The Basics of Affiliate Marketing……..
Information about Affiliate Marketing has flooded the web. Almost everyone who has been a part of online business knows about this very term. So, whats the reason?? Well, it is yet another very good source of earning money online. For those who are still not very much familiar with this term I would try my best to explain it in simple words.
Dictionary defines the meaning of affiliate as: 1) to connect 2) to associate 3) to be accepted as a member.
By marketing means “the action of promoting/selling product or services.
Let me combine the meaning of both of these words and define Affiliate Marketing. So, basically, “Affiliate marketing is a business of promoting/selling products (or services) by associating (or connecting) with its programs wherein you are one of the member popularly known as “Affiliates”.
Types of Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing as an online business has become one of the vital sources of income over the Internet. The main tactics over here is to follow some affiliate’s marketing strategies that drives visitors to the site. When a visitor visits a site, products/ services can promoted.
Affiliate in simple terms means sharing a percentage of the revenue generated. It may be on the basis of cost per click (CPC) or cost per action (CPA).
In case of cost per click, the associate is benefited depending on the number of clicks on the ads/banners.
With cost per action, the associate is benefited only when the whole process of sale (when a customer pays for a product) is being completed.
To explain this process in the most simplified way, let us say, you write an article on creating websites. You promote a similar product related to your articles through one of the Affiliate network, for example, Amazon. If a user, who visits your website or blog, becomes interested in buying the product from Amazon, you get a share. The share is decided between you and Amazon. In that way, your promotion benefits the seller (Amazon), the promoter (You) as well as the buyer.
The good thing about affiliate marketing is that you do not require any kind of investment to be an affiliate. Most of the sign ups are free of cost.
Till date, Google Affiliate Network is the best and the most reliable when it comes to payments and earnings. They pay you in local currency. Their only criterion is that you need to have a Google ad sense account.
Some of the best affiliate marketing programs are Click Bank, Commission Junction (CJ), Amazon, ShareASale, etc.
Get Started……….
There are two ways in which the affiliate marketing can work.
Firstly, when you have some products to sell. You offer to share a percentage of your revenue with websites who promote your product online. So, you get traffic as well as advertisement for your product. The good thing is that both are benefited in this. You get to sell your product and the website get an extra income by advertising your product.
The other one is when you agree to sell a product/service on your website. So, you become one of the affiliate to a marketing network and sell their product. Yeah it’s the other way round. No doubt, you earn a commission for each sale.
How to go for it?
To prosper in affiliate marketing there are some basic criteria’s which needs to be fulfilled.
First of all, you need to have your own website/ blog. Generally blogs or websites that have been hosted for free do not qualify for most of the affiliate programs.
Secondly your website should be able to attract a huge traffic.
As soon as these basic criteria’s are fulfilled, you are ready to dive in as an Affiliate Marketer.