Affiliate Marketing – Simply what is it?

I’m sure you’ve heard this term over and over. It’s linked into just about every site that has anything to do with making money online or monetizing your blog or website. Simply put, Affiliate Marketing is when you take a service or product found on the internet and then promote it to someone else using a special link.

When a visitor reads your website, article, or blog and clicks on your special link or advertisement, they are taken to a page on the internet where they can purchase the service or product you recommended.

When someone uses your link to purchase a product or service you receive a certain percentage of that sale.  The adverisements will pay based several different options.  There is CPM (Cost per thousand) which is the amount the advertiser will pay to show their ad 1,000 times.  These could be unique or repeats depending on the program.  CPC (Cost per click) is the amount that will be paid per click of the ad or banner.  CPA (Cost per action) can be simply clicking on an ad or link, filling out a form or survey, and possibly making a purchase.  CTR (Click thru rate) is the percentage rate at which people click thru your banner.

And there are people out there that have this as their full time job. I still work a 60 hour week at a corporate office, but I could definitely dream about doing this full time.

The real problem is that there are a whole lot of different programs out there, so what are they and which ones should you use? Well there are sites that compare the different programs, and list them by popularity, product category, and by overall rating.

One Site is Top Affiliate. Now, I would definitely recommend doing further research before signing up with anyone, and a great source come from other blogs that you follow, that have their blog set up the way you would like, but their a few years ahead.

For some of this information, I go to Problogger to get information and insight. Thru that site I learned about the partnering of Amazon and Google to create the Amazon Associates Program. You can learn more about it from Amazon Associates Amazon Associates.

Again, this is just one option that is available, and there are a number of them out there. I will definitely be following up with more posts about this subject matter and the different programs that are out there. But for now, this is it.

Take care,
Mark