Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular internet-marketing tool used by many to promote their company’s products and services.  Affiliate-marketing programs have never been as popular before as they are nowadays. There are numerous reasons for that. The most notable reason, however, could be the fact that the benefits of affiliate marketing have now become clearer to many people than they were a few years ago.

Nowadays, man people have become internet savvy and know the importance of the internet and affiliate marketing online. Both merchants and affiliates benefit from affiliate marketing. The merchants see affiliate marketing as the chance to advertise their products and services at a lower cost while the affiliates, on the other hand, see affiliate marketing as an easy way of earning profits online by doing what they like most, and that is by creating websites. For merchants and affiliates alike, affiliate marketing is now considered as an important source of profits and revenues.

There are different types or classes of affiliate marketing, and the number of types depends on how one classifies them. The most basic affiliate marketing program, however, falls under two categories: pay-per-click (PPC), and pay-per-performance (PPP).

Pay Per Click (PPC)

PPC is the most popular type of affiliate marketing for affiliates with small websites, and probably the easiest way for them to earn money. In this affiliate marketing type, the merchant pays his affiliate whenever a visitor is referred to his site, that is whenever someone clicks through the merchant’s banner or text ads. The affiliate gets paid a certain amount even if the visitor he referred does not purchase anything from the merchant’s site.

Pay Per Performance (PPP)

PPP affiliate marketing is the most popular among merchants and is the most lucrative type for the affiliates. In this type of affiliate program, the merchant only pays the affiliate whenever his referral results into a conversion, that is whenever the visitor he has referred actually buys something from the merchant’s site or when the visitor becomes a lead. Pay-per-performance affiliate marketing can be further classified into two popular types: pay-per-sales (PPS) and pay-per-lead (PPL).

Pay Per Sale (PPS)

In a pay-per-sale type of affiliate marketing, the merchants pay the affiliates a certain fee whenever the visitors he has referred to the merchant’s site actually buys something from the merchant’s site. Affiliates are often paid on commission basis, although other merchants would opt to pay a fixed fee.

Pay Per Lead (PPL)

The pay-per-lead type of affiliate marketing is a slight variation of the PPS type and is often used by insurance and finance companies and other companies who rely on leads for their company to grow. In this type of affiliate marketing, the affiliate is paid whenever the visitor he referred to the merchant’s site fills up an application form or any similar form related to the business of the company.