BEFORE WE START....remember that in every instance YOU are the publisher. The company you promote and sell products on behalf of is the advertiser. Confused?

YOU are publishing links and banners etc

THEY are advertising their products

YOU publish their advertising

What is CPM?

CPM stands for "cost per mille".

Mille stands for 1000

This for you, as a publisher, is a campaign based on numbers.

The cost of the ad, and the profit to you as a publisher, is determined on 1000 page impressions ( or in layman's terms... each time the ad is shown).

An advertiser wanting this type of ad/banner placement will be offered a guaranteed number of page impressions for the ad. Your affiliate network or advertiser offers a certain number of impressions at a specific price to advertisers.

The profit to you (cost to the advertiser) is based on the number and price agreed by your network (cj.com etc)

For example, if an ad or affiliate network site has a CPM rate of $10 US Dollars (USD) and guarantees the advertiser 100,000 page impressions for the ad, the cost to the advertiser will be $1,000 USD ($10 x 100).

You as publisher will get paid a share of the revenue generated by the site selling the ads.

So your affiliate network or ad site may offer you 45% of CPM....meaning $450 USD for 100,000 page impressions, $45 for 10,000 and $4.50 for 1000...etc.