Affiliate Marketing has been quite a buzz for the last couple of years taking the cash flow and flexibility it brings. It is an incredible way of driving sales and generating online revenue. It is equally helpful for both brands and affiliate marketers.
Do you despise waking up every morning to commute to your job feeling half-asleep and stare at your screen waiting for the work to get over? What if you could set up a passive income source that allows you to make money even when you are fast asleep? Sounds too good to be true? Well, a lot of people have successfully harnessed the potential of artificial marketing for their advantage.
In fact, 79% of marketers leverage affiliate marketing platforms to retain existing customers. And it is an imperative skill to possess as per 40% of online marketers. Here we explain how affiliate marketing works and the best tips for you to get started.
What is Affiliate Marketing and How Does it Work?
As per the affiliate marketing definition, the affiliate gets a commission every time they market a person’s or company’s products. The affiliate can promote the product that they like to earn a profit every time a sale is made. These sales are effectively tracked through the affiliate links from the website. The merchant gives a unique link so that they can track who enabled the sale. When this link is clicked then a file (called a cookie) is stored on their device.
The cookie essentially helps the merchant in attributing the purchase to the right person. It also comes with an expiration date which helps you get the payment even if the buyer delays their purchase.
Let’s take an example. Your visitor sees your post about the best summer outfits. They click on an affiliate link that has cotton outfits from the summer collection leading them to a product on Amazon. Now the customer adds the product to their cart but can’t finish the transaction because they have to attend a meeting. They reach their home and resume the shopping and they also add a pair of shoes for their upcoming trek.
Here’s the best part. Since they clicked on your affiliate links and a cookie is now stored on their device. You will get profit from both the summer outfit and also the trekking shoes even if you never promoted the shoes. This is because Amazon has a 24-hour cookie duration. So even if you haven’t promoted the other purchases, you will get the commission for them. Isn’t that great? So how do you get started with affiliate marketing? Let us explore.
How to get started with Affiliate Marketing?
Choose the right Platform
Once you become an affiliate, you can do affiliate marketing on almost every platform. Even for Instagram.
Image Source : Affiliate Royale
However, among all the options that you have, it is relatively easy to build an audience through YouTube or a blog for making sales through affiliate marketing. Starting a blog is very easy and there are a lot of resources available online. Moreover, it will only cost you a few dollars per month. Another popular choice is YouTube which is a free platform for uploading content.
Note that if you are doing affiliate marketing you need to declare it on your blog as well as YouTube channel. Federal Trade Commissions (FTC) requires you to tell your audience that you receive income from endorsements. Among the two platforms, you are likely to get more clicks via a blog! So let’s check how you can earn from affiliate marketing on a blog.
Pick the right niche
Blogging has been quite a famous platform and if you are starting today, you already have a lot of competition! In fact, according to stats, the number of bloggers in the U.S is estimated to reach 31.7 million by the year 2020. To make your mark and improve your chances of succeeding, you should niche it down!
Choose a topic that is specific. For instance, talking about Food can be generic because it has an umbrella of topics to cover. But blogging about “Vegan food options and tips” can be a specific thing people are looking for. It also helps you rank higher in the search engine. This is because of its people who type in specific search keywords who are most likely to engage and take action. If you try to sell products via affiliate marketing to them, they will most probably go for it.
While creating your content, make sure that you include long-tail keywords that are specific and backed with purchase intent. Make sure that you are genuinely interested in the topic you are blogging about. Because consistency is crucial in blogging and if you don’t have an interest then you can feel like giving up easily. You don’t really have to be an expert on the topic and you can just document what you are learning. If you wish to opt for a profitable niche by blogging on it then hire writers who have experience in that niche. This will help you create captivating content and also affiliate sales.
Choose affiliate products which you can promote
If you have done enough research while choosing a niche then choosing the affiliate products will be easy. One of the most sought after affiliate programs is the Amazon Affiliate Program. It is free for bloggers and website owners and they can advertise products from Amazon.com by creating links. You can earn referral fees each time a customer clicks the link buys a product from Amazon.
In general, you should go for products that align with your website and those that you truly believe in. Another way of selecting your affiliate product is by being a part of an affiliate network. This is nothing but a business that maps merchants with affiliate marketers so that both parties can earn money. It comes handy to choose products that can be promoted on your site. That being said, there are different types of affiliate programs that you can choose from.
Types of Affiliate Marketing Programs
A high paying, low volume affiliate program
These are affiliate programs that are niche-focused and also give out high pay. For instance, ConvertKit has an affiliate program that pays close to $700 per month if you manage to send 80 customers to their website. However, being a CRM software company, their product is highly targeted. As a beginner in affiliate marketing, you can find it challenging to compete with marketers who already have experience in the domain. In affiliate marketing for beginners, it wouldn’t be preferable to go for this option.
A low paying, high volume affiliate program
As the name suggests, these programs have products that have lesser pay for each product but a massive appeal. For instance, think of PS4 games. Lot of people would want to buy a PS4 which costs around $50 and the commissions for this would be around $2. There are programs that help you make money like Amazon’s affiliate program. It can help you earn 10% commissions on any type of product that Amazon sells. Moreover, as mentioned before, you will get a commission on the entire purchase apart from just the product you recommended. If you have a lot of traffic coming on your website then this type of affiliate marketing is ideal for you.
High volume affiliate programs that pay well
Now, these are affiliate marketing programs with a massive appeal and high commissions. For instance, credit cards! A lot of people use credit cards and once they buy one they mostly stick to it for years to come. However, since it is a lucrative option, a lot of marketers are aiming for it. Which again means a lot of competition!
Create awesome content
The success of your blog or YouTube channel drills down to the quality of your content. What you put out there needs to be engaging enough so that the visitors give it a read. Moreover, it becomes easy to earn through affiliate marketing if you are providing product reviews also. But while doing so make sure that you fit in the affiliate links naturally. Moreover, you should also write genuine reviews that are not just for the sake of making money from affiliate marketing. For instance, you can write in-depth reviews of a product by buying it and adding its images. This adds credibility to your content and aids in convincing the visitor to purchase the product. It’s a win-win as the reader finds great value in your blog and you get to earn a commission every time they are influenced to make a purchase.
Take care of the ranking
Positioning your website such that it attracts traffic is your first step in making the most of affiliate marketing. Enrich your content with keywords that match the user intent. A reliable keyword tool such as KeywordCountry is your best bet at ranking on social media. It is an AI-powered tool that mimics search engines like Google. You get access to profitable keywords from over 60,000 industries along with search volume, cost per click, and much more. Plan your content well and include top keywords in it to get more traffic.
Final Take
Affiliate Marketing is a great way of promoting products and earning commissions. It could be done on platforms like websites, blogs, social media channels, and YouTube. With the aforementioned tips, you can get started with affiliate marketing to reap its benefits in the long run. Choose the products that you genuinely believe in to keep your platform credible.
Lastly, follow SEO best practices to make sure that your target audience can find your valuable content.
Do you wish your website to rank well so that you can earn more from affiliate marketing? Switch to KeywordCountry to attract potential leads and rank higher!