What is Cost Per Action?
When you think about making money with a website or blog one of the first services that you think about is Google AdSense. Maybe you have already had the bite of the affiliate marketing bug and even joined ClickBank or Commission Junction.
Affiliate marketing can be a way to make money for your website or blog. Sometimes you don’t even need a website to make money with affiliate marketing. You just send traffic to your affiliate link and if they buy something you get paid. There are other ways to make money with site.
Cost per action marketing is one of those other ways to make money online. With CPA offers you might not even have to make a sale to get a commission. Yes, you heard that right! You might not even have to make a sale to make money. This is one reason that CPA gets attention from internet marketers and bloggers.
You could get a commission just for a web visitor performing an action like submitting an email address, or supplying a zip code. It is easier for someone online to supply an email address or a zip code than inputting their credit card number or actually purchasing something.
Just imagine that you are on a tech blog and you come across an ad that offers a gift card for a popular big box retailer. The gift card might be just what you are looking for. The ad asks for your email address. Would you consider giving up your email address for an opportunity to get a gift card?
Where can I find Cost Per Action Networks?
There are a number of CPA Networks online. CPA Networks come in all flavors. Find a big list of CPA networks and take a look at the websites. Check online with other internet marketers and see what they have to say about using the different networks.
How to apply to CPA Networks?
Once you have identified CPA networks that you want to work with you will have to prepare your application. You will need to submit some basic information about yourself and your company if you have one.
Some of the common information that you will need will include your contact information, your website if you have one, and how you will be promoting offers.
Create your application and submit it and give the CPA network a call on the telephone. These CPA networks get a lot of applications, so if you just submit your application without calling them it might take them a while to process your file. Some CPA networks are prompt in responding to new affiliate applications and you might receive a response in a day or two. Others might take longer to respond to your request.
Your phone interview will cover different areas. What types of offers are you looking to promote (email/zip submits, biz opp, online dating)? Is your website focused on a specific area (verticals – fitness, health)? This is an opportunity to get started off on the right foot with the network. You might be nervous but it is just a phone call. Talk to the person on the other end of the line and tell the truth. If you are a newbie then let them know. Just explain your plan.
If you are successful in your phone interview, you might be approved to do business with the CPA network. Hooray!
There are some CPA networks that might approve you without having to go through a phone interview. When you are approved the CPA network will supply you with login information for the website where you can find the CPA offers.
The CPA network will supply you with a contact person to help you with running your offers. This person is called an affiliate manager or (AM).
Your affiliate manager can help you out when you need information from the CPA network. They know the offers that are going to be coming for release. They see it all behind the scenes. Affiliate Managers can help you when you run into issues.
How can you promote CPA Offers?
CPA offers are a little bit different from what you may have experienced with other types of affiliate marketing ventures. CPA Offers may have restrictions on the methods that you use to promote an offer. Some CPA offers are restricted by the location. So if an offer is approved for the United States then you should only target US traffic. If an offer doesn’t allow banner advertising then you cannot promote it with banners. If you violate the terms of the offer you could lose your account with the CPA network.
Promoting CPA Offers with Video and Email
There are a number of different ways to promote CPA offers. You could create videos and include your CPA links in the description or inside the actual video. You could buy domain names and forward them to your CPA links. Some marketers have really large email lists and they promote CPA offers to the list.
Promoting CPA Offers with Text Ads and Banner Ads
There is always the trusty text ads and banner ads that are supplied by the network. You can post them on your blogs and websites when allowed. Some marketers like to use pay per click advertising and pay per view advertising to promote CPA offers while others use article marketing and contextual linking.
Promoting CPA Offers with Article Marketing
Are you a good writer? You could attempt to get targeted traffic to your offers by writing high quality articles. Leverage your search engine optimization skills by creating articles with keyword rich headlines that get people to click on your articles.
CPA offers are just another potential source of online and offline income. Learn more about CPA marketing and apply to some CPA networks.
