Affiliate marketing is a type of
performance-based marketing in which a business rewards one or more
affiliates for each visitor or customer brought by the affiliate's own marketing efforts. The industry has four core players: the
merchant (also known as 'retailer' or 'brand'), the
network (that contains offers for the affiliate to choose from and also takes care of the payments), the publisher (also known as 'the affiliate'), and the customer. The market has grown in complexity, resulting in the emergence of a secondary tier of players, including affiliate management agencies, super-affiliates and specialized third party
vendors.