Affiliate Programs

Basically an affiliate program is an arrangement whereby you pay a commission to any affiliate who refers a sale to your site.

For example Mrs A joins your affiliate program & you provide her with a custom link that tracks every visitor she sends to your site. If one of her referred visitors makes a purchase either immediately or in a time scale predefined by you then Mrs A earns a commission.

Affiliate programs can also be operated as 2 tier programs, which means somebody who refers an affiliate to you would earn a commission each time the referred affiliate made a sale. So for example if Mrs A referred Mr B to your affiliate program then every time Mr B refers a sale Mrs A earns a percentage also.

The key benefit of a 2 tier program is that there are people who will recruit affiliates for you.

To have your own affiliate program you can either set up a script on your web server, which is like a computer program that manages everything for you. Or you can choose a hosted solution whereby all the software is managed somewhere else and you just have to add sales buttons to your site.

The most comprehensive affiliate solution is the hosted service 1Shopping Cart this solution as the name suggests includes a shopping cart solution if required. 1Shopping Cart is US based but operates in any currency.