Affiliate Marketing 101: In a Nutshell

Sure, GPT's mean money for both you, the site owner, and the advertiser.

I've had several people ask me, "well, how are you able to pay me for completing surveys and for trying out a product?"

The secret is the "behind-the-scenes" advertising and marketing efforts between the merchants and webmasters.

Many businesses branch out their marketing efforts by creating affiliate programs. These affiliate programs pay a certain percentage of a sale to the referrer. Often times, included in their program are incentives or added bonuses to boost the number of their sales/leads produced by the referrers. This is especially common during the holiday season. i.e. For every 50 sales, receive a $20 bonus. It isn't uncommon for businesses to offer their product/service for a discounted rate or even offer trips for a reward. This is referred to as a "performance incentive".

To promote their affiliate program, many businesses sign up with affiliate networks. These networks are responsible for generating the leads/sales for the said business.

That is where webmasters come into play. We, as webmasters, can sign up for the affiliate networks to pick and choose which business/services/products we wish to promote based on our site demographic/target, etc. Obviously if you run a website that caters to the health field, you aren't going to choose an ad that promotes a casino. It just doesn't make sense.

Working the affiliate marketing scene as described above is working with a "middle man". If you choose to go the direct route, you can attempt to apply for the affiliate program directly from the site itself. In some cases, the business will direct you to the affiliate network they are working with and you have no choice but to work through the network. The disadvantage with working with the middleman? $$$$$$$$$$ and less of it.

Webmasters working the GPT scene receive pay after the network take their cut and this is why it is sometimes better to work directly with the merchant. However, often times it can be more of a headache than worth the extra time spent working directly with the merchant. And, this is especially true if you have a high traffic site.

Here is the way an offer is paid out in the GPT industry:
Merchant>>>>>>Affiliate Network>>>>>Webmaster>>>>>>member of GPT site

Here is the way an offer is paid out to a non-GPT webmaster:

Merchant>>>>>>Affiliate Network>>>>>Webmaster
or
Merchant>>>>>>Webmaster

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