A potentially lucrative Internet marketing plan for both parties, affiliate programs have exploded into the most effective way to promote online businesses.

Affiliate program terms are set up by the merchant. They specify how much affiliates will be paid and under what payment structure, how sales will be tracked, how long referrals from their site will be counted between the time the customer visits the site and actually purchases (cookies), minimum pay-out amounts, and when checks will be sent.

Any business that sells products or services online can offer an affiliate program as a method of enticing and compensating advertisers to promote their product. Merchants can sign up with Affiliate Networks to administrate the program for them or purchase software to track sales and payment themselves.

Banner advertisements or pop-up ads in your browser are most likely part of an affiliate program marketing venture. Classmates.com, for example, has really utilized the affiliate marketing structure to promote their site and Internet users have likely seen banners for this site all over.