WHAT IS AFFILIATE MARKETING?

One of the popular business model in the world of internet marketing or internet business is affiliate marketing.

Someone who’s  just learning internet marketing, often learning about affiliate marketing because the process is easier than to create and sell their own products. You can read the article about 17 Advantages of Affiliate Marketing if you want to know what is the advantages of affiliate marketing.

Ok back to topic: What is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is actually a business model that has always been there, just the name alone that now seem sophisticated, but on the first business activity already exist, namely a business broker  or intermediary .

The difference is only that the workings of affiliate marketing is in the world of internet / online so they can be referred as online broker  so   do not be touchy if  people called you a broker, I am also an affiliate marketer, so it's also a broker, the same LOL.

Offline Broker Case example

Offline broker example or broker in the real world that's easy to tell is in the business of wedding services.  For example:  “A”  salon is a provider such as a wedding dress and makeup for the bride and groom.  A woman called Wati fit with the design of a wedding dress from  “A”  salon and decided to take the package provided by “A”  salon which  is a wedding dress and makeup / bridal makeup.

If the owner of  “A”  salon  is a smart seller (most people from salon/salon worker  are indeed smart sales), he will offer to  Wati to take all the bridal stage decoration with prices according to “A”  salon owner is cheap and good. Of course, the order must pass “A”  salon owner to be cheaper. Remember the key word 'pass'.

Wati agreed to order a wedding stage decoration through the “A”  salon owner. Not finished until here, the owner of the “A” salon  inquire back to  Wati, whether already booked a wedding car. Of course, usually not, is it still three months away illegitimate. So here’s what happen  Wati in addition to buying a wedding dress and makeup package from “A”  Salon , also booked a wedding car and stage decoration   with the owner of the “A”  salon.

The owner of the “A” salon  clearly will receive a commission from the owners of stage decoration service and  from the owner of the   bride car rental service  as well.    

This relationship is a win-win.

Wati so do not bother to seek the services of stage decoration and wedding car rental, and also can get it at a cheaper price. The “A” salon owner got commission,  The stage decoration service providers and wedding car rental services are also happy because they got order without having to search again, although they have to pay a small commission.

Well, that's how  Offline Broker works.

How Affiliate Marketing / Online Broker Works

Well now how online broker or affiliate marketing work? See the diagram below for more details.

Simple way to  describe the main task of an affiliate marketer is to send many-many visitors to the merchant website / store. When visitor make a purchase or conduct a transaction at the merchant website, the merchant will know that the visitor came from you and therefore you will be given a commission by the merchant.

How does the merchant know the visitor came from you?

When a visitor comes to your affiliate website and click on a link that took him to the merchant's website, at the time it is actually the process that happens behind the scenes.

A cookie, a technical term, which is actually a small file placed on your buyer computer when they click the link to the merchant's website. This cookies are useful to inform the merchant that the visitor  had come from which  affiliate / broker so it will not happen that the merchant pays a commission to  another affiliate.

Well that's just the actual affiliate marketing.

Simple isn’t? Yes very simple, is it easy? Not always. You need to work to succeed in affiliate marketing, just like any business. Remember this is a business, not a lottery.

At the overseas country, almost all merchants / stores that sell products and services have affiliate programs. From big names such as: Walmart, Home Depot, eBay, Yahoo, Dell, HP, Sony to small merchants who most likely have never heard of him.

There are thousands or even tens of thousands of merchants that have affiliate programs. So as an affiliate marketer, you will never be short of products / services that want to be promoted. On the contrary, you will often be confused to promote which products / services / offers. Time for each person is only a maximum of 24 hours, therefore you must selectively choose a merchant or affiliate program which wants to promote.

To find out about the advantages of doing affiliate marketing business model than others, please read this  post about 17 Advantages of Affiliate Marketing.

Great Success for you, 

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