Affiliate Marketing 101

Affiliate Marketing (a.k.a. referral 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 having to store products or provide any fulfillment or customer support AND get paid very well to do it!

Roles in Affiliate Marketing
The Merchant is the company offering the product or service. It is the merchants job to set up the affiliate program, then recruit and train the affiliate marketers. Often this is done by a specialist called an affiliate manager.

The Affiliate (or affiliate marketer) markets the merchants products or services (usually online) by promoting an encoded website (URL) that track the referrals and sales for the merchant and affiliate.

The Mechanics of Affiliate Marketing
Traditionally, the merchant provides the affiliate with a specially coded tracking URL to promote that contains the affiliate tracking code. When the affiliate sends customers to that URL and the click through to the merchants website, a cookie is stored on their computer and if a sale is made, the payment processing software will credit the affiliate marketers 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 helps the company keep administrative costs down.

The Drawbacks
For the merchant the drawbacks are:

1. Establishing the affiliate program - both administratively and implementing the technology (tracking software)

2. Hiring an affiliate manager or company to manage the affiliate program.

3. Costs to manage affiliates, including producing ad copy and graphics to help them effectively promote the merchants products and services.

For the affiliate marketer the drawbacks are:

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 Advantages of Affiliate Marketing
For the merchant, the advantage is having another channel in which to promote their products and services. They get free marketing and advertising from an army of affiliate marketers; some who are seasoned, but most dreaming of success and not really committed to success.

For the affiliate marketer, the best thing about affiliate marketing is that you can start immediately and you can do it without spending money. Don't get me wrong, there is a huge learning curve and ultimately it is a business, so to be successful, you will have to spend money - but there are low and no cost methods of promoting online.

Resources to Help You Get Started
Here are the most powerful resources you can use to help you get started with affiliate marketing:

1. Super Affiliate Handbook - The Affiliate Marketing "bible".

2. Clickbank Profit Secrets - Teaches how to leverage Clickbank as well as other affiliate networks. Also shows some tips and tricks not normally found elsewhere online.

3. Recession Proof Your Business (by dominating your niche online). To be successful with affiliate marketing, learning Internet Marketing is imperative - and this is the guide to show you how to it, from A to Z.

Sadly, most affiliate marketers do not succeed. There are several reasons for this including:

- Lack of focus. They just keep buying more "how to" guides and never buckle down and "do the stuff"

- Lack of guidance. Think about how you learned your job. Didn't someone who was already successful in the position show you how to do it? It's no different with affiliate marketing.

Those that invest in their education and affiliate marketing training succeed more often than those who do not. If you want to hire an affordable and successful affiliate marketing coach, then you need to visit: PaidByReferral.com.