Monetize Your Web Site via Affiliate Marketing

One of the most popular ways to monetize your web site is to become an affiliate.

What is "affiliate?"
An advertiser is a merchant that initiates an ad campaign to promote its products or services. An ad publisher displays ads from an advertiser on its web site. An affiliate receives a commission, when the visitor to its web site takes a required action. An affiliate promotes the merchandise via articles or ads of various forms that are compliant with the terms agreed on with the advertiser. The two most common models on which the commission structure is based are:

• Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) A visitor referred by the affiliate purchases products and services from the advertiser.
  
• Cost Per Lead (CPL) A visitor referred by the affiliate completes a form on the advertiser's web site.
  

Since an affiliate is paid based on the results it produces, affiliate marketing is often referred to as Pay-Per-Performance (PPP) or Pay-Per-Action (PPA) marketing. Many advertisers prefer the low-risk affiliate marketing in that they pay only for proven results. The pay structure is often multiple-tired to reward affiliates at various performance scales.

Become an affiliate
You can become an affiliate by signing up the affiliate programs directly with a merchant or indirectly via an affiliate network.

• Merchants: Well established advertisers may choose to deal with their affiliates directly. Not only would the direct association remove the mediation costs, but also retain the close relationships with the affiliates. Affiliate programs are available from brand names, such as, Amazon, AmericanExpress, Discover Card, eBay, and etc.
• Networks: Rather than direct dealing, the advertiser may choose to delegate its affiliation handling to a third-party company - an affiliate network that mediates between advertisers and publishers and facilitates the logistics from managing campaigns, generating links, tracking, to payouts. An affiliate network is particularly useful to a publisher, because the network enables a publisher to manage over hundreds of advertisers under one roof. Be aware that signing up an affiliate network does not automatically grant you permissions to promote all the participating advertisers. Upon expressing your interest, your application to promote a particular merchant is still subjective to a review and approval process. Some merchants or the affiliate networks impose certain requirements on the traffic to your web site as well as the content. Popular affiliate networks include Advertising.com, ClickBank, CommissionJunction, ClixGalore.com, Google, LinkShare, Yahoo (via Commissionjunction), and etc.

Note that Google Affiliate Network acquired from Performics DoubleClick in 2004 is operated separately from Google AdSense. Therefore, an AdSense publisher is required to submit a new application in order to become a Google affiliate publisher. Yahoo Affiliate Network is managed by CommissionJunction.

How to choose an affiliate network?
Before joining an affiliate network, consider the following factors:

1. Reputation: An affiliate network with a good reputation is typically more trustworthy in tracking the links and accounting practices. Working with a trusted network as your business partner typically results in less feuds that cost you valuable traffic and precious energy.
   
2. Advertisers: Have a look at the participating advertisers to get a feeling of the kind of products or services you'll be promoting. You should make sure those goods are aligned with the content of your web site and are something your customers or visitors would be comfortable with.
3. Features: Take your time to understand how easy or the tools provided to search for the products or services that you want, to generate and implement the ads or links, to track and generate reports, and to get paid.
4. Support: Spend some time understanding the support you'll get from the network. Browse through the community forums or blogs to find out what the participating advertisers and publishers are saying or complaining and how the issues are resolved.