What is a Webmaster Affiliates Program?

Webmaster Affiliates Program is a profit-sharing arrangement between a webmaster and a merchant. The webmaster promotes the merchant's business on their web site, and is paid by the latter when visitors perform certain actions. Promotion is done by displaying ads or products with links to the merchant's online store. Think of your web site and its target audience. Ask yourself what products your visitors would want to spend money on based on their interest in your site. Books? Perfume? Music? Hardware? It all depends on your visitors.

There are three possible ways you can make money from a webmaster affiliates program:

Pay per Click

Pay per Click means just that: a webmaster earns revenue each time someone clicks on the ads on their web site. The pay rate is higher, but the hits are also fewer. This won't work unless your ads are carefully targeted. For example, if you advertise numerology software, yet most of your visitors go there looking for free numerology readings, they are unlikely to click on the ads.

Pay per Impression

Pay per Impression means a webmaster gets paid for so-so number of times a merchant's ad is loaded by visitors. This has the smallest pay rate of the three. But it is also the easiest since you earn money every time someone loads a page. The number of times an ad must be loaded (the "impression") depends on the merchant's requirement.

Pay per Sale

Pay per Sale has the highest pay rate of all. The webmaster gets a commission for each sale made by someone whom he refers to the merchant's site. The pioneering example of this kind of webmaster affiliate program was Amazon Bookstore.

You are paid once your earnings reach the minimum requirement for payout. If it is $20.00, you will not get your money until you make at least that amount. If your site gets few hits, it may take you a long time before you get your first paycheck. This is why you must not join too many webmaster affiliate programs at first. You may get a little income here and there, but you'll have to wait a long while for any of them to pay you.

The best thing you can do to increase your earnings through a website affiliates program is to attract more visitors. You do that with Search Engine Optimization or SEO. By getting top page rankings, you greatly increase the exposure your web site gets. This, in turn, draws more attention to your ads and you earn more money.