What is Affiliate Marketing?

affiliate marketing guide

This blog is all about Affiliate Marketing and how awesome it can be for someone looking to earn money online. So what exactly is Affiliate Marketing? Let me give it my best shot to explain it to you….

Good old Google defines Affiliate Marketing as follows:

A way for a company to sell its products by signing up individuals or companies (“affiliates“) who market the company’s products for a commission. There are two ways to approach affiliate marketing: You can offer an affiliate program to others or you can sign up to be another business’s affiliate.

For example in this blog, I am the “affiliate” who respresents other companies products to the viewing audience. My goal is to provide value to the viewer as it pertains to the end product so the viewer chooses to purchase the product through a link on my site, which is in turn tracked by the company that sells the product. As a result of the purchase through my link, I earn an “affiliate commission” on the sale. These commission can range from very low (5-10%) to as much as 100% of a product sale.

Why Affiliate Marketing

The advantages of affiliate marketing are as follows:

  • I don’t have to actually create the product
  • I don’t have to process the payment itself
  • I don’t have to manage the delivery of the product

The challenges of affiliate marketing are as follows:

  • I typically don’t get to capture the email of purchasers for follow-on marketing
  • I face competition from other affiliate who are promoting the same product
  • I do not control pricing or quality of the end product

Due to the advantages and disadvantages of affiliate marketing, it is typically a very good way for entry-level online marketers to dip their toe into the online world. Very little up-front investment is required. However, due to the competition it can be discouraging for many. I hope to share my journey in affiliate marketing with my readers to showcase my successes and failures in the hope that you can learn and be successful along with me.