What Are Affiliate Programs ?

And Why Do They Exist ?

What are affiliate programs ?

In order to understand 'affiliate programs', we need to define the terms 'Affiliate' and 'Program'.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary:

The word 'affiliate' is defined as:
"to bring or receive into close connection as a member or branch".

The word 'program' is defined as:
'a plan or system under which action may be taken toward a goal'.

So - an 'affiliate program' is simply establishing a close connection ( between you as a 'promoter' and someone else with a 'tangible offer' ) toward a common goal ( making money for both of you ).

Why do they exist ?

Well, as stated above, to make money.

For you and whomever you decide to partner with toward your goal.

How much money ?

That depends on 2 things:

1. How much your partner with the 'tangible offer' is willing to pay
2. How much time and effort you put into promoting the offer

Overall it's a pretty simple business strategy, but as with any business you do need to choose your partners wisely.

Affiliate programs can pay as little as pennies or up to hundreds of dollars depending on the offer.

I'm sure the hundreds of dollars offers don't need any explanation, so let me focus for a minute on why you would promote an offer for only pennies, and why they're so important.

Imagine you live in a quite residential neighborhood, and only a few cars come by your house every day ( this is 'traffic' ). I offer to pay you 1 penny for everyone that drives by your house ( 'traffic' ). If you only get 20 people driving by each day, you're only going to get paid 20 cents each day.

Now, imagine you live alongside a major highway where thousands of cars come by each day. I offer to pay you 1 penny for everyone that drives by your house ( 'traffic' ). If 5,000 people drive by your house each day I'm going to pay you $50 every day.

The above scenarios are the same on the internet, only it's called 'web traffic'. That's the number of visitors to your site each day. Whether you sell anything else or not, if you get enough 'web traffic' and can get paid a few cents for everyone that comes by then the $50 per day X 30 days in a month is an additional $1,500 per month. And that's IN ADDITION TO the larger commisions you will be making from your primary offers.