Affiliate Marketing / Affiliate Programs

Introduction to Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is one of the most significant ways of generating money on the internet. It is a process in which an affiliate is rewarded for the visitors, subscribers, customers, and sales generated through his/her efforts. A more comprehensive definition is as under:
"Affiliate marketing is a business association in which a business entity allows an affiliate to promote his merchandize and/or services on the internet through an affiliation link and get paid." An affiliate drives traffic via his website to a merchant’s site. The merchant may be selling a product e.g. computer, books, furniture, or they may be service providers e.g. consultants, signing on clients e.g. a bank. The merchant pays you a commission once the visitor has completed the desired action e.g. bought a product or completed a registration form.

How Affiliate Marketing Works
1.
You have to get affiliated with some business entity.
2.
Get your affiliate link.
3.
Register a domain name of your website (not needed if you have already one).
4.
Develop a website, paste that affiliate link on your website and upload it to your domain.
5.
When the visitors of your website click on the affiliate link they will go to the merchant’s site. If visitors do the task desired by the merchant i.e. buy some product or register themselves, the merchant will pay you.
6.
You aim simply to drive as much targeted traffic as possible to your affiliate link. The more traffic you generate the more commission you will get from your merchant.