| Affiliate marketing is one of the easier way to start an | | | | e-book that contains dozen of great mountain biking |
| online business. A person can simply register with the | | | | trails location in the country. As the affiliate or "middle |
| merchant as an affiliate and start promoting the | | | | man", you target people searching for mountain biking |
| product immediate. There are hundreds of affiliate | | | | information, and work to get them onto your e-mail |
| program on the internet. Does affiliate marketing add | | | | follow-up list by offering them a free report on one of |
| any value to the online buying process? | | | | the mountain biking trail. |
| First, understand there are three parties in the affiliate | | | | You have given the potential buyer some high quality |
| marketing system: | | | | information up front. But you are also going to give him |
| 1) The Buyer - who is looking for information | | | | additional information in your e-mail follow-ups. The |
| 2) The Seller - or the "information product" creator | | | | follow-ups could include more brief trail reviews. In |
| who wants to sell his work to the buyer. | | | | other words, you send to the prospect some |
| 3) The third party is the affiliate, who function is the | | | | information of value that is directly tied to the e-book |
| "middle person" between the buyer and the seller. The | | | | you want them to purchase. |
| job of the affiliate is to connect the buyer and the | | | | As you can see, affiliate marketing does add value to |
| seller. | | | | the online buying process. The affiliate does this by |
| The affiliate marketer adds value to the whole | | | | providing quality preliminary information to a potential |
| process by providing some information to the potential | | | | buyer to assist him in the buying process. In the end, |
| customer, ultimately whetting his appetite for more. For | | | | the role of an affiliate is to create trust and credibility |
| example, let say you decide to target the "mountain | | | | for the merchant to their potential customers. |
| biking" niche, and you are promoting as an affiliate an | | | | |