Affiliate programs have been around for a while. Amazon was the first comapny to introduce an affiliate program and let people participate in the sales process and the revenue. However, after large affiliate networks started to enter the market it seems like everybody is trying to make money as an affiliate.

Online merchants find affiliate marketing highly advantageous due to the fact that it presents little to no risk both for the merchant and the ‘affiliate.’ The way it works is that the affiliate earns a type of commission or fixed amount based on the number of sales the affiliate brings to the merchant, either through on-line links on the affiliates website – or through email, blogs, rss feeds and many other kinds of on-line communication.

Some merchants (only about 1% of affiliate marketing) use a cost-per-click remuneration system, which simply means that the affiliate earns every time an internet searcher clicks on an advert on their site or email. However, due to fraudsters taking advantage of this method (creating ad-ware, sending spam, or useless indexing sites) this form of remuneration is not preferred and becomes too risky for merchants to use.

With automated software such as Google Shadow you can automate a great deal of your affiliate business. Affiliate marketing also bears no cost on the merchant in the original set-up – in other words, it costs nothing to place advertising banners on affiliate’s sites, and there is only a cost if a lead or sale has been generated (which is advantageous for all.) Merchants also get to set the parameters, and decide on the incentive schemes. Thus, it is a very inexpensive (but highly efficient way) to grow a business.

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