Overview

Definition

Af`fil´i`ate
To connect; to trace origin to.
To connect or associate one's self.
societies connected with a central society, or with each other.
Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Infinitely easy in today's world to establish a professional presence on the internet.. Many major sites, i.e. GeoCities and AOL offer templates to construct simple personal home pages. These sites provide you with a URL, store the content of your page and even attach pre-designated advertisements. And, the miracle of the internet, is that your site can 'go
live' within the period of just a couple of hours.

Yet, what if you want to do more with your site, receive more hits, and even make money off traffic from your site? If you are an online merchant, how can you get people to your site to buy your products? The increasingly popular option that serves both of these functions is an affiliate program.

At the onset, it is important to point out that the internet environment inclusive of Affiliate programs is still highly unregulated. In no time, you will quickly realize that affiliate programs vary widely with respect to structure, quality, reliability, commission rates, statistics, involvement from the parent site offers in terms of marketing associated good and services, etc. Hence, by entering the playing field equipped with a thorough understanding of how overall they function, you will be better primed to maximize your profits