Welcome to the next section called affiliate links and affiliate marketing

But first let us define what affiliate marketing is about

What is affiliate marketing?

So lets take a look first at the affiliate marketing model and why does it exist.

The affiliate marketing business model is really the lifeline of any online business and this is why its not only very popular, it will never really go away, so now I am going to explain to you why this business model is the most popular one online for both business and product owners and for affiliate marketers like us.

So lets imagine that you own a website that sell some kind of product or service and of course you want to promote you website and business to get customers visiting your site and buying what you have to offer.

So then you will need to place adverts online somewhere or pay for traffic to get to your site, the problem with this model is the risk factor is high for the business owner because you have to pay for the adverts or click even if you do not get any sales form these adverts.

So there is a financial risk involved as with all advertising, due tot he fact that you have to pay the cost of advertising weather or not you make any sales.

So enter the affiliate marketer, for any business this is a dream come true, you see, you don't have to pay the affiliate unless you make any sales. We do all the hard work and promote theses products but we only get paid if we get a sale form the people that we send to the business owner therefore the business owner has no financial risk at all.

This is the main reason that affiliate marketing will never go away because it is so profitable for the business owners and its risk free for the business owners as well.

Just think about the amount of traffic that is sent to Amazon from affiliate marketing, amazon is really successful due to affiliate marketers

Its got an army of affiliates that only get paid if there is a sale made and amazon and does not need to spend a dime on advertising because people like us do it for free with all the risk on us, and there is no risk to them, now maybe you can see why affiliate marketing is the most popular business model online, it is very profitable to have an army of affiliate promoting your business, rather than trying to do it your self.

So now lets take a look at affiliate links

What is an affiliate link

Well put simply, they are for us the most important links because without them we can not get paid or promote other people products or services and that is what we are here to learn to do here on WA

Your affiliate link is a link you have to get form your affiliate network or program which is a link that is unique to you, so when you place this link on your site and someone clicks on it, it will take them to the offer your are promoting and if they purchase or take the action required, then you get paid

Its worth noting here that not all affiliate marketing is about promoting offers that people buy there are other types of offers called CPA offers which sands for Cost Per Action, this type of offer pays you to get leads for business and you get paid if they take the free offer or fill out there details and give there e mail address

This is known as CPA marketing and CPA stands for Cost Per Action or Cost Per Acquisition, you get paid if the person you send to the offer takes the necessary action

So now you have a basic grasp of affiliate marketing in the next section we will take a look at an actual affiliate link where I will show you how to do the following things

1. Cloak a affiliate link with the pretty link plugin

2. Track your links with the pretty link plugin

3. Embed an affiliate link on your page within your content

4. Embed an affiliate link into a banner

5. Display an affiliate banner in a widget on the side bar