What’s an affiliate program?
An affiliate (or “associate”) program is a way for you to sell another company’s products in exchange for a commission. You promote the product on your web site and receive a commission if a user makes a purchase. The company, in this case CafePress is responsible for all of the deliverables, the customer service, and the payment processing.
Commissions vary from company to company. For instance, Amazon pays around 4% and CafePress pays 20%. To join an affiliate company, you give the merchant a bit of information about you and your website and they give you a referral ID. Some programs, like Amazon and CafePress make it relatively simple to create links that have your ID attached. Others require more sophisticated link-building measures.
Since almost anyone can put a banner ad on their site these days, and the public has become somewhat jaded, it’s important to add value to the products you choose to promote. Successful affiliates integrate their products into their websites or blogs, add content and promote the products in newsletters and e-mail.
