Make Money With Affiliate Marketing
Make Money With Affiliate Marketing: Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular ways to make money online with what you have easily.
What is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a process where publishers earn a commission by promoting a product or service made by another retailer or advertiser. The affiliate partner has rewarded a payout for providing a specific result to the retailer or advertiser.
Typically, the result is a sale. But some programs can reward you for leads, the free-trial user clicks to a website, or getting downloads of an app. Affiliate programs are usually free to join, so you don’t have to worry about high startup costs. Done well, this performance-based opportunity can go from side hustle to a profitable online business idea by netting you a healthy income.
Throughout the years, its popularity has gone up and down, but it continues to be a stable way to earn through the internet. The best part about affiliate marketing is that you choose from a vast range of companies to partner with, including Shopify, Amazon, Uber, and FabFitFun.
Affiliate marketing allows you to earn a living by promoting other brands. If you’re a savvy marketer, you can earn a commission from sales by promoting retail products, software, apps, and more. While earning a commission may seem small, keep in mind that you can be an affiliate for several brands and include several affiliate links on a single blog post.
If you really want to make money online doing affiliate marketing, your best bet is to focus on content marketing. By building out a blog with several pages of high-quality content, you create an asset you can call your own. Strategically place affiliate links in your blog posts to drive traffic to your affiliate partner’s website.
Smart entrepreneurs running a thriving business know there’s always more they can do to make that business grow. One way of taking things to the next level is by finding an alternate stream of income.
How does affiliate marketing work?
Affiliate marketing involves referring to a product or service by sharing it on a blog, social media platform, podcast, or website. The affiliate earns a commission each time someone makes a purchase through the unique link associated with their recommendation.
Steps:
– You show an ad or a link for Store Z on your website, blog, or social network.
– A customer clicks your unique link.
– The customer makes a purchase in Store Z.
– The affiliate network records the transaction.
– The purchase is confirmed by Store Z.
– You get paid a monetary commission.
Commission rates vary depending on the company and the offer. On the low end, you’ll earn about 5% of the sale but, with some arrangements, you can earn as much as 50%, usually when promoting a class or event. There are also affiliate marketing programs that provide a flat rate per sale instead of a percentage.
Types of affiliate marketing
It wasn’t until 2009 that renowned affiliate marketer Pat Flynn broke down the different types of affiliate marketers into three groups. Understanding these types of affiliate marketing can show you the different ways people make money online in this space, regardless of your moral compass.
1. Unattached
The first type of affiliate marketing is referred to as “unattached,” or when you have no authority in the niche of the product you’re advertising. There is no connection between you and the customer. Often you are running pay-per-click advertising campaigns with your affiliate link and hoping people will click it, buy the product, and earn a commission.
2. Related
Related affiliate marketing is where you promote products and services you don’t use, but that are related to your niche. Affiliates in this case have an audience, whether it’s through blogging, YouTube, TikTok, or another channel. They have influence, which makes them a trusted source for recommending products, even if they’ve never used them before.
The problem with related affiliate marketing is, do you want to promote something you’ve never tried before? It could be the worst product or service ever and you wouldn’t even know. It only takes one bad recommendation to lose the trust of your audience. If you don’t have trust and transparency, it’ll be hard to build a sustainable affiliate marketing business.
3. Involved
Involved affiliate marketing refers to only recommending products and services you’ve used and truly believe in. In this type of marketing, you use your influence to promote products and services that followers may actually need, instead of paying to get clicks on a banner ad. It takes more time to build this type of credibility with an audience, but it’s necessary to build a sustainable business.
How do affiliate marketers make money?
Affiliate marketing income spans a large spectrum. There are some marketers that’ll make a few hundred dollars per month and others that make six figures a year. The larger your following, the more money you can make.
Compensation software company Payscale reports that the average annual salary of an affiliate marketer is $52,130, based on over 7,000 salary profiles, with the highest tier making an annual salary of $72,000. When you choose an affiliate program to promote, you’ll notice there are different payment models. Companies also call it a price model, payout model, conversion type, or another variation.
If you’re promoting a software product, the action could be free trial signup. For marketers that promote physical products, the goal will likely be a purchase.
Many programs run with last-click attribution, which means the affiliate who receives the last click before a purchase gets 100% credit. However, this is changing, as programs improve attribution models and reporting. For example, you could share equal credit for a sale if there were multiple affiliates in a buyer’s conversion funnel.
Five common ways affiliates get paid include:
1. Pay per sale, where you earn a commission for each sale you make. It’s a common payout model for eCommerce offers.
Pay per action, which earns you a commission for a specific action. Many affiliate programs use this payout model because it’s broad and can be applied to different offers: newsletter signup, a click, contact request, form submission, etc.
2. Pay per install, where you are paid for every install generated from your website traffic. The goal of your content would be to promote mobile apps and software so that people download or install them.
3. Pay per lead, which pays you every time someone signs up for something. It’s a popular payout method because companies use it for sweepstakes, lead generation, and other types of offers. Cost per lead offers is common for beginners because it’s easier to generate leads than to sell products to an audience.
4. Pay per click is a rare payout system where you earn a commission on every click on your affiliate link. Pay-per-click programs are used by big merchants with the goal to build brand awareness. Customers don’t need to sign up or buy anything, just to visit the merchant’s website.
How much you make depends on your affiliate niche. For example, our research* found that the highest average commission rate ($70.99) was for business-related programs. While books and media and clothing categories earned just over $6 per commission. The maximum average commission we found was around $289.06 per sale.
How to start affiliate marketing in 4 steps
Here is how to start affiliate marketing:
– Pick your platform and method
– Decide your niche and audience
– Find your products
– Choose your first affiliate program
Just like running your own small business, becoming a successful affiliate takes dedication and discipline. Use the following step-by-step guide to start your affiliate marketing business. Another option is to visit the websites of the products and services you use and like to see if they have an affiliate program. Large companies often have programs they promote on their sites, such as Amazon Associates or the Shopify Affiliate Program.
You also can take a more direct approach. Reach out to the owner of a great product you come across and see if they offer an affiliate marketing program. If they don’t, they might be happy to set up an arrangement with you, such as offering you a special coupon code to share with your followers.
Affiliate marketing program examples
1. Shopify
2. Amazon
3. Wirecutter
4. Healthish
5. BuzzFeed
6. Urikar
Earning money with affiliate marketing programs can be a rewarding way to add a new revenue stream without taking on too much risk. All it will cost you is your time. By investing the hours upfront, you can continue to reap the rewards.
Click here to apply to the Shopify Affiliate Program.