What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a technique that involves cross-brand cooperation to promote a good or a service. In one of its simplest forms, affiliate marketing consists of a brand, company, or person promoting a product (likely for some type of commission) for another brand, company, or person. The intended function is to bring a brand to a different audience, and this usually happens when there are similarities between the two brands that may be of common interest. The rise of the internet has made possible a wide variety of affiliate marketing opportunities, primarily through data tracking (like web cookies) and analytics.
Affiliate marketing was a very early implementation of the marketing strategy on the internet. Several different industries are linked to their origins (like flower delivery, music, and even adult entertainment), but exact origins are difficult to trace, in part due to their rapid expansion that accompanied the rise of the World Wide Web in the 1990s.
As the web grew and changed, online marketing became increasingly diverse and, in many cases, profitable. There have been a few different tech bubbles that have had a significant impact on ecommerce and digital marketing, but affiliate marketing is a technique that seems to be staying profitable.