affiliate marketing

In its simplest form, the affiliate marketing is to sell the products of others. As a marketer, you can join an affiliate program and promote products (physical or electronic) or services through your website.

Affiliate marketing is a marketing technique effectively and productively. It is a cooperative effort (business partnership) between a merchant and one or more affiliates. The merchant rewards the affiliate when a visitor brings it on its website or when it is selling the product or service trader.

Affiliate marketing is a system which usually consists of four distinct elements: the publisher (affiliate), the advertiser (merchant), the consumer and the network.

The advertiser, also known as a merchant or retailer, is an individual or a company that sells a product or service. The advertiser is associated with (or) publisher (s) to promote products and services of the advertiser.

The editor, also known as the marketer or affiliate is someone who promotes products and services. The editor is associated with the advertiser to promote products and services of the latter. The editor uses ads, links and creates marketing campaigns to find buyers for the products and services of the advertiser. For each product sold, the advertiser gives a commission to the publisher.

The consumer, you all know. It's you and me defines the termconsumer as follows: A person who uses goods or services to meet their needs.

Network, also known as program or platform, acts as an intermediary between the advertiser and the publisher. The network facilitates the life of the editor to find and participate in affiliate program marketing. The network can also reach a greater number of advertisers and publishers. Some networks have membership fees while others are part of the profits of the advertiser when a sale is made.

An affiliate network. How does it work?

AmazonAssociates (France: ClubPartenairesAmazon ) is a network affiliate marketing the most used on the Internet. Amazon has thousands of publishers (Amazon calls them partners) who are promoting products found on all Amazon Inc. websites. Indeed, it is said that much of the success of Amazon Inc. is due to its excellent program Affiliate. Why the Amazon program is so popular? Because it is very accessible and easy to use.

To help you understand how affiliate marketing, I offer the following example:

Currently, I am an editor (affiliated) of the advertiser (merchant) and Amazon.fr Amazon.ca.When I want to promote a product Amazon.ca on my blog, I simply open a session onAmazon.ca and I search the product I want to promote. When I found the product, Amazon generates a unique link that I use on my blog. For example, in this present post, I mentioned the software Antidote . If you hover over the link with your mouse cursor, you can see the unique bond. If you click the link, you will be transported to the Amazon website, on the page of the product in question. If you decide to buy the book, Amazon would reward me by giving me a commission (around 4-5% of the sale price of the property).

In this example, the advertiser is Amazon, but Amazon is also the owner of the network (AmazonAssociates ), which simplifies the system.

Note that there are hundreds of affiliate networks and platforms different. In my next post, I'll introduce a few.

Is that the editor is always rewarded the commission when selling a product? Everything depends on the network. Some affiliate programs pay the publisher for a number of displays advertisements, others pay when a consumer clicks an ad and pay others for sale (flat fee or percentage).

When it is you who have a product to sell, you become the advertiser (merchant) and subscribing to your affiliate network, when you reward marketers manage to sell your product.

Affiliate marketing on the internet only?

Affiliate Marketing (Affiliate Marketing) is a jargonnerie internet. Affiliate marketing began in the 90s. One of the pioneers of affiliate marketing on the internet was that Amazon.com Inc. launched its affiliate network in 1996. They say Amazon. Com was not the first to create this type of network on the internet, but he built the network that has spread most rapidly its simplicity and robust structure. Subsequently, several companies have followed the model of Amazon to create their own affiliate network marketing.

Today, wherever you go on the internet, everyone seems to want their share of the market affiliate marketing. Several bloggers marketers will tell you that if you buy their ebook now, it will be possible for you to get rich quick. There is certainly money to be made on the internet as a marketer, but as in all areas, you'll have to work.

Where does this idea of ​​affiliate marketing?

Even before the internet accessible to the general public, who were affiliated marketers? Do they exist? Before the advent of Web marketers affiliate vendors were called and they were members of networks multilevel marketing (MLM - Multi Level Marketing). At the time everyone was interested in the idea of ​​vacuum cleaners and revolutionary in its home network marketing were very active. These networks were trained salespeople who were paid a commission for products they sell. A seller could also be rewarded for recruiting new sellers and that they established the sales of the product or service in question. Generally, it was the company that produced the good or service that employed the sellers.

Affiliate marketing is basically the same thing. The publisher (seller) receives a commission when making a sale. In an affiliate program, publisher (the marketer) is the seller and the advertiser is the company that produces the good.

At the time, the sellers were people who were knocking at your grandmother to sell her plastic dishes. Today, these marketers are those who invite their friends to presentations of beauty products, accessories, decorations and food Tupperware . Same principle, different time.

Today, the techniques for successful selling a product online are different.

Internet marketers are usually members of affiliate programs online business. Some of these bloggers are marketers, designers, copywriters or simple affiliate marketing.

The topic of affiliate marketing is a hot topic on the internet in recent years. Do a little research and you will find hundreds of ebooks that promise you to earn thousands of dollars within weeks with the right techniques. Personally, I think affiliate marketing is much more difficult and time consuming as we think. To sell products online, it is not only interrupting people and ask them to buy. There must be a good strategy and answer the following: Who?What? Where? How? before starting.

You think you can sell a product that you do not know to people you do not know? It is possible, but to be passed through there, believe me, it is difficult.

Do what you love, love what you do

In his book, Rule Number One , Phil Town explains strategies to become an excellent investor. Strategies he proposes, I think the most important is:

Find a wonderful business That you love.

Why is it important to invest money in a company that you like? For a company that you like, this is a company that you know and understand. And if you know the company, it is likely that you are aware of the industry and that you got a good idea of ​​the strengths of the company's competitors.

Anyway, why would you invest in a company that you do not know? Because one speaks much in the newspaper and on the internet? Some serious! Journalists, like you, have their own opinion. An opinion is an opinion.

Everyone talks to his parish. If you see that journalists marketers say about Apple when Research in Motion (RIM) drags the leg. Apple has the best this .. that .. the best journalists Wall Street, who are also investors trying to influence votes.

Why compare affiliate marketing and investment?

Affiliate marketing and investment in the stock market works the same way.

As an investor in the stock market, you must: find a company you like, and buy shares.

As an affiliate marketer, you must: find a product you like, and sell it.

In affiliate marketing, it is easier and better to promote a product or service that you know and love. I'm not saying that it is impossible to make money advertises any products you've never tried, but say it is not easy.

The advantages of affiliate programs

Easy management. When a system is automated (eg an affiliate network), the cost of labor is greatly reduced. At the time, traditional businesses had to hire and manage employees (sellers) that required a lot of resources: time and money.

No financial risk. What is interesting for the advertiser and publisher, is that affiliate marketing does almost no financial risk as opposed to an advertising campaign that can cost up to several million dollars (euros) for a big business.

Multiple source of income. Possibility of additional revenue for a user who has little knowledge of computers. If you have free time, you could do the online promotion of products and services and increase your income by receiving a commission for your sales.

Accessibility. Today, you could have 50 marketers working for you to sell your new ebook, and even if your company has only one employee: you. Several major affiliate networks are already established on the internet and you could subscribe now.

Economical solution. Register your product in an affiliate program is a very economical solution to help you to advertise and sell your product. If you have an attractive product, marketers work for you.

The future of affiliate marketing

Personally, I think the idea of ​​an affiliate program is great. There is an affiliate program for almost any products or services that can be sold on the market.

Today, most goods sold through platforms affiliations are electronic products (software, eBooks, etc) and books, but I think in the future we will see more advertisements for physical products (eg a bicycle, computer, tools, etc). I would say that the readers of a blog on running an advantage would be exposed to pubs shoes and sportswear, rather than an announcement of the ebook "How to make money on the internet" .

I predict that the platforms will become much more portable and a programmer can simply plug in the plug-in affiliation with its own website to start marketing system are personnel.

Imagine a fully portable system that you could connect to your website unique jewelry and handmade. Once a marketer affiliate has found a buyer for your handmade jewelry, the system would record the transaction, the marketer would pay via Paypal, you should pay yourself, you send an email to alert you to send the product the address of the purchaser.More needs to pay for a service affiliation platform.

Your first employee (affiliate marketer) could be a girl who blogs on the subject of fashion and propose these readers a link to your website jewelry.

What do you think of affiliate marketing?

Do you think there will be more online advertising in the coming years?

Do you think advertising will be more relevant and intelligent?

Have a great week!

See you soon