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| Credit: Pexels |
Are you tired of waking up at odd hours to prepare for office work and the associated morning jam on streets full of half-sleep commuters? The frustration is even heightened when you have a demanding job and bosses coupled with meager pay. What if there was a way to avoid these challenges and make money from anywhere, anytime- even when you are asleep? Yes, it is possible through affiliate marketing. You can make money by selling other people’s products online from home without committing to certain office hours required by traditional employment. If you desire a flexible job, autonomy in your work, and independence and get paid depending on your success rate, then it is time you consider affiliate marketing.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate Marketing is a process that enables an affiliate to make money (commission) to generate leads to other people's or companies' products or services. The affiliate chooses an affiliate product they are passionate about, promotes the product online, and gets a share of the profit made from a sale that comes from their site. The company selling the affiliate product often provides a unique link to the affiliate to track sales originating from the affiliate’s website.
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| Amazon’s Affiliate Marketing Program |
Amazon popularized affiliate marketing through the amazon affiliate program, and ever since, the practice has gained momentum across all internet platforms. Today, websites and blogger make money through affiliate marketing by putting links to the products’ page for a discussed or reviewed product to earn an advertising fee whenever a purchase is made from these links. Affiliate marketing pays to depends on the performance of the link where companies outsource selling across all networks. With its cookies, analytics, and digital marketing, the internet has made affiliate marketing a billion-dollar industry, and you too can have a share of this money.
Requirements for Starting Affiliate Marketing
Several steps can get you started on affiliate marketing and ensure you succeed in making easy money online.
1. Choose a Platform
Affiliate marketing can be done on many platforms across the internet; however, developing a blog or using a YouTube channel can help you build a sustainable audience that can be converted into sales. Starting a blog is relatively cheap and made easy by tons of tutorials available online. Once you have established the website, you will need to optimize it for search engines for better ranking. After this, you can now begin adding affiliate links that are provided by other companies or persons.
2. Choose your Niche
Since many blogs are cropping up every day, you face stiff competition, hence the need to stand out from the crowd. Choosing a subject focused on a specific category will help your blog be unique, and focused on the target audience, and enhance your ranking on search engines. Choose a topic you are passionate about to improve your consistency, which is valuable for a successful blog.
3. Choose a Suitable Affiliate Program to Join
Many product companies have varying affiliate marketing programs that you could choose from, and these programs include:
- High-Paying, Low-Volume Affiliate Programs:
This affiliate program focuses on niche products, providing high payouts. An example is ConvertKit’s affiliate program that could pay you up to $700 monthly for leading 80 clients their way. However, they have a limited pool of customers, and the high commission means stiff competition with skilled marketers, meaning the program may not be suitable for beginners.
- Low-Paying, High-Volume Affiliate Programs:
These programs give low payouts for products with mass appeal. Products such as PS4 games are loved by many people and cost around $50. It means that as an affiliate, you could earn between $2-3 for every sale.
- High-Paying, High-Volume Affiliate Programs:
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| High-Paying, High-Volume Affiliate Programs |
These programs deal with popular products and pay you a high commission for sales made. A perfect example is credit cards. It is a product needed by many people, and those buying credit cards stay with the company for a long time, thus suitable for affiliate programs. However, these programs attract experienced sellers with deep pockets.
4. Create Interesting Content
As an affiliate marketer, you will need to persistently create high-quality pieces that naturally fit with the affiliate product. Your content should be informative, engaging, and optimized for search engines. That way, the readers can relate the content with the link to the product.
5. Generate Traffic to your Affiliate Website
Traffic is defined as the number of people that visit your website to read your content. These people are likely to see the link and click. You could generate traffic to your website by paying for it using PPC ads, search engine optimization, and email listing.
6. Get Paid
After registering for an affiliate marketing program, the company will provide you with a link for an affiliate product. This link can be tracked through an affiliate ID or software to determine your commission from sales made from your site. Several affiliate programs have different terms of payments, such as Pay Per Click (you're paid for clicks whether sales are made or not), Pay Per Sale (the seller pays you an agreed percentage of the sale price upon a purchase), and Pay Per Lead (you are paid for a visitors' information on a merchant's site).
Related Article: PPC, PPP, PPS, PPL Affiliate Marketing.
Tips for Succeeding as an Affiliate Marketer
If you have longed to make money selling other people's products online and want to be good at it, the following tips could make a difference.
1. Develop a Good Rapport
Build an audience with specific interests, as this will allow you to tailor your content and affiliate campaigns to them, thus improving your likelihood of conversion. The audience will trust you as an expert in the area, and your marketing will likely make them buy.
2. Make it Personal
Choose a product you believe in and ensure that your promotions are based on products that consumers will truly resonate with. If the audience sees your passion, they will likely buy the product and help you make money as you educate. You could use tools such as Voila Norbert or ContactOut to get a pool of contacts and send personalized messages to improve your affiliate and blogging opportunities.
3. Review Products and Services
After creating a good rapport with the audience, you can leverage their confidence and review products. Review products that are in your niche and encourage the audience to them out.
4. Diversify to Several Sources
In addition to an email campaign, you could also make money blogging, and cross-channel promotion, and you could also reach out to a social media audience. Trying different marketing strategies will let you know what resonates well with your target audience for consistent use.
5. Choose the Right Product
Research the sellers and its product before partnering. Choosing a product you don’t believe in may be costly, wasting your valuable time with no promising breakthrough. So, spend time researching a profitable product before promoting it.
Related Article: Find the Best Affiliate Products to Promote.
6. Stay Current with Trends
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| Credit: Pixabay |
Affiliate marketing has stiff competition, hence the need to stay on top of your game with current trends for relevance. Staying abreast with the current information will also enable you to know new marketing strategies as they arrive. You will be assured of a high conversion rate with these new techniques.
Related Article: Tips to be a Successful Affiliate Marketer.
Related Article: Common Affiliate Marketing Mistakes.
The Takeaway
In the age of the internet, you have a variety of ways to make money while sleeping. Affiliate marketing provides you with a perfect opportunity to sell other people's products and has your cut when the sale is done. However, your success depends on the effort you put in and the strategies you use to get the right partner, join the right program, and sell the right product.
Finally, I would like to know your experiences with this blog in the comments section below. If you find this article useful for you, you can share it on social networking sites, and you can follow us to get the latest blog posts and be the first to know about them.
