The growing popularity of affiliate marketing is stemmed from its increasing number of available programs to entice more enterprising entrepreneurs on a web based business venture that is simple and effective in generating handsome incomes.
Benefits that allure
The availability of a myriad of exciting affiliate programs in the market with a host of reputable affiliate vendors or merchants with a variety of interesting products to be marketed makes affiliate marketing a very attractive online business venture. The setup capital is very low with few required components to get started.
The long list of benefits of this new online business draws many to its shores for a good profit with little effort and time spent on making it work. Affiliate merchants and marketers benefit from this low cost online marketing program. Any ordinary consumer can be turned into a successful affiliate marketer by checking out the best of affiliate programs in the market and promoting the selected products for commission.
Affiliate merchants are delighted that their products are promoted at low costs by third parties that are eager to earn a quick buck through commissions. Affiliate marketers need to only spend a couple of hours a day on the web to promote the merchant’s products to earn commission of the flexible amount depending on the success of introducing web visitors to the merchant’s website or have online sales by the web visitors on the merchant’s products.
The simplicity of the marketing program draws many to venture into it as marketers can select products which they think are popular in the market to raise the potential of sales. From an extra income generator, affiliate marketing has been transformed into the primary source of income for many consumers today.
The advanced technologies profit affiliate marketers with the easy availability and access to tools and resources to execute this form of marketing readily and profitably. However, different marketers may prefer different types of affiliate marketing programs and different product offerings.
Pay-per-Click marketing
One of the basic affiliate marketing programs is Pay-per-Click or PPC marketing. This simple affiliate marketing program is very popular for marketers who want to earn some extra income without much effort or capital. Marketers with a personal website can earn some cash easily with PPC marketing. The merchant pays the affiliate whenever the latter refers a visitor to the merchant’s website; that is, through a click by the visitor on the merchant’s online ads or banners located in the affiliate’s websites.
The affiliate does not need to do much except draw more web traffic to its own personal website that has links to the merchant’s websites. Hence, a well designed website with great contents would augur well with the affiliate to generate more traffic to its own website to increase the chances of visitors clicking the affiliate merchant’s links to their web business site.
The commission earned by the affiliate from the merchant is dependent on the contract as each affiliate program and merchant offers different rates and deals. The affiliate contract may be standard or negotiable depending on the merchant’s market position and the credibility of the affiliate marketer. The commission rate can be quite low as many web visitors may not make the desired online purchases from the merchant’s website. The best rates for PPC programs are about a dollar per click. It is up to the affiliate marketer to negotiate for the best rates or manage its website properly to compel visitors to click and make online purchases of products promoted.
Pay-per-Performance program
Another popular affiliate marketing program is Pay-per-Performance marketing or PPP marketing. This is preferred by affiliate merchants with a higher commission for affiliate marketers. In PPP, the affiliate merchant pays the affiliate only when the referred visitor takes on a desired action, such as making a purchase or keys in contact information which the merchant can follow up as potential lead.
Securing potential business leads is crucial for a business to stay in the market as these leads provide business opportunities to the merchant to introduce the whole range of products and services for increased sales and profits. PPP marketing helps the affiliate merchant save a lot on expensive advertising or finding targeted market consumers to consider the goods.
PPP affiliates earn good commission, which normally falls in between 15% and 20% of sales.
Pay-per-Sale marketing
Pay-per-Sale marketing is a sub category of PPP marketing where the merchants pay a certain fee to the affiliate for every sale made by the referred visitor. This fixed fee differs from commission basis payout which may be higher than PPC commissions.
Pay-per-Lead marketing
Pay-per-Lead programs vary from PPS with an emphasis on growing the affiliate merchant’s customer listing. This form of affiliate programs is commonly adopted by insurance and financial firms that want more potential leads to sell their different policies to all strata of society.
PPL affiliates get paid when the referred visitor fills up the merchant’s application or contact form. Usually a fixed fee is given to the affiliates.
Tiered affiliate programs
The market also offers a host of other less popular affiliate marketing programs. There is a myriad of classifications on affiliate marketing with different programs generated in single or two tiered structures. Multi-tiered affiliate marketing programs are also available to facilitate the different needs and expectations of the merchant and marketer.
The differently tiered affiliate marketing programs are designed according to the manner of payment made to affiliate marketers. Single-tier affiliates are based on the direct sales or referrals. Two-tier affiliates are paid for direct sales and traffic on a personal effort or by other affiliates under the primary affiliate marketer.
Multi-tier affiliates enjoy extra commissions from their wider circle of recruited affiliates in different tiers that form their affiliate network.
Residual income programs
Residual income affiliate programs reward the affiliate with payment again and again on the same referral especially if the same referred visitor makes a purchase. The affiliate marketer in this program does not need many visitors to click on the merchant’s website if the small group keeps clicking to go in and make purchases.
