Ok guys here is a little introduction to affiliate marketing which i obtained from a affiliate marketing forum full of internet marketers which post daily. Ok so i have been swamped with e-mails recently asking me about affiliate marketing and whats its all about so here's a basic newbie explanation for anyone who wants to get into this field of marketing. Hopefully it will form the basis of your knowledge of affiliate marketing and its capabilities. Affiliate marketing forms one of many internet marketing models for generating income online, it rewards affiliates for generating business. There are 4 core players the Merchant, the Network, the Publisher and the Consumer. We here at remote insider will in most cases fall into the publisher category and specifically concentrate on the cost per action market of affiliate marketing. The networks are the ones who have the contracts with the merchants to let us help them generate new business, so in this case Hydra, Copeac and Max Bounty can be examples of networks. The merchants can be that of any company/individual who wants to advertise their services on line and essentially injects the money into our pockets! I think the main reason for the relationship between the merchant and the networks is the availability of the services which the merchant receives through the networks such as the ease of implementation to this model of marketing including the system and perks of the system such as the tracking, the already strong publisher base etc, the various design consultation to create the promotional materials such as banners, e-mail content etc. Merchants can choose from two different types of affiliate management solutions, these are usually standalone software (created by and managed by the merchants themselves doe in house) or hosted services which are typically provided by affiliate networks. Payout are usually made at the end of the month net 15 or net 30 by the networks. Payments methods include cheque's, Paypal and wire transfers. So how do us publishers drive traffic and create conversations for the networks well there are loads of techniques mentioned here excluding the black hat techniques of course! We can mainly do it through websites and blogs that are related to offers. We can use banners, text links and the various other banner type promotional tools offered to us. In 2006 it has been reported that affiliates worldwide earned US $6.5 billion in bounty and commissions from a variety of sources in retail, personal finance, gaming and gambling, travel, telecom, education, publishing including forms of lead generation and contextual advertising networks such as Google AdSense. Affiliate marketing is mainly driven by us and also the established entrepreneurs. I think we all go through the trial and error approach before we settle and have a few techniques that work for us. Their are super affiliates who are capable of generating US $10,000 or more per month in commissions. Affiliate marketing has experienced numerous failed attempts to create an industry organization or association of some kind that could be the initiator of regulations, standards, and guidelines for the industry. Source: http://www.remoteinsider.com Affiliate Marketing Message Edited by NicoleD on 06-23-2009 05:07 PM