There are different types of Affiliate Marketing.
It can be distinguished according:
- to the affiliate’s involvement with the product (Unattached, Related, Involved)
- to the price of the products sold (High Ticket or Low Ticket)
- to the type of traffic used (Organic or Paid)
Unattached, Involved and Related Affiliate Marketing
The first and main distinction in the types of Affiliate Marketing is based on the types of relationship affiliates have with the product or service they are promoting.
Thus, there are 3 main types of Affiliate Marketing:
- Unattached affiliate marketing
- Involved affiliate marketing
- Related affiliate marketing
Unattached affiliate marketing
Unattached Affiliate Marketing is when affiliates have no real connection to the product they are promoting. They don’t use the product, and they don’t even have any real knowledge of it. All they do is try to get users to click on their affiliate links.
Affiliates usually in these cases are anonymous and have no reputation in the niche market of the product or service.
This is why usually when it comes to Unattached Affiliate Marketing affiliates use Paid Advertising campaigns (Google Ads, Facebook Ads, etc.), precisely because they allow them to create traffic from scratch. However, getting traffic from these campaigns requires spending money.
Related affiliate marketing
Related Affiliate Marketing is when affiliates promote the products of a niche they are a part of and for which they are building a certain level of authority. However, the products are not necessarily used directly by the affiliate.
For example, imagine a laptop comparison site, where the affiliate recommends the 10 best laptops. He will hardly have tried and used them all.
Related Affiliate Marketing usually is developed through the creation of Blogs or YouTube channels and the use of organic traffic.
Involved affiliate marketing
Involved Affiliate Marketing is when affiliates are actual ambassadors of the product or service they are promoting. The products are actually used and are known in great detail.
Imagine a YouTube channel of a video-maker who narrates his work and sponsors the products he uses to create his videos.
That’s a typical example of Involved Affiliate Marketing.
High Ticket VS Low Ticket Affiliate Marketing
The topic of High Ticket VS Low Ticket affiliate marketing is of paramount importance in understanding how to start and what may be the best way forward.
Low or High Ticket refers to the cost of the product promoted by the affiliate. Consequently, it also refers to the value of the commission that the affiliate will be able to earn.
Low Ticket: these are low-to-medium cost products, from which commissions of a few dollars or a few tens of dollars can usually be generated.
High Ticket: these are high-cost products, usually of several hundred or thousands of dollars, from which commissions of USD100 and up can be generated.
USD100 commission is usually considered a watershed to distinguish High Ticket and Low Ticket products.
It is good to start with the understanding of what High Ticket Affiliate Marketing is in order to understand the importance of ROI on one’s investment and time.
Promoting a Low Ticket product could consume the same amount of time as a High Ticket product, so all things being equal, it is definitely better to aim for the higher commissions.
However, it is not always that simple, as with High Ticket other elements such as increasing competition and more difficult conversion rates must be considered.
Organic and Paid Affiliate Marketing
The other main way to distinguish types of Affiliate Marketing is whether or not affiliates use direct spend to generate traffic they can then try to redirect to the pages of the vendor’s site via their affiliate links.
There are basically two types in this case:
- Paid Affiliate Marketing
- Organic Affiliate Marketing
Paid Affiliate Marketing
Paid Affiliate Marketing is when affiliates use advertising platforms that allow the creation of campaigns to precisely target a certain type of audience.
In a Paid Advertising campaign you usually compete with other marketers, and spending depends on the level of competition.
The main types of Paid Campaigns are:
- Paid Search Ads (Google Ads, Microsoft Ads)
- Social Media Ads (Facebook Ads, Twitter Ads)
- Display Ads (Google Ads)
- Video Ads
Organic Affiliate Marketing
Organic Affiliate Marketing is when affiliates create content such as blog posts or videos and receive traffic for free without having to pay directly.
The main way is to create a website and appear in Google or Bing search engine results.
Creating videos for YouTube is also a great way to get organic traffic.
The main focus here is in creating quality content and using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques.
Best Affiliate Marketing type for beginner
The best type of Affiliate Marketing for beginners is Related Affiliate Marketing using organic traffic by creating a blog or YouTube channel and publishing content about high ticket products in a particular niche market.
Here is the reasoning behind my choice.
We can start by taking Unattached Affiliate Marketing out of the equation right away. Unattached Affiliate Marketing is mainly done through Paid Advertising, a strategy that is very difficult and very expensive. It is definitely not suitable for pure beginners.
It remains to choose between Related and Involved Affiliate Marketing.
In this case my choice goes to Related Affiliate Marketing if you are getting started.
The reason is that Related Affiliate Marketing requires a minimum level of industry and product knowledge. This allows you to get started more quickly with the actual work of content creation, without necessarily having to first become a true expert in the product in question.
Obviously, if you are already a real expert and already use in real life the product you want to promote, then Related Affiliate Marketing will be your natural way.
I also prefer to start with medium or high ticket products.
Although it might seem easier to start with low-cost products and high conversion rates, it might mean seeing poor earnings over a long period of time.
This could jeopardize the path.
Finding a good product that is not too difficult to promote but has a medium to high commission is definitely a good choice.
A normal journey usually consists of these steps:
- You want to start with a niche market that interests you, small enough not to have too much competition, but large enough to allow for future expansion.
- You want to start by learning the most important thing of all: quality content creation starting with proper Search Intent analysis. Becoming a true expert of the products and services you sponsored can come later, or you can do it along the way.
- You want to start by creating a Blog, and then eventually incorporate a YouTube channel
- You want to learn SEO to enable your content to receive as much organic (free) traffic as possible.
- You want to learn the best methods for redirecting your visitors to the sales pages on the seller’s site via your affiliate links so they make a purchase. In other words, you want to learn how to improve your Conversion Rate.
Of course, things can change on a case-by-case basis, but usually the main steps of the path are these. To begin an even more comprehensive journey you can start with our guide what is Affiliate Marketing.