Affiliate marketing is the hottest new thing in India. It has well begun and has become really popular in UK, US and all the developed countries. But what is all about? What is marketing? What is benefit of having such an arrangement? In this article, we will cover all that and more. And for the benefit of lay persons, I will keep it really simple.

Ok, let us start from the scratch. What is affiliate marketing? It is basically a form of online marketing and promotion where a business pays commission to affiliates for every leads generated from their web site. Confusing? Ok, let’s make it simpler. For example, you have a business and you have a website for the business (as an aside, it has really become important to have a website for your business, in the current era). Now you promote your website on an affiliate’s web site (your ad etc.).

Now the affiliate’s web site, where you have put your ad, has a set of visitors. These visitors read the site and also see your ad up there. They get interested and click on the ad which takes them to a landing page you decide. Now there, in the landing page, you put an activity for them (let’s say – to fill up some form or make a purchase). If the visitor does what you want him or her to do, then that is a lead generation.

For this you pay your a commission for bringing

a relevant target to your site. That is in simple words – affiliates marketing. When you become interested in marketing, you may come across words like merchants, affiliates etc. Who are they? Merchants – you when you place your ad in the affiliate’s web site. And affiliates are those who put up the ad for other businesses on their site.