Affiliate Marketing - Pros And Cons

What is affiliate marketing? This probably comes to mind when the words are read and you wonder what do they mean when they say affiliate? This type of marketing is when a company arranges for other people or businesses to advertise the company’s products on their website. The affiliate displays these products in an inviting manner to try and get visitors to follow the product link back to the company and make a purchase.

When visitor clicks on the link and a product is sold, the company rewards the affiliate a percentage of the sale amount or a specific lead amount. Some rewards are paid on a per click basis  which is going out of style because of  click fraud. The more typical reward now is when a visitor follows the link and purchases the company’s product. Then the affiliate that directed the visitor receives a percentage of the purchase price.

One thing that businesses like Google Adsense do to avoid fraud click is to watch IP addresses of PPCs to see if the click came from the affiliate. If so then, the affiliate will not get paid and can be banned. If you have Google Adsense on your website, they are watching to make sure that you do not click on the ads from your computer. The only way that you can make any money using Adsense is to have a high traffic volume website, so that others will click on ads that interest them.

Affiliate marketing can be closely compared to a billboard on the side of a road. The company pays the sign company to put up the billboard and rent the space, hoping to attract attention. The difference in this case is that company does not pay any money up front, they only pay when sales are made. This is much better for the company selling the product because they don’t pay any money until they get a sale.

Another strategy for affiliate marketing is when two or more businesses advertise each others products. This way the two partner businesses help stimulate each other’s sales, especially when they sell related products. For example, one company can sell tools and the other company sells tool boxes, a perfect relationship.

Affiliate marketing has negative connotations for many people because of all the ruthless tactics that some affiliates have used in the past and still do today. Some of these tactics are known as spamming, typosquatters (have a website domain name based on the common misspellings of a popular product), false advertising, and other tactics. Although some affiliates still in use these methods today, they have to skirt the fringes and not be so open with their tactics. Because the general public is becoming much more Internet savvy today, most marketing affiliate businesses have cleaned up their act.

There are many online businesses that have product comparison websites that people use to check prices and see reviews of the products purchased by others. If customers like the reviews the visitor is then directed to a page including several businesses that sell the product with their current price. If the visitor buys a product from a businesses linked from the product comparison website, the affiliate website receives a percentage of the sale. The advantage for product comparison websites is that many times others can create a substantial amount of content for you through their reviews.

The best way to make money as an affiliate is through volume, yet there is still some money to be made in the small affiliate markets. Shopping services like Amazon.com and eBay, and advertising services like Google Adsense are a fantastic way for the little affiliate to make a few hundred to a few thousand dollars per month. If you want to make money with affiliate marketing, then you will need to work hard, plan your business and come up with something that sets you apart from everyone else.