What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing provides the owners of websites with the opportunity to make money from the ads they run on their sites. Whether you own a blog and post about the books you read, parenting your kids or even traveling around the world, you can likely find a few companies willing to place ads on your site. Amazon and Google offer affiliate marketing options too. Google has its Adsense program, which generates ads for your site based on the content found on that site, and Amazon lets you choose the products you want to advertise on your site. This type of marketing can help you earn a lot of money from your writing.

Types of Compensation

The two most common types of compensation you can earn include revenue sharing and cost per action. With revenue sharing, the company places ads on your site. When a viewer clicks on one of those ads and makes a purchase from that link, the company gives you a percentage of the amount sold.

Cost per action is a type of advertising that requires the advertiser pay a set amount based on the number of impressions. An advertiser may pay you money to run ads on your site for a set period of time or until a certain number of people view that ad. There is also something called pay per click or PPC that lets you earn a small amount every time someone clicks on the link.

MLM Marketing

Multi-level marketing companies give you money for selling products. You can work for a company that sells candles, clothing, beauty products or even personal safety products. The amount you earn depends on the amount you sell. You also earn money for recruiting people to sell under you and earn money each time they make a sale. MLM companies also operate online. You can make money from the ads on your own site and from the ads that you get others to fund on their own sites.

Best Strategies

While there are a number of ways to run ads online, you need to use the best strategies to increase your income. You typically need to run ads that relate to your site. If you review video games, your readers want to know more about those games, collectibles featuring their favorite characters and gaming accessories. Running ads for health supplements or exercise products won’t lead to many sales. It’s also helpful to place those ads in a convenient location on the page that readers can easily see and find.

Niche Markets

Niche marketing is a term that refers to a specific portion of a larger market. Steve Olenski of Forbes recommends that you use affiliate marketing that works within your niche but that you also look for products that relate to your niche. If you operate a blog about homeschooling your kids, you might run ads for school supplies and homeschooling textbooks. You can also run ads for educational software that kids can use at home and vacation spots that are appropriate for the whole family.

Working as an affiliate is a great way to make money from a blog or website that you run. You can make money each time a reader views an ad or buys a product from an ad. Many companies offer affiliate marketing opportunities for website owners.