An affiliate program is a program where an advertiser pays another website (affiliate) to send traffic to their website through links.
Affiliates receive money based on how many people clicked the advertiser’s link or how many of these visitors bought the product. The commission depends on the individual affiliate program. However, affiliates never receive the commission just for posting the link.
Affiliate programs are a win-win situation for both advertisers and affiliates. Advertisers can reach out to the target audience effortlessly: no need to create a stunning creative or work on the message. They also do not waste money on links that do not bring any traffic on the website since they pay for the action from consumers. For publishers, it is a great way to monetize their website and content creation.
In order to get the most out of affiliate programs, every party should follow some simple steps. Publishers should:
- look for affiliates that are relevant for their products
- track real traffic to their website to avoid affiliate fraud
- constantly analyze and optimize their affiliate programs
Affiliates should:
- participate in programs that are relevant to their website visitors
- create high-quality content to attract more users
- track traffic they are sending to advertisers to avoid underpayment
It is also important to note that affiliates should not consider affiliate programs as their only stream of revenue since it is a pay-per-action type of commission and only a small percentage of users are likely to actually follow the affiliate links. It is also impossible to earn commissions as soon as you have created the website. You need to invest hard work into content and traffic attraction to your site first.
