Online Affiliate Marketing

Introduction:

Online affiliate marketing is an online platform that has made every product available online to reach out to its every buyer who buys online. It is a bridge between the seller and the buyer. Every seller cannot reach every buyer and similarly, every buyer can also not find every seller without a proper search. Having used online affiliate marketing programs can make the job much easier, yet competitive. With increasing demands and increasing suppliers, the competition has increased immensely. Competition needs not just survival but also leading the market. Online affiliate marketing is one such program that can offer the benefits to make one's product available to more number of people. Prospective clients can be reached enormously with the help of affiliate members.

It has a wide role to play in brand building and in Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Basis of affiliate marketing:

Affiliate marketing is a revenue sharing market. The middleman is the affiliate who works as an advertiser for a particular product/s or service/s. He tries to reach out to online traffic and generate sales through his advertisements.

Who needs to make affiliates?

Every single online service provider or a product seller can have made his affiliate members. Every person wants to be at the top of the search engine. For instance, if a buyer is looking to buying an air conditioner, multiple sellers will pop up as he initiates a search for the same. But, who will top the search list? The site that has had a maximum number of visitors, the site that has SEO done for the maximum number of keywords is the site that will stand out in the competition. Then on the basis of all these, the ranking will go on and on. Affiliate programs and making affiliate members can increase the number of visitors without having you done much. And affiliate will do this perfectly because he can generate his share of the revenue depending upon his performance only. More is the number of visitors he brings in, more is the probability of prospective clients conversion rate. And this would mean that an affiliate will get his share of profit only when a potential buyer is reached out through his unique affiliate link. And his conversion will multiply his share of the profit. Different portals offer different payouts. An affiliate has to choose the niche and the product in a manner so as to be able to generate maximum income.

The four elements:

Online affiliate marketing revolves around four elements.

1. The seller: The seller is the one who is the supplier of the product or the service provider of the service meant for sale.

2. The network: Internet is the network that connects everyone globally. All the other three, the seller, the buyer and the advertiser are using this network for the purpose.

3. The buyer: The buyer is the customer who purchases a particular product or the service online. He is the final consumer and when he is reached out, prompted to purchase by an advertisement or the link shared by an affiliate. He becomes part of this online affiliate marketing. A speck from the profit from the product that the buyer has purchased will go to the affiliate for his effort of bringing the customer to the seller.

4. The Affiliate: An affiliate is a member who makes the choice to earn by becoming the connector of the seller and the buyer. He draws his profit for doing the same. He advertises the product he has chosen to become an affiliate for. 

Modes of payment offered by affiliate programs:

Different affiliate programs offer different payouts. They may or may not have a similar slab. While making the choice of niche, it is important to consider these pay modes also.

•    Pay per click: Some merchants pay affiliates for bringing in the traffic to their sites. Whenever a prospective buyer clicks the advertisement posted by the affiliate or the link of the merchant's site shared by the affiliate, he is directed to the merchant site. Now, it is 50% probable, he is likely to purchase the product if it interests him or her has just clicked the advertisement for it seemed attractive or by mistake, but will not make a purchase. Still, the traffic to the merchant site increased by the affiliates' advertisement. So, if he is rewarded for this traffic incoming per click.

•    Pay per sale: If a visitor is directed to the merchant site through the affiliate's link and makes a purchase. The affiliate is rewarded with a share of profit. This is his income generated per sale he has converted.

•    Pay per lead: If the visitor directed to the merchant site by the affiliate buys or not provides his contact information via a visitor's form or any other mode, the affiliate has brought in a potential lead to the merchant. Now the merchant can directly mail or spread his products on the information retrieved. And affiliates again get the share of profit for the leads arrived at by his advertisement.

Advantages of affiliate marketing:

•    Access: Affiliate marketing has increased the accessibility of products and services to a large number of people in every section of the world. It has widened the market and the scopes.

•    It has increased the supply as well as the demand.

•    It can be done free of cost without investing in anything or can also be done using paid online space at cheaper rates.

•    As much number of link sharing an affiliate can do, wider is the scope of earning. Income generation increases at both levels, the seller as well as an affiliate.

•    Having earned the database of the converted clients can generate income in future with lesser efforts. The data can be