What is Affiliate Marketing?

The idea behind affiliate marketing is simple, you promote someone else’s products, and earn a commission whenever someone buys the product you decided to promote. While that gives you the basic idea about it, you’ll find that there are certain details that help you understand not only the concept but how to do it as well.

The whole concept is based on the idea of revenue sharing, which is that if I have a product that sells a lot, I’m going to earn more money than what I’d make from not selling that much. So by hiring promoters that share my product and help it reach as many hands as possible, I can stop earning a bit, and begin earning a lot. That is where affiliate marketing comes in, with those people being the ones that share the product.

The Four Parties of Affiliate Marketing

Most places list 4 parties in this equation, but from the specific point of view of marketing, there’s really only two parts in the equation, the person who produces the product, and the one who markets it. It’s spreading product creation and marketing to many parties so that each one can earn a fraction of the money thanks to their contribution. 

Now then, let’s go ahead and look at each of the 4 parts in detail.

The Merchant

First off is the merchant. Also known as the producer, vendor, creator, etc. What matters is that they have a product to sell. These can vary from entrepreneurs to international companies, anyone can be the merchant as long as they’re selling something.

The Affiliate

Next is the affiliate, or sometimes called the publisher. These can also be individuals or companies and tend to earn money from commissions. This is where the marketing really happens because the affiliate focuses on selling the merchant’s product to consumers as much as they can. This can be done in various ways, from websites to social media, it depends greatly on the product and the market. If you are interested, you can read more tips on how to get started here: //www.promotionworld.com/se/articles/article/180622-5-beginner-tips-how-succeed-affiliate-marketing

The Consumer

Then comes the consumer, which is the person that really makes the whole thing work. At the end of the day, a product that has no one who’ll buy it is completely worthless. The affiliate will try to reach these in the way that seems most convenient, be it social media or other kinds of marketing. They don’t necessarily know if they’re part of this equation, that depends greatly on the decision of the affiliate.

The Network

Lastly is the network, which is basically what connects the merchant with the product and the affiliate who’ll sell it. Nowadays, most websites have some sort of affiliate network with which they can promote, helping both the affiliate and the merchant know how the deals are going.