Affiliate marketing definition: affiliate marketing is the process of promoting a third-party product for compensation.
Affiliate marketing involves two parties:
The brand uses the affiliate’s audience to increase sales and exposure; the affiliate generates income (or other types of compensation) by promoting and selling the product.
Affiliate sales are tracked either by the use of coded links, unique webpages, or discount counts entered at a checkout page.
For example:
Innovative Language uses affiliates to promote its LanguagePod101 products.
Affiliates apply to the program and receive a unique URL to use as a hyperlink on their website. When a user clicks their link and makes a purchase, the affiliate earns a percentage.