An Introduction to Affiliate Marketing

June 25, 2008

Affiliate marketing is not a single process, it is a number of processes which culminate in you earning commissions on sales made through your affiliate links. The “What is Internet Marketing” post from a few days ago explained that every merchant who runs an affiliate program for their product will give you a special link, known as an affiliate link, which you can use to promote their products.

Your job as an affiliate marketer is to send potential customers to the merchant’s sales page by promoting their product, and linking to it with your affiliate link.

One of the best ways to promote a product is to recommend it, and not to try selling it. People are aware of any effort to sell to them and most object to it… Pre-selling is a process where you recommend a product and explain how it can be used to achieve a desired result.

Explaining how a product can be used to achieve a desired result automatically raises interest in the product. Your potential customer will arrive at the sales page already interested and be more inclined to purchase the product.

Affiliate marketing is therefore any process which increases the interest of potential customers in the products you are promoting. These processes include:

• email marketing
• article marketing
• viral marketing
• niche marketing

Effective affiliate marketing involves using all of these processes, so they will be covered in great detail in future posts…

Posted in Affiliate Marketing