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What are Pay-per-Click Affiliate Programs?

Pay Per Click Affiliate Programs

A pay-per-click affiliate program is an arrangement under which your advertisements are placed on a different website, and every time a visitor to that site clicks on your ad, you pay a certain, pre-arranged amount for it. It can be a great way of marketing your products, but also has certain drawbacks that should be kept in mind. Let us take a look at how it is done, tips to do it right, and the possible traps.

How to Join a Pay-per-Click Affiliate Program?

Here are the steps involved:
• Pick the pay-per-click affiliate program of your choice: There are many pay-per-click affiliate networks and programs operating currently, such as Google AdSense, FastClick, and ClixGalore. Google AdSense is a good choice because it is reliable and known, plus Google is the search engine of choice for a huge section of internet users.
• Write your advertisement: Make it brief and keyword rich. The more relevant your keywords to what you are selling, the better quality traffic you will see on your site.
• Bid for the placement of your ads: For search engines like Google, the higher you bid, the higher the placement of your ads in a user’s search results. The bid is what you will pay the affiliate every time a visitor clicks on your advertisement.

Pay-per-Click Affiliate Programs – Tips for getting it Right:

• Don’t bid too low or too high:
Very high bids will get you spending out of proportion to your sales, so you get a low Return on Investment. Remember that every time someone clicks, you pay, sale or no sale, so make sure that your bidding price is not too high. Too low bidding can lead to your ads being placed where no one sees them
• Be truthful:
Avoid misleading statements in your ads just in the hope of attracting more traffic. Remember that your ad will link back to your site, where the visitor will see the true picture. If the ad told him something your site does not live up to, he won’t buy. So you paid, but didn’t make the sale, so it wasn’t worth it, was it?
• Avoid being vague:
Be very specific in your ads. Quote exact prices and exact details, to avoid getting visitors who are not really interested in your products. The objective of PPC is not traffic; it is sales, so make sure that your ads are good enough to persuade people to buy and yet filter out “just-looking” types.

What to Beware of in Pay-per-Click Affiliate Programs

Beware of click fraud. That’s when people or groups or automated programs click on your hundreds or thousands of times with no objective other than to make you pay. This can land you in deep financial trouble, so as soon as you suspect click fraud, when your bills suddenly run really high and your sales are at a standstill, contact the affiliate (the site where your ad is published). Otherwise, pay-per-click is far more trouble than it’s worth!