In the introductory chapter, you will learn about the role affiliate marketing has in online marketing. The relevant statistics illustrate this role and highlight how affiliate marketing integrates with other segments, such as content, e-commerce, etc.

The second chapter focuses on the development of affiliate marketing from the early 1990s to present. You will also learn about affiliates, merchants, and digital buyers. This chapter concludes with the benefits of this type of online promotion for both merchants and affiliates.

Everything you need to know about becoming a merchant is in this segment. From creating a detailed plan to setting up goals and strategy, you will find out what you need and what you can expect from becoming a merchant.

If you see yourself in a different role, as an affiliate, you will need a different kind of approach. Its highlights are covered here and include creating your online presence, choosing the right program, and tips on how to define your strategy to promote the affiliate links.

The main activity of the merchants is the management of their affiliate program. The overall management can be divided into three groups: monitoring KPIs, communication methods, and management of the affiliates. The goal of all of these activities is to improve the performance of the affiliate program.

This chapter focuses on a very important topic – compensation models. Both affiliates and merchants need to know about payment opportunities available and how each one can contribute to their success. The chapter also includes a section on void transactions.

Starting from merchant’s website to social media, affiliate directories and hiring affiliate program manager, the goal of this chapter is to suggest how merchants can leverage their online presence and promote their affiliate program along the way.

With common promotion tactics used by affiliates and the concept of affiliate marketing on YouTube, this chapter shows affiliates how they can maximize their reach and promote affiliate links more efficiently.

Affiliate networks play an important role in the relationship between affiliates and merchants. They are the meeting point, which is why most affiliates and merchants will be a member of at least one of them. This chapter focuses on what affiliate networks are and how they work, with the process being explained for both affiliates and merchants. The chapter concludes with five popular affiliate networks in the industry at this moment with most prominent features and benefits highlighted for each of them.

This piece of technology enables a whole specter of activities such as managing affiliates, tracking sale-related data, monitoring and paying commissions, etc. When combined, these functionalities are an incredibly useful tool for merchants, which is why most merchants think about using affiliate software for affiliate program management. The difference between self-hosted and hosted software is explained as well as how they work. In the final section, you will find the list of five popular affiliate software along with the features and benefits they come with.

If you are an affiliate looking to monetize your online presence with affiliate marketing, this section of the course will help you with affiliate program suggestions, which include Amazon affiliate program, eBay affiliate program, etc. For each program, you will see highlights regarding the perks they provide (such as cookie life, commission percent, etc.).

The tools for affiliate marketers can improve the potential of their efforts, which is why it is worth considering some of them. You will find that the list of recommended tools is divided into sections which include essentials, research, content, links and tracking, email marketing, social media, paid campaigns, and WordPress tools for affiliates.

At times, things can go wrong, and it is good to be aware of the issues that might occur. In this chapter, you will learn about fraudulent affiliates, whether the automatic approval of affiliates really is a time-saver, what cooking stuffing and trademark violations are, and about affiliate scams. Motivating affiliates can become an issue for merchants, which is why you will also learn about tactics that can help you motivate your affiliates.

The best potential of affiliate marketing is achieved by its integration into online marketing and coordinating activities with search engine optimization, search engine marketing, social media marketing, email marketing and influencer marketing. This chapter highlights approaches and strategies for both affiliates and merchants who want to use other segments of online marketing to boost the performance of their affiliate campaign.

The glossary contains the terms mentioned in the course which might need further clarification, especially if you are new to online marketing.

The goal of the questionnaire is to reinforce your knowledge about affiliate marketing and recommended strategies you can use. It consists of 50 questions, with 4 answers for each of them (only one being the correct one).

This section of the course represents the summary and includes some interesting ideas on how to grow your business with affiliate marketing. In the end, it is worth knowing how much of a potential affiliate marketing really has, to make sure you consider all of the aspects of using and improving your own approach.