Before you get started with affiliate marketing and their programs, you should get to know and understand some of the different terms that you will eventually comes across. In this article you can learn some of the different ways that you can get paid by affiliate companies and the choices that are available.

Pay Per Click – PPC

The PPC program is very popular because if you have a website or blog, you will most likely get a few clicks on a daily basis through to your affiliate's website. Unlike other programs that need the customers and visitors to make a purchase before you can get paid, the PPC pays whenever someone simply clicks on a banner or other link that has your affiliate ID attached to it.

The downside is that many affiliate programs no longer use the Pay Per Click model because many people have tried to cheat the system in what they called click fraud. This can involve them clicking on the links or having friends and family click to help them make money. Some have also created special computer programs to get this done so that the evidence does not point back to them. After many tried their different cheating tactics, millions of dollars were being lost and the companies received very little purchases, so they moved on to other pay models.

Pay Per Sale – PPS

Pay Per Sale is a program that you will see a lot of when you sign up to be an affiliate. PPS simply means that you will get paid when someone clicks your affiliate link and then makes a purchase at the affiliate site. The PPS program itself is split into little groups as well. You can choose a one time flat fee and you will receive this commission when someone buys something. You can also choose to make money with a recurring payment plan.

This usually involves websites that may offer memberships. When the person first signs up they will be paying for a few days, weeks or months and they can choose to end their membership or they can continue to pay. If you choose a recurring payment, you will continue to get paid commission when this customer continues his membership.

If you wonder every does not choose the recurring payments because it seems like the best option, the reason is that one time payment generally pay more money. Let's say that you were to receive $50 for every membership that is signed up using your referral ID, you would only receive half or less than half every time the person continues to pay their subscription. If the person does not choose to continue, you have lost a bit of income because for the one time signup, you were paid less, hoping that the person would continue to stay with the website.

Pay Per Lead – PPL

Pay Per Lead is a concept most familiar with credit card applications or insurance companies and finance. You are being paid whenever someone fills out an application and sends it in. You can also be paid if someone signs up for a newsletter or any other action that is generally free to the applicant such as filling out a form with their name and email.