Are
you interested in becoming an affiliate marketer? Or have you been considering
working with affiliates, and you’re curious about how affiliate marketing
works?
If
you answered yes to either of those questions, and you have
limited knowledge about how affiliate marketing works, then you’re in the right
place. The concept isn’t hard to grasp. And by the end of this blog post, you
should have a solid understanding. So let’s get going!
What Is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate
marketing is form of internet marketing where companies (sometimes referred to
as advertisers or merchants) pay people (affiliates) based on their performance
promoting an offer via an affiliate link.
In
a nutshell, if you’re an affiliate (also referred to as a publisher), you use
your skills as a marketer to refer your audience to a product. When someone in
your audience decides to buy a product or take an action based on your
recommendation, you get a commission or kickback.
Who Are The Affiliates?
An
affiliate can be an individual or a company. Most of the time, affiliates are
bloggers or other content makers in industries that are the same or closely
related to that of the company whose products they’re promoting.
Affiliates
are people who help promote a product or service by writing posts, making
videos, and conducting other marketing efforts. When an affiliate’s visitor
makes a purchase or submits a lead form on the affiliate company’s website, the
affiliate gets paid.
How
much and for what (lead or purchase) the affiliate gets paid depends on the
affiliate program terms.
Affiliates
can also promote affiliate companies by publishing things like banner ads and
text links. Whenever a lead is generated, the publisher gets paid a commission,
which is often a percentage of the amount sold. It can also be another amount
agreed upon by the advertiser and publisher.
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How to Start Affiliate marketing for beginners:
You
can get started with Affiliate marketing in many ways.
Here
are a few that you can pick from:
- Start
a blog in a targeted niche and use it to promote a product. This is
by far the cheapest and easiest way to start an affiliate marketing business.
For example: Start a blog about Women shoes, Work from home products, and
so on.
- Buy
traffic from PPC sites like Google, Facebook, Quora and drive traffic to
affiliate products or services. This is called PPC marketing, and those
who have taken a basic course of digital marketing, could understand it
better. For rest, give it a little time and you will understand this.
- Create
a YouTube channel and promote products.
- Create
an email list by creating a mini-website.
- Start a Podcast and recommend products.
This
is just a rough highlight, as we move ahead you will
understand everything in greater depth and length to create your own affiliate
marketing system.
Here are steps to get started with affiliate marketing via your blog:
- Start
a blog
- Select
a profitable industry and then pick a niche for your blog
- Choose
the affiliate products that you can promote
- Create
content around those products
- Drive
traffic to your website/affiliate post
- Use email-marketing
services to capture email of visitors
- Create
email-sequence to automate the funnel
- Focus
on driving more traffic and repeating the process.
The
reason blogging is one of the most effective ways to get started with affiliate
marketing is because it requires minimum investment and you can learn
everything around it in no time. From here on, what really matters it how much
dedication, time and smart work you put in to grow your affiliate business.
Cost To Join An Affiliate Program
There
is no charge to join an affiliate program; however, some promotion strategies
will incur a cost if you choose to use them. For example, while your blog won’t
cost you anything but your time, pay-per-click marketing, email campaigns, and
social media ads will require an investment.
Qualifications To Be An Affiliate Marketer
The
truth is anyone can become an affiliate marketer, and there are no standard
qualifications.
However,
knowing how to write a blog post, string a great review together,
or do video are all a big plus because they mean you don’t have to
pay for content in the beginning. Also, any existing marketing knowledge you
have will be a great advantage to you.
The Best Affiliate Marketing Networks for Beginners
1. Amazon Associates
Amazon is the affiliate network of choice for
many beginners.
Now, Amazon Associates isn’t perfect – but I’ll go
into that in another article. However, this program is great for someone
just starting out.
Amazon is one of the largest and most trusted
e-commerce services in the world. If you want to link to any products for sale,
Amazon should be your go-to.
If you already have an Amazon account – and who
doesn’t? — You’re already halfway there. Ideally, if you have an incorporated
business, you should sign up using your company’s information.
2. Commission Junction (CJ)
Commission
Junction is
perhaps the second-oldest affiliate program. Most folks in the industry know
the company as “CJ.” Unlike Amazon, it’s a network rather than an e-commerce
store.
This
means CJ will hook you (the affiliate) up with merchants and manage most of the
relationship for you.
If
you’re a new affiliate marketer, this can be a godsend since you won’t need to
work with a merchant directly. CJ and the other networks listed below can do
all of this for you.
At
the time of writing, more than 1,500 merchants use CJ’s service. These
merchants are in a wide variety of niches, so it’s highly recommended you join
this network.
CJ’s
signup process isn’t particularly difficult. But once in, you’ll need to apply
with specific merchants. The difficulty of the application process varies per
merchant. There are some that will grant you instant approval, others will take
a few days, and a few will leave you in limbo forever with no response.
3. JVZoo
Are
you looking for an affiliate marketing network that gives you access to thousands
of advertisers and programs at one place? Give a try to JVZoo which provides
you all the tools and solutions required to building a profitable business
online.
JVZoo
offers some of the exciting features that most affiliate networks don’t usually
offer such as instant commissions, 100% commission payouts (on few products),
real time tracking of campaigns to know how your products are performing in
real time and so on.
4. ClickBank
If
you are into affiliate marketing world for a while, you’ve probably heard
about ClickBank as it is one of the widely used affiliate
marketing networks where millions of dollars get paid to its affiliate
marketers every single year.
From
entertainment to parenting to self-help to sports and travel, ClickBank offers
you a ton of best affiliate programs that offer you high paying commissions.
Whether you are in a SEO field or real estate, you can literally find a ton of
products to promote as an affiliate using their platform.
5. Warrior Plus
you can join instantly to see what's on offer first. If you like a product and become an affiliate, then apply for it. You might find some products that can help your business and purchase yourself. Or even just to take a look around and check what the top sellers are up to - you will find some pretty good, inspiring sales pages.
Final thoughts
No
affiliate marketing wheels were reinvented here. These are the fundamentals,
and applying them will get you off on the right foot.
Just
don’t expect life-changing income or the freedom to quit your 9–5 overnight.
Affiliate marketing takes time.
Focus
first on making your first affiliate sale. As your site grows, set new goals,
and continue experimenting.
This
is how to build up a site that eventually generates a decent income
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