Introduction

When signing up as a publisher, you are asked to select a business model. A business model describes how you plan to generate revenue and earn profits from your website or affiliate marketing channels. 

We outline the main business models here to help you decide where you fit. Which business model you select is ultimately your choice. You may want to ask your business advisers for help developing your business plan and deciding which model fits your website and affiliate marketing channels. If needed, you can change your selection on your marketing channel's details page. 

Business Model Options

These are the most common types of affiliate websites and the business models they support:

• Creator/Influencer: If customers come to you to consume content created for social media, then this is your primary business model. Publishers may be individual influencers, agents, or agencies representing individuals or groups of influencers or influencer marketing or social media platforms. This category includes Influencer networks. 

• Content and Media: If customers come to you primarily to consume editorial content, then this is your primary business business model. Publishers in this category may include large Media Houses with portfolios of content brands, Commerce Content, Service Journalism, divisions of mainstream media outlets, independent outlets, digitally native news media, or individual bloggers and informational websites.

• Shopping/Marketplace: If customers come to you to browse from a curated selection of products and brands, and read product reviews or price comparisons, then this is your primary business model. These publishers may focus on niche verticals with products aggregated from product feeds or feature hand-selected products for review. Others may offer a virtual mall experience with a large and diverse selection of brands or provide personal shopping and concierge services. These publishers are not a destination for deals or coupons but an entry point for shopping discovery and product research.

• Coupons and Deals: If customers primarily come to you to find coupons, discounts, and deals to help them along the purchase journey, this is your primary business model.

• Loyalty/Rewards: These publishers give something back to consumers in exchange for purchasing from brands through their platform. If customers come to you primarily to earn an incentive for shopping with you, this is your business model. Reward currencies come in many forms, including cash back, charitable donations, virtual currency, airline miles, credit card points, loyalty points, or other incentives for purchase.

• Tech Solutions: If customers come to you indirectly through business-to-business (B2B) partnerships, integrations, and developer applications, then this is your primary business model. These publishers may include cart abandonment or personalization services, search engine marketing services, and mobile app or browser extension developers. Their technology may be integrated through Rakuten Advertising's Single Point of Integration (SPI) tag, through direct integration with brands, or both.

• Financial Services: If customers primarily come to you to consume content related to personal finances or business-related Financial Services products, like credit cards, banking loans, or insurance, this is your primary business model. These publishers can include credit card comparisons and review sites, finance or money-related content sites, mobile apps, subnetworks, and more.

• Buy Now Pay Later: If customers come to you for microloans, digital wallets, layaway, or registry services, this is your primary business model.

• Subnetwork: If customers come to you indirectly through your own network of registered affiliates to whom you pay a percentage of commission for sales generated through links you distribute to them, then this is your primary business model. Subnetworks can be CPC, CPA, display, video, or audio networks and offer brands consolidated access to sub-affiliate inventory through a single partnership. 

• Other: Select this option if your primary business model does not fall into the other categories. These publisher types may be emerging publisher models that will one day grow into a category of their own.

Next Steps

Learn more about the sign-up process or learn some Publisher Dashboard basics.