Make Money Selling Online: Affiliate Marketing Terms Explained

Your desire is to make money selling online, but your not sure what is the best alternative. Affiliate marketing is a terrific avenue to make money selling online. With its recent spike in popularity it appears there is more interest than ever. Some might ask why? There are numerous reasons for this, but I think the primary reason is that the benefits have become apparent.

There is a clear cut, beneficial relationship between merchants and affiliates. Affiliate marketing allows merchants more advertising at a lower cost while affiliates are given the opportunity to make money selling online without having their own goods to market. With its recent rise in popularity, this form of marketing is looked upon differently. Merchants and affiliates alike see it a huge source of profits and revenue.

The question is still upon us, which is the best form of affiliate marketing for you to make money selling online? Are all of these programs equal? Do they all have the same benefits, or are some better than others?

There are many different types of affiliate marketing programs. The most basic is pay-per-click (PPC) and pay-per-performance (PPP). PPC is probably the most popular type for affiliates with small sites and likely the easiest way for them to earn money. Essentially with this type of marketing, the merchant will pay the affiliate every time the affiliate refers someone to the merchants site via a click through. This is typically from a banner or text ad on the affiliates site, which incidentally the referrer (affiliate) is paid regardless whether the visitor buys anything or not from the merchant. The fee earned by the affiliate is typically a small amount.

PPP is the most popular form of affiliate marketing for the merchant and is the most lucrative form for affiliates. With this type program, merchants only pay the affiliate if the referral turns into action. Most cases this means a purchase of some sort but can be if the referred becomes a lead too. These two cases are actually programs called pay-per-sale (PPS) and pay-per-lead (PPL), which just further categorizes PPP.

Affiliate marketing programs will also be categorized as single tier, two-tier or multi-tier programs. This really refers to the affiliate networks depth or the different levels upon which the network will make payments to the affiliates. In other words a single tier program only pays the affiliate based on the direct sale or lead the he has provided the merchant. With a two tier program the merchant pays the affiliate for a the direct sale or lead. Additionally the affiliate marketer will recruit other marketers and will receive payments based on their direct sales or leads. A multi tier program works the same way, only the affiliate marketer will get additional commissions for a wider number of affiliates in different tiers with in the network.

Residual income marketing is a further categorization of affiliate marketing programs. This refers to the commissions an affiliate will make over a period of time from the merchant. In other words, a merchant will agree to pay an affiliate for every purchase a referred client makes over, say, a thirty day period. The period of time could be longer, or it could be shorter. In some cases merchants will pay a commission on the lifetime of the referred client. Just know that this means there is commission for more than one purchase by the referral over a period of time. The terms will be detailed in the agreement between a merchant and an affiliate.

You can make money selling online, but you have to have a plan, take action and be willing to put in some hard work. You need to familiarize yourself with the industry lingo, know what options you have and pick your path. I encourage you to follow a program like the Wealthy Affiliate. This program is a “take you by the hand” program that provides you an affiliate marketing education