What is Affiliate Marketing?

To understand what affiliate marketing is you must first know what an affiliate is. In internet terms, an affiliate is someone who sells another persons product or services for a portion of the money earned. An affiliate may earn anywhere from 2% to 75% of the cost of the product. For example, if I were to refer you to a business and you purchase their product for $100 and they give their affiliates 10% I would have made $10 just for directing you to them.

Merchants have found affiliate marketing to be much more cost effective than traditional forms of advertising. Since they only pay when they make a sale they know exactly what their advertising costs are going to be. And for those merchants selling digital items whose only cost is development of the product and can afford to reward their affiliates with 50%-75% commissions getting affiliates to do their advertising is easy.

Affiliate marketing can be a win for both the affiliate and the business but don’t be fooled. For the affiliate, affiliate marketing is not as easy as most would lead you to believe. It takes a lot of work and there is a long learning curve if you intend to take it up and quit your day job.

Can you make money with affiliate marketing? Sure you can, but in my opinion 99 out of 100 people who try it will fail. There are many reasons for this but the main one is that people buy into the ads that tell them they can get rich quick with little or no effort and it is just not true.

My advice to anyone thinking about becoming an affiliate marketer is that you should not spend your money on anyone’s program until you have a good understanding of how to make a sale. Join a membership program that will teach you the basics of internet marketing and guide you as you take your first steps.

To visit a recommended membership site that allows you to join for free Click Here