How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

Affiliate Marketing is one of the hottest subjectsmeans that the database knows that Affiliate ID#
of the web these days... but how does Affiliate8732 has just made a sale, and it saves this
Marketing work?information to the Affiliate Database so that you
Sure, you've heard a lot about Affiliate Marketingand the Merchant know exactly what's going on.
and you may even know someone who makesSo, the flow is something like this:
money as an Affiliate Marketer, but you're STILLJulie clicks the link -> the Website now inserts
confused about how this stuff works!a cookie onto her Computer (your Affiliate ID is
OK, OK... relax. I'm going to explain this stuff asnot saved for later use) -> Julie decides that
easily as I can. Are you with me? OK, let's go...she likes a certain product and makes a purchase
Affiliate Marketing is simply the art of selling-> The Database saves the sale transaction
products for a company. It's like being a Carand points your ID to the purchase receipt ->
Salesman who works on commission, except as ayou have now made a sale.
car salesman - you can't sell just any car (in mostDoes this make sense? I hope so!
cases). You're stuck selling a specific brand (unlessLet's continue!
you're selling used cars).There are many Affiliate Programs that you can
As an Affiliate Marketer, you're given a specialjoin. Commission Junction is a service that gives
"link" (URL) that holds your "user identification" sosome of the worlds Highest Quality brands the
that the company who supplies you the link canability to market their Affiliate services to Affiliate
keep track of the sales you have referred toMarketers, world wide. LinkShare and ShareASale
their site...are the same. There's also services such as
So, for instance, your Affiliate Link might lookClickBank, as well.
similar to: [When you sign up with a service such as
Now I could explain what this link means - butCommission Junction, you can apply to one of
that might be going too far off subject and itthese brand name Merchants to become an
may only confuse you in the end. But notice theAffiliate. Companies such as Yahoo! have great
"aid=8732" ? That stands for "AffiliateID" (Affiliateproducts to promote and give their Affiliates
Identification) and when a user clicks on this link -some very enticing commissions.
that number is given what's called a "click" to theLet's go over some of the basics of Affiliate
database. The database (simply a text file that"numbers", to help you better understand what
holds a ton of information that we don't reallythey mean.
care about right now...) saves that clickIMPRESSIONS = The number of times the link
information and adds up each one. It also (in mostappeared on a page
cases) saves the Website URL that the clickCLICKS = The number of times your link was
came from... make sense?actually clicked
Let's say that "Julie" clicks your link when she's onCTR = Click Thru Rate ... the number of times
"somesite.com", right? When it's clicked - the linkyour link was clicked, divided by the number of
tells the Website Database to save the click forImpressions.
statistical purposes, along with the referring pageCOMMISSION EARNINGS = This is the total
(somesite.com) so you can see exactly whereamount of money you have made
the link was placed at. This information (yourSALES = The number of sales you have made
stats) help you identify your best "campaigns"Now, you will also see that some Merchants
(we'll get to that in a moment).provide "Pay Per Lead" commissions which pay
I should explain part of the process in a little moreyou for each time someone signs up through a
details. You might have heard of a "cookie"... it'sform the merchant provides.
not something you eat - a Cookie (online) is a littleMost Merchants use a Pay Per Sale method
file that saves little bits of information about you,where, obviously, you are paid per each sale you
the affiliate, as well as the user who clicked thehave made. Some Merchants pay a flat rate (say
link. For one - it saves your Affiliate ID # (8732,$30.00 per sale), whereas some will pay you a
for this tutorial) onto Julie's computer, for laterpercentage of the total sale (say 10% per total
use. Most cookies last anywhere from 30sale).
minutes, up to 30 years! The average is probablySo, let's pretend that Julie purchased a $100.00
closer to 60 days, though. Most merchants tellproduct from the Merchant Website whom you
you when their cookies expire.are an Affiliate with. Let's say that the Merchant
Now, what is Julie decided to purchase a productpays you 15% of each sale... guess what? Julie's
from "merchantsite.net", the cookie that's savedpurchase just made you $15.00! Not bad.
on her machine is accessed by the Website and itI hope this Article explained the basics of Affiliate
knows that YOU were the referring Affiliate. ThisMarketing and how it works.