Introduction into Affiliate Marketing

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate Marketing is essentially promoting other people's products and receiving a commission based on what is sold.

This sounds like a pretty simple definition but the key words in this sentence are products and what is actually sold.

But first, two quick definitions before we go on: Who is a Publisher and Who is an Advertiser?

Publisher - is anyone who promotes other people's products through their website or other means of communication

Advertiser- is the company that provides the service or product for sale

This is the bare bones of how affiliate marketing works. You the Publisher sign-up and promote the Advertiser's products or service in the form of a sale or lead in return to receive either a percentage of that sale and/or fixed rate.

I am going to explain the common types of commission structures out there so you can decide which program (if you decide to do affiliate marketing) is best for you.

Different Commission Structures of Affiliate Marketing

• Pay Per Sale and Percentage Based Programs

These programs are the most popular and how it works is that whenever you refer a customer to an Advertiser and they purchase an item after being referred by you you earn a predetermined percentage of that sale.

For an example of a percentage based program, let's say you earn a 12% commission for every customer you refer to Match.com that signs up for their service. Let's say the sign-up for 1 month and the monthly rate is $19.95. For that customer you will have earned $2.40.

The other method of this type is pay per sale. And this is just getting a flat-rate pay out for whoever you get to sign-up. Using the same example before, you could say Match.com will give you $5.00 for every customer you refer from your site to theirs and they signup.

This is how you get paid with Pay per sale and Percentage Based Affiliate Marketing.

• Pay Per Lead, Pay Per Action

For a Pay Per Lead structure you earn a set amount when you refer a visitor from your site to the Advertiser's site and they provide information such as their name, email, mailing address. This is considered a lead and the Advertiser will typically pay you a flat rate for each lead.

A Pay Per Action is pretty similar to a pay per lead. What happens is that when a visitor from your site completes a required action by the Advertiser such as signing up for a free trail membership of their product or downloading free trail software you are providing the lead by giving the merchant what they want which is information. You will again be typically paid a flat fee for every action that you create.

• Pay Per Click

If you are a Hubpages member you should be pretty familiar with this type of commission structure. With pay per click you get paid each time one of your visitors on your site click on your affiliate link and direct's them to the Advertiser's or merchant's page.

Some websites pay, for example, $1.00 for each click. This is a great means of earning money online if you drive a lot of traffic to your site.

Google Adsense is a form of this pay per click method but your rate varies depending on the advertising dollars being placed for keywords in your ad.

• Pay Per Call

This is similiar to pay per click only that you drive telephone leads to a Advertiser's phone rather than clicks.

• Pay Per Post

This method pays you to write reviews about products, services and websites for Advertiser's. The only bad part about this method is that you are only paid once for your services and you cannot post affiliate links and earn multiple referrals.

Final Thoughts

If you are aspiring to become an affiliate marketer and/or trying to earn some money online, these are a few of the more popular methods to do so.

One of my favorite sites to become to sign-up as a publisher (it's free to signup) and find advertiser's products to sell is Commission Junction.  There you will find TONS of advertiser's to choose from and sell their products. Everyone has different payment structures and it's up to you to decide which is best for you.

I may write a hub on Commission Junction all together in the future but in the time being, check it out for yourself.

If you want to start earning by means of Pay Per Click you should sign-up. It is free to join and all you have to do is write articles on topics you love and earn money while doing so.

How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

So you think you want to be an affiliate marketer? Do you have what it takes? In this lesson we give you the no-hype low-down on what affiliate marketing is and isn't, and 10 excellent reasons why affiliate marketing might be for you.