Types of affiliate programs websites. Affiliate websites are often categorized by merchants (i.e., advertisers) and affiliate networks. There are currently no industry-wide accepted standards for the categorization. The following types of websites are generic, yet are commonly understood and used by affiliate marketers.

* Search affiliates that utilize pay per click search engines to promote the advertisers’ offers (i.e., search arbitrage)
* Comparison shopping websites and directories
* Loyalty websites, typically characterized by providing a reward system for buys via points back, cash back
* CRM sites that offer charitable donations
* Coupon and rebate websites that focus on sales promotions
* Content and niche market websites, including product review sites
* Personal websites (This type of website was the reason for the birth of affiliate marketing; but, such websites are nearly reduced to complete irrelevance compared to the other types of affiliate websites.)[citation needed]
* Weblogs and website syndication feeds
* E-mail list affiliates (i.e., owners of large opt-in -mail lists that typically use e-mail drip marketing) and newsletter list affiliates, which are typically more content-heavy
* Registration path or co-registration affiliates who include offers from other merchants during the registration process on their own website
* Shopping directories that list merchants by categories without providing coupons, price comparisons, or other features based on information that changes frequently, thus requiring continual updates
* Cost per action networks (i.e., top-tier affiliates) that expose offers from the advertiser with which they are affiliated to their own network of affiliates
* Websites using adbars (e.g. Adsense) to show context-sensitive, highly relevant ads for products on the site
* Virtual Currency: a new type of publisher that utilizes the social media space to couple an advertiser’s offer with a handout of “virtual currency” in a game or virtual platform.

Publisher recruitment

Affiliate networks that already have several advertisers typically also have a large pool of publishers. These publishers could be potentially recruited, and there is also an increased chance that publishers in the network apply to the program on their own, without the need for recruitment efforts by the advertiser.

Relevant websites that attract the same target audiences as the advertiser but without competing with it are potential affiliate partners as well. Vendors or existing customers can also become recruits if doing so makes sense and does not violate any laws or regulations.

Nearly any website could be recruited as an affiliate publisher, although high-traffic websites are more likely interested in (for their own sake) low-risk cost per mille or medium-risk cost per click deals rather than higher-risk cost per action or revenue share deals.Types of affiliate programs websites

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