Affiliate marketing is a popular tactic where you promote another company’s products. This type of digital marketing can drive sales and generate significant online revenue for both the brand and the affiliate marketer. When someone buys a product through your affiliate link, you get a commission. This marketing practice can be achieved with different affiliate marketing programs that generate revenue and commissions in several ways. In this article, we will learn how affiliate marketing works and explore some of the best affiliate marketing programs.
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How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?
Three different parties are involved with affiliate marketing: the seller or product creator, the affiliate or advertiser, and the consumer. The seller can be a solo entrepreneur or a large business that is a vendor with a product they are looking to market and sell. The affiliate then helps market the seller’s product to potential consumers. Essentially acting as the publisher, the affiliate promotes the product to a specific audience using social media, blogs, and websites. It convinces them about the value of the product or service. Affiliates usually work within a specific market in order to create a personal brand or niche that allows them to attract and connect with their audience of consumers.Finally, the last party involved is the consumer, who drives affiliate marketing. The consumer’s presence results in profit for both the seller and affiliate. The consumer’s experience will not be affected by the affiliate marketing process. While the consumer may sometimes be aware of the affiliate marketing infrastructure behind the product, they won’t have to pay more for the product. This is because the affiliate’s share is incorporated in the retail price. When the consumer makes a purchase, they will receive the product as normal while supporting both the seller and affiliate as a result.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
With affiliate marketing, the affiliate earns a commission by marketing another company’s products. The merchant gives the affiliate a unique link that allows for sale tracking. The affiliate then promotes a product they enjoy. In return, they get a piece of the profit for each sale they make through their link. When someone uses the link, a cookie gets stored on the device. This helps attribute the sale to the correct person. The affiliate cookie also usually has an expiration date. That means if a buyer uses your link and doesn’t buy a product right away, but returns for a purchase at a later date, it still counts as a sale for you.Aside from sales, there are other ways the affiliate can get paid depending on the affiliate program. There can be several measures of how an affiliate contributes to the seller’s sales. The standard affiliate marketing structure is pay per sale. The affiliate only gets paid when their marketing efforts result in a sale. Compensation through this method is most directly related to the affiliate’s ability to get consumers to invest in the products. Pay per lead affiliate programs are a bit more complex, since the affiliate gets paid based on the conversion of leads. Rather than sales, the affiliate must get a consumer to visit the seller’s website and perform an action, such as signing up for a trial of products, filling out the contact form, or subscribing to a newsletter. A different affiliate program is pay-per-click, which focuses on driving traffic from an affiliate’s platform to the seller’s website. In this program, the affiliate’s goal is to engage with and redirect consumers so that they end up on the merchant’s site. Then, the affiliate gets paid based on the increase in web traffic. 
Types of Affiliate Marketing Channels
There are several types of affiliate marketing programs out there. Whether you are looking to promote your products and services, or if you are looking to gain some extra cash by marketing, there is a program out there for you. It’s important to keep in mind how an audience spends the majority of its time. Then, tailor the program and channel to match the target audience and the ideal buyer persona. Not all affiliates market products in the same way. The following are some of the various channels and affiliate marketing practices people use to advertise products.
Search Affiliates
With this program, freelancers or entrepreneurs promote offers on search results or advertising platforms using their own money. This type of affiliate partnership can be beneficial if the freelancer or entrepreneur has a strong SEO background, so that their ads can result in referrals and sales.
Bloggers
Bloggers make great affiliate marketers since they already have a great grasp on search engine optimization and online followings. Because of this, bloggers are usually particularly great at increasing sales conversions. The blogger typically writes a review promoting a product that they sampled on their website or social media. The review then links back to the brand to drive traffic back to the seller.
Influencers
Influencers are individuals who have a reputation of engaging a large population of people and impacting their purchasing decisions. When influencers use their impressive following in affiliate marketing, they can often easily direct consumers to the seller’s products through a number of means. Some examples include social media, blogs, and other interactions with their followers.
Review Sites
Many people look at online reviews for a product before they purchase it. So, these reviews often have tremendous influence on potential consumers. Some sellers research top review sites that have reviewed their products or sellers and talk to the reviewer about including an affiliate link in the review.
Coupon Sites
Another avenue to create affiliate partnerships is with coupon sites. This is especially a good option if the product or service is a niche, or may not be extremely popular in the marketplace. By offering a discount on the product for a limited time, some first-time buyers might make their way to the seller’s website and become brand advocates.
Email Marketing
When done in small doses, email marketing is a great method for affiliate marketing. Affiliates can use email lists or newsletters to promote products. This type of marketing can include hyperlinks that can help track commissions when consumers buy a product. 
Best Affiliate Programs
Many affiliate marketing programs exist, which can make it difficult to find the affiliate program that works best for you. These are some of the best affiliate marketing programs that have high earning potential, ease of use and support, and performance growth.
Amazon Affiliate Program
Amazon is a great platform, especially for affiliate beginners. The abundance of products available on the website for you to market makes it a great place to start your venture. The Amazon marketplace also helps take care of the sales process, leaving you with the sole job of bringing clients from external sites to Amazon. Amazon affiliate marketing is an extremely easy process to navigate, but there are a few things you need to know to get started with Amazon affiliate marketing.
Commission JunctionCommission Junction, or CJ Affiliate, is a wonderful affiliate program for more experienced marketers. There are over three hundred brands on the site, including some of the world’s top brands. Commission Junction boasts 43% year-to-year growth in commissions, but you need proven traffic and an experienced history to be accepted to the program.
ClickBank
ClickBank is a leading affiliate marketplace is a leading affiliate marketplace and global retailer. The platform reaches 200 million people worldwide by offering 6 million digital products in over 20 categories. This affiliate marketing program offers notably high commissions and is known for its regular reliable payouts.
Fiverr
As one of the world’s largest digital services marketplace, Fiverr offers products perfect for freelancers, such as Fiverr Learn, which offers skills courses for freelancers and businesses, and Fiverr Pro, which gives access to talent trusted by top brands.
Affliaxe
Affiliaxe is a top program for affiliate marketing. This is because it offers marketers a wide variety of products and offers. This allows you to choose where you want to focus your marketing efforts. When you join the Affiliaxe program, you get your own Affiliate Manager. The manager is there to help you optimize traffic and maximize your potential earnings. 
BigCommerce
This affiliate marketing program helps power thousands of ecommerce stores across many industries. BigCommerce uses an industry-leading 90-day cookie on its links so that affiliates can receive credit for any referrals they generate for up to three months.When it comes to performance-based revenue and growth, affiliate marketing is a great practice for motivated affiliate marketers. If you are interested in becoming an affiliate marketer, there are many places to start. SEO Design Chicago is here to help you develop your digital marketing skills and give you the tools you need to succeed as an affiliate marketer. If you are a seller looking for the right people to promote your products, SEO Design Chicago can also help you accomplish that by helping you create great product pages that are engaging and informative. Whatever you are looking for, our digital marketing experts at SEO Design Chicago are ready and eager to help you succeed in the affiliate marketing industry.
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