Affiliate Marketing has increasingly become an integrated and large part of a company’s marketing plans – most notably for companies that wish to use the internet to gain revenue or sell products. For this reason, e-commerce owes much of its rise to the idea of affiliated marketing.
The idea of affiliated marketing is simple yet incredibly effective. Basically, a webmaster will display a merchant’s adverts on a site and be paid for those websites in one of three ways. They will be paid per click (known as Cost-per-click, CPC for short) which means that every time the advert is clicked, the affiliate is paid.
Another method of payment is Cost-per-Action (CPA) which is when the affiliate receives income based on either a sale, registration or the ‘action’ of the person who has clicked the advert from the affiliate’s site.
The last form – and most favored form – is the Cost-per-sale method (CPS) which is based solely upon sales or purchases generated on the merchant’s site, that have come through the affiliated site. CPA and CPS are very similar in this respect and represent a form of revenue sharing or commission plan.
Affiliate marketing has many benefits for both the affiliate and the merchant, one being that there are no real risks at all for both parties – and both parties find it very beneficial. Merchants enjoy affiliate marketing, and it has become a favored form of advertising for e-commerce businesses.
The Advantages of Affiliate Marketing
The concept of revenue sharing has been around for quite a while, long before the internet. But the idea of affiliate marketing has taken it to new levels and become a staple form of advertising and bringing in business for all types of e-commerce.
Online merchants find affiliate marketing beneficial since it presents little to no risk both for the merchant and the ‘affiliate.’ The way it works is that the affiliate earns a type of commission or fixed amount based on the number of sales the affiliate brings to the merchant, either through on-line links on the affiliate’s website – or through email, blogs, RSS feeds and many other kinds of on-line communication.
Affiliate marketing also bears no cost on the merchant in the original set-up – in other words, it costs nothing to place advertising banners on affiliate’s sites, and there is only a cost if a lead or sale has been generated (which is advantageous for all.) Merchants also get to set the parameters and decide on the incentive schemes. Thus, it is a very inexpensive (but highly efficient way) to grow a business.
If you’re looking for help to achieve your goal and want to get started building your business quickly, my mentor John Thornhill provides an opportunity and a proven path to online success.
Free training for this webinar may be accessed here: Affiliate Super Funnel.
To Your Success,
Jason G
This is a guest post from Jason Gounaris if you would like to be considered for a guest post please contact me.
