Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is based on standard sales processes.  The only real difference between affiliate marketing and a traditional sales model is the Internet.  Both pay on performance and do so in the form of commissions or referral fees.  The affiliate marketing model differs from the standard sales because the sales force is virtual and the team is not considered employees of the company.  The sales force is made of a group of affiliate marketers (otherwise known as associates or program partners).  While they work in the same manner as a general salesperson, they manage their own sales cycle and do so on their own schedule.

When an individual registers for a merchant’s affiliate program, he or she is signing up to be part of the merchant’s online sales team.  As an affiliate, he will make money only when he helps the merchant execute a sale of their product or in some niche industries, help faciliate a website visitor to perform an action such as filling out an online application or registering for a program.

Affiliate marketing is a large industry that continues to grow at a rapid pace. Affiliate marketing generates over $14 billion in annual online sales and will continue to grow in coming years.  Why?  Because affiliate marketing programs help merchants sell merchandise or services with little out of pocket costs for marketing.  The affiliates market for them and bare the burden of marketing costs.

Affiliate marketing programs and their respective online education courses offer a chance for the not so tech-savvy to become Internet entrepreneurs.  While this has previously been coined as “work from home” and “liberate yourself from your cubicle” type of hype, there is much more here than one would expect.  This form of Internet marketing allows the average person to expand their earning potential and does so in a very flexible manner that can accommodate virtually any lifestyle or schedule.

Rebecca Gill, President of Web Savvy Marketing, is a certified affiliate program manager and serves as an online affiliate marketing coach for Lurn Inc.’s Affiliate Classroom 2.  The Affiliate Classroom 2 program offers 62 courses that cover topics ranging from selecting merchants and picking niche industries to developing a website and optimizing it for organic search engine optimization.  The program offers personalized coaching, webinars, white papers, and sample documents.  Learn more about the program by downloading the brochure.