In our last installment of Internet marketing terms, we covered some terms common to affiliate marketing. In this installment, we’re going to pick up where we left off and cover some more affiliate marketing terms.
Affiliate Network – An affiliate network is an intermediary between the merchant and the affiliate. An affiliate network will usually provide services such as tracking so that affiliates are properly credited with sales. Affiliate networks may also take on the added responsibility of collecting payment. Probably the most popular and biggest affiliate network today is Clickbank that sponsors over 100,000 products.
Affiliate Software – Affiliate software is software that is used to make an affiliate program run. This software takes many forms, such as keeping track of commissions, signups, clicks, conversion percentage and a variety of things. Some software is very simple and just does the basics while other software is very complex and allows for things such as split and multi level commissions.
Exclusivity – This is a term used for an affiliate program where one party, usually the publisher or merchant, grants exclusive rights to the affiliate. In other words, that affiliate will be the only one allowed to promote the program in question. Exclusive contracts are very rare unless the merchant is sure that this particular affiliate can generate enough sales for him to make it worth while.
Payment Threshold – This is a concept that a lot of new affiliates don’t understand. They make a few sales, a month goes by and they expect payment of their commissions to be made only to find out that they’re not made. Many affiliate programs have what is known as a payment threshold. This is an amount that the affiliate has to reach in order to be paid. Some programs have a low threshold, such as $10 and others have a very high threshold, such as $100 or more. And there are some programs that allow the affiliate to choose their threshold. These are the most popular.
Return Days – This is another concept that a lot of new affiliates don’t understand. This is the number of days that a customer can return to the site and the affiliate who sent them there will still receive credit for the sale, even if other affiliates have sent the customer there since. This of course depends on whether the program uses a first in or last in cookie method. Many of the affiliate networks, such as Clickbank, use a last in cookie method, so the return days is not a factor.
Super Affiliate – A super affiliate is just that, an affiliate who makes a large number of sales for an affiliate program. Super affiliates are high in demand and can usually make the difference between a program that is marginally successful and one that is a huge success.
Two-Tier Affiliate Program – This is an affiliate program that pays affiliates on two levels. Most two-tier programs pay a higher commission on level 1 than level 2 but there are a few out there that actually reward people for bringing in more affiliates under them rather than just make all the sales themselves.
In our next installment, we’ll go over some more Internet marketing terms.
See you then.
