Understanding Affiliate Marketing

Stephen joined Xcede just over a year ago and has developed his own market in the Affiliate Marketing Niche. Read on for his thoughts on this market and where he expects it to go…

Affiliate marketing made easy:
For many people this is probably a completely new concept to them although it will be something they come across every day.

In simple terms Affiliate marketing is one website (the merchant) advertising another website’s product (the affiliate) on their website and being paid a commission based on sales or number of visitors to that particular site. There are three key players which ensure affiliate marketing runs smoothly these are the merchant, the affiliate and the network.  The network runs as the intermediary between the merchant and the affiliate and ensures that all the commission are paid correctly and that both parties are getting the most out of the partnership.

The growth of affiliate marketing:
Affiliate marketing can be linked very closely with a number of online marketing concepts; affiliate marketing was often over-looked in the past and more traditional methods such as SEO, PPC and email marketing being used. But due to the success of affiliate marketing with etailers it is becoming increasingly used and is a growing industry. There was a rise of 77% within the affiliate channel in 2011 with 71% of companies surveyed expecting to see an increase in spend for 2012.

Affiliate marketing is gaining a presence with a number of companies beginning to realise the importance of this area of marketing and developing their own teams or using specialist agencies to implement their affiliate strategy for them.  A great example that affiliate marketing is finally being taken seriously is shown by the worlds largest affiliate network employing a former high ranking executive from CNN showing that affiliates is now big business.

The most active areas for affiliate marketing currently are the gaming and retail industries however I would expect to see the growth of this across a number of different industries as the realisation of how profitable affiliate marketing can be. The emergence of voucher code websites is also an example of the effect that affiliate marketing has had with companies setting-up businesses around affiliate relationships in the form of these voucher code sites.

For more information on affiliate marketing or an exciting new role in affiliates please get in contact on 02078860729 or stephenc@xcedesolutions.com.

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