Affiliate Marketing Makes The Big Leagues

Affiliate Marketing Hits the Big Time Marketing SceneDescription of
Affiliate MarketingAffiliate Marketing is a mutual revenue sharing
agreement between the merchant and the affiliate. The merchant wants
to sell, but he may lack sufficient buyers. Buyers want to buy, but
from whom? Enter the affiliate marketer who connects these two and a
the transaction is consummated. In the process the marketer has earned
a commission.Affiliate marketing became popular with sellers
because:1) As a fee for transaction model, no major selling costs were
incurred until a sale was made, and
2) Sellers only pay marketers
when the new introduction results in a lead or sale, making a low
risk, good reward proposition for both parties.For the marketer the
advantages are:1) No need to purchase or manufacture a product,
2) In
most cases, no need to warehouse or ship a product,
3) No need to
invoice or collect for the sale,
4) No credit concerns.Affiliate
Marketing is usually funded as a fee-for- transaction program. The fee
can take various forms depending on the offer made by the seller. It
can be a percentage of the selling price. It can be a cost per action
where the selling is largely done by the seller. It can be paid as a
cost per click or a cost per mile.Some sellers offer a multi-tiered
program were the commissions are paid not only on the first sale but
on subsequent purchases by the same buyer as well. Often these later
purchases earn a smaller commission than the first sale. Also there
are MLM network marketing programs which can which offer much more
complex programs than the more standard programs do.HISTORY of
AFFILIATE MARKETINGAmazon was not the first seller to offer an
affiliate program but is largely credited with leading the way. In
1996 they launched an associate program which was a for-runner of
Affiliate Marketing. Basically the program allowed affiliates to place
a "live" banner on their website. When a buyer clicked on the banner a
buy signal was sent to Amazon's home page, and a book was sold. The
affiliate received a commission, the buyer received a book,and Amazon
recorded a sale. This concept has had immense growth so today Amazon
is one of the major retailers in the U.S. marketAFFILIATE MARKETING
NOWFrom its early beginnings Affiliate Marketing has become a growing
force in today's commerce. With sales estimated to be in the billions
of dollars, it's future seems very bright. Successful marketers tend
to gravitate to sellers of big ticket items where their internal cost
per action is rewarded more handsomely.Growth has not been without
some bumps in its path. Not every commission finds its way to the
marketer who earns it. The earlier method for the tracking of the
transaction allowed either less than honest sellers and/or hackers to
disconnect the established path for the commissions for their own
personal gain. Subsequent meetings between marketers and sellers have
reduced these black practices. Moreover, marketers can choose to deal
only with sellers who are deemed to be honest.The Popularity of
Affiliate MarketingThis type of marketing is part of a sales
transaction done to earn a commission. The terms are pre-established
by the seller. As such, the seller accepts a diverse community of
affiliates since the sellers have little or no financial commitment
until a transaction occurs. Both the seller and the marketer have low
upfront risk and potentially high rewards making both willing
participants in establishing a mutual agreement. Because of this,
Affiliate Marketing has become a very significant part of Internet
Marketing.In addition, this form of marketing gains its popularity
from being universal, available to many people throughout the world.
It is easy and fast to learn and provides affiliates with some extra
income. It can also be a work from home project.The most widely used
affiliate programs today use a commission based revenue sharing
method. Others use a cost per action, cost per click or cost per mile.
These all are one tiered meaning the earnings are paid for only the
first transaction.However, two-tier programs exist in fewer affiliate
programs. Here the affiliate earns not only for the first transaction
but also for subsequent transactions should the same customer purchase
additional goods at a later date.Beyond these, there are multi-level
marketing and other more complex schemes which have their individual
methods of attracting and retaining marketers.So which markets are
currently the most active in affiliate marketing? The adult market,
gambling and retail industries are reported to be current leaders.
Other growing markets are the travel, phone, finance and the
entertainment markets.Where Can A New Affiliate Begin?The two most
popular sites to thoroughly check out when planning an affiliate
marketing start-up are ClickBank and Commission Junction. These sites
are like massive wholesalers offering a wide variety of goods.
ClickBank is the internet's leading retailer of digital products. It
offers buyers, sellers and/or promoters the opportunity to deal in
digital goods from one central location. Commission Junction is a
large online advertising company operating in the affiliate marketing
industry. As such it is the largest affiliate network in North America
and has offices world-wide. It also sells hard goods.A prospective
marketer can easily sign up with one or both. He will be guided
through their operating procedures. Soon he can be selling goods from
their warehouses and earn commissions on each successful sale. But
have no delusions, success demands an equal portion of effort to make
an affiliate marketing program go!