Amazon.com is one of the first online marketers that started using affiliate marketing methods and advanced them into what it is today. Many other people and organizations have also started to use affiliate marketing as a way to market their products too.
Unlike some of its competitors, Amazon does not pay much money to its affiliates. Yet it still retains a big market share of the worldwide online transaction. Amazon has such a very big impact in the online marketing that no established online marketer can say that they have never been associated with Amazon. So far it holds the largest market share in online marketing affiliate programs.
To earn money as a website owner you must first register with Amazon or any other affiliate programs. You will then put the products, banners and links on the website. When a person purchases any item through your link you will be paid a small commission for facilitating the sale.
Depending on the affiliate program the online marketer will only pay money if a certain objective has been met. Amazon will only pay the affiliate if a sale is made through your link. Other affiliate programs may involve having a certain number of clicks through you link. In the latter business model, purchase is not taken into consideration. Therefore as long as there a click, you would be paid a fee even if there is no purchase of product.
Payment schemes for actual products may also vary with some affiliate marketers paying as much as 15%. On the other hand some major players may even pay as low as 1% depending on the item purchased. Credit card companies will also offer varying rates to all its customers.
It is possible to be paid even more by promoting digital products such as ebook, audio and video downloads. It is not surprising to see commission ranging from 50% to 70% for the sale of such products.
In affiliate marketing it is always wise to consider bringing a group of members commonly know as an affiliate marketer. Instead of always depending on websites one can develop his own affiliate program though this requires a lot of devotion, hard work and patience. If this is executed well, your results will shoot through the roof.
Many individually owned affiliate programs that are developed by individual companies shrank just after the launch of affiliate networks. These affiliate networks acts as an aggregator of many individual programs. As such all you need to do is to sign up as an affiliate marketer on these affiliate networks to have access to multiple affiliate programs. The two best known affiliate networks are Commission Junction and Link share.
Affiliate marketing is just basically connecting the buyers and sellers. If there is a sale, the affiliate marketer would be rewarded with a certain fee or commission by the sellers.
Affiliate marketing is known for its low risks; in that it can be used as a research tool to gauge the market response to the product. In addition the company will only pay based on sale rather just effort.
In order to be successful as an affiliate marketer, you have to develop a positive attitude and also have a knowhow. This knowhow involves knowing how to promote the products, through having the correct keywords and having the correct traffic to your website.