I am sure you know what affiliate marketing is. But if not, let me quickly explain

In simple words, Affiliate Marketing means selling other people’s XYZ products in exchange for an agreed commission.
XYZ can stand for digital knowledge, software, real estate, e-commerce, health, etc.

But for the sake of this write-up, we will be focusing on digital products.

The amount of commission an affiliate gets per product sale is set by the merchant that owns the product.

So, let's say a merchant sells a bottle of perfume X for $20.

The merchant can decide to pay affiliates 50% of each perfume sale.

The affiliate helps the merchant by helping him get a sale and a customer, the merchant then rewards the affiliate with a commission per product sale.

Now, let's do the calculation,
Imagine selling 1 perfume every day for 30 days
I.e. $10x30 days= $300

So, $300x 700(Assumed Naira rate) = N210,000

That's how lucrative Affiliate Marketing can be.

What this means is - The affiliate doesn’t have to produce or import any product.
They don't even have to deliver it to the customer.
All they do is to recommend the product to a customer and get paid.

Now, how long has affiliate marketing been around online or is it something new?

Affiliate marketing as a way of business has been around for a long time.

But according to Wikipedia, the concept of online affiliate marketing was conceived of, put into practice and patented by William J. Tobin, the founder of PC Flowers & Gifts in Nov 1994, almost four years after the origination of the World Wide Web.

Amazon.com is one of the companies that adopted the concept of affiliate marketing earlier and it boosted their sales

I know you would be wondering
- How will I sell online?
- How will I see people to buy it? I lack contacts, I don't even know how to talk to people (I was once in your shoes)