Affiliate Programs

Affiliate programs are essential for anyone wanting to do Affiliate Marketing. Thousands of companies have recognized the simple truth, that the more people you have selling your product, the more product you can potentially sell. Since the affiliate business model is based on a percentage of the price of goods sold, a company with an affiliate program loses nothing by having dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of agents pushing the company’s wares. While it doesn’t cost a company any more to have a thousand affiliates than it does to have ten, any company that does not have an affiliate program is really not efficiently utilizing their options.

From the affiliate’s point of view, affiliate programs represent an opportunity to sell millions, upon millions, of items. These are items that the affiliate does not have to produce, warehouse, ship, or provide customer support for. It is based on referral. An affiliate refers someone to a company’s business, and if that someone makes a purchase, the affiliate gets a commission. Can you imagine going through the check-out counter at Walmart and telling the cashier that Bill Davies, of 123 South Oak Street sent you to shop there, and a percentage of what you spend goes to Bill Davies’ bank account? Well, in affiliate marketing, that is pretty much how it works. An affiliate sends (refers) a customer to a companies web site, and if that referral makes a purchase, the affiliate gets a percentage, or sometimes a flat rate, for the sale.

So, how does one become an affiliate? It is simply a matter of finding a company with an affiliate program and signing up. Well, that answer leads to another question. How does one find a company with an affiliate program? Since an affiliate program is a great way for a company to boost sales, hundreds of thousands of businesses recognize the benefit and provide such programs. There is plenty of willing affiliates to go around, and since an affiliate is not bound to work for a single company, but often is an affiliate for dozens or hundreds of companies, it seems like everyone would be happy. But, as is the case with most things in life, there is more than meets the eye.

Somewhere along the way, it occurred to an enterprising individual or group that there might be people seeking affiliate programs and couldn’t find them, or companies wanting affiliates to join their program, but were not having great success at having people finding out that they had a program. The Affiliate Network was born.

An Affiliate Network is a network that brings together the affiliate program supplier and the affiliate program seeker. Instead of searching high and low, checking out company after company, for a suitable affiliate program, one can simply join an affiliate network, and from a single location, browse all the companies in the network. This arrangement benefits the companies as well as the affiliates. By joining these networks, a company can reduce the chance that their program will be overlooked by would be affiliates.