Kingfin Direct vs. Generic ASPs: Why Direct RevShare Wins

How is a Kingfin direct deal different from a generic ASP?

When people start out in affiliate marketing, the first thing many sign up for is an "ASP." ASP stands for Affiliate Service Provider — a platform that brokers between large numbers of advertisers (companies) and affiliates (the people who publish). You register with the ASP, pick the offers you want to promote from its catalog, and issue referral links. The appeal is a single window through which you can handle offers across many genres at once.

A "direct deal," on the other hand, is where you connect directly with an affiliate program the advertiser runs in-house. Kingfin is a prime example: it's the official affiliate program for OlympTrade, an overseas FX service, operated by LIVINGTONE OVERSEAS INC. There's no intermediary platform in between — the payout terms and the dashboard numbers are dealt with directly with the operator.

Put simply, a generic ASP is like a "general supermarket" that lets you carry many offers in one place, while a direct deal is like a "specialty shop" you deal with one-on-one. The supermarket's appeal is its selection, but with a broker in between, the terms and information pass through one extra layer. The specialty shop carries a narrower range, but the terms are direct and easy to see, and you can build a deeper relationship. Neither is "correct" — each fits a different purpose. Hold onto that, and the rest of this comparison clicks into place.

How do the payout models differ? (RevShare vs. one-off)

The difference shows up most clearly in the payout model. The mainstream on generic ASPs is CPA (cost per acquisition) — a one-off, sell-once reward where "one conversion equals a fixed amount," and settlement ends with that single result. It's easy to grasp, and the early results are easy to see as cash.

The flagship choice on a Kingfin direct deal, by contrast, is RevShare (revenue share). You share, on an ongoing basis, a portion of the revenue the people you referred generate through their trading. The longer your referrals stay active, the more it accumulates as a daily payout. Kingfin also offers a fixed CPA, but over the long run it's this compounding RevShare that becomes the strength only a direct relationship can offer.

To picture it: CPA is "catch a fish and sell it on the spot," while RevShare is "raise a fish pond and harvest a little every day." Generic ASP one-off offers lean toward the former; a Kingfin direct deal lets you choose the latter through RevShare. Which is better depends on your goal, but the one that kicks in the more you continue is the latter. Note that this describes the mechanism only — it does not guarantee any payout amount or continuity.

Why does a direct deal tend to pay a bigger share?

"Why does connecting directly tend to leave you a larger cut?" There's a simple reason. With a generic ASP, the broker platform's cut is often deducted from the reward pool the advertiser pays out, and what's left goes to the affiliate. With one company sandwiched in between, some margin inevitably gets skimmed off.

A direct deal basically has no such intermediary layer. Because the operator and you connect directly, the pool reaches the terms without traveling through extra routes. In Kingfin's case, the rate is tiered and rises with your record up to 80%, with various bonuses layering on within that direct relationship. Generic ASPs built around brokerage usually find it hard to sustain a rate this high.

Of course, "a high rate" does not mean "you'll definitely earn." The rate is simply the share ratio when results occur, not a figure that guarantees the results themselves — don't confuse the two. Still, the larger the ratio you receive from each single result, the more efficiently your earnings compound. That's exactly why a direct deal's high rate matters most to people who keep at it long term.

What changes with recurring income vs. without it?

As big as the rate is whether there's recurring income. With a generic ASP's one-off CPA, the reward is locked in the moment the conversion happens, and the relationship ends there. To put it bluntly, no matter how long the person you referred keeps using the service afterward, there's no additional payout. It's like a marathon where you start from zero with each conversion.

RevShare is fundamentally different here. As long as the person you referred keeps trading, the payout keeps coming in a little every day. It may be small at first, but the more referrals you gather, the more "payouts from people you referred in the past" build up as a base. Even if you don't do anything new today, yesterday's accumulation works for you — which is why it's called the "asset" type (again, this describes the mechanism only; it does not guarantee any amount or continuity).

The one that's clearly easier to sustain as a side hustle is the latter, because the effort you put into building content doesn't vanish on the spot — it works for you the next day and beyond. If you want to dig deeper into the difference between recurring income and CPA, read the beginner's guide to CPA vs. RevShare alongside this, and the right choice for you will come into focus.

What's the difference in support and transparency?

Just as important to a beginner as the money terms is "can you rely on help when you're stuck?" and "can you verify the numbers yourself?" Here too, a direct deal has a clear strength.

Because a generic ASP bundles many offers, support and reward-term explanations for any single offer tend to be thin. With overseas offers, the terms and support may not even be available in Japanese. A Kingfin direct deal, by contrast, has a Japanese-language dashboard, support, and terms in place, and the payout formula is disclosed. The transparency of being able to trace "why the payout is this amount" with your own eyes makes a real difference to continuing with confidence.

Conversely, watch out for programs that recruit with exaggerated lines like "guaranteed to earn" or "income of X guaranteed per month." Kingfin makes no such definitive income promises, and it binds promoters with rules too — no hype advertising, mandatory risk disclosure. The fact that the design lets you promote honestly is itself a condition for an offer you can sustain.

Are there still situations where a generic ASP fits?

Having praised direct deals so far, in fairness there are indeed situations where a generic ASP fits better. The more accurately you understand both, the more confident you can be in your own choice.

For example, when you want to handle offers across many genres beyond finance and FX. If you run a blog whose themes are all over the map — daily goods, gadgets, service comparisons — an ASP's one-stop management of bundled offers is handy. Being able to handle many advertisers from a single console is a strength direct deals don't have. And when no direct deal exists for the theme you want to cover, going through an ASP is the realistic choice.

In other words, "ASP or direct deal" isn't a one-or-the-other ranking — it can also be a matter of using each for what it's good at. On top of that, if your goal is "in FX affiliate, growing payouts that compound over time, under transparent terms with Japanese support," a Kingfin direct deal's RevShare tends to win — and that's this article's conclusion. If you want to see the FX affiliate options side by side, check out our FX affiliate program comparison as well.

If you choose Kingfin, what's the first step?

If "direct-deal RevShare looks like a fit," there's no need to overthink it. You can start with these three steps.

If you're stuck on "what should I even write," a great move is to turn the points where you got stuck or had questions while researching Kingfin and OlympTrade into an article. "What actually makes a direct deal different?" "When do payouts arrive?" — the doubts you felt are almost identical to the doubts of the next person searching.

For exactly why RevShare suits people starting small, our guide on why RevShare suits small affiliates explains it in detail. No one's first content is perfect. What matters is, once you understand the terms, "putting out one piece" — learning as you go, with your hands moving, is the fastest route.

Written by

Hiro Hiraki

Editor-in-Chief, Kingfin JP. An FX affiliate specialist with over 15 years of financial and FinTech translation experience. Bilingual in Japanese and English.