For years, cost per action (CPA) has been around as an Internet marketing model but not many people have heard of it, let alone believe in it. The common notion is that everyone starts out as an affiliate marketer, selling other people’s products to get commissions, but the truth is affiliate marketing has a lot of obstacles that make it hard for marketers to see sales.

There is the friction that stands between the customer and the product. That friction is the action of taking out the credit card and pressing the “pay now” button. Though it’s just one of the stages in the affiliate marketing model (or online shopping), it is the one that causes a huge wall to arise and block out opportunities for sales and commissions.

If we remove that friction in the equation, things are a whole lot more easier! The solution is simply zero friction marketing, which entails removing that one pesky friction from the affiliate model. There are two good examples of this.

The first one, which I will cover very briefly, is offering free trials of the product. People love trying out things for free, so you’ll more or less get more customers who will try out the product first, and then once they are satisfied, will pay the full price for it. It may seem similar to just purchasing the product at full price, but the psychology behind offering free trials is tremendously powerful.

The other one is more powerful. It does not involve purchasing any item, but simply offering products, services or information once the customer enters some information into a form or whatsoever. This is cost per action and you are paid when the customer takes action by filling in some details. There is no money involved and most people would simply listen and do so. Though the commissions paid out are not as huge, the amount of people that do so are enormous such that when added up, equals to huge payouts!