Different Types of Affiliate Marketing

By Albert Alexander

Affiliate marketing programs have never been as popular before as it is today. Why? There can be a number of reasons. The most probable reason, however, could be the fact that the benefits of internet marketing have become clearer to a lot of people now than they were before.

Today, both the merchants and their partners can see clearly that affiliate marketing can work for both of them. The merchant sees internet marketing today as the chance to advertise their products at a lower cost. The affiliates, on the other hand, sees online marketing as an easy way of earning profits online by doing what they like most, and that is by creating websites.

Just as the popularity of online marketing has shifted into greater heights, so has the people's outlook about it changed. No longer is internet marketing considered today as an alternative method for the merchant to advertise his products, or as a source of additional income for the affiliates. For merchants and marketers alike, online marketing is now considered a main source of profits and revenues.

So the question now is what type of online marketing will work best for you? Are all affiliate marketing programs the same? Are the benefits the same? Or are there online marketing programs that work better than the others?

There are actually different types or classes of affiliate marketing, and the number of types will depend on how one will classify them. The most basic marketing programs, however, falls under two categories: pay-per-click (PPC), and pay-per-performance (PPP).

Pay Per Click (PPC)

PPC is the most popular type of internet marketing for web marketers with small websites, and probably the easiest way for them to earn money. In this marketing type, the merchant pays his whenever a visitor is referred to his site, that is whenever someone clicks through the merchant's banner or text ads. The partner gets paid a certain amount even if the visitor he referred does not purchase anything from the merchant's site. However, typical fees for PPC programs are small, usually not exceeding a dollar for every click.

Pay Per Performance (PPP)

PPP marketing is the most popular among merchant and is also the most lucrative type for the marketers. In this type of program, the merchant only pays the partner whenever his referral translates into an action, that is whenever the visitor he has referred actually buys something from the merchant's site or when the visitor becomes a lead. This means a lot of savings for the merchant. On the other hand, it becomes the most lucrative type for the dedicated partner, for commissions in PPP internet marketing usually comes in the range of 15% to 20% of the actual product sales.

Pay-per-performance internet marketing can be further classified into two popular types: pay-per-sales (PPS) and pay-per-lead (PPL).

Pay Per Sale (PPS)

In a pay-per-sale type of marketing, the merchants pay the marketer a certain fee whenever the visitor he has referred to the merchant's site actually buys something from the merchant's site. Online marketers are often paid on commission basis, although other merchants would opt to pay a fixed fee. But no matter what the basis of the fee is, it is generally higher than the fee paid to affiliates in a pay-per-click program.

Pay Per Lead (PPL)

The pay-per-lead type of internet marketing is a slight variation of the PPS type and is often used by insurance and finance companies and other companies who rely on leads for their company to grow. In this type of marketing, the partner is paid whenever the visitor he referred to the merchant's site fills up an application form or any similar form related to the business of the company. Compensation for this type of marketing is based on a fixed fee whose rates approximate that of the fixed fee in the PPS type.

Aside from these three specific types of marketing, a lot of other marketing types exist. If the classification is based on the depth of the affiliate network, it can be classified as single-tier, two-tier, and multi-tier affiliate marketing. There is also another type of internet marketing that pays him each time the customer he has referred purchases something from the merchant's site.

Single-Tier, Two-Tier, and Multi-Tier Affiliate Marketing

These types of internet marketing are based on the different levels or tiers in the network by which payments are made. In a single-tier marketing program, you are only paid based on the direct sales or traffic referred to the merchant. All the previously mentioned marketing types (i.e. PPS, PPL, and PPC) fall under the single-tier classification.

In two-tier internet marketing programs, one is not only paid for the direct traffic or sales that he refers to the merchant's site, but also on every traffic or sales referred by various other marketers who joined the program through his recommendation. Multi-tier marketing works the same way, although the marketer gets additional commission for a wider number of co-affiliates in different tiers in the network.

Residual Income Marketing

In residual income marketing, the online marketer gets paid not only once for every customer he has referred to the merchant's site. Rather, they're also paid whenever the customer he has referred returns to the site and purchase another product. Compensation for such type of marketing is based on either sales percentage commission or fixed fee basis.

The different marketing types would virtually work differently for merchants and netrepreneurs alike, and each would generally have their own list of benefits. Which type of marketing will work best for you? It is not really for me to tell. Rather, it is for you to choose which type of affiliate marketing program will suit your needs and characteristics best.

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