Have you ever wondered, “What is this affiliate marketing thing anyway”?
Well, I have. So, being the inquisitive mind that I am, I started researching affiliate marketing online. Man, is there a lot of info out there! Sheesh…at times I would get Mama Boucher’s “brain pain” (Waterboy, you know…the movie.) Anyway, I have attempted to cram and crunch all that I have learned and I will try to give you the quick and painless version.
Let’s start with some definitions, just so we are all on the same page.
Affiliate: Someone who promotes someone else's product. (Promote = refer, recommend, sell, advertise, etc.)
Affiliate Program: A program that a vendor/company offers that allows an affiliate to promote their product for a commission (generally paid in a percentage of sales).
Vendor: Any company or person that sells their product to the public.
Commission: What you are paid when someone buys a given product through your affiliate marketing of a vendor’s product. Generally, this is a percentage of the products price.
Marketing: Selling, advertising, referring, recommending… any way (legal please) of promoting a vendor’s products.
Ok, so....
What is affiliate marketing anyway?
Affiliate marketing simply means that you are promoting someone else’s product and they are paying you each and every time someone buys that product through your efforts to promote it. Make sense?
Let’s try an example:
Your best friend gets a really cool MP3 player. It has some really great features and hasn’t given them any trouble what-so-ever. You have been considering getting an MP3 player, so your friend tells you where he bought his. You go and buy the same thing from the same place. If your friend is an affiliate with that
company he would get a commission for your purchase and you get an awesome MP3 player that is trouble-free. Your friend is the affiliate marketer. Where you bought the MP3 player is the vendor.
It really is about that simple. However, don’t try to jump into affiliate marketing without some basic knowledge. You would most likely end up frustrated and poorer for the experience. (Personally, I hate being frustrated and poorer! It really sucks.) I would try to avoid it by educating myself first. Once you gain some basic understanding of what you need to begin, and whom you can trust, affiliate marketing can be very fun and profitable. Hopefully that was painless for you. If you do not understand any of my points, please leave a comment and I will try to make things clearer.
Till next time,
Don’t Let Anyone Steal Your Dreams!
~KT~
