What is Affiliate Marketing or Affiliate Programs?

Affiliate marketing is a marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate's own marketing efforts. Examples include rewards sites, where users are rewarded with cash or gifts, for the completion of an offer, and the referral of others to the site. The industry has four core players: the merchant (also known as 'retailer' or 'brand'), the network, the publisher (also known as 'the affiliate'), and the customer. The market has grown in complexity to warrant a secondary tier of players, including affiliate management agencies, super-affiliates and specialized third party vendors.

Affiliate marketing overlaps with other Internet marketing methods to some degree, because affiliates often use regular advertising methods. Those methods include organic search engine optimization, paid search engine marketing, e-mail marketing, and in some sense display advertising. On the other hand, affiliates sometimes use less orthodox techniques, such as publishing reviews of products or services offered by a partner.

Affiliate marketing—using one website to drive traffic to another—is a form of online marketing, which is frequently overlooked by advertisers. While search engines, e-mail, and website syndication capture much of the attention of online retailers, affiliate marketing carries a much lower profile. Still, affiliates continue to play a significant role in e-retailers' marketing strategies. More info..

About Affiliate Marketing Programs

Below are a list of the top affiliate programs on the Internet. All the programs below are free affiliate programs and cost nothing to enroll in. You simply fill out a form to register as an affiliate and once you are approved, you will receive your own affiliate referral link to share with others.

Online affiliate programs are the most cost effective way to create a home based income with since there is no cost to get started and there are no products to stock. You simply share your affiliate links with others to earn income. If you need training on how to market on the Internet, be sure to see the SEO Training link in the menu at the top left of this page.

Multi-Tiered Affiliate Marketing Opportunities