An affiliate program, or pay for performance advertising, is a partnership between your web site and an online merchant – a web site that sells goods or services.
A merchant, sometimes referred to as the advertiser, will join a pay-for-performance network and place its advertisements, offers and links in the network, making them available for placement by an affiliate. Depending on the network the affiliate is sometimes referred to as a Publisher, Associate, Partner, Reseller or Content Site.
Affiliates, looking for links that their own site traffic might be interested in, apply to join the merchant’s pay-for-performance advertising program and upon acceptance, will select and place the merchant’s ad, offer or link on their web site. These offers and links are serviced and tracked by a third party – the pay for performance network provider.
When a visitor comes to the affiliate’s site and clicks on one of the merchant’s links, a cookie is set on the visitor’s browser that identifies the advertiser, the affiliate and the specific link and payment rates. Depending on the commission structure, clicking through may be enough to generate a commission for the affiliate or it may require the visitor to make an actual purchase online or fill out a form. The affiliate's reward varies from merchant to merchant and program to program, depending on the terms of the merchant's offer.
Upon recording a transaction, the affiliate program provider will handle all of the collection and processing required ensuring fair and timely commission payments for the affiliate and all of the administration and verification necessary to ensure qualified sales and leads for the merchant.
Ultimately, it’s a win-win situation. The affiliate gets paid for traffic and the merchant gets new customers and additional sales.
