{"id":23524,"date":"2026-09-25T09:50:37","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T09:50:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bitsacard.com\/blog?p=23524"},"modified":"2026-09-25T09:50:50","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T09:50:50","slug":"affiliate-marketing-what-it-is-how-it-works-and-how-to-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitsacard.com\/blog\/en\/affiliate-marketing-what-it-is-how-it-works-and-how-to-start","title":{"rendered":"Affiliate Marketing: What It Is, How It Works and How to Start"},"content":{"rendered":"

Affiliate marketing<\/strong> moves commissions for every sale, click or sign-up a tracking link generates. It’s the model behind almost every recommendation link seen in a video, a blog post or an Instagram caption, and across Europe disclosure rules have tightened sharply in recent years, with different countries now running their own specific regimes.<\/p>\n

This guide covers exactly what it is, where it came from, how it works technically, the different payment models that exist, the current legal framework, how to start as an affiliate, and how to get paid without hassle.<\/p>\n

What affiliate marketing is: the three parties<\/h2>\n

The scheme always has three actors. The advertiser<\/strong> (the company that wants to sell more) provides the product or service and pays for results. The affiliate<\/strong> (a creator, a blog, a comparison site) recommends that product to their audience in exchange for a commission. And the customer<\/strong>, who buys or signs up through the affiliate’s link, closes the loop: without their conversion, nobody earns a commission.<\/p>\n

The relationship between advertiser and affiliate can be direct (a one-off arrangement, sometimes with free product in exchange) or, more commonly today, through an affiliate network<\/strong> that centralises click tracking, payment handling and the catalogue of advertisers available to the affiliate.<\/p>\n

Where this model came from<\/h2>\n

The origin is usually traced to 1989, when William J. Tobin, founder of PC Flowers & Gifts, launched on the Prodigy commercial network (an early online service that predates the web as we know it) one of the first programmes to pay commission per sale to other sites linking to his shop. The model truly took off in July 1996, when Amazon launched Amazon Associates: any website could link to a book on Amazon and earn a commission on the resulting sale, turning affiliate marketing into an accessible income route for small sites, not just large publishers.<\/p>\n

How it works technically<\/h2>\n

Every affiliate link carries a unique identifier the affiliate network uses to attribute the sale to the right affiliate. On click, a tracking cookie is set in the user’s browser, with a set attribution window<\/strong> (usually between 24 hours and 90 days depending on the programme): if the user buys within that window, even if not at the exact moment of the click, the sale is still attributed to the affiliate.<\/p>\n

This mechanism has a real limitation worth knowing: ad blockers and third-party cookie restrictions in modern browsers have reduced tracking reliability in recent years, pushing many networks toward server-side attribution or unique coupon codes, less dependent on the browser cookie.<\/p>\n

The payment models, explained with examples<\/h2>\n

Pay per sale (PPS\/CPA).<\/strong> The most common model: a fixed fee or percentage on each completed sale. An affiliate recommending management software might earn 20-30% of the customer’s first payment, a common rate in software-as-a-service programmes.<\/p>\n

Pay per click (PPC).<\/strong> The affiliate earns per click on the link, regardless of a sale. Increasingly rare because it’s easy to game with low-quality traffic.<\/p>\n

Pay per lead (PPL).<\/strong> Commission for each person who signs up, leaves their details or requests information, no purchase required. Common in insurance, online education and financial services.<\/p>\n

Sponsored content.<\/strong> The affiliate receives a fixed payment for including a link or mention in a specific piece of content, regardless of how many conversions it generates afterwards.<\/p>\n

Recurring commission.<\/strong> On subscription services (software, streaming, monthly-fee courses), the affiliate keeps earning as long as the customer’s subscription stays active, not just on the initial sale. It’s the model with the best long-term economics for an affiliate who lands customers who stick around.<\/p>\n

The legal framework: disclosure is mandatory<\/h2>\n

Rules vary meaningfully by country, but the direction is the same everywhere: less tolerance for undisclosed commercial content. France<\/strong> passed Law No. 2023-451 on 9 June 2023, becoming the first country worldwide with a comprehensive legal framework for commercial influence, requiring the explicit mention “Publicit\u00e9” or “Collaboration commerciale” on all promotional content, “Image retouch\u00e9e” for retouched images and “Image virtuelle” for AI-generated content, with no minimum follower threshold specified.<\/p>\n

Italy<\/strong> tightened its framework sharply after the 2023 Ferragni-Balocco case, where fines of up to \u20ac675,000 were issued for undisclosed advertising; AGCOM’s July 2025 guidelines introduced a register of “relevant influencers” (over 500,000 followers or 1 million average monthly views) with fines reaching \u20ac10 million or 4% of turnover for hidden advertising. Spain<\/strong> requires all creators, regardless of audience size, to disclose branded content since a 2022 reform, with additional registration duties from October 2025 for larger accounts.<\/p>\n

At EU level, the Digital Services Act<\/a>, in force since 2024, reinforces platform and creator responsibility for misleading or illegal commercial content across the bloc, though enforcement specifics still vary meaningfully by member state.<\/p>\n

How to start as an affiliate<\/h2>\n

The starting point isn’t choosing products, it’s choosing a niche with a real audience and a specific problem to solve: the more specific, the easier it is to recommend credibly and the less competition there is for the same keywords or audience.<\/p>\n

The most used affiliate networks include Amazon Associates (the widest catalogue, lower commissions), Awin and Rakuten Advertising (strong in fashion, travel and financial services across Europe), and many SaaS brands’ own programmes with recurring commission.<\/p>\n

Most common mistakes when starting out<\/h2>\n

Not disclosing content as advertising.<\/strong> Beyond being illegal in most European countries regardless of audience size, it erodes trust with followers who discover it.<\/p>\n

Recommending products never actually tried.<\/strong> Audiences notice, and conversion from a genuine recommendation is far higher than from a link inserted with no real context.<\/p>\n

Depending on a single network or advertiser.<\/strong> If that programme changes terms or commissions, or shuts down entirely, the income disappears overnight.<\/p>\n

Not tracking which content converts.<\/strong> Without measuring which links generate real sales, it’s impossible to know where to invest content creation time.<\/p>\n

How to get paid on affiliate commissions<\/h2>\n

Affiliate networks usually pay by bank transfer, PayPal, or occasionally cheque, monthly, with a minimum payout threshold (often between \u20ac20 and \u20ac100 depending on the network). Many international networks pay in dollars or pounds, adding a currency conversion step if paid into a euro account.<\/p>\n

Separating affiliate income from personal money makes it easier to know how much is actually being earned and simplifies the tax return at year end. A Bitsa prepaid card<\/a> with its own IBAN allows receiving these commissions into a separate account without needing a business bank account yet, particularly useful in the early months when affiliate income is irregular and best kept apart from the rest of personal finances. The virtual prepaid card<\/a> guide and the prepaid crypto cards for digital nomads<\/a> guide cover related practical setups for creators receiving payments from multiple sources.<\/p>\n

Frequently asked questions about affiliate marketing<\/h2>\n

Is affiliate marketing legal in Europe?<\/h3>\n

Yes, it’s a legal activity, but it’s regulated, and the specifics vary by country. Disclosure of commercial content is mandatory in most European countries regardless of audience size, with additional registration duties for larger creators in several jurisdictions.<\/p>\n

Do I need a large audience to start?<\/h3>\n

No. Many successful affiliates run niche blogs or websites without significant social media presence, relying on organic search traffic to specialised, useful content rather than social audience size.<\/p>\n

How much can you earn with affiliate marketing?<\/h3>\n

Varies enormously by niche, traffic volume and commission model. There’s no single representative figure; recurring-commission programmes usually offer better long-term economics than one-off pay-per-sale models.<\/p>\n

Do I have to declare affiliate income even if it’s small?<\/h3>\n

If the activity is recurring, generally yes, regardless of amount; it’s worth checking with a tax adviser for the specific situation, since it can trigger self-employed registration depending on volume.<\/p>\n

What happens if I don’t disclose affiliate content as advertising?<\/h3>\n

It’s a breach of consumer protection and advertising rules in most European countries, with penalties that can be severe for larger creators, as recent enforcement in Italy and France has shown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What affiliate marketing is, how it works technically, what EU law requires you to disclose, and how to start earning commissions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":22749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[264],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitsacard.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitsacard.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitsacard.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitsacard.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitsacard.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23524"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bitsacard.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23525,"href":"https:\/\/bitsacard.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23524\/revisions\/23525"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitsacard.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitsacard.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitsacard.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitsacard.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}