This article sheds a little light on how the affiliate marketing channel has grown into a huge industry since the mid-1990’s, introduces basic concepts and terms, and lists a number of different ways that you can earn money as an affiliate.

Last but not least, you’ll learn about all the benefits you can enjoy as an affiliate marketer. 

According to Amazon.com, theirs was the original affiliate program. The following statement was taken from Amazon's Associate Programs FAQ page (a few years ago). “Our Associates Program, the first on the Web, started in July 1996.” However, Daniel Gray’s “The Complete Guide to Associate and Affiliate Programs lists a number of sites that operated affiliate programs years before Amazon.com entered the fray. Among the first were PC Flowers & Gifts launched in 1994, AutoWeb.com in 1995, and KB Toys in early 1996. IOwn.com and ArtToday.com were both established in 1996. With almost every big company now having an affiliate program, affiliate marketing is now an industry onto itself.

By August 2003, Jupiter Research predicted that “affiliate marketing would account for approximately one-third of a projected $19 billion digital marketing industry or about $6.3 billion by the end of 2008”. Forrester Research was even more optimistic, saying that, "Affiliate Marketing is a $95 Billion industry that is expected to grow to approximately $230 Billion by 2008."

Contrary to popular assumption, the economic downturn is actually good for the industry.More people are shopping online to find better deals and more merchants are moving their advertising dollars from offline media to online venues and that includes affiliate marketing channels.

All in all, affiliate marketing is big business that will just get bigger in the coming years.

What is Affiliate Marketing and How Does it Work?
In simple terms, affiliate marketing is online commission sales made through an affiliate program. An affiliate program is a program that facilitates the relationship between online merchants and their affiliates allowing the affiliate to promote that company's products or services for a commission. Affiliate programs may also be referred to as:

• Associate Programs
• Referral Programs
• Bounty Programs
• Partner Programs
• Revenue Sharing Programs

Commissions may be paid based on the purchase amount (Pay per Sale), a set value for
each visit (Pay-per-click), or action such as regisitration or download (Pay per Lead).

Here is a 4-point overview of how affiliate marketing works.

1. You join an affiliate program and are given a unique affiliate identification (ID) which is coded into your affiliate links.
2. You place your affiliate links on your web site, or in your newsletter.
3. A visitor on your site clicks that link and buys a product,service or fills out a form at the merchant’s site.
4. You earn a commission for sales and/or leads generated through your links.

You should read


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