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.