Affiliate marketing makes money for affiliates

Affiliate marketing makes money for affiliates

The Internet has evolved into a major source of revenue for many entreprenurs who're into selling products and services of merchants also known as Affiliate marketing. Commonly known as Affiliate marketing, this has involved webmasters from the world over. Affiliates range from one person operations to those running a company with many employees working for them, helping them run their web sites. Some have single web sites, some have a chain of sites on which they promote affiliate programs. Some run content based web sites while others are just running web sites with the objective of sending you to the merchant and slamming the door! Many Affiliate marketeers make thousands of dollars every month from this new form of marketing that has taken the world by storm.

What is Affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing involves webmasters running web sites and linking to merchants selling products and services online. When a user clicks on these specially coded links and buys a product or service, the webmaster is credited with having sent the customer and so receives a commission. This commission may be a flat sum of money, say $20 per sale or more commonly a percentage of sale, say 10 % per sale. Sometimes the commission could be a combination of both. This is especially the case when the Affiliate sends a new customer. There's an added flat commission, also called 'bounty' given to the affiliate.

Affiliate marketing also sometimes involves getting remunerated for leads generated. This is usually the case where the product service is very high in value such as cars and real estate. Sometimes the nature is such that it cannot be provided online. This includes debt consolidation or credit rating programs.

To illustrate what Affiliate marketing is:

Let's say, Jim runs a web site about golf. He has articles related to golf, how it's played, strategies, profiles of golf players. His web site gets considerable traffic from golfers and golf fans. It seems logical that they may be into playing golf and could be interested in purchasing golf clubs and other golf related merchandise.

So, Jim signs up with a merchant who sells golf merchandise and then links to his website. This merchant agrees to pay, say 12 % on every sale to Jim. Now, every person who clicks on the product links and visits the golf merchant is a visitor sent by Jim. If this visitor makes any purchase, Jim is entitled to 12 % of the total sale amount. So, if he buys $500 worth of goling equipment, Jim gets $60.

Merchants are legion

There are hundreds of thousands of merchants online which offer affiliate programs. Golf is just an example. These merchants could be selling books, shoes, apparel, lifestyle products, food, drugs, psychic services, resume and job opportunities, web hosting, auction etc.

Amongst the most popular affiliate programs are those of Amazon and eBay. Top Affiliates of both these merchants earn over $1 million a year in commissions from them. Affiliate marketing directly and indirectly generates sales running into billions of dollars every year online.

Affiliate marketing brings flexibility

Affiliate marketing gives you a certain amount of flexibility. Many Affiliate marketeers work from home, out of their bedrooms in their underwear. Your working hours are upto you. You don't have a typical job where you have to travel to work every single day. Of course, being on your own also requires a great amount of discipline. Many people left to their own would spend their day only drinking beer and fishing.

For a go getter, the amount of money Affiliate marketing can make, is really limitless. Many affiliate marketeers are able to generate a lot of revenue, making themselves financially secure much before the age at which their parents could.

Besides this, Affiliate marketing lets you travel. You can function from any part of the world. Many webmasters into affiliate marketing regularly take holidays.

There are affiliate marketing webmasters who're located in countries in Asia and South America where the operating costs are low. Earning in dollars gives them a significant advantage over other webmasters located in expensive countries such as UK, France and even the United States. If you're from outside the US, you may however have to contend with many merchants turning you down automatically, when you apply for their affiliate programs.

In most cases, Affiliate managers are quite flexible and sensible in their approach. They will let you sign up for their program even if you're outside their country. Their only condition will be that you will not be paid for sales/ leads or traffic from outside their country.

- By Vikram Chandiramani, Affiliate Mantra. All rights reserved. This article may not be copied or reproduced in any form without prior permission.

Affiliate marketing makes money for affiliates