Affiliate Marketing Programs

Affiliate eCommerce Store Marketing is the art of selling someone elses products using a website you design and maintain. You become an affiliate by going to a company that has an affiliate program, signing up with them, and then placing their products in a store you control and getting people to come to your store.

From the customer's perspective, they are shopping at your store, but they are actually purchasing from the company to which you are affilated. The company then pays you a percentage of the product price. Two of the best affiliate programs are Amazon and eBay. When a potential customer sees "Powered by Amazon" or "Powered by eBay" it instills confidence in your product. They also know that the actual sale and shipping will be handled by a company they trust.

Of course, affiliate stores can sell one company's products or the products of hundreds of companies. However, the more companies you affiliate with the more difficult it becomes to track your earnings. This is where the affiliate networks come into play.

There are two affiliate networks that control most of the market. They are Commission Junction and Clickbank. The affiliate networks aggregate your earnings from a multitute of affiliate programs they provide and you don't have to keep track of the commissions. They do it for you and pay you when you reach an agreed upon dollar amount.