In this article, I would like to address some questions that I asked some time ago. One question that eventually led me to what I am doing today. What is affiliate marketing? And what is the best way to make money with it? If you are looking for ways to make money online then you will have no doubt seen the term “affiliate marketing”.
Affiliate marketing has its pros and cons as you will discover right here. If you are interested in learning these skills the right way, then I suggest that you read this article to the end.
Table of Contents
What Is Affiliate Marketing – The Definition of Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a method used to make money online. Usually via a website, a landing page or even through a social media profile like Facebook or Twitter. Affiliate marketing is basically the process of selling or promoting a product or service in exchange for a set commission.
Definition of affiliate marketing on Wikipedia
Affiliate marketing essentially involves three parties to make it work. A website owner, a product owner and a buyer. The product owner agrees to a set rate of the commission to be paid in exchange for exposure and sales through the website owner’s site.
The website owner simply places a special link on his or her site and encourages its visitors to click on that link. This might involve writing a review or an article about a topic. Affiliate links may be placed within the text of the article or they can be inserted as ads. There are many ways to display affiliate links. But the key to success is in getting people to click them! Every click leading to a sale will result in the site owner getting paid. This is a brilliant way of making money online without actually dealing with customers.
Although this process may sound a little complicated at first, it’s really not hard to set up. In fact, with the latest advancements within the internet, setting up a website with affiliate links couldn’t be easier.
How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?
When someone decides to promote a particular product or service they are given a special link. This is called your affiliate link. This link will direct whoever clicks it to the product or service that the affiliate is promoting.
The affiliate link tells the product creator who has sent the visitor to their product. This is very important as they can sometimes be hundreds of affiliates all promoting the same product.
Affiliate Marketing Cookies and the technical stuff!
Affiliate marketing is really easy to set up. If you have a good source of internet traffic you can make good money doing it. Traffic is the key to generating sales. But what about the technical stuff in the background? How does the affiliate link work?
How Affiliate Marketing Works
Internet browsers use a small piece of code called “cookies” to store information about you whilst you browse the internet.
Have you ever seen advertising that looks so targeted to you? Ever looked at something on one website and then saw an advert for the same thing on another site later on? These ads use cookies to target you with ads. Adverts that are more likely to be of interest to you. Affiliate marketing uses these cookies to track clicks and sales. When someone clicks your affiliate links, a cookie is left behind.
Cookies won’t do you or your browsing device any harm. But are used to store all kinds of information whilst you surf the internet.
In affiliate marketing, cookies are generally used to store information based on who, when and where a visitor came from. This is essential so that the correct person is credited with sales and commission.
How Did Affiliate Marketing Start?
In the mid-1990s the internet was just taking off with the very first mainstream search engines. The idea of creating a website was one that intrigued many people. The launch of more search engines meant that more websites were being found and explored.
It wasn’t long before the creators of these sites started to realize that there was a real opportunity to make a lot of money. The more website visitors you could get, the more opportunity to make money. Webmasters began looking for ways to earn money from their creations. Whilst product owners and marketers saw an opportunity to advertise their products to a greater audience. Affiliate marketing was born. Giving publishers the ability to earn money simply by placing a banner or text advert within their site.
If you were surfing the internet back in the late ’90s you would have seen websites absolutely filled with flashing banners and super tempting offers. Thankfully, this was eventually seen as being a very spammy way to produce a website and rather tacky too!
What Is Affiliate Marketing Used For?
Affiliate marketing is a way of making money online for anyone who can publish a link on a website. Affiliate marketing can even be used to make money online if you don’t own a website.
Although the method is rather hit and miss, some people earn money via the internet by simply posting affiliate links to the masses via social media.
Affiliate marketing also has the major benefit of giving product developers the ability to attract lots of people that are willing to promote their products.
Some products can gain major exposure to huge audiences just through their affiliate promotions. Big product launches happen all the time. Some of the big names in the industry are making millions within a very short amount of time. All because of the efforts made by affiliate marketers.
The dark side of affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing has lots of appeal to a whole range of people looking to make money online. And wherever there is money to be made there are scams! One of the worst things about affiliate marketing is the fact that there are tons of people out there that will tell you how easy it is to make money online. Affiliate marketing is great, but you have to be aware of scams.
The truth is, affiliate marketing is very easy to learn and very easy to put into action. Once you know the right way to do it. But there are currently thousands of scam training products and software applications. These often claim to be able to make money on autopilot. Lots of other scam methods involve affiliate marketing. On top of all that, there is also a lot of outdated misinformation on the internet too.
Getting involved with a scam or using an outdated method will simply mean that you won’t get the results that you expected. It could also mean that you lose a lot of money in the process.
The Best Way to Get Started
Many years ago, I remember searching online for “what is affiliate marketing?”, since I had read about people making money with it online. Since then I have gone on to make a lot of money with affiliate marketing. I can genuinely say it’s one of the best things I ever learned.
However, I have also spoken with a lot of disappointed people that have never managed to make any money online at all. Simply because they are following the wrong process.
Today I want to share with you what is in my opinion the very best opportunity available online to learn affiliate marketing. The best part about what I am about to show you is that you can start at absolutely zero cost. And no, there is no catch! You also get my personal help, whenever you want it, also totally cost-free. Sound good?
What I want to show you is a site called Wealthy Affiliate. it’s a training site and community for people just like you that want to learn the real way to make money online. I am an active member, along with hundreds of other affiliate marketers and online business owners that will help and guide you to success. The cost to start is nothing!
If you are interested, simply click the link below and I will see you on the next page. From there you will be able to start a full ten-part video course and start learning how to build a real income online. I look forward to meeting you!
Thank you, Andrew, for all of your valuable input. I have been introduced to affiliate marketing, and for the last couple of weeks I’ve done extensive research in the different marketing companies. Your input has been invaluable to me, especially with the Wealthy Affiliate, which I was most interested in. You have confirmed what I felt was the right online company to go with. I don’t know the first thing about this, however, I’m a pretty smart gal, and I’m sure I’ll pick it up very quickly. I’ll have many questions in the future and I appreciate your input. I feel really good about this endeavor, and I believe that my previous writing experiences and broadcasting, such as commercials, production may give me an edge. I am also very excited and appreciative of the fact that my hand will be held along this road I’ll be traveling because I know that you will take me down the right path. Thank you so much for everything you and your associates do.
Best regards,
Charlotte
Hi there Charlotte! Thank you for contacting me, I really appreciate your comments and kind words. Wealthy Affiliate and the extra training that I can give you will teach you everything that you need to know about affiliate marketing and creating a successful online business. There is a lot of misinformation on the internet right now and its really important to get started on the right tracks. I’m sure that you will have lots of questions, but that’s quite alright because you get one to one training from myself and the rest of the WA community. The best thing about the Wealthy Affiliate membership is that you can join for free and test out the water before you make any sort of financial commitments. If you have experience in both writing and broadcasting, that will definitely give you an edge!
I look forward to speaking with you in the members area and wish you the very best of success.
Regards,
Andrew
A well explained beginners guide to affiliate marketing – thanks!
Cookies are not perfect but they work enough of the time to make sense – and there’s a good chance that if someone’s had time to clear them then they weren’t going to buy anyway.
I like programs that assign buyers to my affiliate code (quite a few private affiliate programs do that, it’s a lot less common on places like Clickbank) so that I get the nice surprise of an unexpected extra commission every now and then.
Hi Trevor. Thanks for taking the time to post a comment on article. Cookies aren’t a perfect way to ensure that you get the credit for your work but then nothing is perfect. To be honest I know that some people will clear their cookies on a regular basis to avoid affiliates being paid but there is only one main niche where that happens. It only tends to be the people that are involved in affiliate marketing that seem to clear their cookies and I can never really understand why. At the end of the day, being sent to a product by an affiliate makes no real difference to the buyer, in fact sometimes they get a bonus or discount!
Thanks for dropping by Trevor, hope to see you here again soon!
Great post again, it is always a pleasure to come back here and read your latest material.
I agree with you that affiliate marketing is one of the more solid methods to use when trying to make a business online.
There are of course avenues to take but the affiliate marketing is by far the best choice.
If you know what you are doing and how to go about setting up everything correctly then you can make a good living.
People need to be aware though that it takes time and is not a system to make money over night let many people claim.
Great reading as always!
Thanks
Chris
Thanks Chris! Nice to see you visiting my site again, you are always welcome! When I first started out, I tried lots of different avenues within the online money making world, but nothing came close. There is just so much scope to make money within almost any niche that you could ever think of. I have seen people making really good money with affiliate marketing in the smallest of online niches.
But yes, I totally agree that this should not be considered as a get rich quick money maker. We have all seen the online systems that claim that you can make money on the internet within days and pay off all your debts and live in a huge mansion for the rest of your life. Oh and don’t forget the servants!
Of course this just isn’t the case! Or at least it’s not as easy as some people would have you believe. Affiliate marketing is more of a get rich slowly kind of game. I know people that have been disappointed because they haven’t made any money within the first month. I also know people that have given up because they have made very little money within 6 months! On the flip side of this, I know people that have made a constant 8 to 10 thousand dollars per month because they have stuck with affiliate marketing and built up a website over a longer period.
It’s never possible to say how much anyone will ever make with affiliate marketing because everyone has their own unique style and niche that determine how many visitors they will get and how much they can make. A major factor is how much effort is put into the process of marketing, but it is hardly ever a fast process! But then this is the same within any business. You don’t just set up a shop in the high street and make enough to retire on within a few weeks do you? It’s the same with any online business. Affiliate marketing takes time to learn and time to develop into a business. Stick with it and get rich slowly!
Cheers Chris,
Andrew
Hi! Can you give some examples of websites or software that are scams so I know what to avoid? How do I spot a scam website or software ? I Love the idea of making money online, how long does it take once you get started to actually make a decent income?
There are far too many different types of scams on the internet to list them all here! Take a look at my reviews section and it wont take you long to find an example. Generally speaking if an offer says its going to make you a specific amount of money, usually in the thousands, or if a system says it can make you money very quickly, then generally its a scam! Making money on the internet can be quite fast but you need time to build a legitimate, long term business. How long it will take you to build a really good income entirely depends on what niche you choose and how much work you put in. You can start seeing real results within a few weeks to a couple of months. However, those that are really clever with their online businesses know to take the time to prepare and get things right and build a good audience, this can take several months but in the long term can be hugely profitable. Its not all about making money as quickly as possible, its about making money for a long time, whilst helping people with genuine products or services that they will buy over and over again. This is the real art of making money online.
I read your article about how affiliate marketing works. And now I realize I often clean cache, temporally files, etc from my browser. I wonder what will happen with the advertiser when I am the customer buying something. Any idea ?
And yes, I notice a lot of offers on the internet on how to get rich.. but I believe in affiliate marketing. Most big brands have an affiliate program where you can get a commission of 10% usually. I mean it is better than buying and selling currencies I think which looks more like gambling to me.
Hello! Quite right, there are hundreds of affiliate products to promote out there and lots of companies that accept affiliates to promote their products. With regards to your question, if you have a cookie on your computer that indicates that you are interested in a certain product or you have been referred to a certain product by an affiliate, then you are likely to see adverts relating to that on other sites. However if you clear the cookies and browsing data from your computer, the advertiser will simply guess or place popular ads in front of you as an alternative.
Cookies are designed to make the user experience a better one by providing more relevant content. Google uses this technology a lot, with advertising and even with personalized search results. You are no doubt seeing advertising on making money online and how to get rich as you say, because you look at websites that cater for that niche.
Hope that helps!
Andrew