Affiliate Marketing

The Benefits of Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing has become a multi-billion dollar industry. Companies like Amazon.com pioneered “affiliate marketing” in the mid 1990s, and for smaller online companies who haven’t created an affiliate marketing program, it can be a marketing tactic that helps take their business to the next level.

If you’re unfamiliar with the term “affiliate marketing”, think of it as a type of referral system. If you’re visiting a website, the site might suggest something you’d like to buy from another website. When you click on the link and complete a transaction with the company, the referring site gets a referral fee or bounty – an affiliate marketing commission – for sending the customer. Some industry experts predict affiliate marketing commissions will reach $10 Billion annually in the next couple of years.

Nearly anyone can set up a web site these days. Most Internet service providers (ISPs) and web hosting companies give you a large amount of space for very little money and include tools for building and managing your site. If you’re starting an eCommerce site, then you’ll need more features, such as a shopping cart, a merchant account (to accept credit cards), and a catalog of products that you’re aiming to sell. With all the easy-to-use software packages and turn-key website companies offering to help, even a robust commercial site is fairly easy and low-cost to get started. Probably the most difficult task is getting traffic to your site. That’s where affiliate marketing comes into play….

Let’s say you plan to sell your homemade pottery. It’s beautiful, original, and many pieces are one-of-a-kind. Sounds wonderful, but you need to get the word out on the web that you’re in business. You can spend a lot of money on banner ads and buying high visibility on various pay-per-click search engines such as Google AdWords and Yahoo! Search Marketing. A very efficient way to generate sales may be to use affiliate marketing -- you can work out arrangements with other sites to put links to your site on their pages and pay them every time they refer a paying customer.

For optimal performance from your marketing partners, think of some logical connections such as home and garden, food, and maybe arts and crafts websites – you’ll want your affiliates to be successful so they continue promoting your site. Additionally, if you prefer, there are affiliate networks that will help you find good potential affiliates, set up the financial arrangements, and even track the number of sales each one generates.

In summary, affiliate marketing can be a great way to go when you’re ready to expand your online marketing efforts.