How Affiliate Marketing Programs Can Help You Earn Money

Article reprinted with permission: How Affiliate Marketing Programs Can Help You Earn Money

by Larry Ross

As the internet continues to become a popular medium for expanding the market of most businesses, there are also rising business opportunities coming from affiliate marketing programs.

Affiliate marketing is described as a marketing practice in which a business/affiliate gets rewarded for each visitor or customer directed to the merchant's website.  It is an excellent opportunity to form partnerships with various business sites to promote their products and services.  Amazon.com is a laudable example for pioneering a successful affiliate marketing program, from which, nearly all succeeding programs were patterned.

Not only does it serve as an innovative marketing tool, but it is also a brilliant way to generate income from your website when you become an affiliate.  Some companies use third party services to process payments while other companies run an independent affiliate program in which affiliates are paid directly. The known method of paying commissions for the sale or visit of a customer varies. 

The following are some of the popular compensation methods used in affiliate marketing programs:

1. Cost per sale (CPS) - Also known as revenue sharing, in which the merchant or seller shares a percentage of the revenue from a sale or visit to the affiliate who directed a customer.

2. Cost per action (CPA) - Specifically an online advertising model, in which the advertiser/merchant pays for a specified action such as a purchase or subscription.

3. Pay per click (PPC) - Also an online advertising model in which an advertiser or merchant pays the affiliate for each click of the ad.

4. Cost per mille (CPM) - is a popular calculation medium in online advertising. The concept is used to calculate the costs that will show per one thousand viewers.

While there is potential business in affiliate marketing programs, to ensure that you will have an ad-worthy site you need to create an impressive website to attract viewers to stop by and spend a few seconds. Keep in mind that having an appealing design and interesting content may get visitors click on the ads at your eye-catching site.

Larry Ross is an internet marketer. He has several affiliate business and he is also writing articles about (http://affiliatemarketing.thebusinessfactor.tv) affiliate marketing programs online and how it can help you to earn money.