may or may not work. Therefore, it is in the interests of the Merchant to have a lot of other people advertising their products for them, but they don't want to pay the Affiliate simply to advertise because there is still no guarantee that Customers will buy anything. So, instead of up front advertising fees, the Merchant offers the Affiliate a ComWhat is Affiliate Marketing / Referral Marketing?

Quite simply, Affiliate Marketing is the act of promoting someone else's goods and services at your own expense in order to earn commission from sales made through your efforts.

But to understand how this works, it is important to firstly understand the primary word itself; af-fil-i-ate :

• As a Verb it means : To associate (oneself) as a subordinate, subsidiary, employee, or member. As in "You may Affiliate yourself with a company."
• Whereas the Noun defines : A person, organization, or establishment associated with another as a subordinate, subsidiary, or member. As in "You may become an Affiliate with our company."

Secondly, it is important to understand the groups, or entities, involved in this type of business structure :

• Merchant / Shop : The entity selling goods and services.
• Customer : The entity looking to purchase goods and services.
• Affiliate : The entity (you) advertising the goods or services on behalf of companies.
• Affiliate Group : The entity that manages the administration.

Normally a Merchant or Shop will sell their wares directly to the Customer, but this means that the Merchant must spend a lot of time and money on advertising, trying to attract Customers, which may or may not work. Therefore, it is in the interests of the Merchant to have a lot of other people advertising their products for them, but they don't want to pay the Affiliate simply to advertise because there is still no guarantee that Customers will buy anything. So, instead of up front advertising fees, the Merchant offers the Affiliate a Comd itself; af-fil-i-ate :

• As a Verb it means : To associate (oneself) as a subordinate, subsidiary, employee, or member. As in "You may Affiliate yourself with a company."
• Whereas the Noun defines : A person, organization, or establishment associated with another as a subordinate, subsidiary, or member. As in "You may become an Affiliate with our company."

Secondly, it is important to understand the groups, or entities, involved in this type of business structure :

• Merchant / Shop : The entity selling goods and services.
• Customer : The entity looking to purchase goods and services.
• Affiliate : The entity (you) advertising the goods or services on behalf of companies.
• Affiliate Group : The entity that manages the administration.

Normally a Merchant or Shop will sell their wares directly to the Customer, but this means that the Merchant must spend a lot of time and money on advertising, trying to attract Customers, which may or may not work. Therefore, it is in the interests of the Merchant to have a lot of other people advertising their products for them, but they don't want to pay the Affiliate simply to advertise because there is still no guarantee that Customers will buy anything. So, instead of up front advertising fees, the Merchant offers the Affiliate a Comer. As in "You may become an Affiliate with our company."Secondly, it is important to understand the groups, or entities, involved in this type of business structure :

• Merchant / Shop : The entity selling goods and services.
• Customer : The entity looking to purchase goods and services.
• Affiliate : The entity (you) advertising the goods or services on behalf of companies.
• Affiliate Group : The entity that manages the administration.

Normally a Merchant or Shop will sell their wares directly to the Customer, but this means that the Merchant must spend a lot of time and money on advertising, trying to attract Customers, which may or may not work. Therefore, it is in the interests of the Merchant to have a lot of other people advertising their products for them, but they don't want to pay the Affiliate simply to advertise because there is still no guarantee that Customers will buy anything. So, instead of up front advertising fees, the Merchant offers the Affiliate a ComThe entity (you) advertising the goods or services on behalf of companies.

Affiliate Group : The entity that manages the administration.

Normally a Merchant or Shop will sell their wares directly to the Customer, but this means that the Merchant must spend a lot of time and money on advertising, trying to attract Customers, which may or may not work. Therefore, it is in the interests of the Merchant to have a lot of other people advertising their products for them, but they don't want to pay the Affiliate simply to advertise because there is still no guarantee that Customers will buy anything. So, instead of up front advertising fees, the Merchant offers the Affiliate a Commay or may not work. Therefore, it is in the interests of the Merchant to have a lot of other people advertising their products for them, but they don't want to pay the Affiliate simply to advertise because there is still no guarantee that Customers will buy anything. So, instead of up front advertising fees, the Merchant offers the Affiliate a Commission on anything that the Customer buys. Some pay for pay per click campaigns, but this seems to be getting rare.

Therefore, your job as an Affiliate Marketing person is to advertise various products and services on your website in order to generate traffic (click-throughs) to the Merchant's (like Dell) website where they become responsible for getting the Customer to buy things, this is called Conversion, essentially the act of turning a Browser into a paying Customer. The various Merchants have different rates of Conversion and Commission.

The Affiliate networks manage the relationships and administration between the Merchants and Affiliates. Affiliate Groups gather together lots of Merchants and create Programs which Affiliates can sign up to. You need to apply for an account with an Affiliate Group, almost always free to join, and then you sign up individually for the Merchant Programs that they offer. Some Merchants will accept you automatically whereas others may want to review your website to make sure it is an appropriate place for their brand to be displayed. Not all Merchants choose to use an Affiliate Group and may work directly with Affiliates.