Types of Affiliate Websites

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

1.     Search affiliates that utilize pay per click search engines to promote the advertisers' offers (i.e., search arbitrage)

2.     Comparison shopping websites and directories

3.     Loyalty websites, typically characterized by providing a reward system for purchases via points back, cash back

4.     CRM sites that offer charitable donations

5.     Coupon and rebate websites that focus on sales promotions

6.     Content and niche market websites, including product review sites

7.     Personal websites

8.     Weblogs and website syndication feeds

9.     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

10.    Registration path or co-registration affiliates who include offers from other merchants during the registration process on their own website

11.   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

12. 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

13. Websites using adbars (e.g. AdSense) to display context-sensitive, highly relevant ads for products on the site

14.  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.

15.  Video Blog: Video content that allows viewers to click on and purchase products related to the video's subject.

16.   File-Sharing: Web sites that host directories of music, movies, games and other software. Users upload content to file-hosting sites, and then post descriptions of the material and their download links on directory sites. Uploaders are paid by the file-hosting sites based on the number of times their files are downloaded. The file-hosting sites sell premium download access to the files to the general public. The web sites that host the directory services sell advertising and do not host the files themselves.