Tuesday, December 30, 2008

All About Affiliate Marketing Program

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 just how do advertisers pay the webmasters hosting their ads? First, it is important to understand how sites are ranked when someone searches the web. Simply, the more hits a website receives per day the higher it is listed when a user performs a web search with a search engine. This in turn makes a frequently visited website have even more hits.

Having an add on such a page would be lucrative to any company as it can account to hundreds of new customers everyday. Therefore the price that advertisers pays to the webmasters depends on the number of hits of the webpage on which the add is going to appear on.

There are different versions of affiliate marketing program. Some of them include cost per click, cost per thousand, cost per action, cost per lead and so on. Cost per click as the name says is getting paid for every click on the advertisement of the advertiser.

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 you as a webmaster choose the right affiliate marketing program for your websites? Many webmasters simply search the internet! The best way to determine which program best suits your site is to search for affiliate programs, evaluate the payments schedules offered, and determine if ad placement is suitable for your site based on size and location requirements.

Income from affiliate marketing is highly dependent on the number of hits a website receives. It is important to consider that part or all of the income generated may be considered taxable income; it is best to check with your local tax office for city, state, and federal regulations. Regardless, the income potential is boundless and worth looking into. - 16039

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