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Affiliate programs (also called "associate," "reseller," and "partnership" programs) are revenue-sharing systems used by companies to market their products and services.
Simply put, affiliate programs are arrangements in which an online merchant Web site pays affiliates a commission to send them traffic. These affiliates post links to the merchant site and are paid according to a particular agreement. This agreement is usually based on the number of people the affiliate sends to the merchant's site, or the number of people they send who buy something or perform some other action. Some arrangements pay according to the number of people who visit the page containing their merchant site's banner advertisement. Basically, if a link brings the merchant site traffic or money, the merchant site pays the affiliate according to their agreement. Recruiting affiliates is an excellent way to sell products online, but it can also be a cheap and effective marketing strategy; it's a good way to get the word out about your site.
There are three types of affiliate programs:
Pay Per Impression (PPI)
Pay Per Click (PPC)
Commission
Pay Per Impression (PPI) Affiliate Programs
Pay Per Impression (PPI) affiliate programs pay the affiliate a very small amount of money each time a user sees an advertisement.
Pay Per Impression (PPI) programs have become significantly less popular with advertisers due to a high potential for fraud and a historical record of abuse.
Pay Per Click (PPC) Affiliate Programs
Pay Per Click (PPC) affiliate programs pay the affiliate a larger amount of money each time a user clicks on an advertisement.
Commission Affiliate Programs
Commission affiliate programs pay the affiliate each time a user clicks on an advertisement to go to the advertisers web site and actually purchases something or signs up for some service.
Commission affiliate programs are very pupular with advertisers because they entail no risk to the advertiser. If the advertiser doesn't make money, his affiliates don't make any money.
Commission affiiate programs are not very popular with webmasters, due to the potential for abuse by advertisers.
Choosing an Affiliate Program
The best affiliate program for your web site depends on what site you run.
It is best to pick affiliate programs that sell products and services which the users of your web site are interested in purchasing.
If you see a web site with products or services which you believe your users would be interested in, do a search for that web site + affiliate program.
Affiliate program Providers enable you to do business more easily with multiple advertisers. They take a lot of the headache out of making money from Internet advertising -- for a percentage.
Here are a few of the top Affiliate Program Providers:
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