How Affiliate Marketing Works

An affiliate promotes a merchant through a tracked referral path. When a qualifying conversion is attributed to that referral, the affiliate may earn a commission under the program's rules.

The basic flow

Audience → content or promotion → tracked link → merchant → conversion → attribution → commission. Each program defines its own conversion event, attribution window, payout rules, exclusions, and compliance requirements.

Where content fits

Search content can attract people before they are ready to buy. A useful guide can then lead naturally to a comparison, review, or merchant page when the reader's intent becomes commercial.

What tracking does not prove

A click is not the same as a sale. Revenue depends on traffic quality, offer fit, merchant conversion, refunds, attribution rules, and other factors outside the affiliate's control.