Do you know that every day thousands of companies are actively looking out to team up with other companies or marketers to promote their product or service? No, we are not talking about influencer marketing but Affiliate marketing.
Yes, affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to earn some bucks instead of fighting against your competition, optimizing your content and performing SEO, and waiting for years for it to turn into some quid’s in your hands.
You don’t always need money to make money sometimes all you need is a website and a link.
So, let’s see what affiliate marketing is.
#1. What Is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a process in which an affiliate marketer promotes products or services of a company(s) on their website and earns a certain percentage or a fixed amount of commission every time a person makes a purchase through their website and does not cancel or return it.
For example, moneysavingexpert.com is a website that helps common people to save money in various terms. Whether it is while choosing an insurance policy, booking a hotel, or planning your monthly budget. So how do they make money?
Well, it’s simple every time they are giving free information to people, they also put out discount coupons, various calculators, promo codes for trading apps, etc. so, every time someone clicks on the links and makes a purchase through it money saving expert gets their cut off commission.
#2. Types Of Affiliate Programs
#a. Coupon
Offering coupon codes to their site visitors is one of the most popular means of affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketers share promotional or coupon codes through email marketing, social media, or sometimes tag them in their site to the relevant post urging their audience to buy using it as they would get a certain percentage of discount from it.
For example, the promo codes given by influencers for a certain brand or product, or at the coupon codes given by YouTubers at the end of a YouTube video, etc.
#b. Loyalty / Cashback
Some sites or businesses offer loyalty points to its customer whenever they buy from them or they offer cashback every time the customer transacts a certain amount.
For example, Flipkart offers two super coins for every ₹ 100 spent, and Paytm offers cashback to its customer every time they pay the electric bill or recharge their DTH.
#c. Content
A typical website that is dedicated to a certain niche and is focused on producing affiliate content based on it and hosts banners, directs you to other brands and products through links it can not only be through affiliate websites but also through forums like Reddit, Quora, and can sometimes be user-generated content.
Example: Abby Lawson’s Just a girl and her blog is one of the biggest amazon affiliate sites. Abby shares DIY ideas offers information on house décor, baking, she also provides free printable grocery lists, etc. she is not only earning from affiliating amazon products but also selling her course and also using Bluehost for her website.
#d. PPC
PPC campaign is another way to drive paid traffic directly to the seller websites in hope of driving conversion. The PPC marketers bid on the specific keywords and the search engine runs ads on it but in PPC affiliate one can only reap when there is conversion.
#e. Email
Email is a typical affiliate marketplace not only for e-commerce companies but various other catalogs and brands also offer newsletters, offer reminders and subscription stories, etc.
#f. Social Media
There are various forms in which affiliate marketing be done in social media from promo codes, to offer links but there are social media apps that are rather completely affiliated one such app is Pinterest you can notice that every pin you click on will take you to another website and many such websites are direct affiliating and others are indirect affiliate marketing.
#g. Bloggers
Some bloggers are making hefty money by heavy affiliate marketing tactics. By doing beauty reviews, showing off amazon’s handy electric products they monetize their blogs heavily.
#h. Offline (TV, Radio, Print)
Affiliate links are not only manifested for online means but also can be used offline by TV broadcast, radio ad, and print media.
For example, a food magazine has printed out a special recipe for their key lime pie and they have put a link at the end of the page directing their readers to buy from the particular brand to get the exact taste of their dish.
#3. How Much Money Can I Make As An Affiliate Marketer?
Companies are already investing millions of dollars on affiliate marketing every year and the demand for affiliate marketers is high than you can expect.
In India, one can earn from ₹ 20 Lakhs to ₹ 50 Lakhs per year through affiliate marketing. While some have taken It as their main source of income others consider it a second source of passive income.
#4. How We Start Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing can be started by following these simple steps:
#a. Choose A Platform
Affiliate marketing can be done on various platforms but you need to choose the right platform that you are confident to build an audience on Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Blog, etc.
Choose two of the right platforms for example Blog. Starting affiliate marketing through a blog would be the least expensive you have to spend a couple of bucks on the hosting and domain once a year and earn throughout the year through affiliate marketing. You can also set up a YouTube channel and start creating videos but if your idea of content creation requires expensive gadgets then you might want to find means like Pinterest or even Instagram.
#b. Choose A Niche
There are tons of competition no matter which platform you choose and which niche you choose. But no matter what the competition is you need to aim at creating high-quality content, posts, blogs to drive traffic.
In the beginning, don’t try to cover bulk categories try to limit yourself until you have found a loyal audience base.
For example, if you want to start with BookTube start by recommending one genre like stick to fantasy, romantic, or contemporary instead of lining up all niches and getting lost in the crowd.
Most people follow this whenever they start affiliating, they start with one layer and then spread their wings through various niches.
#c. Look For Affiliate Programmes To Join
Finding the right affiliate program is important to start. Affiliate marketing programs are split into three chunks
- High-pay, low-volume affiliate program
- Low-pay, high-volume affiliate program
- High-pay, high-volume affiliate program
1. High-pay low-volume affiliate program
High-pay affiliate programs can pay you a handsome amount but they can be quite tough for newbies to crack. Some affiliate programs offer high commission in USD for around 50 to 60 conversions but they also come with less volume because often they would be related to software, some kind of cloud system, and such.
An example of this is Fiverr. Fiverr offers high pay affiliate programs but everyone who visits your website doesn’t need service from the biggest online marketplace do they so the no-need for it will divert them from the route.
2. Low-pay, high-volume affiliate program
Amazon is the best example of a low-pay high-volume affiliate program. There are millions of products that you can affiliate through amazon but most times it would be beauty products, home décor, and such whose actual cost be in a couple of hundred bucks and you would only make a small commission out of it.
For instance, you have a beauty blog and think you are recommending a Maybelline mascara for your audience the mascara would cost around ₹ 350 which would give you a cut of 5% i.e., 17.5/- which is very less but if you think of it differently and try to use the same affiliate link on various platforms and convert them all you can make some pretty good money through the low-pay, high-volume affiliate program.
3. High-pay, high-volume affiliate program
High-pay, high-volume programs require expertise considering they are affiliate programs related to credit cards, VPN, and other luxurious brands.
Here are some of the best high paying affiliate programs to begin with:
- Bluehost
- Elementor
- Wix
- BigCommerce
- Sellfy
- Shopify
- Hubspot
- Coursera
- Flywheel
- GreenGeeks
- Amazon
- eBay
- Target
#Create Great Content
Once you have found the right platform, niche, and program your focus should be on creating great content. The success of your affiliate marketing journey solely depends on the quality of your content and how you will be able to drive traffic to your page.
Look through the products and services that your affiliate program sells and understand how it can solve your audience problem and create content on that instead of picking up the best seller and trying to sell that it’s already a bestseller whether you advertise it or not people are already buying it your purpose is to introduce new and rare products to people. Remember to think differently.
#Increase Traffic In Your Affiliate Website
There are two ways for you to drive traffic to your website.
- Search Engine Optimization
- Paid Traffic
Many affiliate websites have taken their time to rise the charts by search engine optimization this is the first preference by most affiliate marketers to drive traffic through organic means but if you have some extra cash, you can throw it into paid ads and get recognized sooner than later.
Another way is through email’s you can curate a list and send links directly to them or alert them about the new content. One of the best way to reach customers is by Email.
#Increase No. of Clicks On Your Affiliate Links
To increase the number of clicks on your affiliate links, you need to take certain steps.
- Make sure your link is in the right place-don’t place affiliate links at the bottom of the page people hardly scroll till the end. For instance, if you are talking about gadgets place the link when you are done describing the product because that’s the peak time the visitor wants to enquire everything you have told them and this strategy would possibly lead to a conversion.
- Instead of creating plain content add some color to your content by creating a table, box, or graphics that would look like a subtle yet interesting way of approach.
#Convert Your Clicks Into Sales
To convert clicks into successful sales you need 2 conversions one is the click on your link from your page and another is the purchase on the seller page only then will you earn money. To get a successful conversion follow the steps mentioned above.
Headsup To Help You Become A Successful Affiliate Marketer
We have spread out all the fundamentals of affiliate marketing. So, when people ask how to be a successful affiliate marketer? All we say is focus on the step before you, not the whole staircase.
Don’t be in illusion and expect a million-dollar to fall into your bank account when you begin affiliate marketing there are struggles and uprise in all paths, you need to be patient and take it step-by-step and lead it to a successful path.
Focus on your first sale and then the next one and the next one and also keep on producing unique content and drive traffic to your page and one day you will be on the journey of telling how there is no secret for success but hard work.
