What Is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based marketing in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate's own marketing efforts. In return, the business pays the affiliate a commission for each lead or sale generated. The affiliate marketer does not have any control over where those customers are coming from, but may choose either to promote specific products or services, or allow their affiliate program to automatically select certain content.

The primary difference between Affiliate Marketing and Other Lead Generation Methods (such as SEO) is that Affiliate Marketing relies heavily on trust and referrals. Many companies who offer affiliate programs pay out commissions based on sales referred to them by the affiliates themselves. As a result, the profit margin for these companies is much higher than companies only relying on search engine optimization.