An Introduction to the Different Types of Affiliate Programs

Today, affiliate marketing programs is seen as one of the most important methods by online companies and merchants to market their products and services because implementing an affiliate program doesn't cost much money and it helps generate a consistent stream of online profit.

On the other hand, the affiliates see affiliate marketing as a feasible and low cost method to make online online by promoting other people products using a website or without a website (using Google AdWords PPC advertising program).

There are many affiliate programs on the Internet and not all of them are similar. The most basic affiliate programs fall into 3 categories:

• Pay Per Performance
• Pay Per click
• Residual Income Affiliate Marketing Programs

Pay Per Performance
Pay per performance (PPP) affiliate programs are what most companies and online merchants likes to use. The companies only need to pay when an affiliate referral translates into an action. The action can be a purchase or a lead. The affiliates will spend their own money to promote the affiliated company's products, This save a lot of money for the company. PPP affiliate programs can be futher classified into 2 sub-categories:

• Pay Per Sale (PPS) The title says it all. The company only pays the affiliate when a visitor referred by the affiliate make a purchase.
• Pay Per Lead (PPL) PPL is a little different to PPS. PPL affiliate programs usually used by finance and insurance companies. In this type of affiliate marketing, the affiliate will be paid a fixed commission whenever a visitor referred by him/her to the merchant's website requested a quote or filled up an online application form.

Pay Per Click (PPC) Affiliate Programs
PPC affiliate programs are most popular. You should have heard them a lot. PPC programs are probably the easiest way for web publishers to make money from their websites and blogs. The affiliate gets paid a certain amount ($0.05 to $0.50 usually) whenever a visitor click a banner or text ad displaying on the affiliate's website. PPC typically used by contextual advertising companies like Google AdSense, Yahoo Publisher Networks and much more.

Residual Income Affiliate Marketing Programs
In this type of programs, the affiliate not only compensated for every customer referred to the merchant's website, the affiliate is also paid whenever the referred customer returns to the site and buy another product.

The different types of affiliate marketing programs would deffinitely work differently for merchants and affiliates, and each would have their own advantages and drawbacks. To find out which types of programs work best for you, you'll have to know which one of them suit your need and characteristic most. And then start testing them

by: Alan Liew

8 Things You Can Do To Attract Visitors Return Back To Your Website

You have spend a lot of energy and time to drive targeted visitors to your website. And as a result, you get a good amount of website's visitors daily. But later you discover that most of the visitors don't come back to your website and then you are thinking about how to attract visitors return to your website often.

If you are selling something, each visitor to your site is a potential customer. They don't buy on their first visit but they might decide to buy from you on their second or third visits. If you are monetize your website or blog with AdSense, CPA ads, CPM ads or affiliate programs; getting a good percentage of returned visitors will definitely help maintaining and increasing your traffic level and your website revenue.

So how to make sure many of your visitors come back to your site time and time again? Here are some of things you can do:

1) Add new and fresh content to your site frequently. You can have a section on your home page like 'What's New', 'What's Top' or 'What's Hot' section and update this section on a daily basis. This give your targeted visitors a reason to visit your site again.

2) Offer freebies. You can create a section in your website to allow your targeted visitors to download free e-books, reports, tools and software they are interested in.

3) Add a Community forum to your website. Many website visitors like communication and discussion. You forum can be a place for visitors to come back often to participate in discussion and search for new info.

4) Install an article directory to your website to publish the latest articles of your niche. People who like to read may return to your site to find new articles.

5) Create a classified section to let visitors to post free ads. This can be a way to maintain your traffic level.

6) Optimize your website or template for faster speed of navigation. Many people don't like to wait too long for a website to load up. So the faster you can make your pages load up, the better chance your visitor will stay on your website and also return.

7) Offer free entertainment. You can add games, interesting video and audio to your website. To keep your visitors return often, you need to update your games (add new game), video and audio content on a regular basis.

8) Add a guest book. Visitors will come to your site and leave their comment about your business and website and to list their signature file

by: Alan Liew

Tips for Selecting a Good Affiliate Program to Promote

Your success in affiliate marketing part depend on the kinds of affiliate programs your are marketing.To make your affiliate marketing campaign works, you obviously need to participate in an affiliate program that offers worthy and quality products. Below are some tips that can help you choose an affiliate program that is good for you:

1. Affiliate programs that are associated with many experts in that particular niche usually are in certain level of standard and quality. Joining one of these programs will assure you that the products of the program you will be promoting are in good standard.

2. The program that is catering to a growing target market. This will ensure you that there will be more and continuous demands for your referrals. Ask question. There are forums and discussions you can participate in to get good and reliable feedbacks.

3. A program with a compensation plan that pays out a residual income and a payout of 30% or more would be a great choice. There are some programs offering this kind of compensation. Look closely for one. Do not waste your time with programs that do not reward substantially for your efforts.

4. Be aware of the minimum quotas that you must fulfill or sales target that is too hard to achieve. Some affiliate programs imposes pre-requisites before you get your commissions. Just be sure that you are capable of attaining their requirements.

5. Ask for program recommendations in the community forum of your niche. The experienced marketers who see your question may recommend you the reliable programs they have success with. Other things you can ask about are like is the program offers a real and viable product? Does the program provide a lot of free tools and resources helpful to affiliate? and any other questions you think are essential.

By: Alan Liew