Make Money Through Affiliate Marketing

Who operates Affiliate Marketing?

Many websites, blogs and articles are created – at least in part – to sell products or services through affiliate marketing. In an increasing number of situations, bloggers and webmasters as well as major publishers including well established household titles, use affiliate advertising as a means of driving incremental revenues or income from their site or simply to help cover the costs of the hosting and upkeep.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate Marketing is the term given to marketing as a 3rd party or as an agent selling the products or services of a 3rd party – usually on a commission basis as a fixed cost or percentage of the resulting sale.

This has been made possible on a large scale online due to the tracking that is possible, usually in the form of cookies identifying a users origin (from the the sales agent, or affiliates website) and matching this against the sale and sale value.

Affiliates can sign up with companies such as eBay, Amazon or one of thousands of merchants that operate affiliate marketing programs. The affiliate is then given unique tracking links, banner ads and promotional items with which to sell the product(s) of the retailer.

Each time someone clicks through an affiliates link or banner ad, visits the merchants site and then buys the product, the affiliate earns a commission.

Affiliate Business Models

Listings: Many Internet marketers create specialist listings or specific pages and sites with reviews (usually recommending the most popular and highest paying merchants products) catering specifically for people researching the product(s) being advertised.

Pay Per Click: Some affiliate marketers have traditionally bought pay-per-click (PPC) Search ads to advertise their affiliate links. However a significant number of companies no longer allow direct linking through Search. This is still possible however with a number of companies using pay per click targeted programs such as Facebook. It is important that Affiliates ensure they are on the right side of the rules of the merchants and the Affiliate network to ensure that there are no financial penalties and lost earnings.

Spam: Spamming forums with affiliate links and sending spam emails (unsolicited) that contain affiliate links is outlawed by the majority of merchants and affiliate marketing programs have strict rules about where the links can be advertised and in what context. Marketers who disobey the marketing rules of these affiliate networks risk being dropped from the affiliate network as a whole as opposed to simply the merchant in question.

Affiliate Marketing on Blogs: One of the most popular ways to make money with blogs is to place affiliate ads and links on the blogs. This is often done by creating a product review blog post that contains an affiliate link to the product. It can also be done by linking relevant words in the blog to affiliate products. Bloggers can also place affiliate banner ads on their blogs.

Some companies with affiliate programs, such as eBay and Amazon, also make customized affiliate ads that promote one or more of the site’s products. Amazon makes a revolving product ad that allows readers to scroll through the ad to see more products that were selected by the blogger.

Making Money With Affiliate Marketing

To make money through affiliate marketing, it’s generally best not to depend too heavily on one marketing one product or one site. Sites like Commission Junction allow affiliate marketers to choose many different companies to promote in order to keep several streams of affiliate marketing income flowing in.

Who operates Affiliate Marketing?

Many websites, blogs and articles are created – at least in part – to sell products or services through affiliate marketing. In an increasing number of situations, bloggers and webmasters as well as major publishers including well established household titles, use affiliate advertising as a means of driving incremental revenues or income from their site or simply to help cover the costs of the hosting and upkeep.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate Marketing is the term given to marketing as a 3rd party or as an agent selling the products or services of a 3rd party – usually on a commission basis as a fixed cost or percentage of the resulting sale.

This has been made possible on a large scale online due to the tracking that is possible, usually in the form of cookies identifying a users origin (from the the sales agent, or affiliates website) and matching this against the sale and sale value.

Affiliates can sign up with companies such as eBay, Amazon or one of thousands of merchants that operate affiliate marketing programs. The affiliate is then given unique tracking links, banner ads and promotional items with which to sell the product(s) of the retailer.

Each time someone clicks through an affiliates link or banner ad, visits the merchants site and then buys the product, the affiliate earns a commission.

Affiliate Business Models

Listings:

Many Internet marketers create specialist listings or specific pages and sites with reviews (usually recommending the most popular and highest paying merchants products) catering specifically for people researching the product(s) being advertised.

Pay Per Click

Some affiliate marketers have traditionally bought pay-per-click (PPC) Search ads to advertise their affiliate links. However a significant number of companies no longer allow direct linking through Search. This is still possible however with a number of companies using pay per click targeted programs such as Facebook. It is important that Affiliates ensure they are on the right side of the rules of the merchants and the Affiliate network to ensure that there are no financial penalties and lost earnings.

Spam

Spamming forums with affiliate links and sending spam emails (unsolicited) that contain affiliate links is outlawed by the majority of merchants and affiliate marketing programs have strict rules about where the links can be advertised and in what context. Marketers who disobey the marketing rules of these affiliate networks risk being dropped from the affiliate network as a whole as opposed to simply the merchant in question.

Affiliate Marketing on Blogs

One of the most popular ways to make money with blogs is to place affiliate ads and links on the blogs. This is often done by creating a product review blog post that contains an affiliate link to the product. It can also be done by linking relevant words in the blog to affiliate products. Bloggers can also place affiliate banner ads on their blogs.

Some companies with affiliate programs, such as Drugstore.com and Amazon, also make customized affiliate ads that promote one or more of the site’s products. Amazon makes a revolving product ad that allows readers to scroll through the ad to see more products that were selected by the blogger.

Making Money With Affiliate Marketing

To make money through affiliate marketing, it’s generally best not to depend too heavily on one marketing one product or one site. Sites like Commission Junction allow affiliate marketers to choose many different companies to promote in order to keep several streams of affiliate marketing income flowing in.