• Section: Money Guide - Category: Affiliate Programs
• Written by M Wali

Affiliate marketing is a new age marketing method in which the owners of the web sites promote goods, services or both on their respective web sites. It involves placing the web site links and content of an advertiser or merchant.

Affiliate marketing is very cheap and has a wider appeal to a businessman or business group. Affiliate marketing gives the marketer vital tools to reach potential customers. Affiliates perform some specific tasks to direct the visitors from affiliate sites o merchant sites. Not only this, affiliates may also be responsible for writing articles and promotional content, products and service reviews, news content or anything that can catch the attention of the visitor and take him to the merchant's site. However, it should not be confused with page direction or link exchange, as is believed by some people.

The pioneers in affiliate marketing industry are the marketers who now provide networking services. Popularly called affiliate

marketing networks, these agencies provide business-to-business services. They make up for all arrangements that are supposed to take place between affiliates and the advertisers.

Affiliate marketers are paid by the networks and the networks are paid by the advertisers or merchants. An advertiser puts forth his requisitions to the affiliate marketing network and the network devises a program for publishers. After signing up for the program, the publisher officially becomes the affiliate of the network and is entitled to perform the marketing tasks.

The networks provide free services to the affiliates. The web site publisher can also chose to be the affiliate of a number of advertisers. The same applies for merchants. Merchants can chose any number of affiliate resources to promote their products.

Affiliate marketing network also help in getting rid of the affiliate managers, as the administrative work is maintained and managed by the network. Previously, merchants used to hire the services of affiliate managers to manage and maintain the accounts of the affiliates.

Affiliate networks provide one or more affiliate programs based on the requirements and the payment options. Popular ones chose CPA (cost per action) or the performance based model. Such models guarantee the returns on the investments.

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