Among the compensation methods that are being used by most affiliate programs today include revenue sharing, cost per action (CPA) and cost per mille (CPM) or cost per click (CPC). CPC and CPM are used heavily in paid search and display advertising. Additional step is required in PPC in order for revenues to be generated for the publisher. The ads that you have placed must not only be viewed by your visitors, but they should also be clicked to visit the website of the advertiser.
In the early days of this marketing venture, CPC was more common but because of click fraud issues, only a few programs are making use of it now. In the case of CPA method, most programs necessitate referred visitors to be converted into sales first before they give commissions to their affiliates. Such affiliate will only get a commission for every sale they close.
The simplest way to expand your income with affiliate marketing is to drive traffic to your affiliate link. Although having your own website is not really necessary, it can help maximize your conversions in a lot of ways especially if SEO techniques are applied. Being on top of search engine results will give your site free traffic without any additional work on your part.
