Basics Of Affiliate Marketing
By Matt Bacak
Whether you realize it or not, if you've been on the Internet today, you have
encountered affiliate marketing. If you have ever “clicked thru” one site to
order something from another, the first site probably received a portion of the
sale. For instance, independent booksellers have limited shelf space for books.
But they can offer their customers an almost unlimited inventory of titles by
affiliating with companies like Amazon or Powell's. The more orders, the bigger
the affiliate percentage.
Visitors to your site are interested in lots of things that may or may not be
related to your product. But when you know your customers well, it's simply a
matter of affiliating yourself with sites that offer what they want. What you
receive is just a small percentage of the sale, but it adds up, especially when
you consider that all it costs you is a link on your web page. And usually, the
more sales your affiliate makes from your “click thru” traffic, the bigger your
percentage will be.
The key to success in affiliate marketing is being able to track referred
customers. As an affiliate manager, you want a system that reliably tracks what
you want, with minimal effort on your part, and without affecting the
performance of your site or server. Over the last few years a variety of
technologies and strategies have been developed in an attempt to improve
accuracy, convenience, and flexibility.
There are at least half a dozen methods, but by far the most preferred method is
Cookie Tracking. It's popular because it makes tracking affiliate-referred sales
so convenient, without negatively impacting your site. This system writes a
small text file, called a “cookie,” to a user's browser when they click on an
affiliate link. When you are the referring affiliate, the cookie holds your ID,
so that at the merchant's order page, you get credit for referring the sale. One
drawback is that many computer users disable cookies, although most choose not
to, since their favorite sites require them. One bonus is that the merchant can
save the information, so that even if a customer buys long after clicking
through your site, you still get credit for the sale.
Affiliate marketing, at its best, is a win-win scenario. It's an easy way to
offer your customers more of what they want, while you benefit, both in terms of
building goodwill and making money.
About the Author: Matt Bacak became "#1 Best Selling Author" in just a few short
hours. Recent Entrepreneur Magazine’s e-Biz radio show host is turning Authors,
Speakers, and Experts into Overnight Success Stories. Discover The Secrets
http://promotingtips.com
Source: www.isnare.com
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