and if the arrangement does not work out, the relationship is dissolved without conflict.

This style of marketing is very beneficial for to the affiliate also. The interview process consists of filling out a little form on their computer. The need to purchase or lug around product is eliminated. There is no commuting; everything the affiliate needs to do can be done from home! Time and income potential is now in the hands of the affiliate. He/she is in control of their life! Making the multiple six figure income is pretty cool too. Making 100k+ is normal for full time affiliates once set up this business virtually runs itself!

How it works: the affiliate signs up on the merchants website (usually on an affiliate page where they are provided with an assortment of Affiliate Tools which usually includes some training, banner ads and an affiliate link (a custom URL directed to the merchants site encoded with the affiliates information) this link is used to keep track of the customers that are sent by the affiliate. If the customers do not reach the merchant site through this link the affiliate would not get credit for the sales/clicks he/she generates.

Most companies pay a pre determined commission to the affiliate when a customer purchases a product. Other companies pay a flat rate commission to the affiliate when a customer clicks on an ad on their site. This is called a cost-per-click remuneration system an is only used by about 1% of the companies.

A good affiliate will use many different traffic generating techniques to collect and direct traffic to there merchants site. Traffic is usually sent through on-line links on the affiliate's website - or through email marketing, blogs, rss feeds and many other kinds of on-line communication.

This was just a brief overview. There is a lot more to this business. It takes some time to set up but it is worth it. For both the Affiliate and the Merchant this style of marketing is win / win. No costs are incurred by either the Merchant or the Affiliate. The sign up (hiring process) is free for both merchant and stress free for the affiliate (no intervies process). Training is done online which is economical for both the merchant and the affiliate. Placing links and banners on the affiliate's site is free and the merchant only pays the affiliate if and when a sale is made

Affiliate marketing really is the best way to do business online! It is not a faster or more cost effective way to grow a business or to make money online (or offline for that matter)!

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