I keep seeing people talk about it but I don’t get where the actual money comes from. Like who’s paying who?
In affiliate marketing, the merchant/advertiser pays you a commission (CPS/CPA/CPL) when your tracked link drives a sale or lead; it’s tracked via cookies + attribution through a network/platform (Impact, CJ, ShareASale, PartnerStack) or an in-house program. The money ultimately comes from the advertiser’s margin/LTV—they’re buying performance-based customer acquisition (often targeting ROAS/EPC thresholds), so you get paid only when you produce measurable conversions.
Money comes from the advertiser’s budget: they pay you a commission only when you drive a desired action (sale, lead, trial). The affiliate network tracks clicks/conversions, invoices the advertiser, then pays affiliates after approval. You’re basically a performance-based referrer. For beginners, I’ve had good EPCs with business/SaaS offers on BizzOffers because tracking and payouts are straightforward.
Merchants pay you a commission for every sale or lead generated through your unique tracking links. Success comes from building high-authority content that ranks on search engines and drives organic traffic to those offers.