Many people keep on guessing about such a weird term as affiliate marketing. The first time they read, it is like – 'doesn't sound professional'. Is it the handiwork of Internet geeks? It is not. The truth is that it has a history of several decades and was known when there was not even the sign of Internet.

The literal meaning of affiliate is associate. In this context, affiliate is like an associate or a partner. Its incorporation in the industry happened with transmission programs being beamed by small stations on behalf of the popular networks. In Internet marketing we have its derivative called affiliate Internet marketing program. It is a program wherein a web site publisher can take the responsibility of promoting on behalf of a network or advertiser who pays for such promotion.

Affiliate Internet marketing programs are designed and developed by either the affiliate networks or by the merchant. Every affiliate program shares some common features like commission payouts, frequency of payouts, affiliate models, mode of payment and accessibility to the publishers and advertisers.

Affiliate Internet marketing program is a small time project that can be undertaken by web site publishers. There are different criteria for determining qualified web resources. However, there are some programs that don't even require the affiliate to have a web resource.

Online affiliate marketing is a medley of online selling and online advertising. These two aspects, selling and advertising, are most important in online promotions and it is because both of them are performed with ease that affiliate marketing has reached to higher success levels.

The advertisers or merchants who pursue aggressive marketing often approve of affiliate internet marketing programs. It is also been classified as one important component of multi level marketing and integrated marketing. For the manufacturer or the service provider, it does not matter as from where the sales come from. What is important is that targets should be achieved in minimum possible time and in minimum budget. In some cases it has been found that web sites have generated more sales than other channels.