3 Main Types of Affiliate Programs

By Matt Bacak

Affiliate programs can be a great source of revenue for your business. If you already have traffic coming to your website, you can use affiliate programs to increase your sales. It’s as easy as putting up the link that the merchant provides you with and sitting back to enjoy the profits. But before you start out, you need to understand the basics and the different types available to you.

There are three main types of affiliate programs. The first one is called pay per click. Pay per click is when the merchant pays you for every click that you get on your website. The great thing about this type of program is that you get paid even if no one purchases the actual product. However, two down sides to using a pay per click affiliate program is that the amount of money made per click is very small, usually under a dollar and many people abuse this system. If a merchant thinks you are abusing their links by clicking on them yourself, they will not pay you. Also, some pay per click affiliates only pay you if your customer clicks on the second page after they arrive at the affiliate site. This can seriously alter what you get paid so read everything before you decide on a program.

The second type is called pay per lead. A pay per lead program is when a merchant pays you for each person you refer to their page that fills out a form or questionnaire. It could be anything from supplying their name and address, creating an account, downloading a program or even filling out a survey about a product. Then the merchant may use that information or they might sell that information to other companies. It’s important to be honest with your customers and let them know, if you choose this type of program, that their information may be sold. Honesty is paramount to success in any business.

The third type of affiliate program is called pay per sale. In a pay per sale affiliate program, the merchant pays you when one of your customers buys one of the affiliate’s product. Depending on the merchant, you may get paid a percent of the commission or a flat rate fee. So you could get 50% of the price of what your customer purchased or you could get $2 for every sale. It all depends on the merchant. Most pay per sale affiliate programs will be commission based.

When selecting an affiliate program for your website, don’t forget to read all the fine print. Some merchants will offer an increased commission rate done on a sliding scale. Others will limit the amount of money you can make by stopping commissions or reducing the commission rate once you make a certain amount. Now that you know the different types of programs out there, you can choose the program that will best suit you and your website. Hopefully, this will help you choose the program that will aid you in achieving your financial dreams.

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