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Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is an advertising model in which a company compensates
third-party publishers to generate traffic or leads to the company's products
and services. The third-party publishers are affiliates, and the commission fee
incentivizes them to find ways to promote the company.
Example:
Sometimes marketers promote their affiliate programs by offering bonuses to anyone who purchases
the offer. For example, you could give a free ebook you wrote to any follower who
makes a purchase. Promotions like this encourage customers to buy by sweetening
the deal
Find affiliate programs
If you’re wondering
how to get your feet wet in affiliate marketing, you’ve got a few options. Not
every company offers affiliate programs—some businesses manage their own
affiliate programs while others use an affiliate network.
An easy way to find
affiliate programs is to visit an affiliate marketplace or platform. Browse
your niche to find top performing affiliate platforms. Here are some of the
most popular:
System Procedure
*Find and
join an affiliate program.
*Choose
which offers to promote.
*Obtain a
unique affiliate link for each offer.
*Share
those links on your blog, social media platforms, or website.
*Collect a
commission anytime someone uses your links to make a purchase.
Four Steps
Similarly to becoming a merchant, there are also 4 steps that you
can take to start your journey as an affiliate marketer.
First, you need to start
reviewing products in your niche. That can be done on a YouTube
channel, on a blog or even just using live streams on.
Second, you have to collect email, so
that you can connect with your audience at any time you want and don’t have to
hope for them to see your content.
Third, you can use joint venture
webinars to make a lot of sales in a short period of
time, while simultaneously growing your email list and creating new content.
Finally, once your affiliate marketing business starts making
money, you can scale your growth with pay per click advertising.
Example of Affiliate Product "Home Décor" - Google Trends
Get Paid?
A quick and inexpensive method of making money without the
hassle of actually selling a product, affiliate marketing has an undeniable
draw for those looking to increase their income online. But how does an
affiliate get paid after linking the seller to the consumer?
The answer can get complicated.
The consumer doesn’t always need to buy the product for the
affiliate to get a kickback. Depending on the program, the affiliate’s
contribution to the seller’s sales will be measured differently.
The affiliate may get paid in various ways:
1. Pay per sale.
This is the standard affiliate marketing structure. In this
program, the merchant pays the affiliate a percentage of the sale price of the
product after the consumer purchases the product as a result of the affiliate’s
marketing strategies. In other words, the affiliate must actually get the
investor to invest in the product before they are compensated.
2. Pay per lead.
A more complex system, pay
per lead affiliate programs compensates the affiliate based on
the conversion of leads. The affiliate must persuade the consumer to visit the
merchant’s website and complete the desired action — whether it’s filling out a
contact form, signing up for a trial of a product, subscribing to a newsletter,
or downloading software or files.
3. Pay per click.
This program focuses on incentivizing the affiliate to redirect
consumers from their marketing platform to the merchant’s website. This means
the affiliate must engage the consumer to the extent that they will move from
the affiliate’s site to the merchant’s site. The affiliate is paid based on the
increase in web traffic.
Channels
Most affiliates share common practices to ensure that their
audience is engaged and receptive to purchasing promoted products
1. Influencers.
An influencer is an individual who holds the power to impact the
purchasing decisions of a large segment of the population. This person is in a
great position to benefit from affiliate marketing. They already boast an impressive
following, so it’s easy for them to direct consumers to the seller’s
products through social media posts, blogs, and other interactions with their
followers. The influencers then receive a share of the profits they helped to
create.
Influencer marketing campaigns are particularly popular on
Instagram where brands partner with influencers who are seen as experts or
authorities in their specific niches. Depending on the deal, a campaign could
consist of a series of product reviews with photos, account takeovers, or live
videos. While an influencer might have their own branding and aesthetic, it’s
important to add elements that tie up with your brand to ensure brand recall
and recognition. This can be achieved by using apps like Instasize where
you can quickly edit and customize your campaign’s creatives in a tap.
2. Bloggers.
With the ability to rank organically in search engine queries,
bloggers excel at increasing a seller’s conversions. The blogger samples the
product or service and then writes a comprehensive review that promotes the
brand in a compelling way, driving traffic back to the seller’s site.
The blogger is awarded for his or her influence spreading the word about the value of the product, helping to improve the seller’s sales. For example, my article on the best email marketing software includes product reviews and affiliate links throughout.
3. Paid search focused
microsites.
Developing and monetizing microsites can also garner a serious
amount of sales. These sites are advertised within a partner site or on the
sponsored listings of a search engine. They are distinct and separate from the
organization’s main site. By offering more focused, relevant content to a
specific audience, microsites lead to increased conversions due to their simple
and straightforward call to action.
4. Email lists.
Despite its older origins, email marketing is still a viable
source of affiliate marketing income. Some affiliates have email lists they can
use to promote the seller’s products. Others may leverage email newsletters
that include hyperlinks to products, earning a commission after the consumer
purchases the product.
Another method is for the affiliate to build
an email list over time. They use their various campaigns to collect
emails en masse, then send out emails regarding the products they are
promoting.
5. Large media websites.
Designed to create a huge amount of traffic at all times, these
sites focus on building an audience of millions. These websites promote
products to their massive audience through the use of banners and contextual
affiliate links. This method offers superior exposure and improves conversion
rates, resulting in a top-notch revenue for both the seller and the affiliate.
Six Considering Factor
>Decide on a platform
>Choose your niche
>Find affiliate programs to join
>Create great content
>Drive traffic to your affiliate
site
>Get Clicks on your affiliate links
>Convert visitor into sales
Become an affiliate marketer?
1. Passive income.
While any “regular” job requires you to be at work to make
money, affiliate marketing offers you the ability to make money while you
sleep. By investing an initial amount of time into a campaign, you will see
continuous returns on that time as consumers purchase the product over the
following days and weeks. You receive money for your work long after you’ve
finished it. Even when you’re not in front of your computer, your marketing
skills will be earning you a steady flow of income.
2. No customer support.
Individual sellers and companies offering products or services
have to deal with their consumers and ensure they are satisfied with what they
have purchased.
Thanks to the affiliate marketing structure, you’ll never have
to be concerned with customer
support or customer satisfaction. The entire job of the
affiliate marketer is to link the seller with the consumer. The seller deals
with any consumer complaints after you receive your commission from the sale.
3. Work from home.
If you’re someone who hates going to the office, affiliate
marketing is the perfect solution. You’ll be able to launch campaigns and
receive revenue from the products that sellers create while working from the
comfort of your own home. This is a job you can do without ever getting out of
your pajamas.
4. Cost-effective.
Most businesses require startup fees as well as a cash flow to
finance the products being sold. However, affiliate marketing can be done at a
low cost, meaning you can get started quickly and without much hassle. There
are no affiliate
program fees to worry about and no need to create a product.
Beginning this line of work is relatively straightforward.
5. Convenient and
flexible.
Since you’re essentially becoming a freelancer, you get ultimate
independence in setting your own goals, redirecting your path when you feel so
inclined, choosing the products that interest you, and even determining your
own hours. This convenience means you can diversify your portfolio if you like
or focus solely on simple and straightforward campaigns. You’ll also be free
from company restrictions and regulations as well as ill-performing teams.
6. Performance-Based
rewards.
With other jobs, you could work an 80-hour week and still earn
the same salary. Affiliate marketing is purely based on your performance.
You’ll get from it what you put into it. Honing your reviewing skills and
writing engaging campaigns will translate to direct improvements in your revenue.
You’ll finally get paid for the outstanding work you do!
7. Do Not Underestimate
the Power of SEO.
There’s a ton of organic traffic you can get from search engines
if you do SEO properly.
The days when Search Engine Optimization was about cheating Google are gone.
Today, it is about making your website better for visitors. People naturally
look for information online. That’s why you should learn the basics of on-page
SEO, keyword research and link building to be the information source they find
first. Who wouldn’t want to rank #1 for terms such as “best product” or
“product review” in Google?
Marketing Strategies
1. Only
recommend products you are extremely familiar with.
2. Promote
products from many different merchants.
3.
Constantly test and optimize your conversion rates.
4. Focus on
your affiliate traffic sources.
Drive Traffic Strategy
You’ve created great content.
The next step is to get more people to read it, so they will click on your
affiliate links.
Here are three traffic strategies
to consider:
A. Paid traffic
This is where you pay for traffic
to your site. You can do these using PPC ads.
The advantage of paid traffic is
that the moment you start paying, you get traffic.
However, there are some
downsides.
First, running ads will dig into
your profits. It’s quite normal for advertisers to lose money before they make
it… if they ever do.
You need to be realistic
about how long it takes to optimize a paid traffic campaign.
Secondly, once you stop paying
for ads, your traffic will stop.
Generally speaking, ads are a
great traffic strategy if you’re part of a high-paying affiliate program and
can make the numbers work.
But if you’re completely new to
paid marketing and have no marketing budget (or are working with lower
commission programs like Amazon Associates), then it might not be such a
great idea.
B. Search engine optimization (SEO)
SEO is the
practice of optimizing pages to rank high in search engines like Google.
Create great content
If you want your affiliate site to succeed, you need to create
high-quality content where your affiliate links fit naturally.
For as long as you can rank
high in the search engines for your target keywords, you’ll get consistent and
passive traffic.
On the most basic level, SEO is about:
·
Understanding what your target customers are searching for;
·
Creating content around those topics (blog posts, product pages,
etc.);
· Taking care of the “technical” stuff to push these pages higher in the search engines (which includes link building).
C. Build an
email list
Email lists allow you to
communicate with your readers anytime.
Use them to tell fans about new
content and keep them coming back to your site for more. This leads to more
affiliate clicks and sales.
You can even send affiliate email
promotions to your list directly:
To build an email list, you
need to persuade the readers on your site to sign up. That means offering
something valuable.
How much money can I make as an
affiliate marketer?
The simple answer is that
there is no limit. It depends on your niche and the amount of work you
put in.
The most successful affiliate
marketers make six or seven figures a month.
For example, Pat Flynn from Smart
Passive Income made over $100,000 in affiliate commissions in.
Ryan Robinson, another
affiliate marketer, reported over $19,000 in affiliate revenue in October 2019.
Another successful affiliate website—The Wirecutter—made an estimated $10
million in revenue, and was eventually sold to the New York Times for $30 million.
Keep in mind though that these
people have done an excellent job building their brand. It’s taken them years
of hard work to reach this level.
If you’re just starting out, your
checks might look more like this for a while: