Affiliate Marketing has grown so massively that it has shifted from being a secondary source of income to a primary source of income for many people. But what is affiliate marketing, and how can you make money with affiliate marketing? With affiliate marketing, you are an affiliate marketer who promotes other companies’ products or services in order to receive commissions on the sales they generate. This means that as long as your affiliates are doing their job properly and selling the products/services, then you will get paid! 

The great thing about affiliate marketing is that there are no set hours or shifts; meaning if someone wants to work at 2pm on Saturday, they can do just that!

But what exactly is Affiliate Marketing, and how will you know what to do if you do opt for it as a career choice? Well, worry, not! You have come to just the right place. My intensive guide on the world of affiliate marketing will provide you details on all the ins-and-outs of affiliate marketing, and if you follow it, we can almost guarantee you success in it as well!

Affiliate marketing is a modern spectrum that requires an audience and a drive for the passion to make money. With the introduction of affiliate marketing, you can possess the ability to make money in the form of commissions by broadening your audience and fulfilling some form of recognition. 

There is a lot of potential in this field of work and the best part is, it’s cost-effective and you increase your reputation as you excel. 

There are a few choices with regards to the whole field of affiliate marketeering, including tactics and strategies to make affiliate marketing work for you. 

Before we get started on how to go about developing affiliate marketing into a skill let’s learn about some much-needed basics. 

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Simply, by definition, affiliate marketing is known to be "a marketing arrangement by which an online retailer pays a commission to an external website for traffic or sales generated from its referrals." If you're a beginner or new to the term of affiliate marketing, it may seem like a lot to take in and you might think you’re completely over your head however you will gradually learn and settle in. Everything takes time to grasp and affiliate marketing is a process that requires patience.

Let's break it down for you. Affiliate marketing is largely regarded as one of the most modern, quick and effective ways to make money online. While many would quote it to be a 'side hustle,' a lot of people successful at it make it their primary means of income. 

In simpler terms, it is described as the partnership between an individual and a business where the individual creates content, such as blog posts or videos, to market the said business's products or services. This drives an audience towards the product or service for sale and, in turn, the individual, or the affiliate marketer, earns a commission. 

However, this is just a basic description of what the job holds. Affiliate marketers can take upon any method that works best for them. For example, a blogger looking to get involved would probably become an affiliate through an affiliate network and would either place a button, banner or link within their blog posts, which will get their reader’s attention and drive them to the product being marketed. The more social media channels and platforms on the internet utilized, the better the product will be marketed.

History of Affiliate Marketing

It's a typical confusion that Amazon was the creator of affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing started in 1989 by a man named William J. Tobin, who was the world's first web advertiser and marketer. William J. Tobin also founded PC Flowers and Gifts. He theorized the whole idea of affiliate marketing and propelled his program on the Prodigy Network. 

The model of affiliate marketing that he created included paying the Prodigy Network a commission on each deal or sale that was being made. By 1993, Tobin’s model on affiliate marketing was producing more than $6 million yearly for Prodigy. This achievement urged Tobin to bring forward his idea to the world in 1996. However, it wasn’t given any status until 2000.

Side by side in 1994, a BuyWeb Program was launched by CDNOW, which revolved around the idea of music websites reviewing different albums of musicians released and then linking them to CDNOW so visitors can head on over to their site and buy the album if they liked them.

And while Amazon is thought to be the starter of affiliate marketing, it brought forth its associates program in 1996, even after CDNOW's venture. However, even though they first the first to introduce the idea, they were the first ones to grab global attention to the whole idea of affiliate marketing. The model they introduced was similar to the other ones and involved a paid commission to the marketer, which was a certain percentage of the price of the product sold. Since then, this became the general model followed by all affiliate marketers.

The Affiliate Marketing Business Model

The business model of affiliate marketing is one not very easy to understand, but one that can be quite rewarding once you get the hang of. At its fundamental level, affiliate marketing is basically where you join with a business or an organization to sell their items or services. You can get paid through deposit, check and gift cards every time somebody either purchases something or performs what was expected from them from the deal made with the business of the organization.

Each time you succeed in closing a deal or making a sale, you make some commission for yourself. You get paid when you reach the minimum threshold that is agreed upon in the partnership during the affiliate marketing program.

Some businesses also offer rebills, which are an affiliate marketer getting paid for quite some time even after the sale has been made. Expectedly, these products are a little challenging to sell, but with the right kind of approach and expertise, they are rewarding in the long run. 

So while affiliate marketing may have become common over time, not everyone can easily make it big in this line of work. However, keeping yourself well informed right off the bat may give you an upper hand. 

Affiliate marketing is an excellent way to make money from home while working for more than one company and affiliate networks. With the right kind of approach, affiliate marketers can easily increase their income by tapping into this strategy that has grown internationally in popularity since its conception. The article above provides a brief history as well as insight on affiliate marketing business models and tips on how you can get started with affiliate marketing today! 

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