Pay-Per-Click Commission Structures:

Pay-Per-Click Programs allow you earn a specified amount for every visitor that you send to the merchant via a banner or text link. Pay-Per-Click rates vary anywhere between 1 cent and as high as $1 per unique click.

Pay-Per-Click commissions are used by some merchants as a way to quickly generate traffic. The thing to watch here is that once a merchant feels they have received extensive market exposure, they can dramatically reduce the pay-per-click rate or in some cases terminate their pay-per-click program almost overnight.

The Good:

All you need to do to earn revenue is send a visitor from your site to your merchant.

The Bad:

To generate any kind of serious revenue you will need to be sending your merchant hundreds, if not thousands of unique visitors per day.

The Summary:

Merchants generally use this kind of affiliate marketing to quickly build up their web site traffic and can drop their pay-per-click rate dramatically and without warning. You receive no further revenue from past visitors sent to the merchant. Personally, I wouldn't bother to much with pay-per-click programs!

Pay-Per-Lead Commission Structures:

You earn a once-off flat commission rate for referring a qualified lead for the merchant. Referral rates can be anywhere between 10 cents and $100.00 per lead. A qualified lead fee is paid only if the visitor you send to the merchants web site performs a particular action. EG: Subscribes to a free newsletter, completes an online survey or successfully applies for a service. (Credit card, online course or loan)

The Good:

Pay-Per-Lead revenue can build quickly and is suitable for most web sites with a small to medium amount of quality traffic.

The Bad:

To generate lead revenue you first need to get a visitor to the merchant, the visitor will then need to successfully perform an action. The more complex the action the fewer lead referrals you will generate.

The Summary:

You may be sending a lot of visitors to a merchant, but if these visitors do not complete an online form, do not complete the form correctly or they do not reply to the confirmation e-mail, your visitor will not qualify as a lead or referral.

Pay-Per-Sale Commission Structures:

Pay-Per-Sale programs allow you to earn revenue in the form of commission from each sale you generate. If you refer a visitor to the merchant's site and the visitor makes a purchase, you earn a percentage of the sale as a commission. Commission rates can be anywhere between 5% and 50% of the visitors total purchase. Some merchants offer incentives over and above their standard commission rates for high performing affiliates.

Depending on the merchant, the commission may be for the initial purchase only, for any and all purchases a customer makes within a set time period (1 day, 15 days, 30 days, etc), or for each and every purchase the customer makes in their lifetime.

The Good:

You earn revenue for every sale generated from your web site referral. If the merchant program is related to the content of your web site, and you are actively promoting and marketing your web site, you can and should achieve substantial revenue earnings.

The Bad:

With Pay-Per-Sale programs you need to work a little harder and smarter at promoting these programs to generate revenue. Meaning, of all your visitors that click on the merchants banner or link, only a smaller percentage will actually make a purchase from the merchant.

The Summary:

It's not unusual to find that you have had thousands of visitors, hundreds of clicks on a merchants banner, yet you have not earned any sales commissions. This is why it is so important that you partner with merchants who's products and services relate closely to your web site content and audience, and you actively marketing and promote your web site.

2 Tier And Multi-Tier Affiliate Programs:

2 tier and multi-tier affiliate programs allow you to earn commission on direct referrals or sales that you generate, plus you also get commission on sales generated by the affiliates that you recruit. Merchants usually offer a 2 tier system, that typically pay between 5% to 25% commission for direct referrals and sales, and up to 5% for sales generated by affiliates you recruit. Some merchants also offer multi-tier affiliate systems.

Good Habits - Great Results:

Remember, join merchant affiliate programs that offer services and products relative to your web site, those you consider would be of interest to your visitors.

Experiment with different types of merchant/affiliate programs and see which ones produce the best results.

Always read Affiliate Agreements carefully, especially the small print!

Use a combination of banners and strategically placed text links within your web page text to maximise interest and increase your click through rates.

When using full size banners (468 x 60) have a *MAXIMUM* of 2 banners per page. One at the top and one at the bottom of the page.

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