Basics Of An Affiliate Program

An affiliate is commonly understood to be an individual or entity which is related to some other entity (called parent) but is not controlled by it. The difference between an affiliate and a subsidiary essentially lies in the percentage of stake owned. In an affiliate, the stake of the parent is minor but in a subsidiary, a majority stake is owned. In the e-commerce world, an affiliate is called the publisher. An affiliate program can be considered an online version of the traditional commission-based revenue sharing arrangement in which the agent refers a particular seller to a buyer which can meet the requirements of the latter.

If you have a website, you can earn money by referring some other site, blog, or forum to the visitors on your site by providing them advertisement space. However, you shall have an appropriate affiliate program which describes the conditions attached to it and most importantly, the method of payments.

The Methods Of Payment

Following are the methods of payment in an affiliate marketing program:a)Cost per mile (CPM): In this, the website owner earns just by providing space to the advertiser. b)Cost per click (CPC): The publisher will get paid if the visitor not only sees the advertisement but also clicks on it. This is not used much now.c)Cost per action/sale (CPA/CPS): It is one step ahead of CPC method. It requires the visitor to not just visit and click on the site but also make some purchase. The publisher gets paid on per sale basis. This is the most widely prevalent compensation method nowadays.

Structural Aspects Of An Affiliate Program - Single-Tier To Multi-Tier

The programs can be designed to earn by way of either single-tier referrals or multi-level referrals. In the former, one visitor making a purchase earns you commission. In the latter, one publisher provides its codes to other publishers so that the visitors on their respective sites can see and purchase from the advertisers' site. This networking can be traced to the original publisher and he makes 'extra' money in this way. However, this type of multi-tier networking is not widely used.

Where To Look Who Is Offering The Affiliate Program?

The most common places to find who all have these programs are:a)On-line Directories and networks: There are a number of directories which list merchants according to functional areas. One can conveniently find the suitable advertiser for his/her website. b)The websites: Usually, on front or home page of a website, there is a hyperlink of these programs and by clicking on it, one can find what are the rules governing that program.

A good and genuine affiliate program shall contain provisions against the practice of spamming (by way of email or search engine), adware, and/or spyware. It shall elaborately describe why it shall be used, how to earn money with it, the payment method, and informative content that helps to clear all the doubts of prospective subscribers. To gain maximum advantage, the publisher shall subscribe to the program of the same or closely related industry.