I was at one of my favorite forums one day when I came up with the idea of maybe doing something nice for somebody without expecting anything in return. So I started a “pay it forward” thread. Basically, the way it worked was simple. I made an offer to do something for somebody if in return they did something for somebody else.
Well, along the course of the way, somebody came up with an idea for an article that they would have liked. I thought about it and realized that with everything that I had ever written, and I have written quite a bit, this was an idea that I had never come up with. Well, in giving it a lot of thought, I decided that not only would I write a single article on the subject, but I would also turn it into a whole series. And believe me, it won’t be hard to do.
So what am I talking about? Well, have you ever noticed that along the course of your Internet marketing career occasionally, somebody would throw a term at you that you had no idea what it meant or what they were talking about. Oh come on, let’s face it. It happens to all of us, especially with new terms, which are coming out all the time. So I decided that an Internet marketing terms for newbies was in order. This would be a series of articles on related terms to various topics. By doing this, it is my hope that the next time you’re in a conversation with somebody and they’re talking about SEO, you won’t stand there with a blank stare because you have no idea what they’re talking about.
So that is what this volume is about. How many will follow is anybody’s guess. Should prove to be very interesting.
In this first installment of Internet marketing terms, we’re going to concentrate on terms that all have to do with affiliate marketing, since this is a topic that is so popular with people first breaking into Internet marketing. It is much easier, at the start, to sell somebody else’s product than to try to create your own from scratch.
Affiliate – An affiliate is somebody who, in an affiliate marketing relationship, is the person who sells the product in question. The person who’s product it is would be the publisher or vendor. In many cases, all are referred to as affiliates, though the line is rather blurred between what an affiliate is in reality and what the perception is. For the purposes of your “common” definition, if you are a person who is selling a product online and the product is not your own, then you are an affiliate of that product.
Affiliate Directory – An affiliate directory is nothing more than a listing of affiliate programs. There are many affiliate directories on the Internet. Some are free to get your listing in and others have a charge associated with them. For the most part, affiliate directories aren’t a lot of help because of the large number of affiliate programs out there, unless you spend money to get a top page one listing, and most of those are quite pricey.
Affiliate Forum – An affiliate forum is a place where affiliates get together to discuss affiliate strategies for promoting products as well as for discussing the latest affiliate program that has come out. This is a great place to get your affiliate program noticed if you’ve just come out with one.
Affiliate Fraud – Affiliate fraud is actually a very serious problem and in some ways is totally out of control. I don’t really want to reveal the ways that affiliates commit fraud here because that is only going to add more fuel to the fire, but what affiliate fraud is in actuality, is an affiliate getting a commission for an affiliate sale that he didn’t legitimately earn. I’ll leave it at that.
Affiliate Marketing – This is the practice of actually getting out there in the marketplace and promoting the affiliate program that you are a member of. The marketing itself can take many forms, such as advertising using pay per click search engines, submitting articles to directories, submitting ads to safelists, and so on. The end result is that affiliates get compensated a set commission rate based on their sales and performance by the vendors who own the product or service.
Affiliate Merchant – The affiliate merchant is the person who is commonly referred to as the vendor. The merchant is responsible for setting up the affiliate program and paying all the affiliates for each sale that they earn. A merchant has an awful lot of work to do in order to get an affiliate program up and running, not the least of which is securing a merchant account so that they can accept payments.
In our next installment, we’ll continue our Internet marketing terms with more on affiliate marketing.
See you then.
