Words, explained

A web address with your name buried in it, so the company knows a sale came from you.

It looks like an ordinary link, but somewhere in it is a code that belongs to you alone. When somebody clicks it and buys, the company reads that code and credits you. Lose the code and you get nothing, no matter who you sent. This is why swapping a plain address for your affiliate address is the single most profitable five minutes in this business.

Your share of a sale you brought in.

Either a percentage of the price or a flat amount per sale, decided by the company, not by you. Worth knowing before you promote anything: how much, how often it is paid, how long after the sale, and whether it pays once or every month the customer stays.

A small note the website leaves in a visitor's browser, remembering you sent them.

It has a lifespan: a 30-day cookie means you still get paid if they come back and buy three weeks later, while a session cookie means you get paid only if they buy before closing the tab. Two affiliate programs paying the same commission are not equal if one remembers you for a month and the other forgets you in an hour.

Everybody who joined under you, and everybody who joined under them.

The people below you in a programme that pays on more than one level. The word is used loosely in affiliate marketing for anybody you personally referred. See also upline, which is the same thing looking the other way.

A person who has given you a way to contact them again.

Usually an email address. The entire reason anybody builds a list is that a visitor is worth one visit, while a lead can be spoken to every week for years. The difference between someone who makes money here and someone who does not is usually just whether they collected the address.

Money that keeps arriving each month from a sale you made once.

It comes from promoting things people subscribe to rather than buy once. Ten customers paying monthly beats fifty one-off sales within a year, and it is what makes the difference between starting again every month and building something.

The person who referred you, and whoever referred them.

The people above you in a programme that pays on more than one level. A good upline is worth more than a good compensation plan, because they answer the question you are too embarrassed to ask in a group.

The offer that appears straight after somebody has bought something.

It works because the hard part - deciding to trust you with their card - already happened. This is where most of the profit in a funnel lives, which is why a product paying modest commission can still be worth promoting if what follows it is good.