What Is Affiliate Marketing

This is a very important question that needs to be
answered before you get into Affiliate Marketing.

Affiliate marketing means different things to different
people, but essentially, affiliate marketing is the
act of marketing someone else's products or services
for a portion, or commission, of each sale that you make.

Some people do affiliate marketing as their full time
jobs. That's it. That's all they do – they market
other people's products or services, collect their
commissions, and live their lives as they wish.

They do not have to deal with customer service,
fulfillment of orders, or anything else. All they
do is promote other people's products or services,
everyday.

Other people use affiliate programs in conjunction
with their own products or services, using affiliate
programs as front end products, upsells, and back
end products.

For example, if you had an information product about
weight loss, you might want to market exercise equipment,
exercise clothing, vitamins, or other items or services
that are related to weight loss along with your weight
loss information product...to increase your revenue.

Obviously you would not want to create these items, so
you would find these related products or services, and
sign up for the affiliate programs, allowing you to
promote them.

Some people even promote low cost information products,
such as ebooks, in order to sell high ticket affiliate
products or services. Alternately, some people just use
inexpensive affiliate products to enhance their own high
ticket products or continuity programs, such as membership
sites.

Some people are confused about what affiliate marketing
actually is. For instance, many people who have products
and offer affiliate programs for those products might say
that they sell their product through affiliate marketing.

What they mean is that they have affiliates who sell the
product for them, but they are actually merchants or
affiliate managers, in affiliate marketing terms.

But basically, affiliate marketing is selling someone else's
products or services through various means, for various
reasons – either to earn an income, to enhance a product,
or even to sell an additional product.

In fact, many people use low end affiliate products as lead
ins, or entry level products, for higher end affiliate
products – never actually creating or promoting a product
or service of their own.

Is money being made? You better believe there is! If you
include all products and services that are sold through
affiliates, affiliate marketing is essentially a billion
dollar industry, even though it isn't technically considered
an industry in its own right. Many people don't even consider
it a career, but they are mistaken.

Right now, at this very moment, there are thousands of
affiliate marketers that you have never even heard of
quietly promoting affiliate products and collecting huge
commission checks every month. Why haven't you heard of
them? You haven't heard of them because they are not
in the Internet Marketing products market. They are
in other 'consumer' niches, such as weight loss,
health care, sports, gambling, education, financial
products, etc.

Now, if you have an active interest in those things, or
any other conceivable thing, you have probably searched
for information or products related to your interest on
the Internet. If this is the case, you have most likely
come into contact with an affiliate marketer, without
even being aware of it. You may have even purchased a
product through an affiliate marketer without ever knowing
it.

Even Google has an affiliate program. That's what Google
AdSense is all about. It's an affiliate program, but it
isn't technically called that. EBay has an affiliate program,
as does Microsoft. There is an affiliate program available
for just about any product that you can imagine, but not
all 'brands' have affiliate programs – which of course is
their mistake.

Affiliate marketing presents a win-win-win situation. The
owner or maker of the product being sold is making
money. The affiliate marketer is making money, and the
customer is getting what they want or need. Everybody
wins. Affiliate marketing has been around longer than
you think it has as well.

Many people think that affiliate marketing started sometime
after the Internet came into existence. This is wrong. Amway,
Avon, Mary Kay – all of these are essentially affiliate
programs, but the people who were actually doing the affiliate
marketing were called distributors or representatives – and
they are still called distributors or representatives to this
day.

Affiliate marketing can even entail network marketing.
Affiliate marketing is the act of selling a product for
a commission. Network marketing also involves selling a
product for a commission, but also focuses on bringing
other resellers (or affiliate marketers, distributors
or representatives) into the program as well. Sometimes,
however, affiliate marketing also allows and encourages
you to bring other affiliate marketers into the program.

Again, affiliate marketing means different things to different
people, but the goal is the same – to make money. Affiliate
marketing offers you the opportunity and ability to make
money without creating a product of your own.

Until the next time.

To your Affiliate Success

Presented by  Larry Guzda

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