A recent new hire had a few questions about affiliate marketing after her first few weeks on the job and since they’re questions I hear frequently from new hires, I asked Linda if she might have a use for some FAQ’s aimed at new affiliates. Obviously, her answer was yes. Below is a listing of the most common questions I get with my answers to them. My goal is to explain things so they can be easily understood by someone not familiar with the ins and outs of affiliate marketing.

What is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing boils down to one basic action - paying an online publisher (someone who owns and operates a website) a commission for referring traffic or customers or sales (which actions are paid for are determined by the merchant) to a participating merchant’s website. To put it even simpler terms, affiliate marketers are basically salespeople who don’t actually work for the company they make sales for and only get paid in commissions.