Internet Marketing Training by Steve Renner

Today we are going to talk about Internet Marketing specifically,
traditional Affiliate Marketing. Traditional Affiliate Marketing is about
representing a product or service for a Merchant in exchange for
compensation, in the form of Commissions, or Advertising Bonuses. In it's
most basic terms, it's Online Direct Sales. The Afiliates job is to drive
potential customers to the Merchant then it is the Merchants job to Convert
that visitor into a buyer, or make the sale.

Affiliate marketing dates back to the olden days of 1994 and CDnow. Jason
and Matthew Olim twins brothers founded the world's biggest online music
store from the basement of their parents' house. They started in 1994 with
an investment of only $1500. Within three years, they had done over sixteen
million dollars in sales. They had a clear vision and a great new idea- an
online CD Service with its own database of Reviews and Information. This has
become the business model for countless online businesses. They were also
lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. The Internet was
just starting to become popular, and the number of users went into
exponential growth. They had a product that was easy to order, and ship. And
actually they did not even ship the product. This was done by the
manufacturers, (Record Companies). And the biggest factor in their
Incredible growth was a brilliant idea, their BuyWeb program, the new
business model for Affiliate Programs, where people putting CDnow links onto
their site are paid a commission on any Click Thru sales.
This is arguably one of the 1st Affiliate Programs.

Amazon claims to be the first with their Affiliate Program, their FAQ
states: Our Associates Program, the first on the Web, started in July 1996.
There is a phenomenal opportunity to make money online as an Affiliate. And
there are also extremely attractive benefits. Affiliate Marketing programs
is a Win Win for both the Merchant and the Affiliate.

An Affiliate Program is a Pay For Performance program, which means
Commissions or Bonuses are only paid when a product is sold. So the Merchant
has an extremely Cost Effective way to get his products and services out
into the marketplace. The more Affiliates a Merchant has promoting his
product or service, the higher the traffic, which he can potentially convert
to sales.

The Affiliate has no cost associated to Products, Inventory, Shipping, or
any of the typical expenses associated with running your own business. The
Affiliate simply refers customers, and when they make a purchase he gets
paid! Now this is rather simplified version, but we will cover it in further
detail in future updates. To get more in depth information on Internet
Marketing and Affiliate Marketing check out The Affiliate Community.

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Steve Renner is an Internet Marketing Expert. He is the Marketing Director
for The Affiliate Community an online Training Site with over 200,000
Members worldwide. Steve has been marketing online since 1998. He has built
an organization of over 200,000 Affiliates and has generated over $60
Million in online sales.
http://www.affiliatecommunity.com