Affiliate marketing is gaining popularity day by day because
of the increasing consciousness amongst the masses about it. Merchants as well
as the affiliates have realized that affiliate marketing proves beneficial for
both of them. Affiliate marketing gives the merchant the opportunity to
advertise their products at a low cost while the affiliates find affiliate
marketing as an easy way to earn money online and that too by doing something
that they could enjoy
The perception of people about affiliate marketing has
undergone a sea change with the rising popularity of affiliate marketing.
Today, no one considers affiliate marketing as an alternative method of
advertisement of products by a merchant or as a source of additional income for
an affiliate. As of now, affiliate marketing has become the main source of
profits and revenues for many the merchants and affiliates.
Now, there can be a number of questions that could be asked
about affiliate marketing. For example, what type of affiliate program should
one opt for or does all affiliate marketing programs accrue the same benefit or
are all the affiliate marketing programs the same deep down or are there
affiliate marketing programs that prove to be more beneficial than the others.
It is true that there are different types of affiliate
marketing but these types surely depend on the way one classifies them.
However, fundamentally affiliate marketing programs can be classified into two
heads-pay per click (PPC) and pay per performance (PPP).
o PAY PER
CLICK (PPC) AND PAY PER PERFORMANCE (PPP)
PPC is the most popular as well as the easiest way of
earning money for affiliates having smaller websites. An affiliate gets paid
when a visitor is referred to his site i.e. when a user clicks through the
merchant's banner or text ads. This payment to the affiliate does not depend on
whether the visitor makes any actual purchase on the merchant's site. Contrary
to that, under PPP affiliate marketing the affiliate gets paid only if the
referred visitor actually makes any purchase or if the referred visitor turns
into a lead. Due to this difference, the returns on PPC for an affiliate would
be comparatively less than PPP. PPP affiliate marketing is considered a better
bet for both the merchant as well as for the affiliates.
Similarly Pay Per Performance (PPP) affiliate marketing has
yet been classified into two categories: - pay per sales (PPS) and pay per lead
(PPL). As the name suggests under the PPS system, the affiliate only gets paid
if actual sales is made while under PPL affiliate system, the affiliate gets
paid if the visitor fills up an application form or any such similar form
related to business of the company. This kind of system is used by companies
which depend on leads for their growth like finance and insurance companies.
o SINGLE
TIER, TWO TIERS AND MULTI TIER AFFILIATE MARKETING
These are different types of affiliate marketing programs
depending on the depth of the affiliate network. If the affiliates only get
paid on the basis of direct sales or traffic that he has referred to the
merchant's site (for example-PPS, PPL and PPC), this kind of program comes
under single tier affiliate marketing. Similarly, if he gets paid for the
direct traffic that he has referred and also for every traffic or sales that
has been made by affiliates recommended by him, he comes under the two tier
affiliate marketing. In multi tier affiliate program, the affiliate gets paid
like two tiers but besides that he also gets paid for other affiliates in
different tiers in the affiliate network.
o RESIDUAL
INCOME AFFILIATE MARKETING
The affiliate gets paid not once but every time the referred
customer makes a purchase on the merchant's site. The payment may be made as a
fixed amount or as a percentage of the sale amount.
Thus, we find that there are a number of affiliate marketing
programs and the choice that you make must depend on your own convenience and
requirement.
