It was only a few years ago that we started using e-mails on regular basis and now we are able to exploit the unique features of the world wide web to have access to almost every product we require with a click of the mouse. Online shopping has gradually, but pre-dominantly, become an integral part of our lives.

As the number of online shoppers has increased, so has the number of online shopping sites who are clamoring for their share of the internet-generated revenues. The biggest challenge for any website is to get the attention of the online users who have billions of web pages at their disposal for browsing. The fact that a competitor is just a click away makes it all the more imperative for the online merchants to find ways so that their names, their websites, their products and services do not fade away from the shoppers' mind within a split of a second. Among various methods, Affiliate Marketing is gaining popularity with each passing day.

This is the age of cut-throat competition in every field of business, whether it is a brick and mortar outlet or a virtual online store. As the costs are escalating, thereby, squeezing the revenue margins, cost effectiveness has become the need of the hour even in marketing. If an online merchant is looking for ways to reduce its overhead costs, he will choose to increase his dependence on alternative sales channels than employing a direct sales force for marketing especially when one aspires to expand business beyond certain geographical limits. Affiliate Marketing has proven to be the most cost-effective and cost-efficient way of product promotion on internet.

Affiliate Marketing denotes the alliance between the online merchants and affiliates to publish the merchants' products and services on the affiliate's website and any revenue generated through the sale taking place through the affiliate is shared on certain proportion between the two parties.

An internet store may have limited online visitors directly, but through affiliate-websites, it gains access to numerous other online visitors. When an affiliate places the link of a merchant's products on its website leading the online shopper to the merchant's web-store, it not only generates a significant traffic to the merchant's site but also enhances the search-engine popularity. And hence, increases the sales, too.

In terms of benefits to the online shopper, these affiliate websites have proven to be a boon. An online shopper doesn't want to wade through page after page for information about the product of his interest – he wants to buy and move on. To cater to this growing tendency and save quality time, the websites in affiliate marketing display or publish the deals offered by various merchants with relevant information in concise manner mentioning the checkout price of the deal-product. Today, an intelligent buyer relies heavily on such websites before making any purchase online.

Therefore, Affiliate Marketing is truly a Win-Win experience for everyone involved. Any deal on the affiliate website is a win-win buying experience for an online shopper; a win-win advertising effort for the online merchant and a win-win revenue generating endeavor for the affiliate website.