The concept of affiliate marketing isn’t new by any means. It is an age-old form of revenue-sharing in trading and commerce. This post will explain more about affiliate marketing and why you need affiliate marketing classes.
In general, a company needing the performance of outside entities, whether it be other companies or individuals, shares part of the sales of their products through, loosely-speaking, commissions.
Revenue-sharing takes on different forms. The following are examples of business models that feature such sharing, usually in the form of percentages:
[unordered list]
- Retail stores
- Thrift stores
- Auction houses
- Drop-shipping
- Affiliate marketing …and more…
Affiliate marketing is about as old as the World Wide Web (WWW) and has so rapidly grown that there are large affiliate networks, such as Clickbank, and others and there are highly effective training programs offering affiliate marketing classes and courses.
Affiliate marketing is amongst the top online business opportunities where anyone with average intelligence can actually leave their regular day jobs and work from home. Check this post for an in-depth explanation of affiliate marketing.
How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?
Affiliate marketing is a highly effective, cost-effective system that replaces much of the advertising and inside sales campaigns which cost a fortune.
At a fraction of the cost, a company develops what is called an “affiliate program.” This is a set of rules, regulations, tools, training, and administrative services for interested affiliate marketers who want to participate in the program.
In a win-win scenario, the company offers the affiliate program and the prospective affiliate marketer applies for the opportunity to promote the company.
The company is responsible for all of the administration involved in the business alliance and the affiliate marketer is responsible for the advertising and the referrals of customers to the company.
The affiliate marketer does not own the customers, the company does. This is often said to be one of the major drawbacks of affiliate marketing.
But nonetheless, is lucrative for both parties. You as an affiliate do not need to own a product you are selling.
Pure affiliate marketing situations entail the company paying out a certain percentage of the profits to the affiliate.
The affiliate in return provides content management and promotion which effectively sends prospective buyers to the company website.
An affiliate, in most cases, does not “sell” the product. The company does that on the site where the prospects are sent and it is the affiliate’s job to “pre-sell” the product.
This is done through reviews and other forms of content that do not entail direct selling.
A special, unique link is issued to each affiliate in a program. This ensures every affiliate will be properly credited for their referrals who purchase once they are on the company’s website.
In a nutshell, affiliate marketing works like this:
1-The company offers an affiliate program that you as an affiliate join.
2-The affiliate marketer sends referrals (customers) to the company website.
3-The referred customer goes to the company website through the affiliate’s especially-assigned affiliate link and makes a purchase.
4-The company credits the affiliate for any sales that result when referrals purchase products on the company website.
The image below illustrates how you earn money as an affiliate marketer by sending buyers to an affiliate product.
Some Precautions For The Prospective Affiliate Marketer
You should seek out and attend high-quality, reputable affiliate marketing classes.
Be especially careful that the one you choose has an active community on it and not just an e-book or video course.
You will be far more likely to get up-to-date training and support.
Not all offerings that look like affiliate programs are actually affiliate programs! Multi-level marketing schemes are often disguised as affiliate programs and are not!
For example, SFI, an international company claims their program as being affiliate-based, but further, inspection reveals that they are, in reality, a multi-level marketing company(MLM), so don’t be fooled!
Finally, amongst the best affiliate marketing opportunities to start out with would be Clickbank, Amazon, Walmart, Flexlinks, and other well-known reputable marketplaces.
If you are going to join the Amazon affiliate program, you should first read my Amazon affiliate program review here so you understand what will be expected of you as an Amazon affiliate.
As a newcomer to affiliate marketing, it is recommended you start with these first.
These are long-standing well known so you as an inexperienced marketer(affiliate) will find it easier to promote and sell their products.
Affiliate marketing offers the best in online business. You truly have the helm and build your business as you see fit and is suited to your interests and passions.
Do not settle for programs that offer a very limited array of products or services.
Even though the payouts seem very attractive. Very often, these are scams and will not pay you your earned affiliate commissions.
Finally and foremost, the most important and top priority is training. Do not try to do this on your own nor rely on 1-2-3, a-b-c simplicity often found in get-rich-quick schemes.
There is no easy 1,2,3 in affiliate marketing. And there is quite a lot to learn especially if you are new to online marketing.
You will be disappointed and most likely lose your investment. There are top-notch training platforms that offer affiliate marketing classes at affordable prices.
Great explanation on affiliate marketing. I agree with you that the prospective marketer should take classes to really learn how to start their business the right way.
I use wealthy affiliate for my training and hosting and so far it is money well spent! I have learned a ton and even started making a little money.
Hello Jeremy
In my opinion, Wealthy Affiliate is the best place to learnaffiliate and internt marketing,they offer all the tools one need to build a website right from the ground.Before I joined Wealthy Affiliate, I thought building a website was something reserved for the internet savvy,but with the help of Wealthy Affiliate, I have build a very stable website and making money on line for the first time ever.
Hey nice post on affiliate marketing, honestly so many ways to go wrong with affiliate marketing and I hint this will start people out on the right track.
Clickbank does have a lot of great products as well as not so great products, you have to be able to leverage relationships with people, whether it be building an email list or offering quality content on our website or blog. Nice work.
Thanks Jon
Hey
I like this website, its well laid out and great explanation about affiliates. You give your customers a great insight into how it works and all the scams. Ive been scammed before , so this is a great help to me.Its easy to read and straight to the point.. great job.
Yeah, the good advantage of Wealthy Affiliate is the community that tells and warns users of certain updates on WordPress. Doesn’t matter, because most other affiliate programs are either just not worth the fortune being spend, or a just straight-up scam. Some of them charge up to $900, per month! So yeah, kinda glad I’m sticking with WA.
Thanks for stopping by Dula, WA is worth every penny and the help is one of a kind.
Affiliate marketing is definitely one of the best ways to make money online. There are great benefits to it over other money making methods. For example, you don’t need to hold any stock or ship any products, you don’t need to speak to customers, and you can choose to promote anything at all. Of course, it takes lots of times and/or money to successfully promote affiliate products. If you have the money to invest, you can do PPC ads. If you don’t have money to invest, you need to invest your time into regularly writing great content on the topic.
,Thanks Marcus,for people like me (im shy,quiet and just not very social)affiliate marketing is great, oh, did l say im not a sales person but affiliate marketing make it possible even for someone like me to be able to sell?
The best part of affiliate matketing is not having to deal with customers,refunds,shipping, that`s just not my thing.
Thanks for stopping by
I like the way you simplify the affiliate marketing process. I’ve been one of those caught in the MLM scams, unfortunately several times. I keep looking for the pony when I see the pile of horse poop. The lure of money always sucks me in. You very easily warn the unsuspecting about the MLM trap and it even reminded me to avoid them at all costs. Thank you for the reminder!
You are welcome Cathy,you are not alone,l still shiver when l think of the amount of money l lost to MLM`s,that`s why l started this website,to warn people if l can help one person that`s the goal
Hi, I found your post very useful and full of information that is extremely helpful to help people understand affiliate marketing.
I have recently embarked on the internet marketing route after many failed attempts of ‘getting rich quick’ online.
I found the information you gave to be very insightful with some very valuable information.
Thanks for all your info 🙂
You are welcome,glad l could help
Some great tips, easy to understand, simple pages and clear lines. So many scams these days, I have been sucked in so many times but wealthy affiliate is a genuine site with loads of info, your site shows us the pro and cons. Your definitely heading in right direction.
Keep up the good work
Thanks lain, indeed Wealthy Affiliate is the best place to learn affiliate marketing
Hello there , very good explanation on what is Affiliate Marketing and how it works.
I agree that MLM organisations don’t belong in the same category with Affiliate model.MLM’s structrure and their complex compensation plans are something totally different from the Affiliate model , in which there is adapted a very simple payment plan based on commissions calculated on a percentage of the sales.
But I don’t agree that Clickbank is among the most reputable affiliate networks.In fact I tend to believe that is among the worst.I have tested dozens of Clickbank products , that were “junk”.There are so many scam products inside Clickbank that are destroying this company’s reputation.
The best thing I love in Affiliate Marketing is that you can promote products from all over the world with no restrictions at all.You are an entrepreneur on your own.
Hello
thanks for stopping by.Clickbank is very reputable but like you say, there are some junk there.You have to look well to find the right products to promote.
Hey man, that’s a nicely explained affiliate system. Nice and easy to understand. It’s also great that you warned about scams, which are on every step of the way. One should definitely make sure to take the best classes online, in my book that’s Wealthy Affiliate. One step ahead.
Thanks for sharing this great post, cheers
Thanks for stopping by,you are right too many scams out there