Affiliate marketing is a partnership between a business and a content creator (or affiliate) to bring attention to a company’s products or services. The affiliate handles content creation and/or distribution, and the business pays a commission to the affiliate for every sale they drive.   

Certain affiliate programs even reward their affiliates on a per-click basis. 

To track traffic and sales generated by any one affiliate partner, the brand assigns them a unique link that directs users to a specific sales page. The affiliate is then paid a certain percentage of sales made through those links. 

People who click on your link also get a tiny file called a cookie stored on their device. This (usually) holds an expiry date, so you get paid even if they delay buying for a while.

Here’s an example of how it works:

Someone visits your post on the best winter jackets.

They click the Amazon affiliate link for one of your recommendations.

They close their browser to pick their kid up from school.

They go back to Amazon the next day to check out the product again.

They buy the recommended product, along with some ski gear.

Thanks to the affiliate cookie stored on this person’s device, you earn a commission on the recommended product and the ski gear