subject: Affiliate Marketing 101 [print this page] If you want to try e-commerce and make money from your website, you can start by joining affiliate marketing programs. With these kinds of online programs, your income will depend on your website traffic. The more visitors your website has, the greater your income will be.
There are actually many ways to earn from affiliate marketing programs. Some advertisers will pay you for "click-throughs" from your website. Others will pay you a fixed amount for every site visitor that signs up for their products, services, or even just for a newsletter subscription.
There are also advertisers that will give you a commission whenever a visitor you referred actually purchased what they offer. Almost all advertisers of this type also have a cookie duration policy. This means that even when the visitor does not make the purchase right away, you will still get your sales commission if the customer still makes the purchase within the commission/cookie duration. This typically lasts from a month to three.
The hardest part in joining affiliate marketing programs is choosing which among the many programs you should join. It's true that affiliate marketing is a lucrative trade, but that is ONLY IF you join the best marketing programs.
Another thing that you ought to think about is whether you would be comfortable about the idea of putting other website banners on your own web pages. It would be better if you don't use too many links, banners, and animated elements so your visitors won't get confused or annoyed.
Proper affiliate tracking can also be an issue so you have to secure the personalized codes or links that every company assigns to you. These codes have snippets which will distinguish your site and you unique affiliate ID from all the other sites that also direct traffic to their sales page. Keep in mind that you won't be able to profit from a sale or a click through if you haven't properly placed the right codes on your pages.
