| Feature | Traditional Affiliate Link | Monetag SmartLink |
|---|---|---|
| One link per offer | ✅ | ➕ (one link covers multiple offers) |
| Manual offer selection | ✅ | ➕ (automated routing) |
| Performance optimization required | ✅ You must tweak | ✅ Monetag choose the most profitable offers based in your niche and specific marketing channel |
| Ease of scaling | ✅ workable but manua | ✅ highly scalable |
Create, Cli(n)ck, Cash Out – How Affiliate Links Actually Make You Money
Traffic alone doesn’t pay the bills. But affiliate marketing is a $18.4 billion industry in 2025, and expected to reach $35.4 billion in the next 8 years. So, what if every click, scroll, and tap on your site could literally start earning you money today? With affiliate links, you can turn existing traffic into measurable revenue. Without selling or spamming.
Add Monetag SmartLink to the mix and your link becomes an algorithm-powered money magnet.
You’ll be routing users to the best-paying offers automatically. Ready to monetize your traffic and turn clicks into cash? Then let’s talk about affiliate links: what they are, how they work, and how you can turn them into a money-machine.
Contents
What is an Affiliate Link?
You’ve probably seen one before. A special URL that tracks your referral and earns you money when someone clicks and converts.
In short: you share the link, they act, you get paid.
An affiliate link is a custom URL assigned to an affiliate marketer. It includes the affiliate’s ID, the specific product promoted, and the campaign or promotional channel.
As Shopify clarifies, an affiliate link is a URL with a unique ID that allows brands to attribute traffic and conversions, for which they pay commission to marketing partners.
So if you ever asked “what are affiliate links?” or “what is an affiliate link?”, there’s your answer.
These tracking handshakes between you (the publisher) and the merchant (affiliate marketer, advertiser) ensure you get credited for your referrals.
How do Affiliate Links Work?
Here’s what happens when you use an affiliate link (aka an affiliate marketing link or just link) on your website or platform:
- You find a program, sign up, and you’re given a unique link
- You share that link in content (blog posts, reviews, social posts, in-app ads)
- A visitor clicks the link – a tracking cookie or parameter registers the click
- The visitor completes the desired action (purchase, sign-up, download)
- You receive a commission – traffic monetization in action
So whenever someone might ask, “How do affiliate links work?”, now you’ve got a clear path.
You send traffic → You track it → You get paid
How do You Get Affiliate Links?
Want to start? Here’s how to get affiliate links and how to create affiliate links from scratch:
- Find a brand or network with an affiliate program. You apply and get accepted.
- Once accepted, you’re issued your unique link (with the tracking code).
As easy as that – that’s how to get affiliate links. Of course, if that’s not for you, you can always do it yourself. Here’s how to create affiliate links:
- Select a product
- Generate a link inside the affiliate dashboard
- Customize if allowed (add sub-IDs, trackable tags).
So, getting a link is the sign-up part; while creating links is the generation/customization part.
The Importance of Affiliate Links for Publishers
For starters, these links require zero inventory – you don’t stock products, you promote. But also a low entry barrier with good traffic, which lets you get going fast.
Secondly, they are scalable and measurable. Once you master the model, you can plug in multiple links, channels, and content formats. And you’ll immediately see clicks, conversions, and earnings. Plus, tracking is built in.
“When a customer clicks on an affiliate link, a cookie is placed on their device. This way, the affiliate who shared the link will earn a commission for the sale.
You must be thinking: “I publish content or run a site, how can I monetize it more?” And yes, the links in question are one of your top tools.
The simple answer: it’s making the affiliate-link game smarter:
- With SmartLink, you don’t have to pick one product manually; SmartLink can automatically route visitors to the best converting offer. Monetag’s ad feed is always 100% clean – all ads are safe and legit.
- It saves you time: one link → multiple offers → optimized performance.
- You stay in control. You still have your traffic, your content, your brand, and Monetag handles the link-intelligence and monetization.
So forget about managing dozens of links while you’re plugging in affiliate marketing links. You just let SmartLink handle the heavy lifting.
In this way, you focus on what you do best. Drive traffic, generate content, and engage your audience. All while Monetag optimizes the revenue side.
Comparison: Traditional Affiliate Link vs. Monetag SmartLink
In other words, when you ask “How do you generate affiliate links?”, traditional methods work.
But when you ask, “How can I simplify and maximize my links?”, then SmartLink is the obvious upgrade.
6 Steps Affiliate Link Action Plan
- Choose your niche and traffic source (blog, social, email)
- Sign up for an affiliate program and get your links
- Use Monetag SmartLink to plug in your link instead of dozens of individual ones
- Create content around value: reviews, how-tos, case studies, and embed your SmartLink
- Monitor clicks, conversions, and optimize for offers that pay better (Monetag data helps)
- Scale by creating new content, reaching new channels, and testing more offers
Final Thoughts
You now know what is an affiliate link, what are they used for, how to get one, how to create one, and how do they work. The model is clear.
You drive traffic, share tracked links, and get paid when people act.
As a publisher or website owner, you owe it to yourself to plug in monetization tools. And a very powerful one, as you just saw, is the Monetag SmartLink.
With one simple link, you turn your traffic into revenue without adding any fluff or complexity.
So go ahead: implement, optimize, and watch your traffic work for you. Choose SmartLink. Not only does it make your links intelligent, it makes you look smart.
