03/03/2022
What is Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is an arrangement between a merchant (also known as a “vendor” or a “retailer” or a “brand” or “someone who is selling something”) and a publisher (also known as an “affiliate”), to whom they pay commission to for traffic and/or sales generated from their referrals. According to Wikipedia, this process has four key players: the merchant, the publisher, the network, and the customer.
The merchant, or vendor, is the seller. They are responsible for bringing a product to the ecommerce market and are quintessential in the affiliate marketing process. Without a product, there is nothing for publishers to promote .
The publisher, or affiliate, is an individual who is referring a product through online promotional material. Typically, affiliates are only paid commission on sales that they facilitate from their online publications. Publications can be emails, blogs, social media posts, forums, etc. Like the merchant, the publisher is also quintessential to the affiliate marketing system.
The affiliate network is like a broker that facilitates the connection between the publisher and the merchant. When a publisher joins the affiliate network, they gain access to affiliate programs offered by merchants; and when merchants join the network, they gain access to publishers willing to promote their product for commission. The network is not an essential element; however, it improves the functionality of the process immensely.
The final (and most important part) of the affiliate marketing system is the customer. The customer is to the affiliate marketing system what water is to a mill. You can build the mechanism, but it will not yield productivity without water moving through it.
Once you understand the key players and their roles, the process makes more sense. Because there are economic incentives offered to all involved, it behooves everyone to work hard and attract more customers to convert more sales.
RANIA JAVID
