Affiliate Marketing gives all you the benefits of traditional advertising with an added advantage—you pay affiliates for their indirect advertising of your product or service after they have driven a desired action to your site, whether this means a sale or a generated lead. Unlike traditional advertising, affiliate marketing provides you with a prefixed cost-per-lead or sale.
In a recent survey from Internet Retailer's Top 500 merchants, more than 80 percent were found to be operating an affiliate program. In the secular market, Amazon.com, Office Depot, Staples, Dell, HP, OfficeMax, Sears, Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Williams-Sonoma and Blockbuster Entertainment are just a few examples of the top online retailers who all use affiliate marketing to drive traffic and sales.
Some of the larger Christian retailers currently using affiliate marketing programs to help them affordably reach their target customer base include Abbey Press, Family Christian Books, Christianbook.com, Alpha Omega Publishing, Crossings.com, Simply Youth Ministry and the International Bible Society.