INFILTRATION!

By Seamus Dolly
Posted Thursday, November 11, 2004

Affiliation ; defined as association, relationship, connection, attachment, membership or link.

There exists a process in business, known as Affiliation. This process is for the benefit of product/service owners and people who affiliate with them. Built into the price of a product is an affiliate commission, which can be a percentage, often in excess of fifty percent.

The expected or normal result of such a relationship, is to "spread the word" and increase local or global awareness, of an existing or new product. Unless you own a T.V. station, one which is dedicated, and indeed, one which is allowed to "beam" into every country, this agreement is the best way to "make your case". It is unlikely that any one would request to purchase a "burger", for example, if that person had no knowledge of such a thing, So then, it stands to reason that no-one would buy a new product, or a product already in existence, without hearing about it first.

Once an Affiliate program is set up, anyone who sees a way to promote it (while making money ), can do so. He or she is given a unique no./username/url. or code, which can be traced or tracked from the point of sale, back to that person. This is an automatic system and the commission or monies are credited to the affiliates account. A minority of people "hi-jack" these links but generally speaking, it is a system that works.

If you lived in Los Angeles and just came up with something exciting, perhaps a clever bit of software, an information product, a new invention, or a package holiday company, affiliation programs can successfully put it on the international or global network, resulting in cross-border sales in a very short time.

Needless to say though, the product has to be good, or at least, good enough. What I mean by that is that it doesn't have to be "mind blowing" or in any way, "supernatural". A well put together cookery e-book can be as good as anything. And why would it not? Every one that I know, eats for a living. You know what I mean!

Pre-internet, affiliate could have been likened to sales representative. Now, though, affiliates don't have to "hard sell" or "cold call". They do not have to call to someone's home or place of business, hassling people. It is now done by e-mail to their subscribers, on and off-line advertising, and various other techniques. For the supplier/manufacturer/creator/ genius, there is no medical insurance or pension plan, or other liability associated with direct staff.

It works, and is working!

About the Author
Seamus Dolly is Irish and a webmaster/author.