Affiliate programs are used by an organization to create additional sales at low cost per sale. The affiliate receives a commission for each sale generated over a web site. To achieve the sale, the affiliate directs a visitor to the site of the vendor, either by an advertisement or by any other link in the content of the page.
This approach has two advantages for the vendor: the generation of many inbound links for free (as the links itself are unpaid) and a relatively cheap advertising model.