What Is Affiliate Marketing: A Quick Guide To Affiliate Marketing For Beginners

What exactly is affiliate marketing and why should you even consider this form of internet marketing for your website?

This quick guide to affiliate marketing for beginners will introduce you to the definition of affiliate marketing, and the different forms of affiliate marketing.

Definition: Affiliate marketing is a process by which merchants sell their products on another company's website; usually by means of a banner ad or text link.

In return, the merchant pays the website owner a commission for each time one of the website owner's visitors clicks on a product banner or purchases a product.

If you use the Internet and visit websites, you've seen affiliate banners. Here is an example of an affiliate banner:

If you were to place this banner on your website and a visitor clicks the banner and makes a purchase, the website owner receives a commission or payment.

Affiliate products aren't always marketed in the form of a banner. Text links are also another popular way to feature products. Here is an example of a text link that is an affiliate link:

Affiliate marketing is often seen as a passive form of income because the website owner or host of the banner or text link only needs to feature the link on their website for their web visitors to see. If there is an interest in the banner, the visitor will click through to learn more and hopefully by the product.

Merchants love affiliate marketing because it is a relatively low cost way to get their products in front of hundreds, thousands, even millions of eyes. The merchant only has to pay a commission if the visitor buys a product. Depending on the terms, some merchants will pay the website owner if the visitor just clicks on their banner or link.

If you have a website or an email list and you want to take advantage of affiliate marketing, here are some things that you should know:

Be sure to feature products that align with your website's niche, but doesn't compete with your niche.

Do some research on the merchant to make sure that they are reputable. Ideally, you'll want to test out their products before featuring a merchant's affiliate link on your site so that you can vouch for the quality of the product.

Understand that affiliate marketing takes some work and testing to make sure that it is working for you. Be sure to monitor statistics. If you aren't generating any sales, change banners or text links to find something that resonates with your web audience.

Dianne Shaddock is the Founder of Tools for Social Media, a website which provides information on Social Media, the Web, and Internet Marketing. Go to ToolsforSocialMedia.com for more tips on how to optimize the use of Social Media.