Successful Affiliate Marketing for Merchants

Defining Affiliate Marketing

In your travels around the Net, you’ve probably run across a number of sites that are members of an affiliate program. You might have seen a CDNow or eToys (www.etoys.com) banner on some Web site enticing you to buy a CD or toy from these merchants. Or perhaps a text link with a line or two of advertising in a friend’s e-mail message asking you to purchase a book from Barnes & Noble (www.bn.com) (see Figure 1.3). What all this means is that the Web site has joined a merchant’s affiliate program and the merchant has agreed to pay a commission or bounty for every customer or prospect sent its way.

Figure 1.3. Barnes & Noble affiliates can place a search box directly on their Web page that visitors can use to search ...