Understanding Affiliate Programs

Affiliate Programs Overview

The affiliate program model is probably the most widely used method of making money on the Web. Although it is easy to use it is also badly misused... 80% of all affiliates don't make any money with them.

What Are Affiliate Programs? An affiliate program is a partnership with a merchant were the affiliate earns a commission on sales/ or leads that the affiliate produces by referring visitors to the merchant site.

Simply put an affiliate send visitors to a merchants site and they buy something then the affiliate gets  a percentage of the sale. The process is simply:

1. The affiliate joins a program and places affiliate links on his website or in a newsletter.
2. Visitors click the links and are sent to the merchants site.
3. The affiliate earns a commission on any sales made to that visitor.

Why the Affiliate model is Ideal for Making money with Your Website

• You don't need a merchant account.
• you don't have to spend large amounts to manufacture and store inventory.
• No order processing
• No shipping or handling of products.
• No customer e-mail queries  (inquiries and support are 24/7 issues that can easily eat up 50% of your day) .
• They cost nothing to join (beware of those few that do)
• No start-up costs.

Affiliate Programs FAQ

It all sounds simple and in fact it really is. So simple that most people are naturally sceptical and so I've put together a small Affiliate program FAQ

• Are Affiliate Programs Free to Join? - Affiliate programs are almost always free to join and you should stay away from the ones that aren't.
• Are they safe to join? -Yes they are.
• Why do merchants offer affiliate programs?- They are a easy and cheap way to recruit a large number of sales people to sell their product.
• How does the merchant know that I sent the visitor? - Your affiliate link contains a special tracking code unique to you.- See how affiliate programs  work for more detail.
• Do I need any special software? - No all you need is the link supplied by the merchant.
• Does my website need any special features like PHP, SSI etc?- No any website will do.
• When do I get Paid? - That depends on the merchant most have a minimum payout of $50 and pay monthly but it varies a lot.
• How Do I get Paid? - That depends on the merchant but most pay by cheque, PayPal and the larger ones bank transfer.
• How Many Affiliate Programs can I Join? - As many as you want.
• Why are they ideal for website owners- See above

Types of Affiliate Program

There are basically three types of affiliate programs:

• Pay-per-click -If someone clicks through a link the affiliate receives a small fee, usually $0.05 to $1.00 depending on your product.
• Pay-per-lead. -You ask visitors to sign up for your newsletter, download a trial version of a software or similar. The merchant now has contact information for that customer (a lead) and the affiliate is paid for each lead.
• Pay-per-Sale-. This is by far the most popular type of affiliate program. The affiliate receives a portion of the profits on everything that is sold  via his website.

In addition you will also find many variations of the above plans two of the most popular being:

• Two-tier programs: These programs have a structure similar to multilevel marketing organizations which profit through commission sales and sales recruitment. Affiliates in these programs receive a commission based on the activity of their affiliate sites as well as receiving commissions based on sales, clicks or leads stemming from their own site.
• Residual Programs: Many online merchants who receive regular payments from their customers (e.g. Web hosting) run this sort of affiliate program. Affiliates in these programs receive a share of these fees on an ongoing basis.

Getting Started with Affiliate Programs

The first step is to join an affiliate program see-How to  Become an affiliate if you haven't joined one before.

Affiliate Program Resources

Affiliate Masters Course
Become a high-earning affiliate champion. This is not just about building affiliate websites but about building content based niche websites. From researching the ideas building the site. This is probably the only book you need for building your own website.

 

Related Articles and resources: