What is an affiliate?
It is a term that often is used to describe a relationship between a company and individual. The individual often refers products and services that the company offers.
The merchant is the supplier of the goods or service.
The affiliate is the middle person. The one who makes the sales happen and is the direct link between the merchant (company) and the customer.
How to start
Affiliate marketing programs make the set up very easy.
One program you might of head of is commission junction. You can join as an affiliate and choose which merchants you want to get involved with.
You need to have a think about where you are going to sell the merchants good before you can do anything else.
My advice
Get a website and build it for the products or services you are going to be selling.
You must spend time planning your marketing campaign. Making sure you are able to generate quality traffic.
Things your marketing campaign should include:
Research of keywords and your chosen niche
Search engine optimization (seo) techniques both on site and off site.
How much can you earn?
If you don't sell anything then you wont make any money. You get paid commission.
This is why your marketing campaign is very important. If you get it wrong you are off to a non starter.
When your website and marketing campaign is top notch, all is left to do is to paste a code the merchant supplies. Affiliate marketing means no stock holding and no returns. A great money maker.
