What Are Affiliate Programs?
Simply put, an affiliate program is an opportunity for individuals (the affiliates) to earn money on a cost per action basis. This action can be the purchase of the products or services the company offers, or in some programs it could be leads or click-throughs that might eventually generate revenue for the company that operates the affiliate program.
How Do Affiliate Programs Work?
An affiliate program is a program that is set up by the owner or manager of a company, where in they allow individuals, who are not employees of the company, to sign on as an affiliate. The affiliate, also referred to as an associate, is assigned a unique "affiliate ID" that is used to track all activity that takes place on the company's website, as a result of that unique ID.
What Does An Affiliate Of A Company Do?
The affiliate's "job" is to advertise the company's products or services through the use of text ads, banners, emails and/or text links. The better affiliate programs usually have plenty of these for you to choose from, that have either already been encoded with the affiliate's ID, or provides clear instructions on how it is to be added. The affiliate posts these ads in order to generate traffic to the company's website. Hopefully this traffic will result in sales, sign-ups or whatever action the program requires.
How Does An Affiliate Earn Money?
In return for generating business for the company, they pay the affiliate a commision for any sales (or the action the program requires) that are made through that affiliate's ID. The commision can be a percentage of the total sale amount or a flat rate.
Some affiliate programs even allow for earnings to be made by referring others to the affiliate program itself. This is known as tiers or downline earnings. Depending on the program, the money you earn from your downline is usually a percentage of their earnings, however, in some affiliate programs, a flat rate fee may be offered. Then there are those that offer both a fee and a percentage of their dowlines earnings.
Some programs even offer multiple tiers, meaning your referrals can have referrals, that have referrals, that have referrals and so on.. and you earn from all of them!
Do You Have To Have Your Own Website To Be An Affiliate?
Some affiliate programs prefer or require that you have a website, most do not, some even provide you with an affiliate website. There are several ways you can promote a company online and off without ever having the need for your own personal site to do so.
If you do have your own site however, it will increase your earning potential. Especially if you have a niche related site that targets a particular audience. There are thousands of affiliate programs available to choose from. You are almost assured of finding programs that relate to your visitors interests.
There are even people out there making tons of money that have made sites for no other reason than to post all of their affiliate programs information on. Smart move.. you can make a lot of money by generating multiple streams of income. Think outside the box a bit.. with affiliate programs you are really only limited by your imagination.
