If you are an influencer, YouTuber, blogger, website owner or entrepreneur then you might already be aware of the power of affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is essentially a marketing tool that enables businesses to market products directly to their consumers via their affiliates. By promoting the products and services of a company, the affiliate marketer can earn commission from each sale you make. For affiliates, it is easier than ever before to join an affiliate program and start reaping the rewards.
In its simplest form, affiliate marketing is essentially you helping the company to generate sales income, and in return, you get a cut of the profits.
Where to start with affiliate marketing
As an affiliate marketer, you will position yourself as the connector between the products and services sold by the brand and the consumer. If you have an audience or are in the process of building an audience (and it doesn’t need to be a huge audience) on Instagram, YouTube, Tik Tok or your own podcast or website, you are already in a position to begin affiliate marketing.
As consumers become more savvy and choosy about spending their money, a recommendation from someone they already know and trust can generate sales for the company and commission for the affiliate.
Once you have a platform then follow these easy steps:
- Decide on a niche
- Build content around your niche
- Find affiliate programs relating to your niche or products you want to link to
- Use your affiliate links on your site
- Find ways to drive traffic to your links (ie through content, product reviews, ads, blog posts, social media advertising)
- Get people to click on your links
- Convert the clicks into sales
Kickstart your affiliate marketing campaign by downloading this free affiliate marketing e-guide that will provide you with all the essential information and tips you need to get started on your affiliate marketing journey.
Monetise your platform
The starting point for an effective affiliate marketing campaign is to ensure that you build up a good relationship with your audience. If you want them to trust your recommendations then you will need to:
- Understand the needs of your audience
- Recommend products that you think will be useful and relevant to your audience
- Don’t hard sell or force products onto your audience
Once you have established trust with your audience and know their specific pleasure and pain points, choose the right products and services that align with your overall online presence and share the affiliate links. As long as you start with your audience’s needs and then move on to the right products, your affiliate marketing campaign should do well.
The profitability of affiliate marketing
In order to understand the benefits of affiliate marketing and why it is such a successful way to generate passive income we have compiled the list below:
- Generate passive income: because it requires such little time and management, affiliate marketing is considered a great passive income stream, generating income even as you sleep!
- Low Cost: affiliate marketing does not require you to invest or spend any money to start.
- Time: once you decide on your product and share the affiliate link on your platform there is very little more for you to do.
- Easy: there are virtually no barriers to becoming an affiliate, you don’t need capital, experience, or investment. All you need is an an internet connection and a device.
- Low Risk: as affiliates, you are not expected to invest time and money into the campaign, so if it doesn’t work out you have nothing to lose.
- Lucrative: the affiliate marketing industry is worth billions and there is something for everyone.
- Diverse: the range of products to choose from and affiliate programs to be part of is huge. There really is something for everyone.
- Flexible and convenient: you would have to look far and wide to find another way of generating income online with very little effort and ongoing work. With affiliate marketing, you can work when you want, where you want, and how you want.
Why companies want you as an affiliate
Companies want you as an affiliate as they want to:
- Increase brand awareness
- Advertise directly to their target audiences
- Tap into your influencing powers
- Align themselves with the niches you have created content in
- It’s a cheap and easy marketing tool
- The company only has to pay for performance and sales
- It’s low risk and cheap
- Creates important partnerships
- Helps to scale business
One of the best parts of being an affiliate marketer is that you don’t need to invest any money to start. In addition to this you won’t need to:
- Spend time on sourcing products
- Buy any inventory
- Track stock levels
- Store products
- Ship products
The business will do all the hard work so you don’t have to. All you have to do is share the link with your audience and send traffic to the company website.
If you are interested in kickstarting your Affiliate marketing career (whether that be an affiliate or a social media influencer) then start by downloading this free Affiliate Marketing eGuide; it contains everything you need to get started on this journey. This gives you all the essential information on how to monetise your channels successfully, the tips and tricks on what works best and useful insights in relation to the Affiliate industry.
If you want a smart passive income stream then affiliate marketing is the way to go.
