How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

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Affiliate Marketing is a popular method of promoting web businesses in which an affiliate is rewarded for every visitor, subscriber and/or customer provided through his efforts. It is a modern variation of the practice of paying finder's-fees for the introduction of new clients to a business. Compensation may be made based on a certain value for each visit (Pay-per-click), registrant (Pay-per-lead), or a commission for each customer or sale (Pay-per-Sale).
The most attractive aspect of affiliate marketing, from the merchant's viewpoint, is that no payment is due to an affiliate until results are realized.
Some e-commerce sites, such as Amazon.com run their own affiliate programs while other e-commerce vendors use third party services provided by intermediaries like CommissionJunction.com, and LinkShare.com to track traffic or sales that are referred from affiliates. Some businesses owe much of their growth and success to this marketing technique.