What Is Affiliate Marketing?

(Also known as Merchant Referral Marketing [MRM] or Performance Marketing [PM])

 

 

 

Section One:  Summary Definition Step-By-Step

 

Step One: 

Sign Up With A Company As Their Affiliate

(Note: As a Teamwork Team Member You Already Have A Company Provided To You.)

  

 

 

Step Two: 

Set Up Your Affiliate Marketing Business Blogs, Squeeze Pages, Business Twitter, Auto Responder Email Messages, Ads, and Social Network Business Profile Pages

(Note:  Yes, it is a lot of work, as any business is and you do have to put work into it to be successful.  As a Teamwork Team Member we are here to help you get all set up by giving you step-by-step instructions, which you have to put action to and follow through the instructions.)

 

 

 

Step Three:  

(a) Someone That You Referred Personally To Your Affiliate URL Sign-Up Page On The Company's Site That Was Given To You When You Signed Up To Be That Company's Affiliate Follows Through And Signs Up For That Company's Product Or Services;  

Or

(b) Someone Clicks On One Of Your Links On One Of Your Blogs, Social Business Pages, Internet Ad, Twitter Business Link, Or Email Auto Responder Messages Links

After Clicking Your Affiliate Link The Person Lands On The Company's Website On Your Assigned Affiliate URL (this is how the Company knows to credit you for referring a new customer to them) Sign Up Page. 

Next, If That Person Follows Through And Registers On The Company's Website And Then Decides To Buy A Service Or Product Then The Company Rewards You A Certain Percentage Of Each Sale Because You Brought That New Customer To The Company.  Whenever That New Customer That You Brought To The Company Pays/Renews Their Subscription Or Service(s) Each Month Or Comes Back And Buys A Product Again (Repeat Customer) Then The Company Continues To Reward You A Certain Percentage Of Each Sale/Repeat Sale Made Because You Brought That Customer To The Company. 

You Do Not Work For The Company.  You Are An Independent Affiliate Referring Customers And Are Rewarded For Bringing New Customers To The Company Through Your Personalized Affiliate Link. 

Companies Love Affiliate Programs Because They Are A Win-Win.  The Company Gets Much More Exposure Through Affiliate Marketing Efforts And The Affiliate Gets A Commission Reward For Referring Customers And The Sales Those Customers Generate.

 

 

 

Step Four: 

Company Credits You With Your Commission And You Can Withdraw Your Earnings Whenever They Reach The Withdrawal/Payout Minimum Limit As Set Forth In The Company's Affiliate Terms Contract.  Company Pays Out And You Receive Your Customer Referral Commission.

Some Companies Also Give You An Affiliate Section (Sometimes Referred To As A Back Office) When You Are Logged Into Their Company Site Where Most Often You Are A Customer Of Theirs.  This Affiliate Section (Back Office) You Can Keep Track Of Which Of Your Referrals Became Customers Of The Company And How Much Your Referral Commissions Are So You Will Know When The Payout Threshold Has Been Reached And You Can Request To Cash Out Your Customer Referral Commission.

 

 

 

 

Affiliate marketing is a marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate's own marketing efforts. Examples include rewards sites, where users are rewarded with cash or gifts, for the completion of an offer, and the referral of others to the site. The industry has four core players: the merchant (also known as 'retailer' or 'brand'), the network, the publisher (also known as 'the affiliate'), and the customer. The market has grown in complexity to warrant a secondary tier of players, including affiliate management agencies, super-affiliates and specialized third parties vendors.

 

Affiliate marketing overlaps with other Internet marketing methods to some degree, because affiliates often use regular advertising methods. Those methods include organic search engine optimization (SEO), paid search engine marketing, paid e-mail marketing, auto-responder email marketing, and in some sense display advertising. On the other hand,  the most successful affiliate marketers use less orthodox techniques, such as publishing reviews of products or services offered by the company they have signed on as an affiliate in a affiliate business blog, affiliate webpage (squeeze page), or carefully placed solo ads. 

 

Note:  SEC and other U.S. government regulators and agencies, the European Union (EU) international board of internet regulators,  as well as the legal department of any legitimate company that has an affiliate marketing program you are an affiliate for do monitor and are very serious about affiliates following the proper business ethics and rules of affiliate marketing.  Violation(s) will result in any one of or combination of or all of, depending on the seriousness of the violation, of the following:

(1) being banned from the affiliate program of the company you are an affiliate of forfeiting all customer referral commissions due at the time; and/or 

(2) the company you sent customers to suing you for not representing their company and services or products in a professional business manner and not following their stated mission statement; and/or

(3) subject you and the company you were an affiliate marketer for to fines and penalties; and/or

(4) being banned from the site(s) where your affiliate business blogs, social business page(s), etc. were set up with your affiliate referral link(s). 

The above is not done to hinder affiliate marketers but to make sure of the integrity of the company's affiliate marketing program.  If affiliates are not abiding by the guidelines and accepted practices of affiliate marketing then they could jepordize and subject the company they are an affiliate for to lawsuits and fines and penalties by regulatory agencies.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has revised its Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising. In its commentary, the FTC referenced and adopted WOMMA’s guidance in several instances, looking favorably upon the Association’s own Ethics Code, and adopting WOMMA’s suggestion that only “sponsored” communications should fall within the scope of the Guides. 

Honesty ROI

 
More chatter is happening regarding the Federal Trade Commission’s guidelines on endorsements and testimonials in online marketing. It’s not an easy topic for us marketers to understand. However, it is something we will need to understand if physical word-of-mouth and digital word-of-mouth are to remain the most credible form of advertising.
 
Report from the Congressional Research Service
 
On the regulatory front, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released guidelines calling on bloggers to disclose paid product reviews, and in December 2010 recommended a Do Not Track function to allow consumers to prevent advertising and other firms from collecting data about individuals’ online activities. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is examining pharmaceutical marketing in social networks and could propose guidance for online marketing early in 2011. In December 2010, the Department of Commerce Internet Policy Task Force released a paper on commercial privacy issues. 
 
The EU international board of internet regulators meet every year at Amsterdam, Netherlands to set or upgrade internet international regulations policy, update policies on violations/fines, and discuss future goals of internet regulation policies. The EU international board is made up of representatives from all the countries that make up the European Union. International internet regulations violation cases are brought before the International Court at The Hague (Netherlands).  
 
 

 

 

 

Section Two:  Expanded Affiliate Marketing Information

 

 

Sign Up With A Company As Their Affiliate:

 

When you decide to become an affiliate marketer, you would spend time researching companies that offer affiliate programs.  In your research you would spend time on each company's website that you like and really take the time to read through the company's mission and vision statements and about their products/services to make sure this is a company that you could stand behind and recommend their products as an affiliate for them.  When you find the one or two you want to be an affiliate for then read through the affiliate terms and conditions (each company's will vary because they are customized to that particular company's mission, vision, and marketing strategy).  If you agree to the affiliate contract terms, then sign up as an affiliate.  Some companies will approve you within minutes and others may take a day or so to approve you.

You have filled out the affiliate application and you have been approved.  Congratulations, you are now an affiliate marketer.

 

Now, How Does Being A Teamwork Entrepreneur Success Team (Hereinafter referred to as:Teamwork) Member Save You A Lot Of Time On This First Step?

 

Glad you asked!  

 

Teamwork Makes The Dream Work company's co-owners have already researched and done due diligence of several companies and have chosen a great company for you to become an affiliate marketer for, so most of the step one process has been done for you.  All you have to do is sign up for the chosen company's affiliate marketing program.

 

What is this company's name? 

 

It is Qubeey, Inc. and you will receive all the information you need in a Teamwork message to all members when the company is ready to launch their affiliate marketing program, which will be very soon.  Listen to the Teamwork radio show        for a soon coming announcement of this exciting affiliate program. 

 

 

 

 

Affiliate Marketing Industry Best Standard Practices:

 

 

  • Affiliate Marketing Is More Professional:  One reason businesses love affiliate marketing programs is because they consider it to be more professional and serious than Multi Level Marketing.  Afilliate Marketing is not MLM.

 

  • Affiliate Marketing Is An Integral Carefully Planned Part Of A Company's Marketing Department Strategy:  Affiliate Marketing is you (a company's affiliate marketer) using your affiliate business webpage, business affiliate twitter, affiliate business blog, and/or affiliate business fan page, all of which are set up specifically for you to represent the company's product(s) or services that you are an affiliate marketer for to drive traffic to the company's website via your specially assigned affiliate url.  This is the format of affiliate marketing, which is frequently overlooked by advertisers.  While search engines, email, and website syndication that companies' marketing departments already have in place captures much of the attention of online retailers, affiliate marketing exists to carry a much lower profile advertising for the companies rounding out their entire marketing department strategy.  Thus, affiliates play a significant marketing strategy role for eCommerce.  Since it is such a significant part of eCommerce companies' marketing strategy, it is closely monitored to assure that the affiliates are not mis-representing the company they are an affiliate for, which would cause harm to the credibility of those eCommerce companies. 

 

  • Business Is Business - To be successful online you have to treat your website like a "brick and mortar" business, whether it is an affiliate marketing site (i.e., website squeeze page - one page professional overview or introduction of the product(s) and/or service(s) of the company you are an affiliate marketer for with a sign up form for more info or to sign up for a free newsletter, which grows your networking list and then you have opted in permission to send your affiliate information to your new contact) or your own business eCommerce website.

 

  • You Need A Solid Plan  -  You need to set aside time to creating your plan with small goals and larger goals and you need to tweak it from time to time to keep you on track.  Your Goals should be S.M.A.R.T. 

 

 

 

    

 

 

 

                    

 

 

 

 

 

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