Sunday, July 25, 2010

Online Affiliate Programs ? the Advertisers Find

People who are not much aware about affiliate marketing confuse it with a kind of Internet marketing. It is true that affiliate marketing has been extensively taken up by the web site owners and e-commerce merchants, but as a term affiliate marketing has even wider meaning. The true meaning of affiliate marketing is any kind of marketing done by an external agency and on behalf of a paying advertiser.

Web sites and blogs, as they constitute to be effective platforms for engaging the customers and dissemination the message, happen to be ideal for affiliate marketing. However, there can be alternative channels, other than our online media that will serve in affiliate marketing. Online affiliate program can be said to be the best find for an advertiser. The program helps the advertiser to engage web site owners or publishers in the marketing and promotion of products and services. These programs can be easily developed and there is very little cost incurred on the creation and launch of the program.

Online affiliate programs are generally hosted on the web sites of the merchants. They are popularized on the web by any of the online promotional tools like emails, blog postings, viral mails, forums, etc. These programs can also be found in various affiliate directories where they are submitted by the advertiser. Once they are known to the web site owners, it is followed by their (web site owners) participation and joining with the provider.

Online affiliate programs have certain features that are pre determined and which present the essence of the program. For example, commission structure. Commission structure determines the amount of money that an affiliate will receive for completing a given task. The task may be an advertisement impression, a click on the advertisement or direct sale. Some other features of online affiliate programs are referrals, promotional content, threshold amount, payment frequency, tracking and reporting services, etc.

Online affiliate marketing is a wonderful discovery. With online affiliate program advertisers can give a new direction to their business. The results would indeed be fast and as expected.

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