Affiliate marketing can be very lucrative, but it isn’t always easy to figure out the best way to get started and take advantage of this opportunity to make money online.

Luckily, there are five different types of affiliate marketing that you can try, each with their own pros and cons and specific situations where they’re most useful.

Here are those five types of affiliate marketing so you can pick which one might be right for you!

1) PPC ads

Pay-per-click affiliate marketing is probably one of easiest ways for anyone to make money online. For example, if you sign up for Google AdSense and place ads on your website(s), every time someone clicks on your ad, you’ll earn a certain amount of money from Google.

Over time, if you were able to maintain a steady click-through rate (CTR), you could really rack up some serious cash using PPC ads.

However, like anything else related to making money online—the quality of your traffic will play a large role in how much money you can make. You won’t make much at all if no one sees or clicks your ads.

The same goes for paid search results (e.g., Bing, Yahoo!, etc.). If people don’t click on your listing or see it at all, you won’t get paid any money when they do what you hoped they would do: buy something from your site.

The best way to improve CTR? Run more ads! But don’t stop there; keep testing new headlines and creatives until you find something that works well with your audience.

2) CPA networks

CPA networks are paid on a per-lead basis. This means that you will get paid a specific amount for every person that fills out your lead form and clicks through to your landing page.

The only caveat is that you must reach a minimum amount of leads each month, which is usually around 100 or 200, depending on who you’re working with.

So keep building up those referral sources! For example, if one affiliate network has 2 million members and offers 1 cent per lead, then they’ll pay you $200 per 1,000 leads (2000 x 1 cent = $200).

They might offer more if you refer more people too! However, do note that most CPA networks require affiliates to invest some money upfront before getting access to paying customers.

In other words, they want to make sure that their affiliates can be trusted. To avoid any scams, always check their terms and conditions first.

Some CPA networks also have special requirements such as how many posts you need to make on Facebook groups before you can start sending traffic to them.

There’s nothing wrong with that though because it keeps spammers away from their program!

3) Sponsored products

If you want to make money online with affiliate marketing, you need a way to offer your products. A sponsored product is an ad you can display on your site or social network that links out to a product’s page on an e-commerce platform.

Your users can then buy that product using your affiliate link, and when they do, you receive a commission (sometimes known as a referral fee).

Signing up for an affiliate program requires some extra work at first—like choosing which vendors will supply your ads—but once it’s set up, it can be easy-peasy money.

Sites like Share-A-Sale and Click Bank make finding popular products simple. Once you sign up for these networks, all you have to do is look through their catalogues and find products related to your niche.

Then, use those links to create custom ads tailored specifically for each campaign. When someone clicks on one of those links and buys something from that vendor, you get paid! It’s really that easy.

4) Performance network

Performance-based affiliate marketing are what we call CPA (cost per action) or CPS (cost per sale). Essentially, you get paid when you make a lead or sale for another business.

Performance based companies usually have payment plans that pay out anywhere from 30 days to as long as 180 days.

But why would a company offer such a long time frame? The answer is easy: they want you to send leads and sales their way so they can receive maximum returns on investment. For example, Amazon has 120 days as an option for payouts with Click bank offering 15-day payout periods.

With Amazon Associates, you earn 4% commission for up to 12 months after your referred visitor makes their first purchase. If they do not make a purchase within 12 months of clicking your link, you don’t earn anything.

5) Contextual adverts

The beauty of contextual advertising is that it allows you to show your adverts alongside relevant search terms and content.

For example, if someone searches for information on how much does a new Mercedes cost, you could use contextual ads to display an advert that says Buy New Mercedes online at wholesale prices.

Contextual targeting isn’t just limited to search engines, though; other websites like YouTube also offer it, giving you a lot more variety with where and how you can advertise.

In addition, demographic targeting lets you choose who sees your adverts based on gender, age range and location – another benefit for advertisers who want their adverts as visible as possible.

However, it’s important to note that Google recently announced changes to its contextual advertising policy (Google AdWords), which means certain types of adverts will no longer be allowed (see our guide for more details).

E-mail marketing: E-mail marketing doesn’t have to be about sales. It’s often used by companies simply as a way of keeping in touch with existing customers or past clients.

Sending out regular newsletters or bulletins about special offers, news or upcoming events will keep people interested and encourage them to buy from you again in future.

This type of e-mail marketing can work really well if you have existing customers already buying from you regularly – especially if they’re happy with your service and would trust buying from you again without having seen what else is available out there.