Affiliate Marketing Professional Primer

If you are new to the field of affiliate marketing professional internet business, then you are no doubt wondering what affiliate marketing is all about. In simpler terms, it is marketing and promoting another company’s products/services on the Internet. You, the professional affiliate marketer, promote through whatever means are available to you (your ezine, blog, email, online advertising, etc.), which then sends traffic and customers to another company’s website, who then it does all the work: develop, sell and support the actual products and/or services; close the sale; process orders, receive payments and make deliveries; etc. — for the paying customer. You, as the marketer and source of that business, are paid a commission for your work. That’s it!

The entire trade deal is essentially revenue sharing. The company that provides the product or service being sold is usually called an affiliate marketer, and shares the revenue it generates with you, the affiliate marketer, to send business your way. In most cases, the affiliate marketer drives that business through various forms of legitimate advertising techniques across a wide variety of online avenues and platforms.

Note that the affiliate marketer generally does not pay anything for “marketing” and promotion until a sale has actually occurred. In this way, the trader can minimize both risk and expense. Theoretically, the affiliate can be more handsomely rewarded for taking on that risk and marketing expense. However, since the affiliate marketer does not need to bear the risk, investment, and expense of developing and supporting a product/service and managing a sale, the relationship is largely viewed as a win-win arrangement, where each part focuses on the part of the business they are good at and interested in.

Tracking, calculating and paying affiliate income

How the affiliate marketer is essentially paid for their work is entirely up to the affiliate marketer. In virtually all cases, the deal is managed entirely through an automated system, with the merchant using internet server-based software that gives an affiliate marketer a unique ID or link code that the marketer must use to identify all the traffic and customers you send. to the merchant. This is really the only way the merchant can properly identify, credit and compensate the correct affiliate for any business generated.

In some cases, an affiliate merchant uses the resources of a much larger affiliate network service (such as Commission Junction, LinkShare, etc.) to manage their affiliate program. Some other merchants, on the other hand, choose to run their own in-house affiliate system, keeping their program separate from others. However, in virtually all cases, the basics of how an affiliate program tracks and calculates affiliate commissions follows what is outlined above.

You usually specify the financial terms in advance (payment periods, minimum payment thresholds, when the money is paid and how, etc.), whether you use the services of a third-party service or run your own trading program internally affiliated. How an affiliate is paid will ultimately depend on these predetermined details, and can run the gamut from receiving payments online through services like Paypal, to transferring funds directly to an affiliate’s bank account, to printing a physical check and mail it directly to the member. .

While there is obviously a level of trust in the merchant involved in this arrangement, it works because it not only benefits the affiliate merchant to maintain a good working relationship with their affiliates to grow their business and ensure their continued success, but the affiliate merchant community professionals is fairly close-knit, with extensive communication channels that quickly report any turbulence and negative business dealings. On top of that, affiliate programs running on third-party network services offer an extra layer of protection and trust for the affiliate, and the networks help ensure that all transactions are properly tracked, calculated, and compensated. This is one of the reasons why many professional affiliate marketers often adopt a policy that they will only work with affiliate programs that are run through these third party affiliate network services.

Affiliate Program Selection

You, as a professional affiliate marketer, are free to choose any affiliate program you want to join and market. In other words, you essentially choose which products and/or services you will promote (via your blog, website, ezine, ads, etc.). It’s not an easy decision, as your revenue is greatly affected by how you match your total “offer” to your “audience” or “market.” That, however, is essentially your job and is part of what you, as a professional affiliate marketer, are highly compensated for.

In many cases, the affiliate programs you choose are usually determined by your pre-existing markets and audiences. For example, if you already have a gardening blog, obviously the shows you would look for would be gardening related or ones you have determined. would be of interest to the demographic audience that your gardening site attracts.

However, if you are approaching this affiliate marketing business as a pure marketer, where the decision on how to market a product or service would largely depend on what you actually select to promote, how you select an affiliate program can be based on many different factors.

Some professional affiliate marketers, for example, choose programs based on commission size (high payouts per sale) or market size. These are business decisions that you have to make, again, part of what you get paid. However, here are some beginner tips that can help you get started.

Choose products/services that interest you personally. If you’re interested in gardening or golf, for example, focus on products/services specific to those markets. The plain and simple truth is that it is much more difficult to promote a product or service that you really couldn’t care less about.

Choose products/services that do not embarrass you and that you are comfortable having your friends and family associate with you. For example, even though it is quite lucrative, some professional affiliate marketers cannot promote dating sites and services out of embarrassment and discomfort.

Choose products/services that you are already familiar with and fully understand. Even if you’re not that interested in cars or travel, for example, you may already know more than enough about the products and services in those particular markets that you can actually sell in those niche markets.

Select the affiliate programs that give you the best sales support. This just stems from prior research, of course, but it’s something you should do anyway. Sales support referred to here are things like training, advertising material and resources, extensive product information, etc. Obviously, the more tools you are given to sell, the better your chances.

Remember – being a professional affiliate marketer means you are in business. Your business. Your success is ultimately determined by your decisions and actions. Good luck.