An affiliate publisher, also called a virtual publisher, is a modern profession that allows you to earn money online. Thanks to affiliate marketing, you can make money online as a full-time publisher or treat it as a side hustle or hobby. Affiliate marketing has been growing dynamically in Poland for over 20 years, and worldwide for more than 30 years, creating earning opportunities for every internet user.

Earning online through affiliate marketing is as old as… Amazon!

The first affiliate publishers appeared in the United States in the 1990s. The first affiliate programs were launched by the biggest brands of that time:

• PC Flowers & Gifts.com (October 1994)

• AutoWeb.com (October 1995)

• Amazon (March 1996)

• KBkids.com / BrainPlay.com (January 1996)

• EPage (April 1996)

In the USA, over 80% of brands earn through affiliate marketing! In Poland, the first larger-scale affiliate programs began appearing about a decade later. Although the early days of making money online via affiliate programs were not easy, today affiliate marketing is truly booming. More and more publishers know how to earn online and generate high income.

How to make money online – affiliate marketing, i.e. recommending products online

Earning online with affiliate marketing works like this: the publisher recommends selected products or services on their online channels (website, blog, YouTube, email, any messenger, etc.) and receives a commission on the sale of products that are purchased thanks to their recommendations.

The only condition for your referral commission to be tracked and paid out is that the referral must happen through an affiliate link. An affiliate link is the fastest way to make money by recommending products.

How to make money online on TikTok – with affiliate links

With affiliate links, you can start making money on TikTok right now. All you need to do is add a link to your TikTok profile in your bio, join any affiliate programs of selected brands, and you can immediately start recommending products and earning commissions on their sales.

How to make money online on YouTube – with affiliate links

To earn money by recommending products on your YouTube channel, you need to join the affiliate program of the brand you want to promote. Then, the YouTuber can recommend selected products from affiliate programs in their videos and add affiliate links in the video description.

How to earn on Instagram

To start earning on Instagram with affiliate links, you don’t need any additional skills. It’s a very simple and intuitive method. Just complete the registration process in an affiliate network, add a link to your Instagram profile in your account details, and you’re ready to go!

How to earn money online on Pinterest – with affiliate links

Pinterest offers great opportunities for making money with affiliate marketing. It’s a more “niche / industry-focused” medium, meaning its social value is different from Facebook or Instagram. Nevertheless, the rapidly growing number of saved pins proves that Pinterest is a goldmine of ideas and inspiration.

How to earn money online on Facebook with affiliate links

If you have your own fan page with a gathered community, or you’re active on Facebook in any other way, you can start earning right away. By recommending products to your fans on your own timeline, in niche groups, or in the comments – and attaching affiliate links to those recommendations – you can earn commissions on the sales of the products you promote.

Active affiliate links can be pasted directly into the body of a post, into the description of an image or video, or into a photo album. You can also paste just the link without any additional text. That’s why creating posts that contain affiliate links doesn’t require any extra skills. When you create an affiliate post, you act exactly the same way you always do – you just additionally attach an affiliate link in the place you choose.

How to earn money online – how much can you make from affiliate marketing as a publisher?

The answer to the question of how much you can earn as a publisher probably won’t surprise you, because… it mostly depends on you.

If you decide to treat it as a “full-time” activity, build (or already have) an engaged audience, come up with interesting ways to present the product or service you’re promoting, convince your audience of its usefulness and appeal, and on top of that stay consistent and systematic – good results will come quickly. They’ll be even better if you’re creative, don’t limit yourself to just one communication channel, and above all, keep testing different tools, formats for presenting your recommendations, and their placement. To be more specific, with affiliate marketing you can earn from a few złoty up to several tens of thousands of złoty per month.

How to earn money online – publisher compensation models in affiliate marketing

In an affiliate partnership, the publisher is paid for a specific action taken by a person encouraged by their recommendation. This can of course be the purchase of a product or service on the advertiser’s website, but it can just as well be filling out a contact form or simply clicking a link and visiting a specific page.

1. CPS (Cost Per Sale), i.e. commission on sales

CPS is the most commonly used affiliate model in e-commerce because it’s a reasonable compromise in terms of benefits for both publishers and advertisers. In this case, the commission amount is credited when a purchase is made in the advertiser’s store.

For publishers, the CPS model is attractive because, by recommending products that are well matched to their audience, they achieve high sales conversion rates. This means that even a small number of clicks and visits to the advertiser’s store results in the purchase of specific products and the calculation of the due commission.

2. CPL – Cost Per Lead (a fixed rate for generating a specific action)

The CPL model looks different from CPS. Here, the advertiser does not pay a commission on the sale, but a fixed rate for performing a specific action (acquiring a lead), which is precisely defined in the terms of the affiliate program. These actions can vary greatly: filling out a form on the website, registering on a platform, signing up for a newsletter, or downloading a PDF.

This model is most often used for selling various types of services; it is used by financial or insurance institutions, websites offering online games, training, or courses.

3. CPC – Cost Per Click (a fixed rate per click on the ad)

Another model – although definitely the rarest in affiliate cooperation – is CPC. In this model, the advertiser pays the publisher a fixed amount for each click on the ad that takes the user to the advertiser’s website. There is no need for a sale or a completed lead; a simple click is enough for the publisher to receive payment.

This model in affiliate marketing is most often an addition in hybrid models, where a CPC rate is added to specified CPS and CPL rates at the same time. Hybrid models in affiliate marketing are most commonly used in mailings.

Entering into cooperation with advertisers is not complicated at all. It consists of creating an account as a publisher, which gives you access to affiliate programs grouped within an affiliate network.

Immediately after registering as a publisher, you get access to:

• a list of affiliate programs along with their payment terms

• all affiliate tools

• discount codes and special promotions organized by advertisers

• real-time statistics

• support from an affiliate manager, who helps you choose affiliate programs and products to promote