Affiliate marketing is a symbiotic internet based business relationship between a merchant web owner and an affiliate. The affiliate, or affiliate marketing associate attracts business to the merchant web owners site by posting links from their web pages to the merchant site. Any business that is generated through the affiliate marketing site is then rewarded with the merchant web owner paying commission to the affiliate for referred business through their personal set up of affiliate web marketing.
Once the traffic has been directed to the merchant web owners site, the responsibility of luring the business in is no longer in the hands of the affiliate marketing associate, but in the hands of the web site owner. But the affiliate will be compensated for the referral of business by way of whatever is agreed upon prior to setting up their affiliate web marketing relationship.
If you owned a website you could turn it into an affiliate marketing site just by back linking to various affiliate web sites and having them link to your site in return. Back linking creates a more optimal chance of your site being spotted by search engines and also creates the impression that your website is well renowned and trusted as an affiliate marketing support site. By offering a percentage of whatever profits you make from your affiliates referrals, they can benefit from your product without having to put in any effort, and you can benefit from the increase in traffic and potential buyers directed to you from them.