The rise in popularity of personal blogs and websites has opened up the door to many new kinds of marketing strategies. This is great for both the site owners themselves as well as those merchants and companies seeking to advertise on their sites. One type of advertising method between the two parties is known as affiliate marketing, and it is quickly becoming the talk of the blogging and advertisement world.
The discipline, in a nutshell, is the sharing of profits between a merchant and a website owner who displays links on their site. These links redirect readers to a company or merchants site. There are three types of of this in practice today, these are known as pay per lead, pay per sale, and pay per click.
Action based schemes. Pay per lead is probably the least used of the three types, but still has its place. This is when a reader clicks on affiliates’ links and then signs up for something or registers with a merchants site. This arrangement is ideal for those sites which offer subscription services of some type or are simply looking to build up some type of consumer or outreach database.
Pay per sale marketing is when the website makes a profit each time a click on one of their links results in a sale. The profit is prearranged and it either a flat rate or a percentage of the actual sale. This is usually the highest paying of the three types because there is a sale involved.
Pay per click marketing is when a reader on a site clicks a link and is redirected to another site for the merchant or company. The blogger or website owner makes a profit with each one of these links. This profit is often very small, but can result in big results if links are clicked enough times.
Earn a little extra. For many bloggers and website owners, this is an easy way to earn some money from their site without putting in much effort. There does not have to be any actual selling or promotion of any kind if it is not desired. All that is necessary is a link for readers to click on, where that link is placed and in what context is up to the site itself.
Merchants benefit from it, because they do not have to pay out much, if anything, unless there are actual sales or generated leads. The more websites with which a merchant is affiliated with, the more chances for sales there are. This also results in added exposure for their products and/or services that they would not otherwise get.
Along with these advantages, however, do come some disadvantages, although they are quite minor. These disadvantages include the requirement to share profits and the potential for unsavory practices. These can be avoided by both parties coming to an agreement on the affiliate marketing practices, which will help to ensure a greater working relationship as well as more potential for success.