WHAT IS AFFILIATE MARKETING?
Affiliate marketing is an advertising model in which a company compensates third-party publishers to generate traffic or leads to the company’s products and services. The third-party publishers are affiliates, and the commission fee incentivizes them to find ways to promote the company.
Affiliate marketing is earning a commission when someone buys from the links on your blog when you promote other people’s products.
Companies that offer services like entertainment, cruises, travel, sales, and much more, and as the use of the internet increases, more people are doing business online.
So you earn money by promoting a company’s products through a link on your blog.
You use this link on your blog to explain the product and recommend it to your audience.
When your readers click on the link, it takes them to the website of the company that’s selling the product giving, where they can purchase the product.
You earn a commission when a product is purchased through the link from your blog. And that’s the whole cycle of affiliate marketing.
Benefits of Affiliate Marketing
- There are many benefits of affiliate marketing;
- there is no sizeable monetary investment (you can start for free),
- you don’t have to create any products,
- you don’t need an inventory,
- you don’t have to deal with customer service,
- and all the other headaches that come with having a brick-and-mortar business.
All you have to do is promote and recommend the products you love, as you can pick and choose what you want to promote.
This makes affiliate marketing a passive income stream because when you create a post about the product, you can earn over and over again on that one post as many people will read your post.
The most posts you have, the more chances you get ranked higher in the search engines, the more traffic you’ll get, and the more commissions you can make from your blog.
AFFILIATE MARKETING TERMS DEFINED
Terms used in affiliate marketing:
- Affiliate Link – This link companies provide you to promote their products; this affiliate link tracks the users going from your website to their website so your commissions can be traced back to you.
- Affiliate Products – You can promote and earn a commission on these products.
- Affiliate Programs – When looking for affiliate products, you first want to know if a company even has an affiliate program. Companies create affiliate programs if they wish others to promote their products and, in return, pay them a commission or fee for their referral.
- Affiliate Networks – Some websites bring together website publishers and advertisers (companies that offer affiliate programs) in one place. The network runs the affiliate program for the companies in the network. Publishers (blog authors) visit these networks to find many companies offering affiliate products.
- Commissions – The money you earn when someone clicks on your affiliate link, and you make either a flat fee or a percentage of the sale. This is pre-determined and should be known before joining any affiliate programs.
WHERE TO FIND AFFILIATE MARKETING PROGRAMS
Affiliate Networks:
To start, you can find affiliate marketing programs at affiliate networks such as CJ Affiliate by Conversant (formerly known as Commission Junction), LinkShare, Clickbank, ShareASale, Amazon Associates, and eBay.
You apply to these networks, and they all have different requirements; sometimes, you can get in immediately, but it can take a little while.
For others like CJ Affiliate by Conversant, you can set up your account pretty quickly; after you’ve found the companies or products you want to promote, you must apply to the network’s companies.
Those companies can then approve your right away or take some time to review your website and approve/disapprove as they determine.
Once approved, you can get the affiliate links to start promoting.
For Amazon Associates, your application won’t even get reviewed until you have made your first three commissions, but that also means they can disapprove you, and you will not earn that first commission.
However, once Amazon approves you, you don’t need to apply further to promote Nike products, Disney products, or anything else they carry.
Private Affiliate Programs:
Some companies offer affiliate programs like HostGator, Fiverr, Nike, Apple, and Disney.
To find out who has affiliate programs for the product you want, go on Google and search “product name + affiliate program,” and you should be able to find the companies that offer them.
Best Type of Affiliate Programs:
There are Different affiliate programs, and knowing the types help you to determine which program you want to join.
HOW TO CREATE CONTENT THAT CONVERTS
The best way to promote your affiliate products is not by selling to your audience but by recommending the products.
You need to earn their trust, and you do that by creating content that is helpful to them.
If your blog’s content is geared toward the elderly, then you should be writing about things that are helpful to them.
A prevalent ailment among the elderly is arthritis, so your blog should be about tips and products that can help them manage their discomfort.
And in other blogs, you can recommend where they can buy the best product for their ailment; the reader will click on your affiliate link and take them to the site that sells the products and accepts them.
This is the best way to convert your readers into buyers!
Here’s a walkthrough of the process again here:
- Find a problem your audience may have;
- Show them how to solve this problem;
- Recommend the products that will help them solve this problem;
- A reader clicks on your affiliate link and buys it on the recommended site you linked them to; and
- You make a commission!
Your audience will always want to know how a product will benefit them and improve their lives if they have that product, so this is what you need to show them.
Where To Find The Best Training Platform
There is much more to learn about affiliate marketing, but you need proper training for a more in-depth understanding of all required to succeed.
There is an affiliate marketing training platform that is the best. This platform is Wealthy Affiliate; they are my #1 recommendation in getting trained on how to build an affiliate marketing business.
Wealthy Affiliate appealed to me because they offered a free membership that never expires, and they did not ask me for my name and email address.
I took the chance, figuring it would not cost me anything, and there was no chance of anyone crediting my credit card because my financial information was optional.
At Wealthy Affiliate, you are given step-by-step instructions on building your website.
About Wealthy Affiliate
Wealthy Affiliate was founded in 2005; we have a membership of over a 1.4million from approximately 193 countries.
The Wealthy Affiliate platform is the home of up-to-date, state-of-the-art, ultra-powerful, and secure hosting and is mobile-ready.
This company is for everyone. The Wealthy Affiliate platform is designed for all affiliate marketers.
Wealthy Affiliate is made for you whether you are just getting started, have some experience, or are a very successful affiliate marketer!
Membership Levels
There are two levels of membership at Wealthy Affiliate: free membership and premium membership. I have posted what is offered at each level:-
You may be wondering if you can be successful with a free membership; well, I needed everything for me; this was my first experience with an online business, and everything was new to me.
I became a free member and stayed a free member for 2. months; then, I upgraded to premium every month and went yearly.
Final thoughts
I am not claiming that affiliate marketing is effortless; what I am saying is with work effort and dedication,
Online/affiliating marketing can be an excellent way to earn money; this depends on your input; it can be extra money or a livable income with the potential to become a passive source of income.
With Wealthy Affiliate, you have a company that teaches today’s online marketing and is genuinely helping people achieve success in business and life.
You will also have a very active community eager to help you achieve your goals.
Join Wealthy Affiliate Free
Remember, you join for free and have no expiration date with free membership; you can do what I did, become a free member, try out the information and tools provided, find your niche, build your website, and post your article.
Free Membership
With a free membership, you have the first 5—lessons of the online entrepreneur certification that are the foundation of affiliate marketing free of cost.
If you decide it is not for you during your trial, you will have lost nothing; in becoming a member of Wealthy Affiliate, there is no commitment to the company.
Any commitment is to yourself to apply what is taught, and success will be yours.
You can become a free member by clicking on any of the links in this post, and I will contact you to answer your questions; if any, I will be your mentor.
You will never know if affiliate marketing is for you unless you try (JOIN FOR FREE HERE)
Thank you for reading my post; it is really appreciated; please visit again, and should you have a question or comment, please leave it in the space provided at the bottom of this post, and I will respond ASAP and do like and share this post; thanks.
NOTE: This post includes affiliate links, which, if clicked on and a product purchased, I get a small commission (with no increase in cost to you).