Video #4
Are Businesses using Affiliate Marketing?
In a word, yes, thousands of businesses are using affiliate marketing, and the number is growing every day.  Merchants have discovered what a boost it gives their products and services, and affiliates have discovered how easy it is to make money partnering with these merchants.
Its a win/win relationship. Affiliate markets are a $20 billion market, and they increase revenue of both businesses and marketers. Small business owners are benefitting through their affiliate program via promotional activities to make huge commissions. It is becoming more and more popular to create affiliates in order to generate more sales.
Now you will see a few examples of businesses that are earning more and making it big using Affiliate Marketing.
The most famous affiliate program is Amazons Associates Program, in which Amazon offers its affiliates the opportunity to earn up to 10% per sale. Amazon is an example of one of many affiliate programs. As you examine their stats you will find that 40% of Amazons revenue is generated from Affiliate marketing.
AWeber is using Email marketing affiliate programs. It pays a 30% commission for each AWeber follow-up auto-responder sale indicating that traffic comes from the unique affiliate link. 
Hostgator is a web hosting company that is running affiliate programs to promote its business and increase its revenue. You can earn commissions of up to $125 per successful referral which is almost 1/3 price of that product.
Expedia is the worlds leading online travel company. Expedia runs an affiliate network named Expedia Affiliate Network (EAN) to grow its business worldwide. Expedia pays its affiliates in two ways, and you can earn 5% - 50% commissions on successful sales.
ThemeForest is an Envato Marketplace. It is a site where a customer can buy themes For CMS products like Drupal, Joomla and WordPress, along with html templates in between the range of $5 - $40. ThemeForest also has an affiliate program with a 30% of commission for affiliates with a successful purchase.
In addition to the above companies, some of the names you hear every day make use of affiliate marketing as well.  Here are 7 top brand businesses who use affiliates:
Boden: www.bodenusa.com
Boden is a one-stop site for clothing and accessories.  Founded in 1991, they now ship approximately 12.5K packages a day from their warehouse.


Costume Express: www.costumeexpress.com
Costume Express is the family-friendly destination for everything needed to celebrate Halloween. Costume Express offers a complete assortment of unique costumes and accessories for dress-up play that encourages children to develop their imagination and creativity. 
H&R Block: www.hrblock.com
Of course, we all know H&R Block does taxes, but they also offer other services, such as audit support, money management services, and health insurance. These products and services make for lots of opportunities for affiliates to advertise and earn revenue.
Discount Mags: www.discountmags.com
Discount Mags offers subscriptions to more than 1,500 magazines at the lowest prices.  Their affiliate program offers an 18% commission on every sale up to 60 days later from any referral.  Their dedicated affiliate program is managed by OPM Pros, an organization that specializes in outsourcing affiliate programs.
Home Depot: www.homedepot.com
Home Depots slogan may be More saving. More doing. But with their affiliate program, you can change that to more promoting, more earning.  You can take advantage of the almost endless list of home improvement items they carry. As an affiliate, you can ear commission on over 500,000 free ship to store items sold on homedepot.com. 
They are also supported by Commission Junction, which means more services for you. Like many larger companies, the commission percentage is lower  3% on most products and 5% on custom blinds.  However, because they ARE such a large company, there are more sales.
HSN.COM: www.hsn.com
The Home Shopping Network has come a long way from knives and gadgets.  HSN.com offers clothing, jewelry, electronics, kitchen, crafts, sports items, collectables, and much more. When a customer shops through your site, hsn.com does all the work except the referral, and they create promotions and special offers that increase site visits and commissions.
InterContinental Hotels Group: www.ihgplc.com
This hotel company books 161 million hotel guest nights every year; thats over 688,517 rooms in 4,700 hotels in nearly 100 countries. Their affiliate program is partnered with FlexOffers. 
All these companies demonstrate that affiliate marketing will boost your sales and build your brand through the channels your affiliates are using.  This company is also partnered with Commission Junction, so you know the service is great.

