R
randy
Guest
I'm new to the affiliate world (as in days, not even weeks) and appreciate the efforts here and have gotten a lot of good information fromt the forum in the short time I've been lurking. I plan on designing a content based site with pay for lead links embedded and maybe a sprinkling of adsense...nothing new.
Where I'm having a little confusion during my research is on the different roles/tiers in affiliate marketing. If I'm understanding correctly, there are affiliate managers (CJ, Linkshare, Partnercentric...etc.) who contract directly with the merchants to manage an affiliate program for them and then go out and find a group of affiliates to send them leads. Then the affiliates send traffic/leads...etc to the merchant sites and the management company tracks it and pays them their cut. I'm assuming the affiliate manager probably sends the merchants their own leads too (hence, doesn't have to pay a cut to anyone) which, in essence, makes that affiliate role a "tier 2" role?
This is where it starts getting hazy. If you look at a site like amwso.com, they appear to be an "affiliate management" company but going through their site, they have areas where they refer you to CJ or Partnercentric to sign up for that company's programs...huh? If amwso is a manager why would they want me to be sign up as an affiliate for another management company and not them? I'm assuming there's a revenue stream I'm missing but I'm not sure.
Also, I've signed up as an affiliate on a site and in the control panel it lets me add and keep track of MY affiliates...again, huh? When and why would I have affiliates under me? And why would they be an affiliate to me and not just go directly to the manager and set up their own account? I understand that I'm probably going to get some sort of kick back from the manager but why would someone want to be my "sub-affiliate" when they can work directly with the company.
Alright, I think I've reached my question max for one thread. Sorry if these are too newbie of questions but my head is spinning with all these incestuous relationships in the affiliate world. thanks.
Where I'm having a little confusion during my research is on the different roles/tiers in affiliate marketing. If I'm understanding correctly, there are affiliate managers (CJ, Linkshare, Partnercentric...etc.) who contract directly with the merchants to manage an affiliate program for them and then go out and find a group of affiliates to send them leads. Then the affiliates send traffic/leads...etc to the merchant sites and the management company tracks it and pays them their cut. I'm assuming the affiliate manager probably sends the merchants their own leads too (hence, doesn't have to pay a cut to anyone) which, in essence, makes that affiliate role a "tier 2" role?
This is where it starts getting hazy. If you look at a site like amwso.com, they appear to be an "affiliate management" company but going through their site, they have areas where they refer you to CJ or Partnercentric to sign up for that company's programs...huh? If amwso is a manager why would they want me to be sign up as an affiliate for another management company and not them? I'm assuming there's a revenue stream I'm missing but I'm not sure.
Also, I've signed up as an affiliate on a site and in the control panel it lets me add and keep track of MY affiliates...again, huh? When and why would I have affiliates under me? And why would they be an affiliate to me and not just go directly to the manager and set up their own account? I understand that I'm probably going to get some sort of kick back from the manager but why would someone want to be my "sub-affiliate" when they can work directly with the company.
Alright, I think I've reached my question max for one thread. Sorry if these are too newbie of questions but my head is spinning with all these incestuous relationships in the affiliate world. thanks.