Monday, September 7, 2009

Affiliate Marketing Overview

Affiliate Marketing Overview

One common misconception is that affiliate marketing is ALL about selling. Yes, there is no doubt that selling is a huge central part of affiliate marketing, but it is by no means the only thing involved. Another misconception is that affiliate marketing is all about advertising. These are only part of the equation.





Aggressive Affiliates

So what does it take to be one? But first let's get to the basics affiliate marketing. Affiliate Marketing may come in many names or guises but they all
share a common meaning. It involves a cooperative and mutual partnership between a merchant and the affiliate. Affiliate marketing has matured over the years and its now a hugely profitable business on the Internet. Perhaps it owes its success to the fact that it has proven to be extremely cost-efficient while
delivering long-term benefits and results. Internet sites have been picking it up everywhere now trying to make an extra buck or even some serious cash.

Unfortunately, most of these just dive into things and started running before they can even walk. They only end up falling flat on their face and the blame
is pointed straight to affiliate marketing itself whereas the problem doesn't lie within affiliate marketing but their very own selves. In other words, affiliate marketing is often misunderstood.

An affiliate marketer gets rewarded for every visitor, subscriber or customer through his or her efforts. The reward comes in the form of commission fees
with its rate set and agreed upon by both merchant and affiliate at an earlier date. So basically, the more hardworking you are, the more you get paid.
Affiliate marketing is usually managed by affiliate networks.

Affiliate networks consists of 2 type of groups. The merchant group and also the affiliate group. They both play a different role but it can be safely said that they both do work hand-in-hand. The network serves as a central point where these merchants and affiliates converge and also handles the money and payment process such as commission fees.

The affiliate group is usually responsible for promoting merchants and their respective affiliate programs. There is no limit to this. You can fully focus
all your efforts for a single merchant and his/her affiliate program, or you can go all out to promote multiple merchants at a time, it is all up to you.

If you are good enough to perform the latter, it can prove to be full-time income but bear in mind it can be no easy task and it can be a full-time job but you can do this from the comfort of your very home without the dreaded dead-lines and the constant feeling of someone overlooking your shoulder and breathing down your neck. (We all know that feeling right?)

Merchants and marketers co-exist and they need each other especially when it comes to affiliate marketing is it works both ways. So it is important that these two work together as it is certainly beneficial to both parties. Being an affiliate is a great way to get the ball rolling, plus it's inexpensive. Bear in mind this is one of those, easy to pick up but hard to master. The hard part would be how to get traffic and what you can offer which sets you apart from your competitors. This is where being one of the aggressive affiliates comes into play.There is no harm in having an edge which keeps you ahead of the competition.