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 purchases
via points back,
cash back, or 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; however, such websites are almost reduced to complete
irrelevance compared to the other types of affiliate websites.)
- Weblogs and
website syndication
feeds
-
E-mail list affiliates (i.e., owners of large opt-in -mail lists that
typically employ
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
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