The Different Types Of Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing programs has never been as popular before as it is today. Why? There can be a number of reasons. The most probable reason, however, could be the fact that the benefits of affiliate marketing have become clearer to a lot of people now than they were before.

Today, both the merchants and the affiliates can see clearly that affiliate marketing can work for both of them. The merchant sees affiliate marketing today as the chance to advertise their products at a lower cost. The affiliates, on the other hand, sees affiliate marketing as an easy way of earning profits online by doing what they like most, and that is by creating websites.

Just as the popularity of affiliate marketing has shifted into greater heights, so has the people's outlook about it changed. No longer is affiliate marketing considered today as an alternative method for the merchant to advertise his products, or as a source of additional income for the affiliates. For merchants and affiliates alike, affiliate marketing is now considered as a main source of profits and revenues.

So the question now is what type of affiliate marketing will work best for you? Are all affiliate marketing programs the same? Are the benefits the same? Or are there affiliate marketing programs that work better than the others?

There are actually different types or classes of affiliate marketing, and the number of types will depend on how one will classify them. The most basic affiliate marketing programs, however, falls under two categories: pay-per-click (PPC), and pay-per-performance (PPP).

• Pay Per Click (PPC)

PPC is the most popular type of affiliate marketing for affiliates with small websites, and probably the easiest way for them to earn money. In this affiliate marketing type, the merchant pays his affiliate whenever a visitor is referred to his site, that is whenever someone clicks through the merchant's banner or text ads. The affiliate gets paid a certain amount even if the visitor he referred does not purchase anything from the merchant's site. However, typical fees for PPC affiliate programs are small, usually not exceeding a dollar for every click.


• Pay Per Performance (PPP)

PPP affiliate marketing is the most popular among merchant and is also the most lucrative type for the affiliates. In this type of affiliate program, the merchant only pays the affiliate whenever his referral translates into an action—that is whenever the visitor he has referred actually buys something from the merchant's site or when the visitor becomes a lead. This means a lot of savings for the merchant. On the other hand, it becomes the most lucrative type for the dedicated affiliate, for commissions in PPP affiliate marketing usually comes in the range of 15% to 20% of the actual product sales.

Pay-per-performance affiliate marketing can be further classified into two popular types: pay-per-sales (PPS) and pay-per-lead (PPL).

o Pay Per Sale (PPS)

In a pay-per-sale type of affiliate marketing, the merchants pay the affiliate a certain fee whenever the visitor he has referred to the merchant's site actually buys something from the merchant's site. Affiliates are often paid on commission basis, although other merchants would opt to pay a fixed fee. But no matter what the basis of the fee is, it is generally higher than the fee paid to affiliates in a pay-per-click affiliate program.

o Pay Per Lead (PPL)

The pay-per-lead type of affiliate marketing is a slight variation of the PPS type and is often used by insurance and finance companies and other companies who rely on leads for their company to grow. In this type of affiliate marketing, the affiliate is paid whenever the visitor he referred to the merchant's site fills up an application form or any similar form related to the business of the company. Compensation for this type of affiliate marketing is based on a fixed fee whose rates approximate that of the fixed fee in the PPS type.

Aside from these three specific types of affiliate marketing, a lot of other affiliate marketing types exist. If the classification is based on the depth of the affiliate network, it can be classified as single-tier, two-tier, and multi-tier affiliate marketing. There is also another type of affiliate marketing that pays the affiliate each time the customer he has referred purchases something from the merchant's site.

• Single-Tier, Two-Tier, and Multi-Tier Affiliate Marketing

These types of affiliate marketing are based on the different levels or tiers in the affiliate network by which payments are made. In a single-tier affiliate marketing program, the affiliates are only paid based on the direct sales or traffic he has referred to the merchant. All the previously mentioned affiliate marketing types (i.e. PPS< PPL, and PPC) fall under the single-tier classification.

• In two-tier affiliate marketing programs, the affiliate is not only paid for the direct traffic or sales that he refers to the merchant's site, but also on every traffic or sales referred by various other affiliates who joined the affiliate program through his recommendation. Multi-tier affiliate marketing works the same way, although the affiliate gets additional commission for a wider number of affiliates in different tiers in the affiliate network.

• Residual Income Affiliate Marketing

In residual income affiliate marketing, the affiliate gets paid not only once for every customer he has referred to the merchant's site. Rather, the affiliate is also paid whenever the customer he has referred returns to the site and purchase another product. Compensation for such type of affiliate marketing is based on either sales percentage commission or fixed fee basis.

The different affiliate marketing types would virtually work differently for merchants and affiliates alike, and each would generally have their own list of benefits. Which type of affiliate marketing will work best for you? It is not really for me to tell. Rather, it is for you to choose which type of affiliate marketing program will suit your needs and characteristics best.

Setting Up your Affiliate Marketing System

There is much speculation about how much money you can earn online without your own product. Marketing your own digital product on the Internet can be very lucrative but there is no reason why you can’t profit a great deal by using creative methods that offer real value to Internet surfers and have your own product as well.

An affiliate program is really not as difficult to set up as you may think. Thanks to the high demand for affiliate systems recently, there are now lots of ways to set up your own program.

Here's what you need to set one up:

1. A web site with your own domain name.

2. At least one product or service that you own completely.

3. A system to handle commission tracking and payment.
That sounds pretty easy, doesn’t it? Well, actually it is! And it's getting easier all the time.

The first two items listed above are self-explanatory. Of course, you need your own website and your own product or service. You can't very well set up an associate program if you don't own the site or the product(s) you will be promoting. If you have not taken these two steps, you'll need to do them first. Once you've managed to get by these two steps, you can move right to step three, setting up your program.

You will need to search the Internet for a system that will handle commission tracking and payment. You can try to do this yourself but you will most likely miss some and missed ones are missed income. There are free ones, as well as, paid ones.

The positive aspects of an associate management system are many:

1. You can sign on associates more rapidly and grow a larger force of resellers.

2. You'll enjoy the automation and online management of affiliates.

3. These systems provide full sales statistics for both you and your associates.

Niche Affiliate Marketing 101

Niche affiliate marketing already marked its spot on the online business world. Not only because of its popularity – also because of its affectivity.

To be able to join in the affiliate marketing world, you are not required to have a specialization regarding a specific subject. Affiliate marketing is no rocket science. Niche affiliate marketing means promoting someone else’s site and gaining profit from it. Don’t think that this online business is automatic – no sir. Niche affiliate marketing also requires determination and discipline. You will need to have basic tools to be able to deliver the goods to your affiliates. Of course that is figuratively speaking – what I meant was you must always bring more people to visit your affiliate’s site.

The more visits your affiliate site gets, the more rewarding it will be for you. That’s how affiliate marketing works. So before you even begin planning joining the niche affiliate marketing world – think twice. Are you ready for the tough competition? Yes. Since niche affiliate marketing has been around for years now, a lot already ventured into its exploits.

You will encounter tigers and as a beginner you are no more than a pussycat to be dealt with easily. That being said, you will need artillery. Fire power. You need to equip your resources well so it can compete online. Fair and square. So how do you do that?

Let’s have an example. If you have a blog, the least you can do is to make your blog worth reading. It doesn’t matter what your blog is about – just be sure you have a target audience and it will appeal to them. Also, add banners to your website. This banners (not to mention they are attractive to the eye) can really increase the attraction power of your blog. Not to mention this banners will be your key to back link your niche affiliate marketing partner.

Here’s the logic, how would you expect others to visit your advertised site if your own site doesn’t have enough visits alone? That is a no –no. Since niche affiliate marketing has been around for years now, a lot already ventured into its exploits. You will encounter tigers and as a beginner you are no more than a pussycat to be dealt with easily.

That being said, you will need artillery. Fire power. You need to equip your resources well so it can compete online. The least you can do is to make your blog worth reading. It doesn’t matter what your blog is about – just be sure you have a target audience and it will appeal to them. Also, add banners to your website. Since niche affiliate marketing has been around for years now, a lot already ventured into its exploits. You will encounter tigers and as a beginner you are no more than a pussycat to be dealt with easily.

That being said, you will need artillery. Fire power. You need to equip your resources well so it can compete online. The least you can do is to make your blog worth reading. It doesn’t matter what your blog is about – just be sure you have a target audience and it will appeal to them. That is the key to niche affiliate marketing.

In short, niche affiliate marketing is not as hard as it sounds to be. It is up to you how you will approach the market and how you will make niche affiliate marketing work for you not the other way around.