I am sure we all dream of making money in our sleep. In today’s digitally driven world, this is actually possible and is formally addressed as passive income. Affiliate Marketing is an example of a passive source of income.
Affiliate Marketing
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing, a marketing arrangement where an online retailer pays commission to an external traffic source for sales made through their referral. Simply put, an affiliate makes money by promoting a company’s product through a personalised link.
The Benefits of Affiliate Marketing
Undoubtedly, affiliate marketing is a monetization model that is mutually beneficial. The following benefits apply to both the retailer and the participant:
- Low barriers of entry (no joining fee)
- Affiliate programs are easy to access and often free to join
- Low risk
- No cost to join a program
- No need to invest money
- Easy to execute
- An affiliate can make money without worrying about supporting or fulfilling the offer.
- Easy to scale
- Once an affiliate builds a potential audience they can introduce new products to the current audience and scale the business without any additional cost.
However, despite all the benefits of affiliate marketing, it is important to keep in mind that the mechanism is heavily trust-driven. The quality of the products and services you, as an affiliate, choose to promote will directly impact your success as a marketer.
How to start affiliate marketing?
Here’s how to start your affiliate marketing business:
- Choose a platform
Firstly, you need to choose a digital platform for you to build an audience. This step will differ from person to person. Essentially it comes down to asking yourself the questions:
What platform am I most familiar with?
Which platform am I most comfortable using?
Examples of methods or platforms one can choose to market on include but not limited to:
- Product Review Blog Sites
- These are sites that provide educational content for audiences who want to learn about a niche topic. For instance, “top 10 protein powder for building muscle 2021” or “A Beginners Guide to Affiliate Marketing 2021”
- Social Media Platforms
- These are digital content creators that we know as “influencers.” For instance, a beauty Youtuber promotes a product in her makeup tutorial.
- Courses or Workshops
- These are specifically applied to educators who can integrate affiliate partnerships into their class material or workshop lessons. For example, a makeup workshop can promote a specific brand product to the participants and utilise their affiliate link.
- Choose an audience
After choosing a platform, an affiliate will choose a niche audience to focus on. This, again, should be something you are passionate about and genuinely interested in. Unlike direct sponsorships, you are not paid to post anything; instead, affiliate marketing is a performance-based digital business. Therefore, choosing a niche you have more knowledge in will help you create a more authentic narrative and bring you more potential customers.
- Find your products
Lastly, you need to link up with retailers and find products you want to promote in order to make money as an affiliate marketer. There are a growing number of affiliate marketplaces today. Here are a few examples:
Alternatively, you can also search for brands and products you already enjoy and see if they have an affiliate program. You can even reach out directly to organisations via email to inquire if they offer any affiliate marketing program.
Promoting Your Products
Although affiliate marketing is a passive source of income, a lot of hard work still needs to be put in for it to succeed.
In this case, this brings us to a whole new side of digital marketing– content creation. In essence, a good product review needs to be informative, personal and authentic. As mentioned earlier, building trust with your audience is the key to becoming a successful affiliate marketer. This can be achieved through:
- Conducting your own in-depth research
- Create tutorial and “how-to” type of content
- Use relevant search terms
Conclusion
In sum, affiliate marketing is a great stream of income for people who is creative and enjoys the idea of a performance-based enterprise. Working in tandem with a seller, a determined affiliate marketer can earn a passive income without having to produce their own product or service from the comfort of their own home.
As mentioned in this blog, affiliate marketing may be done through reviews, blogs, social media, and countless other platforms. It is a new frontier in marketing that’s just waiting to be explored. If you use the advice in this post, you’ll be able to become an affiliate marketer today.
So, what are you waiting for?