What is Affiliate Marketing ? and how does it work ?

Affiliate marketing is Helping other businesses sell their products and services and getting commission in return. Affiliate Marketing is probably the latest branch of Marketing, which is basically more organized and effective form of Internet Marketing. An affiliate is better known as a publisher over the web and the Advertiser as Merchant / Affiliate Network.

How does affiliate marketing work?

There are thousands of Merchants in different category; selling various products and services and uses affiliate marketing model.
The process as a publisher starts by signing up as an affiliate with the merchant. For example Hostgator.com. Here   we have to help hostgator sell hosting for websites. After signing up as an affiliate we get a personalized link which tells Hostgator who referred the customer. Now we download banners from the merchant or create one of our own and attach the personalized link on it and post it on our Blog or website. To increase the visibility we can also post the link on different social networks. So if a customer clicks your link and ends up buying the product on merchant’s website; that’s it! Your commission gets credited.

 

Types of Affiliate Marketing

Pay per click – In pay per click Affiliate marketing model, a publisher gets certain amount of money as soon as potential customer lands up on merchant’s website through an affiliate link.

Pay per Action- In pay per action model, a publisher gets credited as soon as an action is taken which generally is registration. For example Shaadi.com, They pay to their affiliate if the traffic they are sending registers them on the website.

Pay per Sale – Pay per sale model is the most lucrative Affiliate Marketing Model. Commission is paid if only the traffic a publisher sending is making some purchase. A certain amount of commission is credited to the affiliate as soon as the purchase is confirmed.

Things to keep in mind while choosing Affiliate Programs/Merchant

Relevancy: – Before endorsing and product on Blog/Website make sure there is some relevancy between the content you offering and product you endorsing. Relevant products get way more conversion then something random. For example; If you are providing Microsoft Excel tips than selling Books related to Excel are more likely to be bought by visitors as compared to Fashion Accessories.

Research: – Before choosing the right program or merchant, one must do research about it.  Its payment history and reviews of people already using it must be looked at.

Analyzing the Traffic: – Before choosing any affiliate program, always analyze the traffic website is getting. The geographical location, content people landing on, websites referring traffic to you etc. It sure helps in choosing the right program.

Affiliate Marketing via E-mails and Social Media
Affiliate marketing in not limited to Blogs and Websites, it can also be a success if one have huge email database or good social presence. People using e-mail affiliate marketing must keep the mails personalized. Don’t let people feel it’s a spam, send out emails to individuals according to their needs and interest instead of sending bulk mails. People using social media for affiliate marketing should target the right audience. For example Posting a link to buy a book on Travelling on Cocking related page is not a good idea instead post it in Travelling related pages/ Profiles.

Sometimes people get confused with Affiliate Marketing as magic formula of making money.  It is just good marketing practices that have been proven over years of hard work and dedication. Dedicated traffic, genuine content, Trust of your visitors etc are the factors which help in effective Affiliate Marketing.