What is an Affiliate Link and How Can It Be Used to Generate Money?

Affiliate Marketing is a great way to get paid for your recommendations. Whether it's software programs or physical products you're recommending - with your own affiliate link, you can track exactly which sales were concluded via your link.

Victoria Weber, host of the Creatorway Podcast, shows you in this guest post what affiliate links are, how you can make money with them - and above all, what you need to pay attention to in order to actually get your commission.

Let's get started!

What are Affiliates?

Affiliates, also called Publishers, are people who make money through recommendations (online). When someone clicks on one of their affiliate links, a commission is triggered.

So Affiliates are free advertising partners of companies who are paid on a success basis - either proportionally or with a fixed amount.

You have to apply for most affiliate programs, but there are also some programs that are open to everyone.

What are Affiliate Links used for?

Affiliate links are used to give recommendations and thereby monetise your trust and your range built up with your target group. That means: If people trust you and you always recommend a certain program or service - why not get paid for it?

Typically, affiliate links are used wherever you already have a platform: Whether it's on YouTube or in your newsletter or Instagram Stories. But beware: Depending on the program, some sources are not wanted or are even forbidden depending on the affiliate program. (See: Where can Affiliate Links be used?)

What types of Affiliate Links are there?

There are links that already contain a special discount code, or those that merely define that you were the referring affiliate.

The "classic" also includes affiliate assignments that are triggered by a voucher code. You probably know this from influencers who write on Instagram: "Get the newest product from XY with the code ANNA10 and get 10 percent discount!" When someone enters this code, the assignment with the affiliate (the so-called publisher) is automatically triggered; even if no link click has taken place.

There are different compensation models in affiliate marketing:

• Fixed amounts, like "100 € commission" per sale
• Percentage-based affiliate commissions, such as "8% of the net shopping cart value excluding shipping costs"
• Success-based increasing commissions that increase your share, for example, as soon as you have reached a minimum number of sales or an absolute sales value

How is an Affiliate Link structured?

Often a certain suffix is assigned (like firma.de/?rel=12345), so it is visually clear that it is affiliate number 12345 - but it can also be a cryptic, composite link.

Many affiliates decide to work with so-called link redirections to make the links look nicer - but also to collect data more easily.

So-called Link Cloaking (replacing an "ugly" and long affiliate link with another one) makes your links look better. It is also called URL Masking, because you put a nice mask on the URL.

Example: Instead of leading we mywebsite.de/?ref=24392342948fsdk38rwklds then prefer to mywebsite.de/productname.

Another side effect of link cloaking is that you do not show your ID as an affiliate so prominently, and thus other people can do less harmful things (or even replace links via malware).

Tip: Set up redirects for affiliate links (Link Cloaking)

If you have a WordPress site, there are several extensions that allow you to rewrite links. But also if you work with other tools, that's no problem at all. Just set up a manual URL forwarding.

For example, the affiliate URL product.com/?ref=23423452345345 is too ugly for me, so I redirect victoriaweber.de/toolname to it.

The advantage is: If something changes about your affiliate link, you don't need to go to all subpages where the link is placed, but you change the redirect ONCE centrally. It doesn't get any easier.

How do Affiliate Links work?

Affiliate links usually work through Cookies, small text files in the user's browser that are set as soon as you reach the target page of the affiliate link. This means: Sometimes it can happen that the assignment does not work 100% perfectly.

That's why it's important for you as an affiliate to know how long the cookie runtime of each affiliate program is. The runtimes vary greatly from one day to up to 30, 90 or even more days.

This means, for example, with a cookie run time of 30 days: If someone clicks on your affiliate link and makes a purchase within the next 30 days, you get the commission. (Unless, he has deleted all cookies in the meantime, then you go empty-handed). On the 31st day, however, you no longer receive a commission for the purchase, even if it was triggered by you and your link.

It is also important for you to know that there are also different attribution models : "Last Click" means that always the affiliate gets the commission whose link was clicked last. So if someone gets the same product presented by two different people, then the commission goes to the one whose link last is clicked. Alternatively, there is "First Click" or also the attribution by coupon codes. With the latter, the person who specified their discount code when making the purchase definitely receives the commission - regardless of whether the link of another affiliate was clicked in the meantime.

How do I get my own affiliate links?

First of all, you need to think about what products or companies you want to advertise for. You can then look directly there to see if the provider advertises an affiliate program.

The alternative are so-called affiliate networks, where large collections of different providers are presented so you can "browse" if you don't know yet what all would be possible. The advantage: You don't have to register on countless different platforms and have several partners bundled.

Popular Affiliate Networks & Platforms

• ADCELL
• Webgains
• Awin
• Ingenious Technologies
• impact.com
• Admitad
• MyLead
• Rakuten Affiliate Network
• 100partnerprogramme.de

Many of the big players like the Amazon PartnerNet however, use their own software or a separate login area for their affiliate program. In doubt, you can find out through a google search à la "Brandname + Affiliate" if there is an affiliate program. Because not all providers advertise this prominently in their footer.

If you have a good platform and suitable target audience, you will normally be taken on by most providers with open arms. Because it's not so easy to get good partners as an affiliate manager. Especially if you don't have high reach yet or a ranking for your website, it can be that your affiliate application gets rejected.

Small consolation: For one of the biggest programs, where I myself am an affiliate, I was initially rejected several times. Now I have become a relevant partner, because I have not only been accepted for a long time, but also now have an account manager with whom I have regular calls. So: Don't get discouraged and continue to increase the relevance of your channels, like your website!

Where can affiliate links be used?

Affiliate links can in principle be used anywhere you can place links: in Instagram Stories, on your website, in groups or in chats.

However, many affiliate programs have very specific rules, what you are NOT allowed to do: For example, some providers explicitly forbid you to put your affiliate links in emails (to prevent spam). Others, on the other hand, require that when you join the program, you confirm that you will only send emails to people who have actively agreed.

Most affiliate programs also prohibit you from placing paid ads like Facebook Ads or Google Ads and using the brand name of the provider in it.

As a rule of thumb for almost everything, as soon as you try to "cheat", it's most likely not allowed. That's why all platforms also reserve the right to remove you from the program if you share your link at the wrong places or by dubious methods.

How can you make money with affiliate links?

As an affiliate, the commission is assigned to you at the time the purchase takes place. This means that from then on you have the right to your commission - but usually the money comes considerably late.

Usually, the providers of affiliate programs build in "safety buffers" - this means your money only comes 14, 30 or often even 60 to 90 days later. This is done to prevent abuse, spam and fraud by unscrupulous affiliates. In addition, it could be that customers return the product; for this you are of course not remunerated under normal circumstances.

How high is the commission of an affiliate link?

The commissions you get from a sale through an affiliate link fluctuate extremely. For example, at Amazon you can look at the percentage shares in a long table; that varies greatly depending on product category.

Financial products and software providers, who have very high margins and CLVs (Customer Lifetime Values) due to SaaS business models and can therefore also pay large parts of their revenues to their affiliates, have traditionally been very high in the ranking of high commissions. All kinds of online products also have very high affiliate shares (often 30 to sometimes even 70 percent or more), because the so-called "COGs" (Costs of Goods sold) are so low. Anywhere where there is still "manual" work or a physical product involved, the affiliate commission is usually lower: In the e-commerce area, for example, 8 to 12 percent are the rule.

How are affiliate links marked?

The legal situation as to how affiliate links must be marked changes regularly. Fact is: Most providers require you to clearly mark at the link or at the beginning in a blog or Instagram post if you set an affiliate link. Because the user should be able to recognize that there is a commercial thought behind it.

In the German-speaking area, many bloggers or YouTubers solve this by writing directly at the link in brackets "Affiliate Link/Advertising Link", pointing out clearly at the beginning or but put asterisks and explain up or down. Be sure to inform yourself what the current rules are on how to implement mandatory notices in a legally compliant manner.

Conclusion on Affiliate Links

Affiliate Links are a great way to monetize recommendations - if you have the trust of users - and the range. In addition, it is very easy to start with Affiliate Marketing.

What you should not do: Make advertising for everything indiscriminately - because the better the match between your target group and what you are promoting, the more people will also buy. Many large affiliates therefore report that, depending on the strategy, it may be more sensible to make more advertising for the same provider rather than many links for different providers. But that of course depends on your strategy and reach.