Internet Marketing can seem like a whole new world, even for those who have a good amount of experience surfing the web and using computers. One of the biggest aspects of Internet Marketing is dealing with Affiliates and Affiliate programs. From Affiliate links to Affiliate Networks, and from commission structures to joint ventures... it can all be overwhelming for beginners. Here is a quick explanation of the terms that beginner internet marketers are likely to come across:



Affiliate: An Affiliate does the job of a sales representative. An Affiliate drives traffic to an online offer, and when a sale is made the Affiliate is paid a commission. The Affiliate may use a website, a blog, banner advertisements, text advertisements, or even build website pages to advertise these offers. Affiliates basically make a recommendation or referral, for a commission or a fee.

Affiliate Link: An Affiliate link contains a unique id which is specific to an individual, so that the merchant can keep track of where his traffic is coming from, and make the commissions payable to that particular Affiliate. So for example, if I were promoting John's Widgets, John may send me a link that looked like this, so he could keep track of my sales: www.johnswidgets.com/affid=erik

Affiliate Network: An Affiliate network is a third party service built for the purpose of bringing merchants and affiliates together. The job of the network is to provide tracking, reporting and payment fulfillment services, helping the merchants access to a large number of Affiliates who may potentially promote his products. ClickBank is a great example of an Affiliate Network.

Auto Responder: An Auto Responder is an online (usually) tool that does it all when it comes to managing the entire subscription and cancellation process, managing all your user data, and it also sending out emails to your subscribers. Choosing the right Auto Responder can make or break your entire online list-building model.

Commission: A Commission is a payment that you receive in exchange for driving traffic that converts into a sale. When you are an Affiliate of someone, you get payments from them. Conversely, when you have an Affiliate program for your own product, you will be paying your Affiliates in exchange for them sending you traffic that results in sales.

E-mail Blast: An email sent to multiple recipients, intended to inform them of announcements, events or changes. A variety of methods can be used to send the same email to multiple recipients: for example: using options within an email program, using the mail merge option within a word processing program, or using a commercial email list programs.

JV or Joint Venture: A joint venture is a partnership that will mutually benefit two or more companies or individuals that have complimentary products and/or services. When someone agrees to promote your product (or vise-versa) through the use of an Affiliate program, it's known as a Joint Venture or a JV.

Squeeze Page: A squeeze page is a page designed specifically to capture leads. You will see several of these in your new career as an Internet Marketer: they are used to build lists of subscribers.

I hope this quick list of definitions helps clear things up and helps demystify the world of Internet Marketing!