How ‘Pay Per Lead’ Affiliate Programs Work
Posted by admin | 
July 13th, 2007
Pay-Per-Lead Affiliate Programs are another type of affiliate marketing that have been around for years. Lately, these types of programs have really started to become popular.
A pay-per-lead affiliate program - sometimes referred to as pay per action or pay per acquisition - pays you when your prospects do something on the site they visit after clicking on the link in your website.
Generally, this involves filling out a form or completing a survey, or fulfilling some other action required by the lead website. The prospect doesn’t usually have to buy anything in order for you to get paid, but you also don’t get paid just because they click on an advertisement. Instead they must do something, and again this usually involves filling out a form of some kind.
The type of form to be filled out will vary from one affiliate program to another. In some cases you might just have the visitors complete a survey. In other cases, you may need to have them request a free information package of some kind, or request a quote. Other times, all you need to do is get them to accept a free trial product of some kind.
As an affiliate marketer, it’s often much easier to convice people to fill out a form, request a free trial product or take a survey than it is to buy something. Since they don’t have to spend money, or they’re getting something for free, customers are often much more willing to complete the required task. And if they do, the affiliate partner then pays you.
In some cases, you can earn a lot of money for each individual you get to fill out the form. It’s not uncommon to find pay per lead affiliate programs which will earn you as much as $40 or $50 for each person you get to fill out a form.
These are most often seen with financial related offers such as getting people to request mortgage quotes or refinancing, or having them request a free health insurance information package. Other common ones involve giving away free satellite tv systems, or having people request free home business start up kits.
Other types of pay per lead affiliate opportunities involve much less money, but it’s money that can quickly add up. You could for instance, just offer quick surveys to your website visitors. And each time they fill out a survey or take an opinion poll, you might earn a dollar.
There are even some surveys and opinion polls you can offer which will pay you $3-$5 or more for each person who completes one. Your visitors are entered into contests where they’ll win prizes or get free gifts for completing the surveys, so this makes promoting them even easier for you.
A much less common offer and much lower paying is to simply generate subscribers for someones website or ezine. You get paid five or ten cents for each confirmed subscriber, so all you have to do is get people to sign up. Again it’s not much money individually, but it can add up quickly, especially if you present it as a back-end offer to your own newsletter, or offer it on a co-registration basis.
In summary, pay per lead marketing is not quite as easy and hands free as pay per click, but you can earn a lot more money from this type of affiliate program.
And on the plus side, this type of program is easier to implement than traditional pay-per-sale commissioned affiliate marketing.
