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Affiliate Marketing Has Come A Long Way
Affiliate Marketing has been around for over 20 years, with the first affiliate program set up in
1994 by PC Flowers; Gifts to sell flowers online. This was followed a couple of years later
by Amazon who set up their own affiliate marketing program in 1996. Since then a vast
array of affiliate programs have gone online across the world, and today the Affiliate
Marketing industry is estimated to be worth over US$12 Billion a year according to the
International Advertising Bureau.
Today, the Affiliate Marketing channel is experiencing year on year revenue growth of 10%,
according to Business Insider, with the forecasted annual growth of the channel to continue
in 2019 and beyond. The continuing popularity of Affiliate Marketing is that it involves little
investment for Bloggers, Freelancers and Digital Marketers, who, in return, are paid
commissions by working from home in their own time.
Affiliate Marketing offers the flexibility of earning an income at any time and wherever you
are in the world by driving sales for the advertisers that you promote and earning a
percentage commission from these sales.
So, What Is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate Marketing is the promotion of an advertiser’s services or products to your blog,
social media following or website audience with the objective of generating a sale and in turn
earning commissions as an affiliate. There are four participants in Affiliate Marketing: the
product buyer, the advertiser also called merchant, the affiliate program or affiliate network
and the affiliate website or publisher.
The Four Participants in the Affiliate Marketing Sale Cycle
- The product buyer – Any customer that purchases a service or product on the
advertiser’s website and gets tracked while visiting the website. - The Advertiser or Merchant – This is any business that sells the product or service
over the internet. For example, Amazon or StatusCake. - The Affiliate Program or Affiliate Network – Acts as the middleman between the
Advertiser and the Affiliate or Publisher, processing your sales, commissions,
payments and handling all communications as well as customer support.
Why Should I Join an Affiliate Marketing Program?
One of the most attractive advantages of becoming an affiliate is the opportunity to sell
products online without having to invest money in buying, making, storing and delivering
them to your customers. As an affiliate all you have to do is concentrate on the marketing
and promotion of your affiliate site and leave all the aforementioned responsibilities of order
fulfilment to the affiliate merchant.
In addition to the advantages of running you own business, by becoming an affiliate you gain
the freedom of working at any time and from anywhere in the world.
How Do I Get Started With Affiliate Marketing?
You should start by selecting a product or service that you are interested in, you are willing
to learn about, or you are prepared to pay a freelancer to write about it. Select a program
that pays a high commission to make you a profit every time your affiliate website or affiliate
blog makes a sale.
StatusCake Team
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