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What is Affiliate Marketing?

If you are into social networking on sites like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube,  LinkedIn or MySpace, you probably have been inundated by low level affiliate marketers trying to hock ways to make a bazillion dollars or get a zillion Twitter followers.  If so, you been exposed (albeit badly) to affiliate marketing.  Affiliate marketing is simply a way to sell your products or services through intermediaries, or sell other people’s products through your website, blog or mailing list.

Start Networking with other Affiliate Marketers

When are you new to affiliate marketing, the landscape can be overwhelming to navigate.  As with most endeavors, networking and finding good mentors is a great place to start.   Affiliate marketing trades hows and conferences are great to learn and network.  I try to go to at least 3-5 per year.   In the affiliate marketing space, I would highly recommend that you attend the Affiliate Summit.  There you can learn all the ins and outs of affiliate marketing from the pros and veterans in the business.

Seek Out Great Affiliate Marketing Mentors

Getting great mentors is also highly advised.  Two of my good mentors have been Joel Comm, of  InfosysMedia,  and Marty Dickinson of Here Next Year.

Affiliate Networks and Independent Affiliate Merchants

Affiliate Networks are large companies that handle the complex data and commission tracking.  These companies has sales reps that get you setup as either a merchant or as a publisher.  There are currently over a 100 such Affiliate networks as Share A Sale, LinkShare, PepperjamNetwork, ClickBank, and Amazon. You can contact these networks through their websites or meetup these affiliate networks are trade shows like the Affiliate Summit.

If you are looking to make money from small or very niche sites, you can set up accounts directly with merchants themselves. Many companies are embracing affiliate marketing and setting up their own networks.  Just look at the bottom of most websites you go to and look for a link that says something like  “affiliates” or “affiliate program.” There, you can register and take part in their program.

For instance, there’s a great Twitter management service called Tweetlater.com.   They have an affiliate progream where you can resell their services.  Even our favorite website hosting company, Hostrail.com has an affiliate program that you can plug right into.  My friend Rich Bryda has done very will with his BruteForceTwitter affiliate Program as well.  The possibilities are pretty much endless!

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Commonly Used Terms and Jargon Used in Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Marketing has its own language.  Before starting out in  affiliate marketing, you need to understand industry jargon, and what it means.

Following is a List of Commonly Used Affiliate Marketing Jargon:

• Arbitrage – Arbitrage is reselling web traffic at a higher price than it cost to obtain it.  In affiliate marketing, a good example would be where a person buys PPC ads like Google AdWords with the goal of converting that traffic into sign up.  The difference between the price and cost is the profit.
• Affiliate (Publishers) - The publisher (website owner) or salesperson in affiliate marketing.  This is either  a person with a website or blog, or doing PPC.
• Affiliate Marketer – An affiliate marketer is a person or company who markets/sells products for another person or company.  They usually usually receive a commission based on a sale or lead generated.
• Affiliate Marketing – Revenue sharing between online advertisers (merchants) and online publishers (salespeople), whereby compensation is based on performance measures, typically in the form of sales, clicks, registrations or other combination models.
• Affiliate Networks – Affiliate networks are the middle man in the affiliate marketing industry, that connect merchants and affiliates.  Affiliate networks such as Share A Sale, LinkShare and ClickBank provide link tracking and commission management.   The affiliate networks receive a commission as do the affiliates.
• Cost Per Action (CPA) – Cost per action is the online advertising revenue model in which payment is based solely on qualifying actions such as sales or registrations.
• Cost Per Annum (CPM) – Cost per annum is the way online advertising is sold/bought. The annum is referring to number of impressions, by the thousand.  Some websites sell banner advertising for set rate per 1,000 banner impressions.
• Cost Per Sale (CPS) – Cost per sale is the cost of the total number of customer visits for an affiliate to receive one sale.
• Cost Per Lead (CPL) – Cost per lead is the amount of money the advertiser pays to the affiliate for each sales lead generated, or the amount and affiliate earns per lead generated.
• eBook – An book is a digital form of a book, usually in .pdf format.  They are downloaded through the web and viewed on laptop computers, Kindles and smart phones.  One of  the top affiliate networks for digital eBooks is ClickBank.
• Earning Per 100 Clicks (EPC) – A way that many affiliate merchants estimate what  new affiliates will make if they sign on their program. To calculate the EPC, you simply divide the commission generated by 100 clicks.
• Internet Marketing – Selling products or services through the Internet.
• Jump Link (Hop Link) – The unique link code that an affiliate gets so that the merchant can track their commissions.
• Landing Page (LP) – Landing page is the page a user lands on when clicking on an affiliate’s jump link.
• Lead – A lead  is the a sales lead that an advertiser gets from affiliates driving targeted traffic resulting in a sale, survey, form submission etc.
• Payment Threshold (Minimum Threshold) – The payment threshold is the the minimum amount of accumulated commissions an affiliate need to accrue before the merchant or affiliate network will make a payment to the affiliate.
• Pay Per Click (PPC) – A revenue system where affiliates are paid for every click through to a merchants website.
• Return Days – Return Days are the number of days an affiliate can earn commission on a conversion (sale or lead) by a referred visitor after that visitor firsts clicks on an affiliate link.
• Scrub – A scrub is where an affiliate network fraudulently removes an affiliate’s tracking cookie so that they don’t have to pay commissions to the affiliate.
• Super Affiliate (Uber Affiliate) - Super affiliate can earn a significant amount of an affiliate network’s revenue.  Some super affiliates make millions of dollars in profits every year.

Learn More About Affiliate Marketing

You can learn more about affiliate marketing by attending an affiliate marketing conference like the Affiliate Summit.