I will do my best to explain the affiliate marketing concept.
Understanding Where It Came From And What The Future Holds
It is simply put a Internet-based marketing business in which online businesses reward one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate’s marketing efforts that results in a sale.
In saying that there are many other forms of marketing when it comes to affiliates that have adapted to today’s market place and here are more payment types that can result from your affiliate marketing efforts.
What Forms Of Online Advertising Are Used By Affiliates Today
It can involve hosting links, banners, and product information on a website or blog and then getting paid a flat fee or percentage of a sale whenever visitors click through on these links and make a purchase.
In reality, what affiliate marketing really is in plain basic terms, it is the selling of products and or services that are being offered by others and then getting paid for each sale called a commission or gift.
Many online retailers have always preferred such methods as search engines, e-mail promotions and website syndication (RSS) however, affiliate marketing continues to play an important role in many online retailers’ marketing strategies and it is in fact growing.
In fact this form of marketing often overlaps with other Internet marketing methods because affiliates often use some of the same advertising methods like SEO (Search Engine Optimization), e-mail marketing, paid search engine marketing,and display ads.
Where And When Did Affiliate Marketing Start On The Internet?
The early days of affiliate marketing on the internet primarily involved Amazon.com and its Associates program, which began in 1996. Amazon (affiliates) associates could place a banner or a text link on their website to sell individual books, or link directly to the Amazon home page. When website visitor clicked the link on the associate’s (affiliates) website through to Amazon and purchased a book, the associate received a commission for their efforts.
Many people seem to believe that Amazon was the first online merchant to offer an affiliate program but that is not the case. Adult content websites had been doing it for years, and CD NOW’s BuyWeb program had been around since 1994 using click through purchasing to enable people to buy music albums online. Amazon’s program was the first to become widely-known however and has served as the template for what has followed.
Is Affiliate Marketing Still A Worthwhile Strategy Today For Online Retailers
In a relatively short time, the growth and popularity of affiliate marketing has grown to the degree that it is now a significant force in selling products and services on the web. The e-commerce website, viewed as a novelty in the early days of the Internet, is now an integrated part of the overall business plan of many companies and in some cases has grown into a bigger business than the original offline entity.
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Thousands of affiliate programs are available that can combine with almost any sort of web content you might imagine and many entrepreneurs have built their business model on affiliates success.
What Are Affiliate Networks And Where Do I Find Them
You can now register with one or more various affiliate marketing networks that will not only provide a variety of sites with which you can affiliate, but will also keep track of your affiliate earnings, issue checks, send out year-end tax statements and more.
Some of the most popular include Commission Junction, ClickBank, ShareAsale and Google Affiliate Network (It is extremely difficult to get into this affiliate network , so you should start out with affiliate products through their AdSense program).
Even today as when affiliate marketing first began, the most active sectors for affiliates are still the adult, gambling, and retail industries. The sectors that are expected to experience the greatest growths are mobile phones, financial services, and travel sectors, followed by entertainment (especially gaming) and Internet-related services (especially broadband) sectors.
Also several of the affiliate solution providers expect to see increased interest from business-to-business marketers and advertisers in using affiliate marketing as an important part of their business plan.
Hi
I am glad you liked the post and that we could be of assistance to you and marketing efforts.
Wow! You have just provided me real good stuff here. I never thought I could find helpful post like this one. Great affiliate network list. I’ll check it out. Thanks.
My wife and I got tired of all the Internet scammers stealing money from us and others. We knew that a fraction of the Internet home business opportunities were really legitimate, but we just didn’t know which ones. So we started talking to people and reviewing a lot (a whole lot) of business systems on the internet. We had many late nights up on the computer. Hard work paid off and we find a dozen or so that seem to work very well with everyday people. So we made a web career blog. Needless to say my wife and I now work from home full time.
Hi David…
Yes it is the same whether you are working online or offline there is always going to be someone who wants to take your money. You have taken the right approach with doing your own research that is for sure, and if you want to know a little more about this topic then you might want to check our post on Affiliate Marketing Scams