Every year the affiliate market expands. People always want to get into money niches, but those who encounter CPA-marketing for the first time, listen to stories about “successful success’ ‘ and puzzle over “from which side to approach? I want to be an affiliate too!”. If you’ve already looked at all the pros and cons of the profession, then today let’s talk about traffic arbitrage for beginners: basic terms, payment models, verticals, what the work of the webmaster himself consists of and where you should start if you want to get rich and poor traffic all day long.
What is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is the process of attracting traffic to a site by purchasing it in one place and redirecting it to another, but at a higher price. In simple words, it is the resale of traffic and you earn on the price difference. Specialists who do this are called affiliates = webmasters.
Let’s look at an example:
There is an online casino company. It wants to attract more customers and places an offer in the PP, according to which it is ready to pay 1000 rubles for each new registration. Affiliate connects to the offer and receives a link to the advertiser’s site. With these links, the advertiser can track how many registrations (or other targeted actions) took place thanks to each affiliate.
An affiliate sets up an advertisement – and spends 20,000 rubles. 80 people clicked on the link and registered in the casino. The company pays remuneration – 80 000 rubles. Net profit affiliate – 60 000 rubles.
However, it should be taken into account that the traffic must be of high quality and of value to the advertiser! Users who visit the site are called traffic, and it can be measured for a certain period of time: an hour, a day, a month, and so on. The higher the payout per lead, the more investment is required on your part.
Basic terms is affiliate marketing
The terms in affiliate marketing are, of course, a huge number. For starters, you just need to know the basics:
- Affiliate Program (network) – a platform (link) hosts offers from advertisers, which are then sold by affiliates;
- Offer – an offer for a product or service;
- GEO – countries/locations of potential customers. When setting up an advertising campaign, this option determines which countries, cities and towns users will see the ad;
- Bundle – is a combination of different elements in an advertising campaign, such as an offer, creative and landing page or an offer, text and application;
- Creatives – pictures, videos, banners used for advertising;
- Target (targeted advertising) – a way to promote offers (and not only) by manually selecting the settings of CA (target audience) – choose the age, location, hobbies of your potential customers;
- Context (contextual advertising) – ads will be shown on sites that are as close as possible to your advertisement;
- Lead – is a potential customer who has left their contact information for further interaction with the advertiser;
- Conversion – the percentage of people who completed a targeted action;
- Burj – internet outside of CIS countries, e.g. pour on burj = pour traffic to latam (Latin America);
- Teaser – a type of advertising that does not show all the information about a product, but shows it partially and is good at attracting attention;
- Traffic source – is an entry point/place from which users go to the desired site. It can be a search engine service, a banner on a third-party blog;
- Pour (merge) traffic – running ads for a specific offer;
- Hold – a period when the earned money hangs in the affiliate and can not be withdrawn. During this time managers check the quality of affiliate’s traffic;
- Fraud – the fact of cheating on the part of the webmaster. The specialist receives leads by various forbidden methods, which the advertiser will not be able to pay off.
This is only 5 percent. The language of affiliates is very “slang” and not immediately understandable to beginners and those who do not work with traffic. But it is a matter of time.
Verticals in affiliate marketing
There are white, gray and black verticals in affiliate marketing. For example, “Gray” verticals – controversial offers, so to speak “restricted” for advertising on sites, some of them violate the rules of publication. “White” – do not violate the rules, and “black” – prohibited (misleading target audience, contrary to the rules of promotion and affiliate. Almost all popular verticals are considered “gray”.
So, first of all, you need to choose a direction, i.e. the vertical you want to work with. There are several main verticals:
- Gambling – a vertical in affiliate marketing to promote gambling, such as online casinos, poker, slots;
- Betting – A vertical related to the promotion of sports betting and bookmakers;
- Dating – the online dating vertical. Apps, sites, dating services and more;
- Adult – a vertical in arbitrage traffic in the 18+ category;
- Nutra – a niche of health products, including weight loss, potency enhancement and other “magic” products, as well as drugs for serious diseases;
- Crypto – these are offers related to investing in cryptocurrency projects, forex, binary options, etc.
Of course, there are a lot of verticals: sweepstakes, installs (mobile apps), finances, essay and others, so it is pointless to advise something. Through trial and error, you will realize which one is closer to you.
Payment models in affiliate marketing
In other words – what you can get money in affiliate marketing from. Payment terms are always specified in the offer.
- CPA (cost per action) – this is the most common form in which the affiliate gets paid for a targeted action performed by the user, such as filling out a form, making a purchase or installing an application;
- CPL (cost per lead) is a form of payment for a potential customer who has left their contact information. CPL can be of two types:
- SOI (one-step) – simple registration without confirmation,
- DOI (two-step) – registration with data confirmation by email or phone number;
- CPC (cost per click) – pay per click, click on a link;
- CPI (cost per install) – payment for installing a mobile app;
- Revenue Share (RevShare, revshare) is a payment model in which the affiliate receives a percentage of the client’s net profit. RevShare is popular in the gambling, betting verticals.
Traffic sources in affiliate marketing
A traffic source is a place where a webmaster buys advertising and from where he/she gets the audience for offers. Traffic sources can be of 3 types:
- Completely free;
- Conditional free or UBT;
- Paid (considered the most effective in arbitrage).
Such a large number of sources in arbitrage is due to the fact that for different verticals, even for each offerer only one or another traffic source is suitable. As a rule, traffic sources are prescribed in the terms and conditions of the offer.
Plan for starting in affiliate marketing
If you have just started learning traffic arbitrage, then to strengthen your knowledge base and learn new material, it is recommended to watch YouTube videos on arbitrage and affiliate marketing topics (there are a lot of them), as well as read articles/case studies. If you type “affiliate marketing/how to pour on gambling/cloaking” and other similar queries into the search box, the number of thematic articles will be huge. Learn everything gradually! In addition, it’s important to immerse yourself in the affiliate community: subscribe to the Telegram channels of professional webmasters, affiliate marketing media and affiliate programs. Attend conferences or watch them in recordings, as there you can also find a lot of useful information for beginners. And if you meet someone who has been working in the field or pouring traffic for a long time – then you’ll blow away! Maybe your new friend will even give you a “master class” on how to pour traffic! Even experienced affiliates are always trying to improve their level of knowledge.
If you have already studied all the articles, watched all the videos 2 times, listened to different opinions and consider yourself an expert in theory, but have no practical experience, we offer a plan:
- Choosing a vertical and an affiliate network
We have dealt with verticals above, but let’s stop with companies. Most affiliate networks have a focus (gambling affiliate network, etc.) on one or another vertical. There are, of course, multi-vertical affiliate programs (where all popular verticals at once), but it is better to go narrowly focused. It’s best to start with simple ones like merchandising. Compare financial indicators, in particular, the size of payments and hold different affiliate programs.
- Choose an offer and GEO for the test
Affiliates always have personal managers who will advise and help. Write to the manager, say that you are new and together choose an offer and other criteria (and don’t forget to ask for creatives). Regarding geo, it’s worth starting with Tier-2 and Tier-3 countries. But don’t dive in at the deep end. Even though you have cheap traffic, you might end up in a country (Mexico, hello) with wild competition where you’ll have a hard time competing.
- Buying traffic
At this stage you need to: draw up a portrait of the target audience, choose sites for advertising, create appropriate ads, or use the advertiser’s ready-made materials, if they are available. Invest only your own funds, do not borrow and do not take loans – otherwise drain the budget and you will not only lose money, but also remain owed.
- Launch ad and tests
You can read information about bundles and tests in the last article. Refill your account and start advertising. The main thing is to carefully monitor the indicators and if everything goes well – increase the budget for advertising, scale up. In case of failure – change the settings or disable advertising, so as not to drain the budget.
- Traffic filter
You can use prelending (paving) at this stage. When the prelending will go to the non-targeted user, then after viewing not interesting information, he will leave without going to the lending. And you will be left with only quality traffic.
- Lower the entry threshold
There is an opinion that it is better for beginners to start with teaser networks, and then go to CPA affiliate networks. Teaser networks act as intermediaries between webmasters and advertisers. For clicks on advertising, the owner of the site receives income from traffic.
Note for newbies!
Mistakes – it’s okay! This is important to remember when you start doing affiliate marketing. At first glance it may seem that it is easy and simple, but in fact it is a complex and time-consuming process that requires a lot of time, effort and financial investment. And, of course, specialized knowledge. Do not expect instant millions on your account after a short period of work. For a beginner it is already a success to reach the break-even point, when the income covers all the costs of advertising and you go to zero. It is important to set realistic goals and not be afraid to make mistakes.
The main thing is not to stop at what has been achieved, but to constantly learn and develop. For inspiration and motivation you can read cases with successful stories of webmasters who have earned millions of dollars 🙂
In 2024, the field of affiliate marketing represents a huge potential for financial success. This is not just an office routine, but a unique niche where, thanks to ingenuity, perseverance and accumulated experience, you can quickly make a profit. Of course, the risk of losing money is always present, but it is a sacrifice that is made for the benefit of future profits. In the article we have laid out the main thing step by step to help you learn and apply this knowledge. Remember that in affiliate marketing, only diligence, learning and flexibility – the skills to constantly adapt to changing trends and technologies – bring success. So learn, try and don’t be afraid to take risks – that’s how you get good results in this exciting field. We wish you success in your career!
