Affiliate Marketing: Affiliate Marketing For The Newbie!

You may have come across the term Affiliate marketing and
wondering what it is all about. I will attempt to give you
a little insight to what it is all about.

Affiliate marketing has many descriptions but all have the
same meaning. Affiliate marketing on the Internet today is
a huge business.

It's a joint effort between the Merchant and you, the
web site owner. For sometime now, affiliate marketing has been
proven to be very cost efficient in delivering long term results.

This model of business has become popular among web site
owners who are trying to make additional income from their
web site.

Daily, people become interested in affiliate marketing to generate
some extra income or as a full time home based business. But many
of them does not understand affiliate marketing and make many
costly mistakes.

A misconception that is associated with affiliate marketing
is "SELLING", even though "SELLING" is vitally important,
and is a central function, for the success of your business
operation.

Another misconception is that affiliate marketing is linked
With "ADVERTISING". It is true, when marketing a certain
product you must advertise but advertising is just like
selling. It's just another part of the many functions of
affiliate marketing.

In affiliate marketing, you the affiliate, is given a
commission for any visitor, subscriber or customer, that
you have sent to the Merchant through your affiliate link
from your web site.

The best part about affiliate marketing from a Merchant
point-of-view is, that the merchant does not have to pay you
any commissions until you produce some results.

Affiliate marketing is run by affiliate networks, and this
network is composed of two functional groups. A group of
affiliates and a group of merchants.

Each of them have a special role to play. The network acts
as a medium between the Merchant and the affiliate. This
network is what provides the technology to deliver the
merchant goods.

The network also collects any commission due to you from the
Merchant and pays it to your account. So you don't have to be
scared of not getting paid by a merchant for your efforts.

A merchant is a web site owner who want to take advantage
of "performance based marketing". HE knows that in this
type of marketing, he has many benefits.

So he first maintain and operates his affiliate program, then
looks for interested affiliate sites that would be a great fit
for the promotion of his products and services.

Finding the right fit for their products and services, is
the key to generating more income for them. He now has
access to markets and customers that he didn't take up his
time doing research for.

Placing a simple Banner on your site might create an
interest for that product, and drives prospects to the
merchant web site. The merchant will decide how much
commission he is going to pay you for each sale that is
resulted from your web site.

As an affiliate marketer, you will get a lot of benefits
especially if you have your own web site. As the owner of
your own web site, you can promote many merchants affiliate
programs, generating massive income each Month.

When you understand the ins-and-outs of affiliate marketing,
you will be able to generate a full-time affiliate income from
the comfort of your home.

It is your right as an affiliate to get a good
understanding with the Merchant as to what your commissions
will be, the time of payment and the contract involved.

Get the merchandise your users will be most interesting in on
your site, and you will be on your way to a successful
home-based-business.

Lets say you are a good fisherman; like I am... And you
want to build a web site to share information about
fishing.

Your job is to find merchants who are selling fishing
equipment and have an affiliate program and start promoting
their merchandise.

Lines, hooks, nets, rods etc. Anything to do with fishing would
be great to promote on your web site and you will make money.

But if your web site is about fishing and you are promoting
"Golf Balls" your chances of success is NIL. The products
you are about to promote must be compatible with your web
site information.

Affiliate marketing is great for the Merchant and affiliate
alike. Working together they are many advantages to both
parties. But what i love about affiliate marketing the most
is, there is very little expense to get started. You can
run your business on a shoe-string budget.

Author: Fitzgerald Elliott If you are new
to Internet Marketing or struggling to make money online, then this free membership and step-by-step training is for you!>