An affiliate program is like a commission only sales role. Affiliate programs are used by websites with a product to sell. If you were to join the web sites affiliate program and promote their service or product from your web page or site, you will receive a commission based on the type of affiliate program you are working with.



Below I have listed and explained the various types of affiliate programs;

* Commission-based Affiliate Programs

* Flat Fee Affiliate Programs

* Pay Per Click (PPC) Affiliate Programs

* Single-tier Affiliate Programs

* Two-tier Affiliate Programs

Commission-based Affiliate Programs

These programs pay you a commission for each sale you sent to the service/product you are promoting. These generally giving you a percentage of the sale received. For membership sites, affiliates (the person marketing the product/service) will generally get a percentage of the initial sale and any recurring sale generated from that lead. Alternatively, for products, there is a once off commission which is a percentage of the sale price of the product/service sold.

Some programs offer incentives to more the more productive webmasters by offering increased commissions based on a sliding scale, or by offering their best webmasters bonuses and incentives.

Flat Fee Affiliate Programs

A Flat Fee Affiliate Program generally pays you a pre-determined amount per lead or per sale. This could be any amount at the discression of the affiliate program. Again, these flat fees may be on a sliding scale based on volume so the best performing webmasters are rewarded for their efforts.

Pay Per Click (PPC) Affiliate Programs

PPC means the advertising webmaster will generally receive a set amount for each click sent through to the service/product provider. These types of affiliate programs are becoming less popular with advertisers due to the high amount of fraud within these types of payment systems.

Single-Tier Affiliate Programs

Basically this means there is only 1 level of commissions available. You signup directly with the affiliate program and only earn commissions from the sales/leads you send through.

Two-Tier Affiliate Programs

These are where the affiliate is rewarding for finding new affiliates for the program. If another webmaster uses your unique linking code to join the affiliate program you may be rewarded with either a set fee (generally once the new affiliate has reached a certain target) or you may be rewarded by receiving a percentage of the commissions the new webmaster earns.

General advice when working with affiliate programs.

Since I worked for an affiliate program for 2 years, the most important piece of advice you will ever be given is be honest! Dont try and generate false clicks or leads, youll find when reading the TOS of the program, they can cancel your account if they feel anything dishonest may have been going on with your account.

Ask for advice! Most affiliate programs have support people there which are there to help you market their product. The more you sell, the more they sell! Since the affiliate program specializes in their product, their advice will most likely be the best you will get.

Make sure you understand the TOS, be fully aware how you can and can't advertise. There is nothing worse than earning a couple of hundred dollars just to find you have broken the terms and service purely by mistake and won't be paid!