How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

Since this guide is about affiliate marketing for beginners, I'll cover "how affiliate marketing works" in a broad and informative way.

When it comes to an affiliate marketing program, they talk about 3 key points:

• There is a supplier of a product or service
• The partner himself 
• The client (potential new user).

When you browse the web, what you see most often is that many other guides mention the fourth person in this equation - the advertiser. Advertisers are usually guides between product or service creators and partners. I made a conscious decision not to include them in this guide. What for? Mainly because when you are just starting in the affiliate marketing (especially when you want to know what affiliate marketing is), you mainly come across companies that advertise and promote themselves - be it targeted ads on Google, social media advertising promotions, affiliate programs or anything else of that nature.

So let's stick to the three-way structure. For convenience, I will talk first about the main purpose and responsibilities that fall on these groups. Then we'll talk about the process.

1: Product Supplier (Brand, Company, etc.)

At the top of the affiliate marketing chain, we have real sellers of products or services.
These vendors are very diverse, from small one-man-run handicraft stores to huge and internationally renowned companies. Regardless of the actual size of the company, they all have the same huge responsibilities when it comes to what affiliate marketing is - producing quality goods (services) and choosing respectable, worthy partners.

When it comes to having a stock of goods or services, this is honestly an easy task. Even if you owned a very small business and specialized in, say, handmade jewellery, this is still the most important factor. No partner will want to work with you if the products you sell are cheap (but sold and advertised as expensive and of high quality) and may have flaws. People value quality, and a potential partner will be much more interested in a good and quality product.

Affiliates are one of the main cornerstones of what is affiliate marketing, and choosing a good marketing partner is not an easy task either. This part mainly depends on your size as a company, the budget that you are willing to provide for the partner, and the type of product or service you provide.
Again, if you have a small business, it's not a good idea to aim for top tier partners - chances are, the amounts they charge for their advertising services are too high for a small business. There are many good partners who are just starting out. What's more, target content creators - YouTube bloggers, Instagram models and other social media celebrities are becoming incredibly popular in the field.

In short, do the awesome things people want to buy or order, try working with partners to represent your brand the way you want them to, and never stop there!

2: Partner

The main role with which you probably came here to learn about this group. Of course, if you want to know what affiliate marketing is or how affiliate marketing works, you must know a lot about the affiliates themselves.

In this context, partners have the greatest responsibility. I will list the responsibilities below and then go into more detail about this.

• Good content (if you have a social media influencer)
• Transparency (openness)
• Honesty;
• Completeness
• Decency.

Good Content :

To be honest, this only applies to those who have their own followers. However, if you are planning to get into an affiliate business long term, you will need to not only know the basics but also start creating your own content.

What do I mean by good content? It's pretty simple: create content that will not only be interesting to advertisers but also attract the attention of the general public and the advertisers themselves.

When you fully understand what affiliate marketing is, it will allow you to unleash your inner creativity. If you have good and engaging content (be it blog posts, YouTube videos, Instagram photos, etc.), finding an audience becomes much easier. In addition, you are much more likely to attract potential advertisers and product (service) providers who will want to work with you.

Transparency (Openness)

This is a difficult question.

How many times have you seen someone promoting a product and felt like they were missing something?

This does not mean that you have to disclose every bit of information. But it is pretty clear and easy to see when a person is completely honest and transparent, and when he is trying to hide something.

Honesty

This is not an issue to be discussed. Do not lie. Unless you want to lose your entire online audience and any opportunities to participate in future partner companies.

Completeness

When you think about what affiliate marketing is, can you imagine yourself promoting something that you don't like?

Many people are likely to quickly answer with a loud “NO”, but so many people do it that it’s worrying.

Remember, it's always better to say no to a promotion when you don't like it, rather than deciding to follow and then discover that your fans have noticed your fake.

Decency

It may sound strange, but in fact, it is the sum of all the previous qualities.

Do not advertise or promote products or services that you yourself have not tried or do not believe in. Never lie to your audience - always communicate that you are doing paid promotion. And last but not least, stay humble! Modesty and honesty is the key to a long-term relationship between you and your customers. Remember, many people may know what affiliate marketing is and will quickly judge you for trying to sell a product.

3: Buyer (Client)

Honestly, when it comes to affiliate marketing, the client has the least amount of responsibilities.

The only thing that you (as a client) should really do is brush aside fake and deceitful advertising campaigns. Never be afraid to talk about people trying to promote something they have no idea about.

Also, feel free to help content Makers who are transparent and honest in what they do. This will be great feedback because they will feel appreciated.

When you are in the "customer" position, you are not thinking what affiliate marketing is. However, if you've dealt with the subject before, you quickly begin to notice everything around you. A platform like YouTube is a great example of this: almost all major YouTube users associate themselves with some form of affiliate marketing. They are usually approached by companies that want to work with them - that's great. It shows the rest of the world that YouTube has entered the mainstream and that individual creators can make a living with their creations. Plus, the fact that big and influential brands are willing to work with these people is a great indicator of trust.

If this blog is helpful for you to give feedback in a comment.