What is affiliate marketing (and how to use it to your advantage)

Affiliate marketing is a strategic approach where businesses collaborate with content creators, influencers, or bloggers to promote products, with the affiliates earning commissions based on successful conversions tracked through unique links. This model benefits both parties: businesses reach potential customers through trusted voices, while affiliates can monetize their content with minimal effort, often promoting products they already use. The process involves contracts detailing promotional methods and commission structures, with affiliate content requiring FTC-compliant disclosures to maintain transparency and trust. Affiliates use tracking cookies to monitor customer interactions, with commissions typically ranging from 5-10% of sales, though they can vary. The effectiveness and profitability of affiliate marketing depend on the alignment between the affiliates’ audience and the promoted product, as well as the affiliates' ability to use SEO to expand their reach. There are three main types of affiliate marketing: unattached, related, and involved, each varying in the level of personal connection and endorsement of the product, with involved affiliate marketing being the most impactful but requiring the most effort.