kickback marketing

Any one of several online marketing methods whereby Web sites and media sites form alliances to refer customers back and forth to each other, thereby sharing in the revenue. Examples include affiliate marketing programs, pay-for-performance deals (like cost-per-action), revenue sharing agreements, bounty systems, bartering, and so on.

Some uses of kickback marketing are a result of the dot-com fallout; many companies still want to be first-to-market and to get big fast, but the industry realizes it must monitor costs and make a profit. This kind of marketing (like viral marketing) takes advantage of the very nature of the Web. Instead of marketing in a single outlet online, it makes more sense to get as widely distributed as possible.