So You Want To Be An Entrepreneur! (Part 3: What Is Affiliate Marketing?)
Affiliate Marketing Business Development Network MarketingPublished January 3, 2010 at 11:19 pm No Comments***Previously Posted On http://heathertaskovics.net***
WOOHOO! So you’ve read Part 1 and Part 2 of this blog series in your valiant quest to become an entrepreneur and you find that there is still one more question burning from within the depths of your soul: “What Is Affiliate Marketing?”
Affiliate Marketing Defined
Affiliate Marketing is a type of marketing system by which companies pay a commission to people (affiliates) for referring their products and/or services to the rest of the world. It is fairly popular with first-time internet marketers as it can be an easy way to earn some extra money.
The Various Types Of Affiliate Marketing Programs
Here are the three types of programs that you will typically find:
- Pay Per Click
- Pay Per Lead
- Pay Per Sale
Pay Per Click (PPC) – Not to be confused with Pay Per Click related to Google Adwords, with this PPC, the affiliate is paid every time a banner ad or a link that is placed on the affiliate’s website has been clicked on. Typically the affiliate is required to get a certain number of clicks on their links before they receive any compensation. For these the pay is rather minimal and should not be used as a sole source of income.
Pay Per Lead (PPL) – With PPL, the affiliate receives commissions every time a lead turns into a potential buyer. Even though the buyer may not complete the purchase, the merchant believes that the lead is still valuable and therefore will pay the affiliate for that lead.
Pay Per Sale (PPS) – PPS is the most common affiliate marketing pay system. In this system, the affiliate receives commissions based on purchases made by the lead. If the lead does not buy anything, the affiliate will receive no compensation.
Examples Of Affiliate Marketing Websites
There are hundreds of affiliate marketing sites out there. The following is a list of what I consider to be the *BIG THREE* in the industry:
- Clickbank.com – This is by far the most popular website for finding affiliate marketing opportunities. There are thousands upon thousands of products available to market–there are even detailed sales stats to help you choose which product(s) to market. Because many of these products are digital, you can easily earn as much as 75% commissions.
- Amazon.com Affiliate Program – Since 1996, everyone’s favorite place to shop for books, CDs, DVDs and clothing (and just about anything else you can think of!), has had an affiliate program. You can earn as much as 15% on purchases and they provide widgets that you can post on your blog site as well as links for marketing on social networks. Many people create complete online *stores* just with Amazon.com affiliate links.
- CommissionJunction.com – Basically, this is THE place to find merchants that offer affiliate programs. It is a central location through which you would receive your commissions earned from numerous merchants that you choose to market. CJ provides you with the affiliate links, which include imbedded tracking code so that you can monitor the performance metrics of the link.
And thus concludes the “So You Want To Be An Entrepreneur” series. I hope you have found this article series useful in your search for finding the right marketing opportunity and learning a bit about the industry. If you like what you have read, go ahead and share it on Twitter and Facebook.
And by all means, please DO leave your comments in the space provided below. I would love to hear from you.
Thank you so much for joining me on this fantastic journey!
As always, until next time…
TO YOUR SUCCESS!
Heather Taskovics
Co-founder, Networking Women Today
