Monetizing

12 Types Of Affiliate Websites

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12 Types Of Affiliate Websites

Affiliate Marketing is probably one of the most profitable and reliable money making methods on the Internet, a concept which has been around for more than two decades now and will certainly be there for years to come, as well.

12 Types Of Affiliate Websites

I’m not going to explain here what affiliate marketing is about and how to do it because the other 24,000,000+ websites out there have done it well in different languages. What I’m going to share with you here could be more helpful whether you’re a newcomer or an advanced user. You can pick one of the 12 Types Of Affiliate Websites I’ve laid out below and start building your web business around that one.

When it comes to online marketing, nothing is more important than trust and creditability. While in the physical world, each and every sale is closed based on many factors, in the online world though trust comes first and whether you are selling your own products or other’s, you have to build that trust in your audience.

Affiliate marketing is not an exception either and its success relies on many factors including trust. You have to gain credit from your audience and become expert in your industry and they will come and become your customers.

With that in mind, while building your website, you should always think how you can add more value to your readership for gaining more trust, this mindset is so important in brainstorming and building your own website.

12 Types Of Affiliate Websites

Here, I’m going to show you some generic examples of affiliate websites, on which you can build your web business and generate affiliate commissions. Bear in mind that these categories are just conventional and one affiliate website can include more than one type.

1. Squeeze Pages:

These are the easiest yet most powerful affiliate websites I’ve ever known. You build a simple Squeeze Page (Landing Page or Opt-In Page), collect users’ information especially their email addresses and communicate with them by email marketing. I highly recommend this type of affiliate web page and suggest every affiliate marketer to have at least one squeeze page on their websites.

Example: Cooking.TopOnlineGuides.com

2. Blogs:

Whether it’s a personal blog with your own name as a brand or a business blog for your company, it’s another effective affiliate website where you can share your thoughts, ideas and news with your audience and interact with the readership by providing fresh and newly-updated content. The more valuable posts you add, the more engagement you get.

Example: JohnChow.com

3. Forums:

As a forum owner, you have the ability to maintain a community of users with a similar topic in mind. You are the one who sets the rules, moderates, edits and controls the entire forum. You can also run ads, reviews and promotional messages. The more users you get, the more income potential you gain.

Example: WarriorForum.com

4. Niche Review Websites:

These types of content websites are made of a few web pages reviewing different products within a certain field. That way, your users consider your website as an expert in that topic who reviews the relevant products. You should be very careful while trying to review and recommend products and services, it should be done in an ethical and professional way. Remember to add value to the readership by providing great review content that is unbiased and well-written!

Example: DPReview.com

5. General Review Websites:

These are huge content-based websites dedicated to various product reviews in different niche markets. Perhaps, this type of affiliate website is not achievable for any online marketer, but it works for those who think outside the box and plan for a solid business that remains for many years. There are only a few big players on the Internet where you can find reviews on literally everything.

Example: TopTenReviews.com

6. Niche Market Websites:

These types are another content-based websites which are more focused on a specific niche and they differ from the review websites in providing more extended content rather than just product reviews. If your website becomes popular, you’ll get the title “Expert” or “Authority” in your niche.

Example: DogBreedInfo.com

7. Broad Content Websites:

These huge content-based websites get hundreds of thousands of visitors every single day due to their wide range of articles, images and videos. Basically, they provide news, information, tutorials, resources and reports on different topics and that’s why they’re so popular. They are considered as “Web Authorities”.

Example: MakeUseOf.com

8. Coupon, Deal and Rebate Websites:

Who else wants to saves some money here and there before buying items on the Internet? I guess every one and that’s why coupons, deals and rebates are so hot both in online and offline world. If you build a website about specific coupons, rebates and discounts from major retailers, you’re good to go earning huge affiliate commissions on the web.

Example: FatWallet.com

9. Loyalty Websites:

These types of websites are actually based on reward programs that incentivize the user to perform a particular action (such as shopping or taking surveys) and compensate them by rewards such as voucher gifts or cash. Achieving success from this type of affiliate website is not so easy for everyone and only a few big companies have been able to become successful players on the Internet.

Example: Swagbucks.com

10. Price Comparison Websites:

These types are a kind of vertical search engines within a website that enable the visitors to search, filter and compare products and services based on criteria such as price, popularity, rating, etc. While running a price comparison website is extremely profitable, but it is not that simple for the average marketer to make such an affiliate website. therefore, it does not suit any online marketer in terms of time, budget and expertise.

Example: PriceGrabber.com

11. Shopping Directory Websites:

These types are actually web directories with Yellow-Page style that list merchants based on topic or category without necessarily providing any coupons, deals or price comparison. The income is usually generated either via affiliate commissions, advertisement, paid submissions or a combination of mentioned models. These types are not so popular nowadays due to their less-effectiveness in terms of valuable content.

Example: ShopOnline.directory

12. File-Sharing Websites:

These are websites that contain directories of music, movies, games and other software. The content is uploaded either by the owner or user or both and the business model is mostly based on affiliate commissions, submissions and advertisement. However, you might be very cautious in this field to not confront copyright issues.

Example: 4Shared.com

What Type Of Affiliate Website Do You Have?

The above-mentioned affiliate website types are just the best examples I’ve ever come across. However, there could be some more types missing. Leave your valuable comments below and tell us what type of affiliate website you have or want to have and why! By the way, check this out if you are looking for the best affiliate networks out there:

Top 10 Affiliate Networks

Top 10 Affiliate Networks

Posted on by Admin

What are the Top 10 Affiliate Networks?

Affiliate marketing, one of the best monetization methods, is still hot and every month new networks are added to the large list of affiliate networks. However, not every network is worth trying. You should work with those that provide you with a huge list of reliable merchants or advertisers giving you generous offers.

With that being said, every year reliable Internet Marketing blogs and services prepare a list of top 10 or 20 networks according to the user’s votes, reviews and feedback. Therefore, I thought to write a post and let my loyal visitors know about them. I am an affiliate to most of the following networks and this list is also recommended by me based on my personal experience:

Top 10 Affiliate Networks:

1. ClickBank:

If you want to get started as an affiliate marketer, this network is highly recommended. Not because it’s a network of digital products which sell better on the Internet, but also because of high payout. On top of that, you sign up once and then can start promoting more than 10,000 products.

2. Commission Junction:

My second favorite network with a huge list of super merchants and advertisers. You need to sign up and be approved first and then apply to each merchant individually in order to be able to promote their products and services. Their support is awesome and payout is very facilitated.

3. ShareASale:

One of the best performance marketing networks where you find high quality affiliate offers. It is a big private company with a great reputation on the market.

4. oneNetworkDirect:

When it comes to software marketing, I highly recommend Digital River’s oneNetworkDirect. The site is very user-friendly and approval process is quick. The network contains a comprehensive digital marketplace.

5. LinkShare:

Another leader in the affiliate marketing industry that is owned by Japanese company Rakuten offering foreign language and currency capabilities.

6. Amazon:

You can literally promote everything under the sky with the Amazon Associate Program. However, the commissions are not very generous here. Still, the network provides tons of marketing tools.

7. ClickSure:

This website is one of the fastest growing affiliate networks that offers a wide range of best-converting digital products with high payouts.

8. TradeDoubler:

One of my favorites which is founded in Sweden and now is covering more than 15 different markets in Europe. It’s very easy to get approved and started.

9. eBay Partner Network:

If you want to drive traffic to products and items listed on eBay, then this network is for you. A reliable website powered by eBay itself with the Quality Click Pricing (QCP) payout system.

10. LinkConnector:

A new but powerful network offering many featured advertisers that some of them are exclusively available on this website. Worth trying.

You see, the list goes on and on. You can instantly join many of the above mentioned networks and start promoting the offers. However, there is no point to join a lot of networks and do nothing. In fact, you need to take action. It’s better to start with a few networks and see how they work. After some grade of success, you can move on and expand your affiliate business.

To Your Success,

Hooshmand Moslemi

Selling Advertising Space

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Selling Advertising Space is another alternative for monetizing your own website and has been one of the traditional and popular methods for site owners and publishers.

Sometimes, this monetization method is categorized under the Affiliate Marketing model due to its similarity. However, since the payment model is slightly different in this method, I thought it would be best if we put it as a special classification called Selling Advertising Space.

You see, like Affiliate Marketing, you would put other websites’ links and advertisements on your website. But, unlike Affiliate Marketing which is based on a special action such as sign up or purchase, this model is different. You would get paid based on CPC (Cost Per click), CPM (Cost Per Mille:1000 Impressions) or Fixed Pricing.

Selling Advertising Space could be the quickest way of cash flow for your business. Since, your visitors don’t need to buy or join anything, your conversion rate (the ratio of visitors who take the desired action) is much much higher.

Once your visitors view the advertisements (In CPM Model) or click through ads (In CPC Model) on your web pages, you will get paid. No matter what they will do afterwards, you will be rewarded and compensated. Sometimes, your visitors don’t even need to do anything in order to make you money. (In Fixed Pricing Model)

On the other hand, the earned revenue in this method compared with Affiliate Marketing is incredibly insignificant. I am talking about a few cents per click or impressions here and there while there are big affiliate commissions to be made in Selling Other People’s Stuff. That’s why relying only on this method is not recommended. You must have multiple streams of income. As you may know, you should not put all your eggs in one basket.

Like I said before, Selling Advertisement Space on your own website or blog should be regarded as the quickest way of monetization and running the cash flow. However, there are some demands and requirements to make as much money as possible from this model which would not fit any newly-published blog or website.

Two Common Requirements For Selling Advertising Space

1. In order to convince advertisers to buy an advertising space on your site or get approved by Ad Marketplaces and Networks, your website must be a high traffic website getting tons of unique visitors and page views each and every day. That way, your earnings would also boost and accelerate.

2. If you want to gain the confidence of advertisers and make them buy advertisement space on your site, you should increase the popularity of your website and get a higher Google PageRank. That way, many advertisers will be willing to buy an ad space on your site for Link Building and Search Engine Optimization purposes.

Regardless of which advertising model you want to choose and what requirements your website meet, you need to find Advertisers and Sponsors, have their ads published on your site and get paid.

How To Find & Run Sponsor Ads For Your Website

1. After getting your website up and running and adding high quality content to your web pages, your next job is to search, find and run advertisements on your website. The very first option is to just sign up for an Advertising Network as a Publisher or Webmaster and wait for getting approved. Then, you can whether let the network put ads on your site automatically or you select the advertisements manually.

2. The second option is to offer this opportunity to Advertisers and Sponsors on your own website by adding a specific section on your web pages called “Advertise Here”, “Become a Sponsor” or “Get Featured On This Website”. In this case, you will need to explain why people should advertise on your site and how they can do that. Also, you need to set the price and state the payment methods. On top of that, you have to assure the Advertisers which Ad Tracking Software you are going to use and how accurate and reliable it is.

While there are a large number of Ad Marketplaces and Advertising Networks on the Internet and more websites are added every single day, introducing all of them would be no use. However, for getting started and putting your feet in the water of online advertising, here are the top 5 advertising networks where you can choose from and start making money with your website as a publisher. Go ahead and check them out:

  • Clicksor.com
  • Infolinks.com
  • Skimlinks.com
  • BidVertiser.com
  • AdSense.Google.com

In the next posts, we will cover more aspects of this monetization model and tips on Selling Advertising Space On Your Website. Until then, subscribe to this Blog RSS Feed if you don’t want to miss the next articles!

All the Best,

Hooshmand Moslemi

Selling Other People’s Stuff

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Selling Other People’s Stuff is one of the quickest and easiest ways of monetizing your website, a method that is quite effective and profitable. This type of monetization is commonly known as Affiliate Marketing, a business that is totally based on marketing other’s products and services.

In a nutshell, you will get paid if you refer visitors and targeted prospects to the merchant’s website that ends up with a sign up or sale. The customer would be happy because of finding the right product, the merchant would be pleased due to making a sale and you would be compensated for making these two parties satisfied. That’s how Affiliate Marketing Works.

While Affiliate Marketing is a very comprehensive topic and takes a lot of efforts to learn and master, it is doable. However, teaching Affiliate Marketing is not something directly related to the topic of this blog and providing a step-by-step blueprint would be out of the scope of this tutorial website.

On top of that, why would I want to reinvent the wheel, while it is already created for you?! Suffice to say, I am just going to point out some of the basic facts about Affiliate Marketing and then I will leave the rest up to the experts who know how it works such as the following guide:

The Super Affiliate Handbook by Rosalind Gardner

Basics Of Affiliate Marketing

1. Affiliates are normally referred as people who market other’s products and services while Merchants are companies that own the products and services.

2. There are 2 common types of compensation, revenue-sharing or payment model within Affiliate Marketing industry each of which acts as an agreement between the affiliates and merchants.

  • Pay Per Lead that is based on generating qualified Leads (Sign Ups)
  • Pay Per Sale that is based on generating completed Sales (Purchases)

3. In this industry, Affiliates are known as other terms such as Partners, Publishers, Referrers, Marketers and Promoters. On other side, Merchants are also called Companies, Advertisers, Sellers and Retailers.

4. To become an Affiliate for a particular Merchant, you need to sign up for its Affiliate Program. Some companies have their own in-house Affiliate Programs that you need to sign up whereas many others are enrolled into Affiliate Networks where you need to join once and then apply for each Merchant.

5. Some Merchants offer a Second-Tier or Multi-Tier program based on paying commissions into a hierarchical referral network of sign-ups and sub-affiliates. In other words, you will be paid, even if your sub-affiliate refers a lead or customer. In this case, you will have a Leveraged Income. However, this type of program exists in the minority of affiliate programs and is not as common as One-Tier Affiliate Program.

6. In most cases, many merchants offer one-time payments of commission. Yet, there are other companies offering recurring commissions which means you will get paid more than once. In this model, you will have a Residual Income for months and even years to come.

7. After getting approved by the network or the merchant, you will be given an exclusive and unique Affiliate or Referral Link that will be tracked for you and triggered to report your generated Leads and Sales.

The above-mentioned facts are a fraction of what we call Affiliate Marketing Principles. So far, you have learned how powerful and profitable this monetization method could be. If you educate yourself, you can become a Super Affiliate earning 5 or even 6 figures income just from your own website.

Now, I am going to name some of the most common types of Affiliate Websites that are often classified by merchants and affiliate networks and known for many affiliates and marketers. Hope it can be helpful for you, too.

Types of Affiliate Websites

The following types of websites are just based on what we have seen on the Internet as sources for generating affiliate commissions. However, this list is not a comprehensive list and more types can be added all the time.

1. Product Review Websites:

These are content and niche market websites that review and rate the existing products and services in particular markets and industries and refer their visitors through their affiliate links.

2. Blogs and Blogging Networks:

These websites are commonly maintained by posting news and articles about specific topics and subjects in reverse-chronological order and suggesting affiliate products. Sometimes, the affiliate links are only placed on Blogs as Sponsor Ads and Banners, nothing more.

3. Personal Websites:

These web pages were so well-known before, but now their popularity has been reduced due to irrelevancy. However, many celebrities and famous people can still monetize their Personal Websites with affiliate products.

4. Coupon and Rebate Websites:

These are resources where people can find and redeem coupons and discounts for specific merchants and companies. The bottom line is huge affiliate commissions.

5. Comparison Shopping Websites:

These websites and networks enable the users to compare two or more products and services and read the cons and pros. Then, the interested visitors have the opportunity to visit the merchant official website for more information through the affiliate´s referral link and guess what?! As soon as they buy something or register, the affiliate gets paid.

6. PPC Landing Pages:

These web pages are specifically designed for Pay Per click Advertising particularly from Search Engines and will refer the visitor directly to the merchant website. If the visitor who comes after a query search finds relative content on these landing pages, he/she will take the desired action which is visiting the merchant website and purchasing the searched product. Here, relevancy is the secret key to success.

7. E-Mail Opt-In Pages:

These web pages are especially created for taking the name and e-mail address of targeted visitors and sending them relevant messages containing affiliate recommendations. Once you make people opt-in and subscribe to your mailing list, you will have the opportunity to contact them forever. That way, you can make money from one single subscriber over and over again. That´s why, this model is very profitable.

8. Loyalty Websites:

Although these types of websites don´t work for all of existing products and services, they can bring a lot of affiliate commissions by providing a reward system for purchases via points back, cash back or charitable donations.

9. Co-Registration Websites:

These types of websites act as a registration path where people have the chance to be exposed by merchant offers during the time they register for the main website. So, not only the main website gets registered users which can contact them later for promotional purposes, but also it has the chance to refer some of those users to a merchant website through an affiliate link and earn good commissions.

10. CPA Networks:

These websites are huge networks combined of two parts: Affiliates and Merchants. They expose Merchant’s offers to a large network of Affiliates which they will in turn promote the offers through their ways and methods. Since the payment model is based on the top-tier affiliates activities, CPA Networks are big money makers because of providing a lot of promoters for merchant offers. In fact, their payment model is commonly known as Cost Per Action or CPA.

Affiliate Marketing models and methods do not end here. There are literally tons of tips and tricks in this kind of monetization method and a lot of trained super affiliates earning extra-ordinary full-time income just by Selling Other People’s Stuff.

Become a Successful Affiliate By Using This #1 Affiliate Marketing Training Portal!

And do not forget to subscribe to the Blog RSS Feed, if you don´t want to miss the latest posts and articles here!

To Your Success!

Hooshmand Moslemi

Selling Your Own Stuff

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Selling Your Own Stuff is one of the ways of website monetization. In most cases, the main goal of your own website can be introducing and selling your own products or services.

Own stuff you could sell on your website can be categorized into 4 main groups. Further, we will be talking about each of them in detail.

  1. Physical Products
  2. Digital Products
  3. Offline Services
  4. Online Services

No matter what you are going to sell on your website, it is highly essential for you to know what kind of customers you will attract. That way, you would know how to build and market your own website that is created around your own stuff.

Now, we are going to get through each groups of stuff very briefly and concisely. More specific information will be added later.

1. Physical Products:

These kind of stuff can take any form of tangible goods and products from handmade to factory-made. Electronics, Apparel, Tools, Foods, you name it. You can be an independent merchant or an online retail store. You can even have your own offline store and need a website as your official web page. The point is to reach more customers as much as possible.

That´s why creating a functional and user-friendly web store is so important. Your website should reflect your hard goods and products in a way that attracts the visitors attention, increases their interests and calls them to action which is purchasing your own physical products.

Apart from your own business website which is your own brand on the Internet, you will need the following tools, as well:

  • Order Processing System
  • Product Shipping Management
  • Customer Support Center

Become a Hard Goods Seller Today!

2. Digital Products:

These stuff are commonly every products that can be delivered digitally. E-Books, E-Guides, E-Courses, E-Sounds, Software are a few examples of digital products. You, as the owner of the product, will need to have your own website, a place where people will be able to read and review your sales pitch and buy your E-Goods.

Again, you will need some other tools aside from your own website to sell your digital products.

  • Order Processing System
  • Product Delivery Management
  • Customer Support Center

Create an E-Goods Seller Website!

3. Offline Services:

Promoting an offline service through website is not a new concept. Today, each real local business has an official website where people can visit and browse the latest news and offers. Dentists, Consultants, Real Estate Agencies, Sport Clubs are all a few examples of services that can be promoted online, as well.

In this case, you would be let off with the Product Shipping or Delivery System, but the following tools remain important:

  • Order Processing System
  • Customer Support Center

Build Your Local Business Website Today!

4. Online Services:

These stuff are services that can be only delivered online. The difference between them and digital products is that Online Services are mainly accessible on the web like a program. But, digital products are commonly downloadable stuff.

Membership Programs are the best examples of this group. While building an Online Service is not a regular task for every average guy, it is possible. There are many services on the web created by ordinary people just because of providing value to the end users. Now, the owners have become the top Internet entrepreneurs.

The following tools might be necessary for building an Online Service, apart from the official website:

  • Order Processing System
  • Membership Database Software
  • Customer Support Center

Make a Website That Sells Your Service!

Although selling your own stuff is a time-consuming and complicated process and may not fit everyone, it is a profitable online business. Because after paying the handling, inventory, management and shipping fees, the rest of income is all yours. You won´t need to share it with anyone else.

So, if you have your own product or service, you should think about building an E-Commerce Website where you can reach more customers online, locally or globally, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

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Wish You the Best!

Hooshmand Moslemi

Monetizing a Website

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Monetizing your own website is the desired result of your building and marketing steps. Actually, it is the most beautiful part of the job that increases your motivations and keeps you working, testing and improving your projects all the time.

In fact, like other steps, it cannot be considered as a totally separated part. You can start monetizing your web pages from the very first steps, but, in the entire process, we can give it a special place. So, the fourth step of making your own website is being able to make money and earn profits from your web pages.

Website monetizing is something that generates a cash flow system for your business. So if you are spending time and money on your website, you want something to help you keep running your projects. Otherwise, why would you want to continue and waste your time and money? So, if you cannot monetize your website after a while, you may regard it as a failure. Because, in most cases, the ultimate goal of building a website is making money. Right?

On the other hand, you will hardly get results overnight. It is actually a process that may take some time. Don´t get me wrong! Making a website for commercial purposes is a business. It is true that you don´t need to spend a lot of time and start up capital for running this kind of business, but you should be patient. Don´t expect to earn thousands of dollars in a matter of days! Getting rich quick is not real.

But, you will be able to earn good money if you complete the previous steps properly and elegantly. So, monetizing a website is not that hard itself. Like I said before, it is a beautiful result of your earlier efforts.

Basically, you can monetize your website with 3 different main methods. In my personal point of view, every single website on the Internet makes money from one or more monetization ways mentioned below:

1. Selling Your Own Stuff:

If you own a product or service, the main monetization method of your own web pages will definitely be selling your own stuff. Actually, you will have an e-commerce website where you will offer your audience a number of your items and in most cases get 100% of the sale to your pocket. In fact, this method has its advantages and disadvantage. So, it may not apply to everyone.

2. Selling Other People’s Stuff:

Frankly, not everyone has his own stuff to sell. So, there should be an opportunity for people to sell other´s stuff and earn commissions or referral fees. That´s why this kind of monetization method has been created. Here is how it works: you promote other´s products and services by sending your visitors to their websites and get paid whenever a desired action has been performed.

For instance, that action can be a purchase (Sale) or a sign up (Lead). This kind of business model is called Affiliate Marketing and by far is the best and easiest way to make good money online. But, I don´t mean it is as easy as 1.2.3. Due to the heavy competition out there, you will find it hard to promote other people´s stuff. Do it correctly and you will earn too much money.

3. Selling Advertising Space:

I have decided to put this monetization method as a separate one, because I do believe that there is a large difference between selling advertisement and affiliate marketing concept. Advertising can be covered everything from pay per click and pay per impression to sponsored posts and reviews.

Whatever method you choose for monetizing your website, be sure to test and track your efforts and don´t expect to get best results as quick as possible. Although this step is the most simple step of the entire process, but you should implement some strategies and techniques to achieve high grade of success.

In the next posts, I will cover each and every one of the above-mentioned methods in more details. So, stay tuned and subscribe to my RSS Feed right away, because you don´t certainly want to miss out a single tip, right? OK, and also, feel free and share this blog with your friends. I really appreciate that! 

Cheers!

Hooshmand Moslemi