Online Business

The Three Simple Steps to Affiliate

Marketing for Beginners

There are thousands and thousands of companies, both

big and small, who will pay people like yourself to promote

their products and services. But why would they do this?

The answer is simple. They are much better off having

1000 individuals, or affiliates, spending their own time and

advertising money than it would be to spend the company's

time and money on promotions in house. Not to mention

that having 1000's of affiliates promoting a product gives

a company a LOT more reach to connect with potential

customers. This is a great benefit to their companies.

The affiliate, or affiliate marketer, benefits from this

relationship as well. The thing that you, the affiliate,

need to understand is that you DO NOT need your own

their product.

Furthermore, the companies' affiliate programs are free

to join. The affiliate programs are either directly with

the company (such as Amazon or eBay) or through an

affiliate program service (such as Commission Junction or

Linkshare). And the best part is that these companies

are willing to pay you a commission.

But before we get ahead of ourselves, let's talk about the

very basics of affiliate marketing for beginners such as yourself.

The Basics of Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing for beginners really comes down to

two things. First, there are the customers. Secondly,

there are the products that will help satisfy the customer's

need or wants. Your job, as an affiliate marketer, is to

bring those two parts together. In a way you are

introducing customers to the products for them to

potentially purchase. Affiliate marketing for beginners

is really that simple.

How Affiliate Marketing Works

To elaborate on this simple concept we can break it down

into three steps as shown in the picture.

Step 1. In this step the customer is searching online via a

search engine for information about a product or service.

The customer finds a link that is relevant to their search;

i.e. their wants or needs. The link directs them to a website

that was created by an affiliate marketer. The website is

filled with relevant information pertaining to a company's

product or service.

Step 2. In this part of the process by

providing relevant, value added content, provides suggestions

to the products and services that will meet the customer's

needs or wants. Within these suggestions the affiliate

marketer includes links to the company's website. These

links are specially tailored for each individual affiliate

marketer. This is how the company tells one from another.

More importantly, this is how your "sales" are tracked so

you get paid you commission.

Step 3. Finally, if the customer buys the company's

product or service the affiliate gets paid their commission

for aligning the customer with the company.

Conclusion

So, as you can see affiliate marketing for beginners really

isn't that complicated or difficult. HOWEVER, you've only

scratched the surface. My advice to you is to continue

your education through reputable services. Please see

my bio for a one such source.