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What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing (also called referral or associate marketing) is an Internet-based marketing concept that helps merchants leverage their sales through independent marketers called affiliates or publishers.

How does affiliate marketing work?

As a online merchant or business owner, you enter into a agreement to pay your affiliates (individuals or other companies) in exchange for sales, leads, or subscribers that the affiliate refers to you.

Affiliates are sometimes called "publishers", and merchant's "advertisers", which is exactly what they are.

It is not the affiliates job to actually make the sale, but rather to pre-sell and refer potential buyers to you as the merchant or business owner.

When visitors click-through from the affiliate's site to yours, that referral is recorded. And if that click ultimately results in a sale, you pay the affiliate according to terms you set out in the agreement.

Compensation is typically only paid after a completed sale is made or valid lead is processed, which is one of the many benefits of an affiliate marketing program.

The business referred to you by affiliates is tracked by special software that can be deployed in one of three ways . . .

• Purchase and run the software on your own server (for example, CRE Loaded, or iDevAffiliate).
• Contract with an Application Service Provider (for example, MyAP or 1 Shopping Cart)
• Let an Affiliate Network handle it (for example, Shareasale, Commission Junction or OneNetwork).

Some of these solution include shopping cart software as well, others are intended to interface with your existing shopping cart.

Affiliates might promote your products or services through optimized web sites, blogs, mailing lists, social networking methods, loyalty programs, or paid advertising. Professional affiliates are experts in these methods.

Partnering with Alta Publishing

Alta Publishing specializes in partnering with businesses like yours that have a high-quality products and a established affiliate program in place.

We use our technology to cast a wide net for your customers, recommend your product on our pages, and direct those customers to your site. It is a straightforward strategy that greatly leverages your marketing, and builds a long-term asset for both your company and ours.

Our network of sites and blogs are carefully designed using a spectrum of proven methods developed over the last 10 years. No search engine tricks or spam. Just solid strategy and good business practices.

Seven Benefits of Affiliate Programs, Checklist for the Ideal Affiliate Program

Site Optimization & Marketing Strategies Growing Your Online Business Web Marketing Basics Optimization Concepts Alternatives to Paid Advertising Keyword-Based Content Audio Interviews & Tips Autoresponders & Awareness Newsletter Best Practices Paid Advertising Pros & Cons of Paid Advertising How to Write an Ad that Pulls Affiliate Marketing Programs What is Affiliate Marketing? 7 Benefits of Affiliate Marketing Checklist: Ideal Affiliate Program Motivating Your Affiliates Glossary Sample Reports Keyword Visibility Report Competitors & Partners Report Contact: Michael Charvet Alta Publishing, LLC Tel: +1-530-873-8041 IM: altapublishing Updated: April 2, 2008 © 2003 - 2007 Alta Publishing, LLC Glossary Merchant (also called the advertiser): A merchant is a person or a company that wants to market their products or services on the web. Affiliate (also called the publisher): A person or a company that assists the merchant in marketing products and services in return for a commission. Merchant-Affiliate Relationship (the affiliation): The affiliate acts as an independent “salesperson” who promotes the merchant's products and services. The merchant tracks incoming visitors to determine which affiliate sent them the sale and credits them accordingly. Tracking and Management Solution:To track the incoming affiliate-referred traffic to their sites, merchants use special affiliate software. Click-through: A click-through takes place when a visitor clicks on a link on an affiliate’s site that refers them to the merchant’s site. Content: Primarily, the textual material on the site, but also audio and video. Content should attract, educate, and motivate visitors to take action. Impression: An impression occurs when a page containing the merchant’s ad or link is loaded on an affiliate’s site. Impressions are also called page views. Two-Tier: A two-tier commission structure pays an Affiliate commission on each sale (or lead or click-through) they refer, and a second commission on each sale referred by any second-tier affiliates they have recruited into the program. Link: A link is a hyperlink (http://www.yourdomain.com) or an image or text that contains a hyperlink. A link is placed on one site and when clicked on leads the visitor to another. In the affiliate marketing industry, affiliates place links on their sites that point to the merchant’s site. Landing Page: A page that your affiliates point traffic to (not necessarily your home page). Visitors coming from your affiliates’ sites will “enter” your site at this page. This is also the entry point for text and display ads. Each keyword or ad should have a landing page that meets the visitors' expectations.