How would you explain affiliate marketing to a potential employer?

My main worry as an employer would be to establish if you'd be doing it on my time, at your work computer - or if your head would be on your A.M activities when it should be on your job.

I'd prepare to answer those points also - just in case.

Best of luck!

This infomercial never mentions affiliate marketing but explains it in very plain and simple terms in a way that sounds straight-forward and impressive.


From 1:20 to 2:25 mainly

You get companies sales and leads on the internet and work on commission. Tell them that.

Aaron

It may help to discuss the whole thing in terms of one specific example: Amazon ... just because everyone's heard of Amazon and knows that it's a well-established, legitimate business. It's not too difficult to explain that Amazon sells many four-figure products and pays commissions of up to 9% on them, to referring webmasters, I think?

Affiliate marketing is selling other peoples products or services online for a commission.

That's it.

Then use an example of the company you are interviewing with.

You sell widgets right?

I would sell your widgets online and every sale I got, you'd pay me a commission.

That's it.

It's nothing new, the only new part is the medium.

Or you could say:

"While I am here, can I interest you in any beauty products, weight loss supplements or get rich quick scheme? Or, how does adding 23 inches to your length sound?"

:p

Are you applying to do online marketing for the company or a non-internet marketing position? I think it makes a difference with how you explain affiliate marketing.

If a non-internet marketing position, I'd focus on explaining it as working for global companies with their marketing by helping them get new customers online. Including mention of Amazon is great because it adds a concrete element to the explanation. Be clear you're committed to your new job. If they get a sense you need some immediate money and will leave as soon as your online business improves, they won't be inclined to hire you (I avoid hiring for permanent positions if I get the sense they aren't sticking around).

If you're applying for an online marketing position, I'd include your ability to build sites that get traffic from the search engines/PPC resulting in more customers for your global clients. You can go into much more detail about your skills and online achievements.

If you do affiliate marketing for a specific niche, such as software, call it a global software company. If physical products, say you work with Amazon or whoever.

When I was negotiating commission amounts during a local affiliate marketing deal with a local business, I asked a few of the global merchants I work with to provide me a reference for my affiliate marketing performance. They wrote killer reference letters for me.

I completed the local affiliate marketing deal within a week after showing my prospective JV partner the reference letters. I explained I did that at the global level and at the local level could do very well for them. Of course the reference angle is best if you're applying for an online marketing position.

Good luck!

The lead generation angle is probably the easiest for non IM people to understand. They shouldn't have a problem with that

I agree with the advice above but I also think you are already explaining things quite well yourself. What I would do to improve this would simply be to break down everything you do which by the way I think would seem quite impressive to a would be employer.

For instance, in this short description you have already shown skills in SEO, affiliate marketing and sales skills which I am sure would also include copywriting/content writing and some sort of extra marketing techniques relevant to online business. Additionally and possibly as important is you have shown initiative, ingenuity in finding another income stream (during our tough economic times) and overall entrepreneurial spirit and a 'go out there and get it' attitude.

Your job would be to break down your work into smaller sections in a kind of short story format as if you were explaining to a layperson what each part of your job description was from SEO to copywriting to affiliate selling and then finally conclude with showing them how this made you an internet marketer. Hope that helps

Affiliate marketing is basically promoting & selling other people/company's product & services. In return, you'll get a commission.

I liked PPC Coach's response, as I was going to say about the same thing.

Another thing you can add is you have web designing skills and writing skills which you have developed as a result of your business.

Didn't you just answer your question right there? Why not tell exactly that the employer? If anything..he will be impressed. You can additionally explain to him that clickbank etc. is a market place for digital products which you promote on your own sites. Etc.