To summate, an affiliate program functions as follows:

1. The affiliate adds a link to a service on their website. This link is frequently followed by a comparison, review or a call to action.

2. A visitor clicks on the link and is directed to an affiliate service such as Clickbank or PayDotCom.

3. The affiliate service adds the affiliate’s info as a cookie to the customer’s browser.

4. The visitor is automatically sent to the product site.

5. The visitor clicks the purchase button and is directed back to the affiliate service.

6. The affiliate service facillitates the customer paying for the product.

7. The affiliate data that was inserted on the customer’s computer is read by the affiliate service.

8. By comparing the affiliate data from the customer’s machine the affiliate service distributes funds to the affiliate.

Lets utilize the purchase of a piece of software as an exercise.

SpinChimp is a new spinner released by Aktura Technology. Affiliates recieve 50% of the sale price and the software costs $35. Aktura Technology use Paydotcom to handle their affiliates. Paydotcom needs affiliates to be a member in order to receive payments for their advertising efforts. Most affiliate services are free.

On Paydotcom all goods searching for affiliates are placed in the marketplace. A product is easily found by doing a marketplace search. Every product also has a product page that can be reached by clicking on the product link in the marketplace. This link is used by Paydotcom to decide who to award the sale to (as in step Three above).

Next you need to include the link provided above on your website. Typically to optimize the usefulness of the site more data on the product will be displayed. This extra data might be an article regarding the product, pointing out its is strengths and bad points. Potential customer’s will be more inclined to trust the affiliates data if you are always truthful in your reviews. Normally product suppliers will provide some buttons or banners for affiliates to utilize to assist the affiliate get clicks. In this example buttons and banners for SpinChimp can be found on the affiliate page on the SpinChimp website.

Sometimes software will offer initial trial periods. SpinChimp has a free 3 day trial period. As a result a purchase is unlikely to occur on the same day as the customer clicks on the affiliate’s link. Paydotcom covers this issue as their cookies are stored for six months. Due to this any click of the purchase button will always be directed to Paydotcom. So if the purchase occurs straight away or after the trial period the affiliate will still pick up the transaction irrespective.

The affiliate system’s advantages include being hidden from end customers, and requires only basic modification by the affiliate of their site. This is because all the difficulty is hidden away and handled by the affiliate service.

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