Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Affiliate Marketing Basics

By Don Bethune

An affiliate marketing program is a program in which various advertisers pay to webmasters for putting up advertisements of the advertisers on their webpage or in the e-mails that the webmasters send. It can be any form, the sole purpose being advertising the adds of the advertisers.

The ease with which a webmaster can participate in affiliate marketing programs has made it one of the most well known ways to earn income without leaving the comforts of home. Many people have their own websites and this allows almost anyone (housewives, homebound, etc.) to have their own 'home business' and realize monetary freedom.

So how and why do advertisers pay the webmasters hosting their ads? First, it is important to understand how sites are ranked when someone searches the web. When a web user searches for a particular site or term, the listing the search engine provides is from website rankings. These rankings are produced when someone visits or browses a website. The higher a website is listed in the search results, the more hits per day it receives, thus improving its ranking furher.

The more traffic the site sees, the more likely a user is to click through the ad link on a website. Paying for ad space on these popular sites can potentially result in hundreds of new customers each day. Advertising space is therefore priced based on the hits that the website receives.

Advertisers using affiliate marketing programs to place ads on a website other than their own arrange payments into several different reimbursement types or payment scales. Some of the most common pay scales are referred to as per click, per thousand, per action, per lead, and many others.

In a cost per click scale the webmaster will be paid based on the number of times a person using the website hosting the ad, clicks on the link directing them to the advertiser's website. In the per thousand click scale the webmaster is paid for every thousand times a web user clicks on the ad's link. A per action scenario means that the web user must not only click through the ad link, but also complete a particular action, such as filling out customer information, signing up for a contest, completing a purchase and so on. Another payment scale type is cost per lead which is similar to cost per action, but the webmaster sends potential customer information.

How do webmasters choose the right affiliate marketing program for their websites? Many simply search the internet! The best way to determine which program best suits a webmaster is to search for affiliate programs, evaluate the payments schedules, and determine if ad placement is suitable for their site (size and location requirements).

Income from affiliate marketing can vary widely and is highly dependent on the number of hits your website receives. Another consideration is that part or all of the income generated may be considered taxable income on the city, state, or federal level; it is best to check with your local tax office. Regardless, the income potential is boundless and worth looking into if you have the space on your website. - 15485

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