Affiliate
programs are also known as associate, reseller, or referral
programs. They are revenue sharing programs between companies
(the merchant) and individuals (the affiliate). An Affiliate
can be likened to an independent contractor. Affiliates are
basically self-employed people who are marketing the products
and or services of another company. They are then paid by
the company they represent for referring customers to the
company's website. This strikes a wonderful partnership between
the company and the affiliate, offering a Win-Win situation
for both parties.
The
benefit to the company in soliciting an affiliate to promote
their product or service is, that they save in the cost of
advertising. The benefit to the affiliate is that they do
not have to develop their own product, stock inventory or
worry about e-commerce, the order processing or payroll for
that matter. It allows them to take an already developed product
or service directly to market and focus on marketing. Affiliate
programs are fairly simple to work and will allow you to operate
your online business much more efficiently while increasing
your income drastically.
In
recent years Affiliate Program marketing has taken the Internet
by storm. Many surveys have demonstrated that Affiliate
Marketing can be the most cost effective method to promote
your website and quickly generate additional streams of
income. For example, Forrester Research has rated Affiliate
Marketing as the most effective of all online marketing
methods. Jupiter Communications claims that, "By 2004, 25
percent of the expected $37.5 billion in Internet retail
sales, not including autos, will have originated on Affiliate
sites." Some of the giants offering affiliate programs are:
Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, Microsoft, The Mail.com, and
many smaller but well-managed companies. Affiliate Programs
offer a wide range of products and services, many of which
are needed by All Internet marketers. The wide range of
products and services offered by Affiliate programs are
software, web hosting, auto-responders, marketing, art,
books, e-books, music, movies, etc... Almost any type of
product or service can be packaged and sold using an affiliate
program.
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