Where do we start?
Affiliate marketing is a form of internet marketing in which merchants promote services and products through affiliate relationships with publishers who use text links, banners, newsletters, etc to advertise offers and information thus publishers who advertise merchants are commonly known as affiliates and merchants are known as advertisers.
How do merchants benefit?
Merchants need exposure beyond their existing marketing channels such as:
- Television
- Press
- Radio
- Pay Per Click
- Search Engine Optimisation
Targeted marketing to a relevant audience has always been a proven marketing strategy and affiliates tend to build and market interesting content to a niche audience.
The brilliance of the affiliate marketing channel is that costs can vary to suit large well known brands and small merchants with no brand presence provided there is effective affiliate management.
Why Be an Affiliate?
In the beginning and to an extent this is still true now affiliates started off as webmasters of websites which were started to do or say something but as these webmasters realised they could make money they learnt clever ways to build their audience using search engine optimisation.
Being an affiliate is great because you are not tied to promoting one product or a range of products. Also why deal with the hassle of selling, shipping, supporting for a low margin when you could spend your time marketing to a growing audience.
