Affiliate Marketing Definition
Affiliate marketing can best be described as an online customer referral service.
By providing reviews, price comparisons, or other merit-based information, the affiliate Website guides the customer to another Website where they purchase a product or service. The affiliate Website receives a referral fee from this transaction.
A less direct form of affiliate marketing is the publication of Website banner advertisements. In this case, the affiliate allows banner ads to be placed near informational Website content. When a visitor clicks on the banner and buys a product, the affiliate site is paid a referral fee. Not all banner ads are pay-per-sale, many are pay-per-click and also pay-per-view.
In “A Practical Guide To Affiliate Marketing”, by Evgenii “Geno” Prussakov, affiliate marketing is defined as follows:
“Affiliate Marketing is basically performance based marketing, whereby affiliates/partners promote a merchant’s product/service and get remunerated for every sale, visit, or subscription sent to the merchant. The most frequently used payment arrangements include: pay-per-sale, pay-per-lead, and pay per click compensations.”
According to Prussakov, Amazon.com started its original marketing program BuyWeb in 1994, and its current Associates Program in 1996.
Lenspricecompare.com, along with many other price comparisons sites, uses the pay-per-sale model to refer products and services to site visitors. Lenspricecompare.com refers visitors mostly based on contact lens prices, and is paid for sales generated through referrals.
Affiliate marketing has existed on the Web since large-scale commercialization began. Because the Web is structured as it is, affiliate marketing will be around as long as commerce continues to grow or remains in flux.
April 14th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
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