Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate Marketing is an opportunity that many people talk about but few really understand. The transaction happens when a reader of a blog or website clicks on a link or a banner. The reader is sent to another site through a third-party also known as an Affiliate Network who tracks the results of the click. The reader ends up at the advertiser’s website and hopefully completes a compensated action (publisher earns a commission) with the buying the advertisers product or service.
The Affiliate Marketing description above includes four different parties to the process. That would be the Blogger or Webmaster (also known as the publisher), the reader or customer, the Affiliate Network and the Advertiser (Person or company marketing a product or service).
The Blogger or Webmaster often focuses on a niche market where they are able to target a specific type of reader who is likely to engage in a transaction with an advertiser that is focused on their niche. They may create many micro-blogs or websites that have some simple content that are designed to roll up into a bigger site to build credibility. They literally create their own network of sites to lure people into their primary funnel.
The reader or customer often starts searching for information through search engines such as Google and Yahoo. They may also subscribe to newsletters or use Social Media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter to find blogs and websites that have the content that they are interested in.
Affiliate Networks connect Publishers (bloggers and webmasters) with Merchants (Advertisers) and focus on managing the transaction between the two parties. This makes Affiliate Marketing more attractive because both Publishers and Merchants are able to work with a larger pool of prospects than they would otherwise if they were attempting to work one-on-one.
To summarize and Affiliate Marketing Strategy, the reader comes to the publisher’s website or blog. They click on a link or banner that has a code connecting to a merchant (advertiser) and tracked through an Affiliate Network. The advertiser pays the publisher a commission when the reader completes a desired action through the affiliate network and benefiting the merchant (advertiser). That action can simply be a click-through to the merchant’s sight, completing a form or actually buying a product or service.
Leave a comment and let me know if you now understand the Affiliate Marketing Strategy.
