Affiliate Marketing Defined

Steven Droege
6 min readDec 19, 2022
An image showing the process of affiliate marketing from generating leads using social media to converting sales

What if you could make money at any time, from anywhere — even while you sleep?

Affiliate marketing is a great way to drive sales and generate significant online revenue for brands and affiliate marketers alike.

The new push toward less traditional marketing tactics has certainly paid off: spend in the United States on affiliate marketing increased from $5.4 billion in 2017 to $8.2 billion in 2022 — an increase of more than 60 percent.

Understand, this is a performance-based marketing model where a business rewards the affiliate for each visitor or customer brought about by their marketing efforts.

You earn money by using the links from merchant websites, social media posts and email messages, paid search engine marketing, display advertising, e-newsletters, and other online branding efforts.

Affiliates often share a common brand with their corporate parent or sponsor but may also be independent companies or individuals.

Affiliate Marketing is an Internet-Based Promotion Model Where The Commission is Based on Sales

Affiliates can earn money by referring customers to various websites and businesses. The affiliate earns a percentage of the sale as a reward for bringing in new business.

Actually, it is one of the most popular types of online marketing and a great way to earn money without any coding or web development experience.

You can work as an affiliate for any number of companies. And the best part is that you don’t have to create your products or services.

Instead, you promote someone else’s business and make a commission when people buy through your link.

Performance-based Advertising Marketing Channels Where a Website Owner Gets a Monetary Reward For Getting Clicks or Sales on an Affiliate Partner’s Website

Think of Affiliate marketing as a form of performance-based advertising where a website owner gets a monetary reward for getting clicks or sales on an affiliate partner’s website.

That’s how you and your affiliate partner earn money. That’s why it’s called the win-win form of advertising. The partner has an incentive to help you be successful.

  • Affiliate marketing can be used to promote physical products, services, or digital information (eBooks) in general and can be done through online content such as articles and email broadcasts.
  • You can also use affiliate marketing to sell your products and services. In this case, the process is the same as if you were marketing other people’s offers.
  • You’d still create a website or blog, promote your products or services, and get paid for each sale that comes through it.

The offer changes, but the process does not!

On top of that, Affiliate marketing is an easy way to earn money while having fun.

You don’t have to be a salesperson, but you do need some basic knowledge of what you are promoting.

You also need to build your website or blog and promote it through search engine optimization (SEO).

SEO is a fancy way to say:

Rank at the top of online search engines (such as Google).

A Marketing Arrangement by Which an Online Retailer Pays a Commission to an External Website for Traffic or Sales Generated From its Referrals

Now, let’s look at this from the perspective of the product seller (or affiliate partner).

Sellers are vendors, merchants, product creators or retailers with a product to market.

The product can be a physical object, like household goods, or a service, like makeup tutorials.

The seller does not need to be actively involved in the marketing, but they may also be the advertiser and profit from the revenue sharing associated with affiliate marketing.

For example, the seller could be an ecommerce merchant that started a dropshipping business and wants to reach a new audience by paying affiliate sites to promote their products.

Or the seller could be a SaaS company that leverages affiliates to help sell their marketing software.

It’s attractive to sellers because it is a simple way to promote your business.

You pay a commission for sales or clicks, and the affiliate gets paid when their referrals purchase from your company.

Affiliate programs can be used in tandem with other practices to generate more money for your company.

Affiliate marketing is a great way to get your business some exposure in the digital world.

It’s also a great way to monetize your existing traffic and increase sales without having to go through the hassle of creating new products or services.

Affiliate marketing is a great way to generate new revenue for your business.

It’s also an excellent way to promote your products and services without having to spend a lot of money on advertising.

Essentially, if your affiliates don’t make sales, you don’t pay them.

You only pay, when they get results.

The best part about affiliate marketing is that it can be done from anywhere in the world with an internet connection.

It’s the flexibility to work from home and make money online that attracts high quality marketers.

The more generous you are with your commission percentage, the more likely it is you will build an army of affiliates that crank out sales for your business.

Plus, from a risk perspective…

Affiliates for your company are risking their time and their money to get you more sales.

That means you get to profit from work you didn’t do and risk you didn’t take. Other people’s investments benefit you.

Affiliate Marketing is Commission-Based Marketing That Can be Used in Tandem with Other Practices to Generate More Money For Your Company

It involves partnering with other companies and organizations, who then pay you for any sales or leads generated by your efforts.

Affiliates are paid a commission on every sale they generate, which can be quite lucrative when you’re working with a high-end brand or product that attracts customers willing to spend big bucks on it.

In fact, affiliate marketing isn’t just one strategy; actually, it’s an entire category of strategies that include:

  • Affiliate Programs — These allow affiliates to promote specific products or services from the brand’s website, email inboxes, and social media platforms so long as those affiliates adhere to certain guidelines set forth by the brand (such as not displaying fake reviews).
  • Email Marketing — This allows brands to send affiliate links on scheduled broadcasts. They get sent through their servers/platforms (and not third parties like Gmail or Outlook).
  • IMPORTANT: Limit how frequently you send broadcasts to your list because they can get burned out.
  • Social Media Marketing — This allows brands to share posts and content with their followers on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn so long as those posts/content are relevant to the brand’s mission and not focused on selling products at all times. Affiliate marketing is just one strategy within the larger category of affiliate marketing.

The Customers Important Role in The Sales Process

To ensure that the affiliate system works, you have to have sales.

That’s the consumer or customer’s role in this whole marketing process.

The affiliate markets products/services that they find valuable or beneficial to consumers through social media, blogs, and YouTube videos.

Then, if the consumer deems the product valuable or beneficial to them, they can follow the affiliate link and checkout on the merchant’s website.

If the customer purchases the item, then the affiliate receives a portion of the revenue made.

However, keep in mind that most consumers are aware that you’re receiving a commission off of their sale!

According to Federal Trade Commission regulations, an affiliate marketer must clearly and conspicuously disclose their relationship with retailers.

Always add a disclaimer, such as: “The products I’m going to use in this video were given to me by Company X”.

The Final Word

Affiliate marketing is a great way to make money online.

It can be used in tandem with other marketing strategies to increase your revenue and generate more profit for your business.

You can use affiliate marketing strategies in any niche or industry, which means there is no limit to what you can do!

If you’re looking for an easy way to start earning more money right away, then consider joining an affiliate network like Awin, Maxbounty, or Impact.

Sign Up For Our FREE StorySelling Formula by Clicking (Or Tapping) Here!

A Manual With a 4 Step Process to Earn High Ticket Income Online With Affiliate Marketing

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