Affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based marketing in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought by the affiliate’sown marketing efforts.
Affiliate marketing is a joint and mutually beneficial business partnership between merchants and website publishers/owners whereby an affiliate is compensated for every visitor or client provided through his effort. The moment a customer makes a purchase of goods or service, part of the profit generated from that particular transaction is credited to the affiliate’s account as a commission. Amounts of compensation may be based on a fixed value for each visit (pay-per-click), registration (pay-per-lead), or for every purchaser (pay-per-sale).
However, just like a coin, the affiliate marketing program also has its obverse and reverse side.
Advantages
1. Merchants gain a wider place to sell their products and services, resulting in more customers and more sales.
2. Merchants can gain more customers without spending valuable time in searching for them.
3. Programs that track compile statistics from affiliate sites provide reliable and current client behavior on trends and demands at no extra cost.
4. The affiliate marketing program provides an easy way to create additional sources of income for website publishers and owners. Marketing banners of merchants products generate instant sales wherein they get a commission.
5. It does not require a sizeable investment on the part of the affiliate.
6. The affiliate does not have to worry about customer support, book keeping, and e-commerce related headaches since in affiliate marketing, the merchant handles it all; all the affiliate needs to do is promote and resell the product.
7. An affiliate marketer enjoys the luxury of being his own boss and work on his own time. He can work only for a few hours or more and generate income 24/7 wherever he may be located in the world.
8. An affiliate marketer can still maintain his present work or business and have the affiliate marketing income to supplement his financial position. With a laptop and an internet connection, anybody can work almost anywhere even while enjoying a vacation.
9. For clients, they do not have to drive all the way to the merchant’s store or retailer to physically buy the product or engage the services of a service provider.