Affiliate marketing is a performance-based marketing strategy where a business rewards affiliates for each customer brought about by the affiliate’s own marketing efforts. The affiliate earns a commission for promoting the business’s products or services. It involves promoting someone else’s product and earning a commission on sales made through a unique referral link. The process can be carried out by an individual or a company.

Affiliate marketing works as follows:

1. A business signs up for an affiliate program and provides affiliates with a unique referral link or coupon code to promote their products or services.
2. The affiliate promotes the business’s products or services through their own marketing channels, such as a website, blog, or social media.
3. When a customer clicks on the affiliate’s referral link and makes a purchase, the sale is tracked by the affiliate program.
4. The affiliate earns a commission on the sale, which is a percentage of the total purchase price set by the business.
5. The business processes the sale and ships the product or provides the service, and the affiliate program tracks the sale and pays the affiliate their commission.

In this way, affiliate marketing allows businesses to reach new customers through the marketing efforts of affiliates, and allows affiliates to earn money by promoting products and services they believe in.