An affiliate can link to a merchant's site many ways nowadays. The best choice of link will depend on the nature of the affiliate and the industry of the merchant. Common types of links include:

• Text links: The advantage of text links to the affiliate is that you can blend them directly into the content of your site and so they don't look like advertisements.
  
  
• Banner links: Can be highly attractive and still get a visitors attention, but people are becoming increasingly "banner blind" which is causing text links to be increasingly effective in generating sales.
  
  
• Search box: This type of link allows visitors to search through the merchant offerings. Obviously having the first page the visitor sees on the merchant site, full of products that the visitor is currently looking for makes the search box a very powerful tool in affiliate marketing.

There are several ways affiliate programs use these links:

• Link to merchant homepages: This is the most basic landing page (initial page). If an affiliate wants to just point the visitor at everything the merchant has to offer then this is the best option to take.
  
  
• Product-specific merchant pages: If an affiliate is targetting sales at a specific product (e.g. the merchant is offering a nice bonus on that product this month), they can link to that product's page directly on the merchant web site. This makes the sale easier to make for the affiliate.
  
  
• Pre created web storefronts: To display a variety of products, you can link to a storefront. Pre created storefronts are automatically maintained by the merchant web site, this can be a "Most popular items" page. The merchant is free to change what products are on display, but the URL to get to the page is always the same so that the affiliate doesn't have to change the link code.
  
  
• Co-branding: With some affiliate programs, affiliates keep their web site identity even after a customer clicks on the link to the merchant. The merchant web site takes care of the sales, and will usually host the pages, but the merchant will configure the page so that it appears as though it's still part of the original affiliate web site perhaps by including the affiliate web site's logo or even the entire colour scheme as a template. The similarity of the two different sites makes it harder for the visitor to realise that they are buying from the merchant rather than the affiliate.

 

What is the Technology Behind Affiliate Marketing?

How do affiliate networks know where traffic going to a merchants web site is coming from?. Most links are created so that the visitor doesn't go directly to the merchant web site, but is initally directed to a page on the affiliate network site. The URL used to get to the network page contains several parameters which can include:

• The ID of the affiliate
• The ID of the merchant
• The URL of the merchant web site

Once the visitor clicks on the link, the network site records a hit on that URL with its parameters, which tells the network system what affiliate sent the visitor to that merchant. The visitor is then immediately redirected to the merchant site. This happens very quickly that it can be hard to notice for the average web user.

Networks can track sales using cookies containing the same identification numbers as the URLs, so they know what affiliate referred the customer to the merchant many days later as some merchants will pay you a commission even if the visitor does not make the purchase straight away.

Next - Signs of a Successful Affiliate Program?