15 Sep 09 Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate Marketing
In simple terms affiliate marketing is about using an associated website to send traffic to your website were upon a purchase or sign up you then pay the associate website a small commission for supplying the purchaser.
History of Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is as old as the internet with the first non-adult based affiliate program used by CDNOW.com in 1994 and then in a much more successful way by Amazon.com in 1996. Amazon.com allowed other related websites to place banners and links on their websites to individual book pages or the home page of Amazon.com itself. If a user clicked trough from the associates website and then purchased a book from Amazon.com they would receive a small commission form the sale.
Using Affiliate Marketing
Whether you are a merchant or an affiliate you can generate a healthy income through getting involved in affiliate internet marketing. If you are an affiliate, (i.e. you have a website with traffic and place seller’s banners/links/products on your site), you can generate income through allowing merchants to advertise their products/services on your website generating commission from all purchases made via your website. If you are a merchant you can place your services/products on one to 1 million affiliate based websites paying commission only on products sold via the affiliate websites.
Online Affiliate Marketing Networks
For both merchants and affiliates there are lots of ‘affiliate networks’ on the WEB which have already set up accounts with lots of leading merchants and affiliate website owners. By joining one of these networks you can connect with lots of merchants and affiliates instantly saving you time and gaining you access to mass distribution (merchants and affiliates). Most of the leading networks offer various methods to either display your services/products as merchant or receive data feeds as an affiliate.
Leading Affiliate Networks:
Google Adsense
Affiliate Window
Commission Junction
Silvertap
Affiliate Benefits
The benefits of becoming an affiliate are easy to see, you can tap into a virtually unlimited supply of services and products specifically related to the theme of your website from leading brand merchants. If the affiliate network provides an API solution you can easily integrate the system into your website allowing your users to search by price, latest offers, new products, services and lots more. A major benefit of becoming an affiliate with a leading network is the fact the there is little work to do once you have integrated, there are no stock requirements, no payment processing (refunds, disputes etc), all you need to do is simply collect your commission from the bank!
Affiliate Merchant Benefits
As a merchant the benefits of affiliate marketing are huge, allowing you to get your products/services out across the internet with a massive reach on a ‘pay per sale’ basis. You can decide the level of commission per sale (the higher the better as you will attract more affiliates), and even vet the websites your stock/services appear on making sure you keep your brand safe. In the UK leading blue chip companies are now focusing aggressively on affiliate marketing as the main way of driving new sales and of internet marketing.
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Tags: Affiliate Marketing, Internet Marketing
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