If you've been studying affiliate marketing for any length of time, you'll know that there are about 4 billion ways to do affiliate marketing. Okay, maybe not that many, but I bet it's close.

1. 7 T Y P E S O F
AFFILIATE MARKETING
BUSINESS MODELS
EXPLAINED
D e w a n M y l e s

2. 7 Types Of Affiliate Marketing Business Models Explained
w w w . w e a l t h s u c c e s s s y s t e m . c o m
If you've been studying affiliate marketing for any length of time, you'll know that there are about
4 billion ways to do affiliate marketing. Okay, maybe not that many, but I bet it's close.
An affiliate marketing business model has a ton of variables, so I could never list them all, but I'm
going to cover a few of them here for you, so you can at least see some of your options.
Hopefully this will better help you pick the best affiliate marketing business model for you.
**You can also visit my site to know more about affiliate marketing**
First let's get started by understanding what a business model is. Dictionary.com defines it as: a
design for the successful operation of a business, identifying revenue sources, customer base,
products, and details of financing.
So, an affiliate marketing business model would be the way you do affiliate marketing. You'll
need to look at things like: What niche are you going in? How will you build a website or
whatever online presence you choose? How will you get traffic to it? How much money will you
need to get it up and running?
To help you answer these questions and more, here are some example affiliate marketing
business models for you to wrap your head around.
– A content site is what the name implies. A site full of content. Generally, it's on
one topic, but now with people building personal brands and lifestyle blogs, you could have
several topics if you've built an audience who follows YOU.
Content Sites

3. 7 Types Of Affiliate Marketing Business Models Explained
w w w . w e a l t h s u c c e s s s y s t e m . c o m
With this business model you'll build a site, fill it with content, and that content will have your
affiliate links in it. Maybe even other places on your site will have ads for products you're an
affiliate for.
Usually content sites rely on SEO (search engine optimization) for traffic, but you can also use
any other traffic tactic you want. Social traffic, paid traffic, etc.
– There are a few ways to do this business model too. Generally though you setup a
squeeze page giving away something that solves a problem in your niche. This gets people on
your list. Then you use email marketing to get your affiliate links in front of those people by
emailing your list.
Funnel Sites
When it comes to traffic, SEO is generally not an option here, so you're left with organic social
marketing, other organic marketing methods or paid ads.
– I've never been a fan of this business model myself for affiliate marketing,
but a lot of affiliate marketers do very well with it.
Marketplace Store
What you'll do here is find a niche that has A LOT of products you can be an affiliate for and
setup a “marketplace” for those products. All the products are clickable via your affiliate links.
Like a niche Amazon site. If you do a quick Google search you will find scripts and WordPress
themes/plugins that will allow you to build sites like this.
The key to being successful with this business model is to be very niche specific. I don't suggest
going into a broad niche and having hundreds or thousands of products in your store. Learn more
about creating a niche here.

4. 7 Types Of Affiliate Marketing Business Models Explained
w w w . w e a l t h s u c c e s s s y s t e m . c o m
When it comes to getting traffic, you can use ALL the traffic tactics on these kinds of sites but
ranking in the search engines (SEO) proves to be your best bet. These take a lot of time to see
income from because of needing that coveted SEO traffic.
– We've all seen coupon sites, but did you know they are full of the owner's
affiliate links? Surprise! This is another business model I would go very niche on and you'll
definitely need a “catchy idea” to stand out.
Coupon Sites
You have a lot of options when it comes to building these sites and you'll also be able to find
software and scripts that will create these for you. Or you could simply setup a blog and post
about coupons you find, or coupon deals you work out with different companies you can be an
affiliate for.
This is another “use all the traffic tactics” kind of site. SEO, organic traffic from social sites, paid
ads, etc.
– I love this affiliate marketing business model when it's done correctly. Most
review sites are full of good reviews because the owners want you to buy the product so they
make money. However, a review site filled with honest reviews (both good and bad) will make
you more money because people will SEE that you're honest.
Review Sites
WordPress which is used to build all of my sites would be great to build a review site on. You can
find tons of themes and plugins that will allow you to build a review site very easily.

5. 7 Types Of Affiliate Marketing Business Models Explained
w w w . w e a l t h s u c c e s s s y s t e m . c o m
This is another affiliate marketing business model that will rely on a lot of SEO. Throwing paid
ads into the mix would be a great idea too because reviews convert readers into buyers, so your
money would be well spent.
– Not a lot of people think about creating their own app and putting their affiliate links in
the app, but there are many people out there making a killing with their apps and all of their
income is affiliate income.
Apps
This is probably the most expensive affiliate marketing business model you could go after
because of development costs, but a free app with lots of demand could put a lot of eyeballs in
front of your affiliate links.
In my opinion the best way to get traffic with this option is to use paid ads. That makes this
business model even more expensive, but in the long run it could really pay off for you!
– Got a cool idea for something? Something that could go viral? Then why not make
money with it with affiliate marketing? One of my favorite sites is called ThisIsWhyImBroke
.com and they just feature products they love. It's literally just lists of cool products, and all the
links are affiliate links for the owner.
Cool Ideas
It's what I call a “shot in the dark” business model, but probably the most fun of all the business
models I've talked about here. And depending on what your “cool idea” is, it could make you a
ton of money too.
Again, I would use paid traffic with something like this, but all the other traffic tactics I've
mentioned before would work well too.

6. 7 Types Of Affiliate Marketing Business Models Explained
w w w . w e a l t h s u c c e s s s y s t e m . c o m
So, I've just given 7 different affiliate marketing business models to get your mind going as you
start on your affiliate marketing journey. I've provided a to help you
get an idea of what you'd be getting into with them. There's a ton of ways to do each one, but
what you need to think about is what is your affiliate marketing business model going to be.
short plan for each of them
Sit down, grab a pen and paper, and map it out. Use Google and go see what others are doing and
get ideas for your own affiliate marketing business model, and then take those notes and go do it.