What is affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is a performance-based marketing strategy where a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought by the affiliate's marketing efforts. In simpler terms, it's a way for companies to pay individuals or other businesses (affiliates) for promoting their products or services.

Here's how it typically works:

1. Affiliate signs up: An individual or a company (the affiliate) signs up for an affiliate program offered by a merchant or advertiser.
2. Promotion: The affiliate promotes the merchant's products or services using various marketing channels such as websites, blogs, social media, email marketing, etc. They may use unique links or codes provided by the merchant to track their referrals.
3. Visitor clicks: A potential customer clicks on the affiliate's promotional link or uses their unique referral code to visit the merchant's website.
4. Conversion: If the visitor makes a purchase or completes a desired action (such as signing up for a service or filling out a form), the affiliate earns a commission or a predefined reward.
5. Commission payment: The merchant tracks the referrals and pays the affiliate a commission for each successful conversion or action.

Affiliate marketing benefits both parties involved:

• Merchants/advertisers: They can reach a larger audience and increase sales without spending money on traditional advertising upfront. They only pay for actual results.
• Affiliates: They can earn passive income by promoting products or services that align with their audience and interests. They don't need to create their own products or handle customer service.

Overall, affiliate marketing is a cost-effective way for businesses to expand their marketing reach and for individuals to monetize their online presence or marketing skills.