So How the Hell Do I Actually Make Money as an Affiliate?

Good question.

There are basically three major ways that affiliates monetize traffic on their sites. I’ll quickly cover them, then ramble on with a few caveats and disclaimers.

1) Pay-per-click: You’re likely familiar with the Google text ads that you see on sites everywhere. What you may not realize is that the owner of the site that displays them gets paid a certain amount each time those ads are clicked. That’s all it takes to get paid, just a simple click. It doesn’t matter whether or not the surfer who clicked the ad goes on to buy something or not, doesn’t matter how long they stay on the site that is linked to the ad, all that matters is if the link is clicked. This is called a pay-per-click (PPC) model, and while programs other than Google Adsense offer it, the vast majority of affiliates who want to use this type of program use Google Adsense.

2) Traditional affiliate programs: These are programs that pay affiliates either a flat fee or a percentage of the total amount purchased when a surfer clicks through a link to their affiliate program and then buys something. In this model, the surfer must whip out their credit card and buy something. If you get 162,182,192 clicks but no one buys anything, you make absolutely nothing.

3) Leads and quotes: These programs are common in the car buying and online colleges arena, where you typically are paid a flat fee for everyone you refer who fills out a Web survey page to get a car quote, a catalog of college classes, etc. While you don’t get paid for each click, surfers also don’t have to physically buy anything for you to make money.

(You might be wondering why I’m not mentioning the old-fashioned method of selling advertising space on your blog, either through direct contact with potential advertisers or through a program like Text Link Ads. Yes, indeed, that’s another viable way that people make money from websites, but it’s a different beast from affiliate marketing in many ways. it’s also a case of getting the cart before the horse, as you need to build traffic first before you can make any real money using those methods.)So that’s the nuts-and-bolts details, as far as the major ways to make money as an affiliate. The real question, then, is which one is right for you?

Stay tuned for an in-depth look at each of the options above, as far as the thought process you should run through when deciding what type of affiliate model you’d like to target on your site.

So How the Hell Do I Actually Make Money as an Affiliate? and related information can be found in Adsense, Getting Started, Quick Tips