The Basics
Affiliate marketing is a multi-billion dollar industry. You would
probably be amazed at how widely spread it is. But what is this thing ? Actually
it is simply selling other people’s stuff - that’s all ! And it is
also one of the most lucrative ways to make money online. It has made hundreds
of thousands of people millionaires and many more make a living this way. But
it is a business like any other and if you want to be profitable, you need to
take it seriously. However, the purpose of this article is not to deeply
explore affiliate marketing, but to give you a basic idea of what it is and how
you can make money with it.
What Exactly Affiliate Marketing Is…
What Is Affiliate Marketing, pic sxc.hu
To be clearer, let’s take a look at an example … Imagine that John is an
expert in making websites. He has something valuable – knowledge, that could
help other people to make their own sites themselves. So John decides to create
an e-book entitled “Build a Site in 5 Steps!”. That’s great, he writes it in a
couple of weeks and puts a price tag of $50 for it. As a main marketing
strategy, he chooses to use affiliate marketing. So he creates a site for his
product and offers anyone the opportunity to sell his book for a commission of
50% of the price or $25. Michael comes across this offer, and he thinks that he
can offer this book to the visitors of his site about web design. He writes an
article about the book and includes a link (containing his affiliate id) to
John's site. Some of his visitors come across the article and after
reading it, they click on the link and go straight to the e-book’s offer page.
If someone decides to buy, she pays $50 for the book to John, and then John
pays $25 commission to Michael for leading the customer. And this way everyone
is happy! The buyer gets the book they want, the promoter gets paid, and the
author receives the other half.
This is a pretty cool marketing strategy for John, because if his
product is really good, it will sell well and he can attract a whole army of
sellers marketing his product for him.
So now you know how it works, you can try it yourself. The best thing
is that you have nothing to lose! If you sell – you get a pay, if you don’t
sell – you lose nothing! But where to start?
