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In the current era of science and technology, earning money has become easier as you might think. The age of the Internet has revolutionized everything around us. In the past, if you wanted to earn money you had only one option, to work from dawn till dusk and manage extreme workloads all by yourself. Now, the digital world has changed the way of business and introduced hundreds of sources of income.
In the current age, the internet has become a source of earning for millions of people around the globe. Just have a laptop and an internet connection and start earning from your comfort zone. Blog writing, logo designing, selling a product online, online food businesses and many more are options on the internet for businesses to start. ‘Affiliate Marketing’ is one of the options you can use to earn money online. With affiliate marketing programs, people who started from zero have earned millions of dollars using their minds in correct ways. It is a very simple procedure that everyone can learn and use easily.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
The simplest definition of affiliate marketing is “Earn commission by promoti
ng products of other people or companies”. Every businessman or company has a fixed goal to get maximum outreach of their products in the competitive world. Due to high competition, everyone approaches customers in different ways. In affiliate marketing, you have to convince customers to buy products from a specific online place and consequently, you will get a commission on any product bought by the customer. If any customer clicks on your link and gets to the online store you will get revenue in a fixed percentage of the price of that product.
How Affiliate Marketing Works?
Affiliate marketing is a complex relationship of three parties. The presence of these parties defines the success of affiliate marketing. Let’s discuss those parties in detail:
- Seller and Manufacturer:
The seller can be an entrepreneur or a well-developed company. He can control the marketing of his products by doing it on his own or he can pay to affiliate websites, promoting his product for him and in return, giving a fixed commission to that website.
- The Affiliate:
The affiliate can be an individual or an affiliate marketing company that markets the seller’s product in a creative way to its potential customers and helps in increasing the sales of the product. He will add the link of the seller’s product to his website/ blog to attract customers.
- The Buyer:
The potential customer however remains unaware of the fact that he is being targeted by affiliate marketing. They are constantly targeted by showing them creative ads/links of the products which insist them to buy the product. Finally, when the consumer buys the product both seller and affiliate share the profit.
In a nutshell, affiliate marketing works in the following 5 steps:
- You (affiliate marketer) write a blog or create a video, including the link to the seller’s product, and upload it on your website.
- A visitor reads the blog on your website or watches your video on YouTube for instance.
- After being convinced, the visitor clicks on the affiliate link, which will redirect the visitor to the Seller’s / merchant’s website.
- Once the merchant’s site is open, the visitor will perform his desired shopping.
- As a result, the affiliate gets his fair share.
How Do Affiliate Marketers Get Paid?
A quick way to earn money is through affiliate marketing because it’s not your product, you only have to recommend it to customers and when they buy you will get a commission. The amount of commission and rules depend upon the type of affiliate program that you choose. Few ways in which you may get paid are as follows:
- The commission per sale:
It is a standard affiliate structure. In this type of program, you get a commission per sale of the product.
- Payment for lead:
It is a program in which the affiliate persuades the customer to visit the website of the company and perform desired actions i.e. filling a form, subscribing to a newsletter etc.
- Commission for every click:
It is a small task to redirect the customer from your platform to the seller’s website. You get the commission when a customer clicks on the link on your platform.
Affiliate Marketing Channels
The most important decision for affiliate marketers is the s
election of a marketing channel. There are many options available for affiliates to advertise the products. To engage the audience and convince them to buy any item, following channels are used by affiliates:
- Social Media Influencers
The Social media influencer holds the power to influence their followers and make them decide to buy something from links he or she provides. They are in a great position to benefit from affiliate marketing. It is easier to direct consumers to the seller’s products through their social media post by interacting with their followers.
- Bloggers
By writing a review of any product and other services available with the seller, a blogger can easily attract traffic on a seller’s page. The brand can be promoted by a blogger through his comprehensive and attractive reviews. Subsequently at the end of the day, the blogger will get his share for helping to improve the sales for a seller.
- Email Lists
Email marketing is also a reliable source of affiliate marketing income. In this method, affiliates create email lists to which they send emails containing the link of the seller’s products. Once customers read the mail and buy the product, the required commission is earned by the marketer. Sending a newsletter in an email is also a good way of affiliate marketing. However, some users may get annoyed by unnecessary emails, therefore this advertising method should not be boring at all.
Related: What is Email Marketing ?
How can You Become an Affiliate Marketer?
You can become an affiliate marketer by following any of the method described below:
- Create a blog:
Creating a blog is a great idea to promote any product because it is a cheap and easy way to start affiliate marketing but selecting a niche of the blog is a critical step, it decides the growth of your blog. At the end, you have to decide whether to start your blog in a large competitive niche with the potential of earning more money or instead start in a smaller niche with possibly earning less money.
- Make videos:
Creating a YouTube channel or Facebook page is also an easy way to start affiliate marketing. You can make videos on both platforms and recommend the products.
- Podcast:
Create a podcast and promote products for the company that hired you and earn a commission without doing a lot of work.
- Email list:
Create a mini-website and make an email list. You can use this list to promote products for the seller and decide on a commission.
Final Words
A good affiliate marketer can earn a good income by working from his comfort zone without producing any product or service of his own. But remember, it takes time to earn from affiliate marketing. Don’t expect to earn $1000 from the first month of work. Just focus and work hard on your skills of writing and/or influencing people. Attract customers using your skills and get a commission of your work.
If you are interested in starting an Online Business, like Affiliate Marketing, click here to start right away!
Related: Why Affiliate Marketing is the best business model for beginners.
