Many people are successful with affiliate marketing. Essentially, this kind of marketing involves promoting goods and services produced by others, in exchange for a commission of some type. Depending on the approach to the marketing task, those goods and services may be private branded or sold under the original name assigned by the producer. In any event, there are several different approaches to affiliate marketing that make it possible for just about anyone to earn money.
One of the most popular types of affiliate marketing today is known as pay-per-click, or PPC. With this form of marketing, you host ads on your web site. Whenever anyone clicks on one of those ads and visits your affiliate partner’s product splash page, you earn a small flat rate. Depending on the terms of the PPC agreement, you may earn anywhere from a fraction of a penny for each ad clicked, or several cents per clicked ad. Depending on the popularity of your web site, and the relevance of the ads to the content of your site, it is possible to make a decent secondary income each month for relatively little effort.
A similar approach is known as pay-per-performance, or PPP. With this approach, you only earn money if the visitor to your web site clicks on the ad, and takes some other type of further action. In most cases, this means that’s the visitor clicked through and actually made a purchase. However, some PPP programs only require that the visitor register for more information, or in some manner graduate from the status of a general lead to a prospective customer. While PPP is more lucrative than PPC, it is possible for a number of people to click ads on your web site and never take any further action, which leaves you with making nothing at all from the effort.
A more precise marketing approach is known as pay-per-sale, or PPS. PPS requires that anyone who clicks ads on your web site and is redirected to your partner’s web site must buy something in order for you to receive any type of compensation. With PPS, there is no revenue earned if the visitor signs up to receive mailings or any other type of activity. Only sales will generate revenue for you. Often, that revenue is in the form of a commission, usually a fixed percentage of the total of the sale.
A different approach is known as pay-per-lead, or PPL. Here, the focus is not on generating sales, but on qualifying visitors and effectively identifying them as potential customers. Generally, this requires that visitors to your web site click on an ad, and then sign up for more information on your partner’s web site. While you earn less per transaction that will a pay-per-sale arrangement, there are generally more leads qualified than sales made, which will increase your income overall.
It’s a good idea to consider each of these affiliate marketing strategies if you want to create a reliable revenue source. For some people, efforts of this type are an ideal second job, allowing them to work when and as they like. However, there are people who operate multiple web sites and optimize them with ads that generate a steady stream of income. With the right partners, and web sites that see a lot of traffic each day, it is very possible to earn enough money to get rid of your day job, and work as an affiliate marketer on a full time basis.
