Affiliate Marketing 101
Affiliate Marketing is a process in which an individual is paid to successfully promote a product of a service for a company. It is one of the most brilliant online business models for both the company offering the product or service and the person seeking to make money online. The company is able to recruit and empower an independent sales force that they only pay if and when a sale is made, which saves them lots of overhead; primarily salary and marketing costs. An affiliate marketer can promote nearly any type of product or service without investing any money or providing any fulfillment or customer support, and get paid — often very well!
How it Works
Traditionally, the company provides you with a specially coded tracking URL to promote, that contains your affiliate tracking code. When people click through your link to the vendors website, a cookie is stored on thier computer and if a sale is made, the payment processing software will credit your affiliate marketer account with the sale. The more advanced systems allow affiliate marketers to have a login console where they can track their sales in real time, or at least daily. There are often minimum payouts required which again helps the company keep administrative costs down.
The Drawbacks
For the company, there really aren’t any drawbacks. They get free marketing and advertising from an army of affiliate marketers; some seasoned, but most dreaming of success and not really knowing what they are doing.
For the affiliate marketer, there are several drawbacks:
1. They have to invest time learning not only the product or service, but the art of marketing.
2. Oftentimes a customer may not utilize cookies and therefore, the affiliate marketer will not get credited with a sale.
3. You have to invest your own money in marketing and advertising.
The upsides
One of the best things about affiliate marketing is that you can start immediately and it won’t even cost you a dime. The other upside is that you can make a lot of money once you learn the process and get a system.
Resources to Help You Get Started
Here are the only two resources you really need to be successful in affiliate marketing. Sure, there are other programs out there, but all you need to know is covered in these two ebooks:
If this has helped you, please let me know. Also, send me your testimonials and I will gladly feature you on this blog as a success story.
- Anthony
