Affiliate Programs

You have probably seen websites which have tabs or links to “affiliate programs“.  Some of you may have ignored them knowing if you don’t know what they are they must not apply to you and others may have wondered just what an affiliate programs is and how they work.  If you are part of the more curious people keep reading to find out just what an affiliate program is, how it works, and if it is something you want to participate in either as a business or as a marketer for a business.

An affiliate program is a partnership between a web based business and people or businesses who want to refer people to their website for some types of referral fee. 

The business decides how much they would be willing to pay people who refer people to their site, this is usually either a flat fee or a percentage of the sell.  They then set up an “affiliate program” where people can sign up to be part of the referral/marketing system.  The business will then assign them a “tracking link” which is  a link the referral people will place on their website which when clicked on will point the customer to the businesses website. 

Once the customer has clicked on the link to the business owners website there is a “cookie” which follows the IP address of the customer.  If that customer purchases anything with a certain amount of time (varies per affiliate program) then the business owner will pay the agreed upon amount back to the person who provided the “tracking link” for the customer.  Both the business and referral company are able to track the affiliate sales.

Affiliate programs can be very lucrative for both the business offering the affiliate program and the people who participate in pushing business to their website.  It’s really a win-win situation as the business is drawing in customers without paying high prices for advertisements or marketing solutions and the people dedicated to driving business to the websites are able to make money online simply by putting links on their site to the business.