Read These 10 Definitions Before You Start Affiliate Marketing

Not unrelated to the dream of quitting a 9-5 job to work from home, a strong education in affiliate marketing is something many bloggers place on a pedestal.

But in today’s era of online training, the noise can take away from core concepts we need to grasp before churning dollars out of webpages.

So if you’re just starting out, this webpage is a good place to start your journey.

Below are 10 cornerstone concepts in affiliate marketing interrelated and explained with a few other healthy snippets of advice too.

If you think I missed a core concept or term, please explain it in the comments!

Affiliate marketing concepts, definitions and relationships

1. Backlink – “the guest post contained two backlinks to her website, one in the post and one in the bio” 

   An incoming or outgoing hyperlink connection from one website to another webpage or vise versa. You ideally want high ranking websites to create backlinks pointing to your content in order to rank that content higher in Google Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). Backlinks and popularity often hold reciprocal meanings.

2. Clicks – “his affiliate link received 14 clicks on Wednesday but no conversions” 

   The physical and deliberate action a user takes to visit your link or advertisement. More clicks will often result in more actions, and thus more commissions.

3. Actions – “as clicks increased on her advert, so did customer actions” 

   The decision a user makes based on your review and content to make a monetary purchase on some 3rd party website. Tracked alongside clicks.

4. Conversions – “persuasive copy – as well as clearly explaining problems and solutions – can result in increased conversions”“writing longer content increased conversions”“changing the color of the buttons decreased sign up conversions by 25%”

   A conversion is a desirable form of action for any affiliate marketer. It often refers to the complete process of taking a user from reader to follower to potential buyer to buyer. Affiliate websites may convert via any number of online marketing strategies and content styles – what works should be unique to you.

5. Commission – “she reached 100 commissions for the month of May and bought a new television” 

   The dollar value paid to you per action, which can be tracked to your efforts. Commissions are often counted in real time and paid out at the end of the month. Commissions may be increased in amount or amount-per-action based on increased performance.

6. Payout – “payouts are made at a $100 threshold on the first of the month” 

   A set time period window during which the 3rd party company pays you as their affiliate and other affiliates too, who have eligible commissions. Often monthly.

7. Disclosure – “content may be penalized if there is no clear affiliate disclosure” 

   An FTC mandated statement you write letting your readers know you stand to receive a commission from a 3rd party company. Could often be any appropriate means of letting readers know there is a material connection between you and a firm which the reader should be aware of and factor into their decisions to buy or not buy.

8. Referral –  “after 1 year in the industry, she discovered a new stream of referral traffic” 

   A new customer you send to a 3rd party firm. Referrals are commonly sent via tracking links and coupons which are unique to the affiliate marketer.

9. Tracking – “he loved the old tracking system, but the new system let him better understand the results” 

   The process your affiliate network or 3rd party firm uses to understand your performance each month. You login to see your statistics and other numbers, all of which are likely subject to tracking.

10. SERP – “a jump from #3 to #2 in the SERPs resulted in a 4% increase in click thru rate“ 

    A Search Engine Results Page. This term is often misunderstood to mean a more complex aspect of SEO, however a SERP is simply a list of results returned by a search engine like Google in response to a keyword query. Such results often consist of 10 or more blurbs containing titles and short descriptions, linked to the original piece of content. A unique piece of content you create can only appear in several SERPs for various, related keyword queries. It would also be possible for two pieces of unique content to be returned by a search engine like Google in one single SERP. The knowledge of how to “beat” SERPs by rising higher in them is how affiliate marketers gain more visibility for their content – thus SERP ranking is a heavily important variable in any affiliate marketing strategy.

But oh, there are more! Please note that explanations may vary source to source and it is wise to consult many sources to gain a well-rounded understanding!

Affiliate what?

Got questions on how this all works? Need to drop off your burning advice?

Hit up the comments and thanks for reading!