What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a business practice where affiliates bring in business to a provider and the provider, in turn, rewards the affiliate. It often involves using one website to drive viewers to another, website. This Internet Marketing strategy isn't as commonly used as relying on search engines to bring interested customers to a site, but it is an effective way to increase the traffic for your home page.

Sometimes a publisher is required to make the address to the affiliate website available and the publisher is paid. This is referred to as cost per mile whereas cost per click pays the publisher according to how many people actually click on the link to visit the affiliate website.

What Is the Advantage to this type of Marketing?

For many merchants, this method of "advertising" is a lot less expensive since they only have to pay when a viewer visits their site. They aren't out any money to advertise to customers that aren't interested in their product. The only drawback to this system of marketing is that there is no way to predict its success or failure or to be prepared for major growth in a short time span.

For consumers, this type of marketing is one of the ways you can find what you are looking for on the Internet. If you don't have your words just right, using a search engine to find what you're looking for may not give you optimal results. Now you have a more refined way of searching for the specific type of product or service that you have in mind.

What Is Affiliate Marketing Used For?

There is no limit to the types of products and services that it is used for. If you do a search for a weight loss program and go onto the site for one of the results, you may find links to specific programs or diet aids. If you are looking for a new computer, you might be led to a variety of computer companies as well as those with software to accompany your new PC. When you look up almost any subject, Amazon.com appears with a link to find a book that they have which is in the same category as your search criteria. All these are examples of what affiliate marketing is.

What Is An Affiliate Marketing Network?

You may have several different affiliates advertising your site while they may be advertising for others. It's just marketing on a larger scale.

The next time you are on the Internet and you go onto a site that leads into another site by clicking on a button, you will know that you are about to go to an affiliated site.

By Wayne Cooper