Affiliate marketing is a means to make passive income through advertising on someone else’s website and receiving a percentage of the sale generated by their traffic. In its most simple form, there are only two parties involved in an online affiliate partnership: the merchant/company, who have responsibility for developing, pricing, and then distributing the product; and, the affiliate, who… yep, you guessed it is the person who advertises and promotes the product. However, many affiliates are not retailers, but instead publishers. They simply act as the link-makers between the merchant and visitor to the merchant’s website.