< ![endif]–>An online affiliate sells products or services online on behalf of another company, in exchange for a share of the revenue.
Large companies like to have many affiliates in order to drive traffic without having to worry about paying vast salaries to salespeople who might or might not deliver the goods.
The compensation type varies from company to company, but generally speaking, affiliate income is based on either sales, or leads.
If you sell the product, you get a commission. If you generate a lead, you will get a ‘finder’s fee’. If not, no harm done for the company. They are not paying a salary to someone who is failing. In most cases, only about 10% of affiliates will ever bring in any substantial cash for them, but those super affiliates can be worth their weight in gold.
When you become an affiliate with a specific company, or affiliate program, you are awarded for every visitor, subscriber and/or customer that you provide to the company.
Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular forms of business on the web, and an effective way to promote businesses and products right away, without having to have a product of your own.
You can be an affiliate for tangible products,(things that will come in the mail) such as those sold at Commission Junction, Double Click/Performics (now part of the Google Affiliate network) or PayDotCom, or, you might sell digital only downloadable products through ClickBank or PayDotCom.
