2. What is Affiliate Marketing & How Does It Work?

In a nutshell, affiliate marketing is the “receiving of commission from promoting another company’s product or service.”

This might be done through a blog, YouTube channel, email newsletter, or social media.

Anytime you mention products or services from another business and include a clickable link, there is potential to monetize that link through affiliate schemes.

How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

1- You share an affiliate link for a product or service that you recommend

When you talk about a product or service, instead of using a normal link to the product’s website, you’ll use a customised affiliate link instead.

2 – Visitor clicks on the link and makes a purchase

When someone clicks on your link, they will be redirected to the website of the product or service, where they can make a purchase.

3- Sale is linked to the affiliate via a tracking cookie

Different affiliate programs have different cookie expiration dates, but they are usually valid from anything between 10 and 90 days after the user initially clicks on your affiliate link. That means if they don’t make the purchase instantly but return at a later time, there is still a chance of the sale being traced back to your affiliate account.

4 – You earn a commission from the sale

Depending on the affiliate program, this may be a one-time payment for a single purchase or a recurring payment, such as for a subscription-based affiliate program where you get paid each time they renew.

Commissions aren’t usually paid immediately. Most affiliate programs will have a timeframe to allow for refunds or returns before they pay out any affiliate commissions. In most cases, this is usually around 3-6 months. Some may also have a minimum balance amount that you are required to reach before you get paid.

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Affiliate marketing is a pretty simple concept, and something that content creators have been leveraging for years. The chances are that if you’ve ever clicked on a link in a blog post or email that was recommending a product or service, it was an affiliate link – you may simply not have been aware of it, which is something we’re going to cover at the end of this course.

Sounds pretty easy right? It is. So who could benefit from using affiliate marketing in their business? Let’s take a look in the next lesson…