Affiliate marketing is a way of advertising a business’s products or services. In this kind of marketing, the advertiser only pays for real results – sales or registrations, or subscriptions. Affiliate marketing has four main players: the merchant (also known as “Company” or “brand“, or “advertiser”), the affiliate network, the affiliate (also known as the “publisher”), and the customer.

Example: if you visit an affiliate’s website, where they have put an affiliate link to a product on the merchant’s website and if you click on it and then buy something from that company, the affiliate will receive a commission from the advertiser. This is usually tracked through a special affiliate network software tracking all the clicks and purchases.