What Is Affiliate Marketing? 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. How to Start Affiliate Marketing? To simplify it, here's the 4 step process for how it works: You find a product you want to promote. You sign up for their affiliate program. You get a special link that allows the merchant to track the people who clicked your link. If they buy the product, you get a commission.