Affiliate Marketing: A marketing practice where a business(advertiser) rewards another business(publisher) for each visitor and/or sale brought to their website.
There are mixed feelings within the online business world about affiliate marketing because of it’s tactics. I believe this type of marketing program is very beneficial especially to small businesses who compete directly with the huge online names such as: Amazon, Google, Walmart, Target, and so on. Whether you own a business and are looking to become an advertiser or someone looking to gain a little extra income a month as a publisher, affiliate marketing may be just for you! As a Publisher you either receive a small percentage of each sale; usually 5-12% but some companies do offer much higher percentages! Another way is to receive a small $$ commission for each visitor you send to a company’s website (Lead Generation) whether or not they purchase anything.
As an Advertiser you:
- Create an account with website such as: CJ.com | Avantlink.com | Shareasale.com | or Linkshare.com (there are also many, many others!)
- After the initial process of signing up, you then upload your products, marketing material and anything else someone else would need to market your products.
- You select how long the publisher retains the ability to receive commission, also known as a cookie duration.
- You can also have the ability to select which Publishers have access to your product feeds and marketing material as you want your Publishers to be reputable and promote your products with professionalism.
- Setting guidelines such as restrictions on keywords or PPC advertising for publishers is also key so they are not competing with you for the traffic you’ve worked hard for.
As a Publisher you:
- Also create an account with websites such as: CJ.com | Avantlink.com | Shareasale.com | or Linkshare.com (there are also many, many others!)
- Choose which products/companies you want to promote upon your website and create the business of your dreams without the hassle of thousand dollars of overhead costs due to inventory, employees, retail space, transactions and so on.
This is simply a small list of explanations of each side of the affiliate marketing world. I personally run an affiliate marketing site www.outdoorcampingshops.com as well as have a few affiliate links upon this website where I receive a small commission if you or anyone else clicks on one of the affiliated links and purchase a product or service within the companies given cooking tracking period.