Basics
of Affiliate Marketing
Basics of Affiliate Marketing
Whether you realize it or not, if you've been on the Internet today,
you have encountered affiliate marketing. If you have ever “clicked
thru” one site to order something from another, the first
site probably received a portion of the sale.
For instance, independent booksellers have limited shelf space
for books. But they can offer their customers an almost unlimited
inventory of titles by affiliating with companies like Amazon or
Powell's. The more orders, the bigger the affiliate percentage.
Visitors to your site are interested in lots of things that may
or may not be related to your product. But when you know your customers
well, it's simply a matter of affiliating yourself with sites that
offer what they want.
What you receive is just a small percentage of the sale, but it
adds up, especially when you consider that all it costs you is a
link on your web page. And usually, the more sales your affiliate
makes from your “click thru” traffic, the bigger your
percentage will be.
The key to success in affiliate marketing is being able to track
referred customers. As an affiliate manager, you want a system that
reliably tracks what you want, with minimal effort on your part,
and without affecting the performance of your site or server. Over
the last few years a variety of technologies and strategies have
been developed in an attempt to improve accuracy, convenience, and
flexibility.
There are at least half a dozen methods, but by far the most preferred
method is Cookie Tracking. It's popular because it makes tracking
affiliate-referred sales so convenient, without negatively impacting
your site. This system writes a small text file, called a “cookie,”
to a user's browser when they click on an affiliate link. When you
are the referring affiliate, the cookie holds your ID, so that at
the merchant's order page, you get credit for referring the sale.
One drawback is that many computer users disable cookies, although
most choose not to, since their favorite sites require them. One
bonus is that the merchant can save the information, so that even
if a customer buys long after clicking through your site, you still
get credit for the sale.
Affiliate marketing, at its best, is a win-win scenario. It's an
easy way to offer your customers more of what they want, while you
benefit, both in terms of building goodwill and making money.
About the Author Matt Bacak became "#1
Best Selling Author" in just a few short hours. Recent Entrepreneur
Magazine’s e-Biz radio show host is turning Authors, Speakers,
and Experts into Overnight Success Stories. Discover The Secrets
http://promotingtips.com
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