Affiliate

Categories: Broadcast networks | Electronic commerce

An affiliate is an entity with a relationship with a peer or a larger entity.

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Broadcast networks

In a radio network or TV network, an affiliate is a radio station or TV station that agrees to carry the broadcasts of, but is not owned by, the network. Usually, the stations are still responsible for the content (such as profanity) to some extent. An affiliate is not the same as an owned and operated station, which is owned by the network such a station carries programming for.

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Electronic commerce

Affiliate marketing typically refers to this Electronic commerce version of the traditional agent/referral fee sales channel concept. An e-commerce affiliate is a website which links back to an e-commerce site such as Amazon.com. When a reader of the website clicks on a link, they are connected to the e-tailer and if they purchase something the affiliate receives a small payment, usually a percentage of the money the customer spends. Affiliates can also be referred as advertisers. E-commerce affiliate is a multi billion dollar industry and is expected to rival traditional affiliates in the near future.

Some advertisers offer so called multi-tier affiliate programs that distribute commission into a hierarchical referral network of sign-up's and sub-affliates.

In practical terms: publisher "A" signs up the affiliate program with an advertiser and gets rewarded for the agreed activity conducted by a referred visitor. If publisher "A" attracts other publishers ("B", "C", etc.) to sign up for the same affiliate program using her sign-up code all future activities by the joining publishers "B" and "C" will result in additional, lower commission for publisher "A".

Snowballing, this system rewards a chain of hierarchical publishers who don't know of each others existance, yet generate income for the higher level signup.

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Corporate structure

A corporation may be referred to as an affiliate of another when it is related to it but not strictly controlled by it, as with a subsidiary relationship, or when it is desired to avoid the appearance of control. This is sometimes seen with multinational companies that need to avoid restrictive laws (or negative public opinion) on foreign ownership.

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Affiliate networks

An affiliate network is composed of a group of merchants and a group of affiliates. Merchants join the network and affiliates join the network in order to advertise the merchant products in exchange of a commission from the merchant. Affiliate networks present some great advantages for the merchant and the affiliate. The merchant gets potential access to a wide networks of affiliates. The affiliate does not necessarily need to make a certain sale amount for one particular merchant but rather for the entire range of merchants before getting paid.

The affiliate also puts more trust in a network rather than a merchants independent affiliate program. The merchants pay the overall commission to the network. The network then distributes the money to each affiliate who made the sale.

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List of popular affiliate networks


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Use of affiliate links

Sites made up mostly of affiliate links are usually badly regarded as they do not offer quality content. Affiliate links work effectively when placed in context among quality content. One common use of affiliate links is shopping directories and or price comparison websites. However, these sites should do their best to enhance the web shopping experience.

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List of external links

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