What is Affiliate Marketing?
For example, if you have a new product you wish to disclose to shoppers on the web, it may be more effective financially for you to create an affiliate program, as opposed to paying for advertising.
There are tons of sites out there, like Commission Junction, who promote your affiliate program to hundreds of thousands of webmasters and these sites will promote your product on their websites. Each time a purchase is consumed, your affiliate will receive a commission, normally a percentage of your selling price.
You could do it alone, without the middleman who will normally make you pay to join their program, but unless you have a script which already implements an affiliate program, I'd recommend you pay to join an affiliate program. Another reason why it's a good idea for you is the fact that your affiliate program is promoted to thousands of webmasters and you will find that your program, if attractive enough, will soon have tons of sites promoting your products.
How does it work? Simple. A snippet of code identifying each individual affiliate is wrapped around an image or link that advertises your product. It is placed in the affiliate's website and when a client is directed to your site and purchases a product on your site, you will know which affiliate lead that client to you.
If you want to do it without the middleman, most shopping cart softwares, for example, have already implemented affiliate programs and it all functions in pretty much the same way. Then, it's up to you to find people interested in joining your affiliate program.
