Affiliate marketing as a strong internet marketing tool is one of the easiest way of making money online. The popularity it has today is due to the fact that it gives everybody a chance to make a living from the internet. Both the merchant and affiliate can make money without an ounce of risk to anybody.

Affiliate marketing programs have never been as popular before as they are today. Why? There can be a number of reasons. The most probable reason, however, could be the fact that the benefits of affiliate marketing have become clearer to a lot of people now than they were before.

Pay Per Click method is basically used to capitalize on the traffic that arrives at the affiliate's site and the affiliate facilitates the flow of these traffic from the affiliate's site to the merchant's site and the affiliate gets paid for this effort. The merchant's product or services need not be purchased by the visitor, who is referred by the affiliate, for him to earn his compensation from the merchant.

PPP is the most popular among merchant and is also the most lucrative type for the affiliates. In this type of program, the merchant only pays them whenever his referral translates into an action that is whenever the visitor he has referred actually buys something from the merchant's site or when the visitor becomes a lead.

PPS occurs when the affiliate will be paid by the merchant an agreed amount whenever the website visitor will actually buy from the merchant's site. The fees can either be a fixed amount or a commission-based payment depending on the amount of sales generated by PPS.

Pay per Lead - This type of affiliate programs don't actually offer a product or service at all. Although they loosely do fit into the affiliate marketing area, they really have their own theme altogether. You can make a lot of money in a short period of time by using these programs if you are into this type of marketing.

This pay per lead marketing is a very popular type of marketing because the opportunities for making money is greater as there are no sale required. The affiliate gets paid each time a visitor who he refers to the merchant's website simply completes a simple action like filling up an application form. Many big insurance and finance companies use this method of advertising to obtain leads to expand their business.

Affiliate marketing business guides are relatively rare. In fact, I only know of one that is on the market. This type of guide provides sound information from start to finish about how to start and succeed at affiliate marketing. No gimmicks, just good solid information.

Each one of these types of programs can be very lucrative if a good marketing strategy is implemented. You should try all 3 types mentioned in this article to see which one works best for you. Be sure to choose merchants that offer products and/or services that you feel comfortable promoting; this can really make a difference when it comes to sales.