A lot of people out there have the belief that passive income is a crazy dream. What if I told you that you can make this belief a reality?
You probably believe that this cannot possibly be true. That there is a catch somewhere along the lines, etc.
Let me tell ya, there is no catch! Affiliate marketing is one of the most powerful ways to generate a passive income on the internet.
What exactly is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a type of business model in which companies pay you or a company a commission in order to promote their products.
In simple terms, you become a representative of the company. You help the company make a sale and the company rewards you for it.
This type of marketing gives one the freedom to promote and sell products from many different companies in contrast to a typical salesperson.
So, here the sky’s the limit as to how much you can make. Think about it this way, the more you sell, the more you are gonna earn. Sounds easy, right?
Steps to become an affiliate marketer.
1.Finding your Niche
If you would like to see your efforts pay off, my advice is to first find out which affiliate products are you interested in selling, and let’s be clear about it, it is not easy, and the simple answer to why, it’s competition. According to STATISTA, the number of bloggers in the US alone, from 2014 to 2020 increased to 31.7 million users, I bet you can imagine what the statistics show for world wide.
So, finding out who you are going to target and niche down your focus on, it is a crucial step and this is because by narrowing down to a topic and focusing on a specific category, you can attract a more focused audience.
How do I find out which niche to focus on? You can start by asking yourself these simple questions.
- How many people search for my chosen niche?
A simple cheat here is using Google Trends, and YouTube for learning how to use it.
- Are there any affiliate marketing programs that work within my niche of choice?
- How likely is it for my niche to stay on demand within the next six months?
- How passionate am I about my niche?
I have the belief that if you are passionate and an expert on a topic, the easier it will become for you to get more people excited about your product.
- Selecting a Platform.
There are literally dozens of various platforms to chose from and to start your journey with.
However, you will quickly find out that the most popular among other affiliate marketers are:
- Websites, like blogs and market places.
- Running paid ads.
2. Find and join an affiliate program.
There are multiple platforms and programs that offer affiliate marketing as marketing strategics. These are simple to categorize:
- Low-paying with mass traffic. A simple example for this one would be Amazon Affiliates.
- High-paying with limited prospects. Like Heropost, who’s currently running a lifetime deal, and happens to also offer an affiliate marketing program.
- Mass payout and mass traffic. These are more advanced programs, and is usually intended to marketers with big budgets. Very good examples here would be credit card companies, insurance companies. Keep in mind that these are also seasonal.
3.Create content and generate traffic.
The fourth step would be creating the content where you will store your links. Make sure to make all your content as smooth as possible, so it does not look like you forced your links into your posts.
For example.
Here.
You want to make sure to place your links where they’re likely to receive maximum exposure.
4.Generating traffic
Have you heard of SEO before, well this process will be your biggest friend. If you would like to learn more about SEO and how to implement it, check out this video.
And you may wonder, how will SEO help me? Simple, by targeting certain keywords that people are searching for and creating content around it.
5. Paid Traffic
Paid advertising has the great benefit that once you start paying, traffic follows.
Many platforms offer paid traffic services including search engines, social media platforms, and media networks. One of the most common forms of paid traffic is Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising which utilizes Google Ads.
Another great option is to set up Facebook Ads to reach your audience. All you need to do that is a Facebook profile, which you may already have. If not, it’s easy to set one up. This is a great tutorial on how to set it up.
6. Build an email list
Email marketing is considered to be the highly effective digital marketing strategy of sending email to prospect customers.
This is because it allows you to reach your audience as well as to keep the coming back for more if used appropriately.
Building a list should be a lot easier now, just keep in mind that you will need to allure your audience into providing their addresses. You can easily accomplish the above by providing them with something of value.
For instance, you can use discounts, and a simple pop-up subscription form from any email marketing provider.
Conclusion
As you can see the idea of passive income does not sound so crazy now, however, I still wouldn’t quick my 9-5 job, if I were you. A simple word of advice from end is to be patient.
Take your time for gathering all things together, research for the best affiliate marketing programs out there, spend some time watching videos if anything is not as clear and start. Remember there is no Friday, without a Monday.
Thank you for reading!