Affiliate Marketing Medium

What it is

Affiliate marketing is recommending someone else's product with a link that identifies you, and receiving a commission when a reader buys. A network or the merchant's own program provides the tracking link, records the sale through a cookie or a code, and pays you after the merchant's return window has passed. Amazon Associates is where most publishers start; the money is in the programs above it.

How the money flows

You join a program directly (Amazon, Shopify, Booking.com) or through an affiliate network that hosts thousands of them (Impact, ShareASale, CJ, Awin, Rakuten, PartnerStack, ClickBank). Each has a commission (a percentage of the sale or a fixed fee), a cookie window (24 hours on Amazon, 30-90 days elsewhere, lifetime for some SaaS), and an attribution rule (almost always last click). Commissions are held until the refund period ends, reversed if the customer returns or cancels, and paid monthly on NET-30 to NET-60 once you pass a $10-100 threshold.

What it pays

Per thousand visitors, general content with contextual links earns $10-30; "best X for Y" buying guides and comparison pages earn $50-200 and sometimes far more, because readers arrive ready to purchase. What decides it is EPC, earnings per click: a 3% commission on a $2,000 mattress and a 50% commission on a $30 ebook can both be excellent, and a 1% commission on a $15 Amazon item almost never is. Software (20-40% recurring), web hosting ($50-150 per sale), finance (credit cards $50-200 per approval) and travel (4-8% of bookings) are the well-paid corners.

Requirements and who pays

No traffic minimum on most networks, though some programs review sites individually and Amazon requires three sales in 180 days. Merchants and networks refuse coupon-only sites, incentivised traffic and, in most cases, paid search on their brand terms. Restricted niches have their own programs: gambling, crypto and CBD affiliate deals are among the best-paying anywhere.

Pitfalls

Disclose every affiliate link (it is the law in most countries, and readers respect it). Diversify merchants: a site built on one program is one email from zero, as Amazon's 2020 rate cut proved. Write from real use; the reviews-quality updates since 2021 reward hands-on testing and punish rewritten spec sheets. Track EPC by page and by merchant so you know what to promote more of.