Introduction

Your business model describes how you plan to generate revenue and earn profits from your platform and affiliate marketing channels.

When you join Partner Hub, your business model is automatically set to Creator/Influencer. You can select a different model from the channel settings page, as outlined below.

Business Model Definitions

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. Creators in this model 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 model. Creators in this model 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. Creators in this model 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 creators 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 with the purchase journey, this is your primary business model.
• Loyalty/Rewards: 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. This includes 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 the brand, 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. 
• 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 the brand 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. Creators in this model may be emerging and eventually grow into their own category.

Change Models

If you feel that Creator/Influencer does not accurately represent your business, follow these steps to change your settings:

1. Go to Account in the navigation header and click Social Channels.
2. This takes you to the channel settings tab of the settings page. Scroll down to the Info section.
3. Make your selection from the Primary Business Model drop-down menu.
4. Click the Save button.