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By now, you've no doubt heard that affiliate programs are a great way to add an additional income stream to your website. In fact you've heard this term bandied about often enough, so you decided to see what the fuss is about. But what, exactly, *is* an affiliate program? Is it a scam? Some type of chain letter, or pyramid?
None of the above.
An affiliate program, is simply, an arrangement with another merchant to sell their products and/or services via your own marketing channels (your web site, or email if you are an email marketer). This merchant pays you a percentage of the sales in return for your efforts. This percentage is your commission. So basically, it's an "affiliation" with that merchant or company, and you are the salesperson.
Affiliate programs accounted for nearly 11% of online sales in 2001, and more than DOUBLED in 2002. The market is growing exponentially, with many site owners grabbing for piece of the pie.
While that's pretty much it in a nutshell, affiliate programs are often anything BUT simple. Companies offering affiliate programs use specialized software to help them run their affiliate programs - software that will track visitors that you refer, sales made to your referrals, and commissions paid out to you each pay period. The good news is that if you're signing up for another merchant's program, you don't have to worry about all that - but there are plenty of other considerations you must be aware of when joining any affiliate program. Let's go!
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