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Affiliate Marketing

Written by: Lou Sorell

Article Overview: Types of Affiliate Marketing done online.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is an Internet-based marketing method whereby a business rewards one of more affiliates for each visitor of customer brought about by the affiliate's efforts. While search engines, e-mail, and website syndication are some of the methods most favored by online retailers, affiliate marketing continues to play an important role in e-retailers' marketing strategies.

The primary thrust here will be an overview of the types of affiliate websites as categorized by advertisers and affiliate networks. While at the moment there is no widely accepted categorization used by the industry as to what defines an affiliate website, the following types are commonly used by affiliate marketers:

Cost Per Action Networks

These are top-tier affiliates that expose offers from the advertiser with which they are affiliated to their own network of affiliates.

Comparison Shopping

A price comparison service (also known as shopping comparison or price engine) allows individuals to see different lists of prices for specific products. Price comparison allows individuals to see different lists of prices for specific products. Price comparison services typically do not actually sell products themselves; rather they provide a list of prices from retailers from whom users can buy. Sites do not charge users anything to use them, but instead are financed by payments from retailers who are listed on the site. Depending on the business model of the comparison shopping site, retailers will either pay a flat fee to be included on the site or pay a fee each time a user clicks through to the retailer web site or pay every time a user completes a specified action - for example, when they buy something or register with their e-mail address.

Pay Per Click

Affiliates that use pay per click (or PPC) to promote advertiser's offers. PPC is a form of Internet advertising that is used on content sites (like blogs for example) as well as search engines and ad networks. Advertisers post ad content with various such web host and the host is paid only if and when their ad is clicked. The term "pay per click" literally means what it ways; the advertiser pays each time a visitor clicks on the ad.

Niche Marketing

Niche marketing involves cultivation smaller segments of larger markets. In an online context, a website is developed and promoted to uniquely serve a targeted and usually loyal customer base, giving the affiliate a small but regular income stream. This technique is then repeated across several other niche websites until a desired income level is achieved.

Loyalty Websites

Loyalty websites typically operate by providing a reward system for purchases via reward points, cash back (i.e. customers can earn cash rebates on online purchases that they make), or charitable donations.

Internet Coupon and Rebate Websites

Internet coupons typically provide for reduced cost or free shipping, a specific dollar or percentage discount, or some other offer to encourage consumers to purchase specific products or to purchase from specific retailers.

Shopping Directories

A shopping directory is a web directory style website that focuses on sites that sell products or services. Shopping directories used by affiliate marketers are those that typically that list merchants by category without such things as coupons and price comparisons (which often change regularly and thereby require constant updating).

E-mail List Affiliates

These are owners of large opt-in (i.e. people voluntarily sign up to be part of them, sometimes for a fee) e-mail list. Such sites typically employ a technique known as e-mail drip marketing which is a form of e-mail marketing where a company sends e-mail messages to subscribers on a scheduled basis using e-mail marketing software.

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Article Tags: action networks, advertiser, affiliate marketers, affiliate marketing, affiliate networks, affiliate website, business model, charge users, e mail address, internet based marketing, marketing strategies, online retailers, pay per click, ppc, price comparison service, price comparison services, search engines, specific products, thrust, tier affiliates
Referred by: http://jaykubassek.com



Related Forum Posts
Re: Affiliate Marketing - Open for Discussion - Carol, Mary and David - thanks for your great input and insight on Affiliate Marketing! This is the kind of discussion I was hoping for in this thread. There are pros and cons to Affiliate Marketing, just as there are to any business. As has been suggested, he best policy is to proceed with caution and do some research before jumping in. As Carol has recommended, this topic thread in the EvanCarmichael.com forum is the ideal place to ask questions and seek further input on available Affiliate Marketing programs. If a person is serious about building an online business and is interested in Affiliate Marketing plans, they should approach the process as they would any other form of business. Research, ask questions, compare opportunities, participate in forums on online business and Affiliate Marketing. GT :-]
Re: Affiliate Marketing - Open for Discussion - Hi GT Affiliate Marketing is one of the easier ways to get started making money online, but it does take quite a bit of work before you see any great results as you have to keep promoting constantly. It does teach you one hell of a lot about all aspects of Internet Marketing though as you will need to learn how to write and submit articles, create and maintain a blog, social networking is a great help to affiliates too..the list goes on and on. In fact from what you learn from Affiliate Marketing you can apply to any niche and be sure to succeed, take care, Carol
Re: Affiliate Marketing - Open for Discussion - You made some very good points here Jeff and I agree with you, Affiliate Marketing should not be something that you concentrate all your efforts into. As i said earlier I have learned a lot with Affiliate Marketing and continue to do so, and it has helped me tremendously to understand what I am going to have to do in my chosen niche(s). I am also being coached by the same group of mentors as GT and we are all moving forward daily to achieve our ultimate goals. Take care, Carol
Re: Should Evan add a "Social Media Marketing" category to the f - Hi, Online Marketing would be a great title, and having sub categories would make it even better, there would plenty of categories to choose from, Social Media, SEO, Article Marketing and yes even Affiliate Marketing to name just a few, great looking site btw Jeff, take care, Carol
Re: Internet Marketing is the best business in the world - No problem. I am also interested in creating an ebook one day and am glad that I can finally contribute to someone who is, maybe not so up to date in an area that I have some knowlege of. Also I forgot to mention Affiliate Marketing from my previous post. Getting others to sell WhyNot's ebooks for him is a great way of promoting as well.


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