What is affiliate marketing?
In its simplest form, affiliate marketing is to sell the product of others. As a marketer, you can join an affiliate program and promote products (physical or electronic) or services through your website.
Affiliate marketing is a technique for efficient and productive marketing. It is a cooperative effort (commercial partnership) between a merchant and one or more affiliates. The merchant rewards the affiliate when it brings a visitor to its website or makes selling the product or merchant service.
Affiliate marketing is a system which usually consists of four distinct elements: the publisher (affiliate), the advertiser (merchant), the consumer and the network.
The advertiser, also known as merchant or retailer, is an individual or a company that sells a product or service. The advertiser is associated with (or) editor (s) to promote the advertiser's products and services.
The editor, also known as the marketer or affiliate is someone who promotes products and services. The editor is associated with the advertiser to promote the latter's goods and services. The publisher uses ads, links and creates marketing campaigns to find buyers for the advertiser's products and services. For each product sold, the advertiser gives a commission to the publisher.
The consumer, you all know. It is you and me. Antidote consumer defines the word as follows: A person who uses goods or services to meet their needs.
The network, also known as program name or platform, acts as an intermediary between the advertiser and the publisher. The network makes life easier for the editor to find and participate in affiliate marketing program. The network also provides access to a greater number of advertisers and publishers. Some networks have membership fees while others will take some of the profits from the advertiser when a sale is made.
An affiliate network. How it works?
AmazonAssociates (France: ClubPartenairesAmazon) is one of the most used internet marketing affiliate networks. Amazon has thousands of publishers (Amazon appoints partners) who promote the products found on all the websites of Amazon Inc. In fact, it is said that many of Amazon Inc.'s success is due to its excellent program Affiliate. Why is the Amazon program so popular? Because it is very accessible and easy to use.
To help you understand how affiliate marketing, I offer the following example:
Currently, I am an editor (affiliate) of the advertiser (merchant) Amazon.ca and Amazon.fr. When I want to promote a product Amazon.ca on my blog, I simply logs on Amazon.ca and I search the product that I want to promote. When I found the product, Amazon generates a unique link that I use on my blog. For example, in this present post, I mentioned the Antidote software. If you hover over the link with your mouse, you can see the unique link. If you click the link, you will be transported to the website Amazon, on the product page in question. If you decide to buy the book, Amazon would reward me by giving me a commission (around 4-5% of the property's sale price).
In this example, the advertiser is Amazon, but Amazon is also the network owner (AmazonAssociates), which simplifies the system.
Note that there are hundreds of different affiliate networks and platforms. In my next post, I will present to you some.
Does the publisher is always rewarded on commission when selling a product? It depends on the network. Some affiliate programs pay the publisher for a number of advertising displays, others pay when a customer clicks an ad and other pay-for-sale (flat fee or percentage).
When it is you who have a product to sell, you become the advertiser (merchant) and subscribing your product in an affiliate network, you reward marketers when they manage to sell your product.
Affiliate marketing on the Internet only?
Affiliate marketing (Affiliate Marketing) is a jargonnerie online. Affiliate marketing began in the 90 One of the pioneers of affiliate marketing on the internet was that Amazon.com Inc launched its affiliate network in 1996. It is said that Amazon.com was not the first to create this type of internet network, but he built the network that spread quickly by its simplicity and solid structure. Subsequently, several companies have followed the model of Amazon to create their own affiliate marketing network.
Today, wherever you go on the internet, everyone seems to want their share of the affiliate marketing market. Several bloggers marketers will explain that if you purchase their ebook now, it will be possible for you to get rich quick. There is certainly money to do on the internet as a marketer, but as in all areas, you have to work.
Where does this idea of affiliate marketing?
Even before that the internet is accessible to the general public, who were affiliated marketers? They existed? Before the Web, marketers affiliated vendors were called and they were members of multilevel marketing network (MLM - Multi Level Marketing). Back when everyone was interested in the idea of a revolutionary vacuum cleaner and cleaning products in the home, the marketing networks were very active. These networks were trained salespeople who were paid on commission for products they were selling. A seller could also be rewarded for recruiting new vendors and established that these sales of the product or service. Generally, it was the company that produced the good or service that employed vendors.
Affiliate marketing is mainly the same. The editor (seller) receives a commission when making a sale. In an affiliate program, the publisher (the marketer) is the seller and the seller is the company that produces the good.
At the time, the sellers were the people who would knock at your grandmother to sell the plastic dishes. Today, these marketers are those who invite their friends to presentations of beauty products, accessories and decorations Tupperware dishes. Same principle, different time.
Today, the techniques to successfully sell a product online are different.
Internet marketers are usually members of affiliate programs online businesses. Some of these marketers are bloggers, designers, copywriters or affiliate marketing simple.
The topic of affiliate marketing is a hot topic on the internet for some years. Do some research and you will find hundreds of ebooks that promise to earn thousands of dollars within weeks with the right techniques. Personally, I believe that affiliate marketing is much more difficult and time as we think. To sell products online, it is not only to interrupt people and ask them to buy. There must be a good strategy and respond to the Who? What? Or? How? before starting.
You think you can sell a product that you do not know to people you do not know? It's possible, but to be been there, believe me, it's difficult.
Do what you love, love what you do
In his book Rule Number One, Phil Town explains the strategies to become a great investor. Strategies he proposes, I think the most important is:
That find a wonderful business you love.
Why is it important to invest his money in a business that you like? For a business that you love, it's a company you know and that you understand. And if you know the company, there is a good chance that you are aware of the industry and that you have realistic a good idea of the company's competitive strength.
Anyway, why would you invest in a business you do not know? Because we talk about as well in the newspaper and on the internet? Get serious! Journalists, like you, have their own opinion. An opinion is an opinion.
Everyone talks to his parish. If you saw what marketers journalists say about Apple when Research in Motion (RIM) drags the tab. Apple Has the best this .. .. That the best journalists of Wall Street, who are also investors try to influence votes.
Why compare affiliate marketing and investment?
Affiliate marketing and investment in the stock market work the same way.
As an investor in the stock market, you need: find a company you like, and buy shares.
As an affiliate marketer, you need: find a product you like and sell it.
In affiliate marketing, it is easier and better to promote a product or service that you know and love. I'm not saying it's impossible to make money in promotionnant of products you have never tried, but say it is not easy.
The advantages of affiliate programs
Easy management. When a system is automated (eg an affiliate network), the manpower cost is greatly reduced. At the time, traditional companies were hiring and managing employees (sellers) which required a lot of resources: time and money.
No financial risk. What is interesting for the advertiser and the publisher is that affiliate marketing makes almost no financial risk as opposed to an advertising campaign that can cost up to several million dollars (euros) for a big business.
Multiple source of income. Additional income possibility for a user who has little computer knowledge. If you have free time, you could make the online promotion of products and services and increase your income by receiving a commission for your sales.
Accessibility. Today, you might have 50 marketers working for you to sell your new ebook, even if your business has only one employee, you. Several major affiliate networks are already established on the Internet and you can subscribe now.
Economical solution. Register your product in an affiliate program is a very economical solution to help you to communicate and sell your product. If you have an attractive product, marketers work for you.
The future of affiliate marketing
Personally, I think the idea of an affiliate program is great. There is an affiliate program for almost all products or services that can be sold on the market.
Today, most goods sold using the affiliation platforms are electronic products (software, eBooks etc) and books, but I think in the future we will see more and more advertisements physical products (eg bicycles, computers, tools, etc.). I would say that readers of a blog on the run have an advantage to be exposed to pubs shoes and sports clothes, rather than an announcement of the ebook, "How to make money on the internet" .
I predict that the platforms will become much more portable and a programmer can simply plug the plug-in to its own affiliate website is to launch personal marketing system.
Imagine a fully portable system that you could connect to your website unique jewelry and handcrafted. Once a marketer affiliate has found a buyer for your jewelry handmade, the system would record the transaction, the marketer would pay through Paypal, you should pay yourself, send you an email to let you send the product to the buyer's address. More needs to pay for an affiliate service platform.
Your first employee (affiliate marketer) could be a girl who blogs on the topic of fashion and propose these readers a link to your website jewelry.
Have a great week!
Goodbye
