What Is An Affiliate Program? And Here’s How It Works

So, you’ve just discovered affiliate marketing. Now you need to understand what an affiliate program is all about.

So, What Is An Affiliate Program?

Simply put an affiliate program, is an online merchant who allows ordinary people like you and me, to sign up for their program.

After you have signed up for the chosen program, the merchant will pay you commissions for sending them visitors or traffic back to their site.

Every affiliate programs has its own terms and conditions, so when signing up for the different sites, you’ll always have to read the terms and conditions. With affiliate programs, you’ll have to decide whether you want to become an affiliate, acquire affiliates, or maybe even both. Today we will cover is the affiliate.

This post includes affiliate links to products I truly recommend and trust, meaning at no extra cost to you, I may earn a small percentage.

How Does It Work?

Becoming an affiliate is simple. All you must do is decide what interest you have, build a website, and sign up for an affiliate program that is within your niche. When you sign up for the program, you’ll have to fill out a short application.

On the application, you’ll be asked to fill out your personal information such as name, address, URL to your website, and email address. In some cases, you’ll be asked what the content of your site about and how would you prefer to get paid. Each merchant deposits your money in different ways. Some pay by PayPal while others make payments directly to your bank account.

Affiliate Approval Process

Most affiliate programs do not take long to get approved for, usually, within 24 to 72 hours, you’ll have an approval decision. While others may take a little longer because they must go through all the applications and make sure your content is appropriate for their program.

The approval decision will be sent to you by email that you signed up with. Once approval is given, you’ll have access to your back office within that affiliate program. Then you’ll find your affiliate links. Next, you’ll want to connect or insert the affiliate link to your website. Of course, you’ll have to have quality content, that provides your visitors with value before, you go placing links all over the place.

How To Find An Affiliate Program?

Affiliate programs are easy to find. One way to find programs is to go to Google. Type in your niche + affiliate program. An example is if your niche is home and garden.

You’ll go to Google type in the keyword “home and garden + word ->affiliate programs.” After you have typed in your keyword plus affiliate programs Google will bring up merchant websites that offer programs for your niche. It’s that simple! There are millions of products on the market.

Is There A Cost?

Most programs are free and easy to join. It only takes a couple of minutes to fill out the online application. You’ll receive an email asking you to confirm your request. In some cases, you’ll be asked to reply to the email that the affiliate program sent you.

PRO TIP: Always make sure you’re on the lookout for any urgent emails after you have signed up for the program. Plus make sure you always check your spam box because I have had affiliate approvals land there.

Here Are Ways That You Can Get Paid With Affiliate Programs

Cost per sale, Per Pay Click, or Pay per Sale: The online merchant such as Book Depository, will pay you affiliate commissions when your website visitor has clicked on a product from your website. After the visitor clicks on your affiliate link or product. They will get redirected to Book Depository. Next, if the visitor purchases an item, you will then get a percentage of the commissions.

Cost per Click or Pay Per Click: These programs do as they say. Pays the affiliate when your website visitors have clicked on your unique link. That is all they had to do, is click on the link. No purchase is necessary on the visitor’s behalf.

Cost Per Lead or Pay Per Lead: These programs you’ll be paid for the leads who have performed an action such as clicking on your link and signing up for a product at the merchant’s site.

PRO TIP: Some Affiliate programs pay a percentage while others pay a certain amount per sale. This will be disclosed in your terms and conditions. Always take time and read the Terms and Conditions.

Additional Ways To Get Paid As An Affiliate

MLM: MLM stands for multi-level marketing. These programs you will refer others to a product. If they like it and buy the product. He or she then decides to join the program. After they have joined, the cycle repeats itself. They will now share the product and recruit others.  During this process, a team or a down the line is being created. For MLM to work for you, you’ll have to be a person who likes to speak with random people. You’ll also have to enjoy recruiting others.

Sales and team sales make money. Some MLM’s pay up to 6 tiers. After the 6th tier, it stops there!

Two-Tier: Works almost like an MLM expect you will get paid by recruiting someone. Then that person you recruited sells a product, plus they recruit someone else. The cycle then repeats. If they sell and recruit someone, you’ll also get a percentage of commission of their sale, and it stops there! An example of Two-Tier commissions is ClickFunnels. Read my review to learn more about ClickFunnles.

Examples Of Affiliate Programs

• • Grammarly
  • ClickFunnels
  • Mary Morrissey
  • Semer Plugin
  • Panthera Network

Okay, so I think you get the idea. Basically, there are so many affiliate programs online that they can not all be listed here.

Who Is It For?

Affiliate programs are for anyone who would like to generate an income online. Whether it is part-time or full-time. No experience is required because there are plenty of ways to learn how to market the products correctly.

When signing up for an affiliate program, you are the affiliate, and the programs are where the products are stored and tracked. You’re merely marketing other people’s products.

Good and Valuable

• The positive side of affiliate programs is, if you have a strong desire and will to succeed. It is most definitely possible to see success and create a full-time income from joining affiliate programs.
• Anything you buy, usually, has some sort of affiliate program that you can sign up for. The applications are painless and take less than a few minutes.
• There is no product to store or create. All you do is sign up to the program, get your unique affiliate link and send traffic to the online merchant of your choice.
• There are no limits on how many affiliate programs you can sign up to and an affiliate program can potentially generate residual income for you.

Bad and Ugly

• The cons to affiliate programs are It does take time to learn how to market while doing it in a way that will help you generate an income. Joining affiliate programs are simple but, marketing the programs are a different story. It is a skill that you must learn to be successful at.
• Without a website, It is hard to sign up for an affiliate program. You’ll need a website to send traffic to the online merchant.

My Final Thoughts

If you are ready to learn how to market and make money from affiliate programs. I can show you how I have been able to create an online business and be successful at it.

Yes, this is an affiliate program and free to join. Join me now so, we can get you on the road to success…See you on the inside, my friend!

Thank you for stopping by and reading my post! If you find this post helpful, please do share with friends and family. One more thing, if you have any questions or comments leave them below. I would love to hear from you!

Until next time…?

La’Kisha