Before you research the many different types of affiliate websites you really need to understand what affiliate marketing is all about.
In basic terms it is an Internet-based marketing method whereby a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate’s marketing efforts.
While search engines, e-mail, and website syndication are some of the methods most favored by online retailers, affiliate marketing continues to play an important role in e-retailers’ marketing strategies.
The primary thrust here will be an overview of the types of affiliate websites that are available as categorized by advertisers and the major affiliate networks.
While at the moment there is no widely accepted categorization used by the affiliate industry as to what defines an affiliate website, the following types are commonly used by affiliate marketers around the world.
Cost Per Action Affiliate Networks
These are top-tier affiliates that expose offers from the advertiser with which they are affiliated to their own network of affiliates.
See my post on Finding The Best CPA Network.
Comparison Shopping
A price comparison program (also called shopping comparison or price engine) allows consumers to see diverse list of prices for respective products.
Price comparison services typically do not actually sell products themselves; rather they provide a list of prices from retailers from whom users can buy. Sites do not charge users anything to use them, but instead are financed by payments from retailers who are listed on the site.
Depending on the business model of the comparison shopping site, retailers will either pay a flat fee to be included on the site or pay a fee each time a user clicks through to the retailer web site or pay every time a user completes a specified action – for example, when they buy something or register with their e-mail address.
Pay Per Click Marketing
Affiliates that use pay-per-click marketing (or PPC) to promote advertiser’s products or services. PPC Advertising is a form of Internet advertising that is used on content sites such as blogs as well as the search engines and advertising networks. Advertisers post their ad content with various websites or blogs and the owner of that site is only paid if and when their ad has been clicked on.
Other topics you will see this discussed as will be “pay-per-click” (PPC), PPC Marketing which actually means what it states: the product advertiser pays a fee to the PPC advertising company whether that is Google, Yahoo or MSN and others for each time a visitor clicks on the advertisement.
Niche Marketing Is The Most Popular When You Talk About Affiliate Websites
Niche marketing involves cultivating smaller segments of larger markets. In an online context, a website is developed and promoted to uniquely serve a targeted and usually loyal customer base, giving the affiliate a small but regular income stream. This tactic is then mirrored across many other niche markets using websites or blogs until a sufficient income level is achieved.
Loyalty Affiliate Websites
Loyalty websites typically operate by providing a reward system for purchases via reward points, cash back (i.e. customers can earn cash rebates on online purchases that they make), or charitable donations.
Another Form That Is Widely Used Are Internet Coupons And Rebate Websites
Another form of affiliate marketing is what is known as coupons, these typically provide the customer with a reduced cost or free shipping, sometimes a specific dollar or percentage discount like many hosting companies offer such as Hostgator who are currently doing their Fall Promotion with Coupon code “Autumn” where you get 20% off your initial order you will these types of offers on many affiliate websites.
And there are those that offer things to encourage consumers to purchase specific products or to purchase from specific retailers at a reduced price.
Shopping Directories Can Also Be Affiliate Websites
A shopping directory is a web directory style website that focuses on sites that sell products or services. Shopping directories used by affiliate marketers are those that typically list merchants by category with such things as coupons and price comparisons (which often change regularly and thereby require constant updating).
E-Mail List Affiliate Websites
These are owners of large opt-in (i.e. people voluntarily sign up to be part of them, sometimes for a fee) e-mail lists. Such sites typically employ a technique known as e-mail drip marketing which is a form of e-mail marketing where a company sends e-mail messages to subscribers on a scheduled basis using e-mail marketing software.
Agree with the comment about niche marketing being the most popular type of affiliate marketing method. I’ve been building quite a few sites around specific products which generated a good revenue stream for me over the past year. The only downside is that, as products get dropped by suppliers, you need to start off a new campaign with new offerings. Lots of work but fun.
Hi James and Welcome…
Yes you are right many products you promote as an affiliate only have a limited life span. This is why I make sure that I have different sites promoting different niches.
It is easy to do but can take some time, you simply need to start your first site and once that is earning an income move to the next and then the next. Make sure also that you never delete any of these sites, firstly because an aged site can be very powerful to help you either promote new products from that site or affiliate products on another site you own. Maybe you could even use it to get advertising revenue if there are no suitable products to promote.
Over time you will see that you have created a network of sites that can all help to compliment each other.
Totally agree with the aged site recommendation – I’m still hosting a few sites that are based around products that went the way of the dinosaurs some time back. Some are PR3/4 and up to 4 years old 🙂
Hey AffiliateX, great information again. I didn’t even consider price comparison sites as affiliates but it makes perfect sense that they are, because they do point people in a specific direction. I didn’t know there were so many different options for being an affiliate but as I’m looking to try and get into that area of marketing I’m glad for all the info I can get!
Hi Stacie and welcome…
As affiliate marketing evolves further there will be more and more options available to those in the business. Make sure you get involved in our community here if you looking at marketing anything online this blog is always getting updated with ways to build traffic or make money online.
Hi,
I’ve recently started what you have referred to above as a shopping directory.
I’ve read a lot about niche markets but does this mean focusing on a very narrow range of products that the big guys have ignored. If so how do you find a paying niche and would you recommend a fresh site for each niche – what about sub-domains?
mansolo
Hi Mansolo
You have a few options here… And it will depend on what your initial Domain name is as to whether or not you can market what I will call sub niches within your niche if that makes sense. Many affiliates however will register a domain name to go after one certain product and then just register more domains which are keyword rich for their next product.
I am more inclined to go for a more generic domain name where you have the opportunity to go after many sub niches within your niche. To find out more about sub niches your need to use the Google Wonder Wheel to give you some ideas. If you are not sure what that is have a look at this article Evolving As An Affiliate Marketer.
I am thinking about going into affiliate marketing but I read somewhere that only about 1% of affiliate marketers actually make enough money to give up their day job. That’s a depressingly low number, and I don’t know if it’s worth my time now. I’m not going to give up just yet but I’m definitely looking for a way to try and get into niche affiliate marketing to enhance my chances.
Hi Monique…
Yes what you have read about the 1% is very true… The reason behind this is firstly the attitude from many about making fast money online it is a very big myth and many people starting out get caught up in it..
Next is not having the dedication to work at it and giving up very quickly when things get a little hard. As for competition what I have found is there are only a very small number of people dominating most marketplaces and if you were to focus on one and work at it you could easily make an impact.
Thanks for an excellent summary of alternative affiliate promotion options. I think that the problem with relying on the traditional methods is that the quickly become outdated or that website users become too familitar with them. Opting for a range of methods to promote your site makes much more sense. I use a variety of methods including provising discount codes to visitors. You have to work hard to keep the site up to date but it’s great wehn you get positive feedback about how much people have saved on their online shopping through codes that you have posted.
Hi Jonathan
Yes you are right with so many changes constantly happening online it is a very wise decision to diversify your earnings. You could be making money from one revenue stream only to find that the method you are using is no longer effective, meaning you start losing income.
It is even a good idea to have secondary websites that you can fall back on if any unexpected happens with the first, which by the way can happen for no apparent reason. As an example I had a website that was receiving over 3500 visitors a day and then it was stripped of all page rank and lost 80% of its traffic. It has taken three years for this site to get back to where it was and luckily for me I had six other websites that were performing well.
Thanks for this useful article. We have a team of people now and we started on niche sites. This is a good way to get into Affiliate Marketing and understand how things work. Now we run several bigger sites such as Incentive Voucher Codes Sites. We still work on these niches sites but ultimately if you want to run a business you need different sources of online income. You cannot just rely on 1 method especially with Google changing the goal posts so often. Google also don’t appear to like thin affiliate sites unless they offer what the consumer is searching for.
Yes guys you are right!
You need to be constantly growing your business not only with one site but having multiply sites in different niches ensures that you can maintain a steady income stream.
Yes I don’t think you can rely on just niche sites alone, Google can often see these as thin affiliate sites. Google as a search engine want to provide visitors with what they are searching for. So often those thin sites that don’t have authority or that mostly consist of affiliate links can see the yoya affect. I also run niches sites but have been promoting our Discount Codes site as a bigger site with the aim of offering the consumer something useful that they are searching for.
Hi Gary..
Yes you are right, the days of putting up one page websites are long gone. You need to be placing quailty content online and not only keeping Google happy but also showing your site visitors that you are the authority in your selected niche market.
Thanks for publishing on this topic. There’s a bunch of solid technical information on the internet currently. You’ve got a lot of that info here on your website. I’m very impressed – I try to keep a couple of blogs somewhat current, but it’s hard at times. You’ve done an impressive job with this one in particular. How do you do it?
Hi Winston
It is not that hard for me as I work at this full time and have a few others that also help me out. For those that don’t have the time then you need to consider outsourcing some of the work you need done to Ghost Writers so that you can get on with other things that need to be done to make your online business a success.