Why online affiliate marketing is so popular among the publishers and merchants. The most probable reason could be the low cost associated with it and variety of forms of affiliate marketing available.
There are various forms of online affiliate marketing. But the most basic affiliate marketing program types are pay-per-click (PPC), pay-per-sale and pay-per-lead.
Pay Per Click (PPC)
PPC is the most popular type of affiliate marketing for the webmasters having a small website based on a particular niche and probably the easiest way to earn money online. In this type of affiliate marketing, the merchant pays commission to the affiliate when a visitor is referred to their site. Whenever a visitor clicks through the merchant’s banner or text link ads, the affiliate get paid a fixed amount even if the visitor does not purchase anything from the merchant’s website. So it is not necessary to make a sale on the affiliate’s side, the affiliate just get paid for clicks. In PPC the affiliate commission amount is low.
Pay Per Sale (PPS)
In this type of affiliate marketing, the affiliates are paid commissions by the merchant whenever the visitor buys something from the merchant’s website. Affiliate commission amount is generally a fixed percentage of the value of sold product or service. In pay per sale generally the commissions are higher than in the pay-per-click affiliate program .
Pay Per Lead (PPL)
The pay per lead type of affiliate marketing is also very popular because the affiliate just has to generate leads on the merchant’s website. In pay per lead affiliate marketing programs, the affiliates get paid whenever the visitor fills out an application form to the merchant’s website. Generally a form contains name, email, city, zip and country fields. Affiliate commission may be high or may be low and is based on the affiliate program you join.
Single-Tier and Multi-Tier Affiliate Marketing
In a single-tier affiliate marketing program, the affiliates get paid only once for a referred sale at the merchant’s website.
In a Multi-tier affiliate marketing program, the affiliates also get paid for the sales referred by other affiliates who joined that merchant’s affiliate program through your affiliate link.
Residual Income Affiliate Marketing
In residual income affiliate marketing, the affiliates get paid every time when their referred customer completes a purchase at the merchant’s site.
Now it’s up to you, which type of online affiliate marketing do you choose to earn money online using an affiliate marketing program?
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Other variant is possible also