Affiliate Marketer or Affiliate Manager

When starting out online many people get the difference between an affiliate marketer and an affiliate manager confused, but it is really quite simple once you have it explained to you.

An affiliate marketer is someone that sells other people’s products on their website and receives a commission for every sale they make. You can read a more detailed article here. They can either join a large affiliate network like Clix Galore or choose to approach individual websites that are in their target market and join their affiliate programs that way.

An affiliate manager however, is someone that has their own range of products and has generally been in business on the internet for some time. Whether they be tangible items that require shipping or digital download products like e-books, that the business owner has spent hours upon hours doing research to create.

To give their product range and their website more exposure and thus in turn the potential for more sales they invite other website owners to recommend and sell the product range on their behalf. Thus they are effectively building a sales force for their business without all of the headache of employing staff.

The affiliate manager then pays the affiliate marketers a commission for every sale that they make, just as you would in real life with a sales person working out in the field.

Affiliate Mangers can join a program like Clix Galore and let them handle all of the processing details of your affiliate program, for a fee obviously. Alternatively software is available that allows affiliate managers to set up and operate their own affiliate program directly through their website.

Becoming an affiliate manager certainly takes time, effort and a great deal of understanding of your target market. However it can also bring many rewards and become an extremely viable business option providing an ongoing passive income if the website is operated effectively.