So what is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing as defined by Wikipedia.com:

“Affiliate Marketing is an Internet-based marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate's marketing efforts.”

Truth – This dry definition didn't make me say “Oh yeah, I get it.   I want to do to THIS!”

Of course you can read more about the practice of affiliate marketing at the Wikipedia website, but we’ll save you the trouble, because although it isn’t hard to understand, it is a bit overwhelming and really doesn’t tell you in easy to understand terms what affiliate marketing is.

 Affiliate marketing is the process of referring others to a product or service and

being paid for your efforts.

Here's an easy to understand example I heard once.

When you go to a dealership to buy your new car, you’re normally greeted by a salesperson. They do their best to answer your questions, show you the car including its features, engine, warranty, and even let you test drive it. Once you decide the vehicle is the one you want to buy, they will then walk you through all the paperwork, getting financing, taking your down payment, trade-in and everything else involved in the process from start to finish.   Once the deal has been made and you’ve driven off the lot with your new car, the dealership receives the sticker price of the car.

But here's the good part.  Remember that sales person you were with the entire time you were working out the details of your purchase?  Well, he listened to your needs, recommended the car that you fell in love with and are now sporting around town in.

He probably doesn't work at the dealership for mere fun – he's there to make money.  So,now that he's found your perfect car he gets paid for that service.  Yep, he will receive a percentage of the sales price of the car you just bought. This is known as a commission.

Affiliate marketing is the same thing, only in this particular case you are doing the referring and “selling” on the Internet.  Now, you know how you review products or share links or tell your friends about good restaurants and movies… you're already doing the work so now, let's figure out how to get paid for it.

Tomorrow, I'll give you more information on how to make money with affiliate marketing.

Click the link for all of the posts in this series about Affiliate Marketing