Affiliate Marketing Program On The Internet: How Does It Works?

If you have been googling, "How can I make money online from my website", there is no way you won't have stumbled on the the idea of been an Internet Affiliate Marketer.

There are a huge number of affiliates earning full-time incomes on the internet from affiliate marketing, and a lot of affiliates doing considerably more than that! You too, can.

So, What is Affiliate Marketing?

In a nutshell, it is a practice where you (as an affiliate) get paid for referring sales or customers to an online merchant web site.

You post links, ad banners linking to the merchant site on your website and earn commission for your marketing efforts.

There are at least three actors in an affiliate program transaction:


A: Merchant site = Seller or service provider e.g Jumia Nigeria
B: Affiliate = You
C: Customer = could be your friend, relative, or an unknown person (e.g blog reader)

Why would actor "A" (Merchant Site) Pay me?

"A", the merchant has products to sell and is looking for a cheaper way to market the products instead of using traditional advertising. The merchant decides to partner with you, so you can introduce their products to people that trust you.

Since "C" (customer) is not familiar with "A", "C" is often skeptical of buying any product from an unknown company. "A" is aware of this fact and also knows that "C" trusts you. After all, if your friends receive an email from you, won`t they open it?.

So "A" partners with you, to use your goodwill to introduce their products to "C". No doubt, "C" would show interest in your offers because of your familiarity.

Now, "A" is prepared to pay you commission per transaction with you for referring "C" to their products. "A" generates unique links, ad banners etc for you which you can be using to promote their products.

You decided to give it a try. You register with the merchant affiliate program, grab your unique affiliate links and post them on your blog, Facebook, Twitter etc

When "C" visits the merchant site via your unique affiliate link and purchase the product of "A", "A" pays you your commission which can pile up to a particular amount before "A" sends your payment to you to your PayPal account or in form of check.

That's all.



Over the past few years, affiliate programs have grown enormously in popularity, taking many interesting forms. In my next post, I will share with you, the basic types of affiliate programs.

More so, I will share with you, affiliate programs that I am making money from, how to join affiliate networks, as well as how to acquire affiliates for your internet businesses.


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