What Is Affiliate Marketing - The Basics Of Sales & Affiliate Marketing Explained

By Joe Stewart

Affiliate marketing is simply marketing products and services of online merchants in exchange for a commission from each sale or action. This is really not much different than actually being a commissioned sales person, however, rather than using a telephone or going door to door to sell your wares, you've got millions of people on the internet to market to. Many of which are already looking for what you have to offer.

There is a difference between marketing and selling though and you'll need to understand that before you begin working your affiliate marketing business. Selling is very direct and as a salesperson, you expect a reaction after you've given a presentation for a product. That reaction is generally either a sale or rejection. This is why sales people are constantly looking for good leads. They normally don't get too many chances with a prospect and their paycheck depends upon whether they make the sale or not. I've personally been in this position many times and, although I was able to put on a good "show" under pressure, it's not always a very pleasant way to work.

Marketing is simply getting the word out to people. There are many different ways of doing this and yes, sometimes selling does cross over into this category, but smart marketers are pro's at providing information to prospects in such a way that they come looking for you instead of you having to chase after them. This is called "positioning" yourself and it works like a charm.

Anyway, affiliate marketers use both tactics. They may sell a product by producing a well written sales letter or they may write a simple product review that shares their personal experience with a product and then send the prospect to the merchant where they can sell them.

This is just the basics of how affiliate marketing works. There is, of course, a lot more to it than this. This is just a brief answer to the question "What is affiliate marketing?"

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