What is Affiliate Marketing?

Googling the word "affiliate marketing" in your search tab, you may find the following definition from Wikipedia.org:

"Affiliate marketing is a marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate's marketing efforts. Examples include rewards sites, where users are rewarded with cash or gifts, for the completion of an offer, and the referral of others to the site."

 Furthermore,in WiseGeek.com,it is defined as:

"Affiliate Marketing is a revenue sharing venture between a website owner and an online merchant. The website owner will place advertisements on his websites to either help sell the merchant's products or to send potential customers to the merchant's website, all in exchange for a share of the profits."

In layman's term, you act a the seller/"marketer" to certain products of a merchant in the web. You are called an affiliate of that merchant. You drive "potential customers" into that mechant's store through your website/blog/advertisement and when these "potential customers" buy products from them,you get a cut or commission from their sale.