Many entrepreneurs, after a certain point, want to expand their business and look for an alternate source to generate another income stream. Affiliate marketing is one such alternative that’s common and widely used. This model allows them to provide more value to their clients and customers, as well as increase growth and brand awareness, while increasing their revenue.
If you’re one such business owner looking to expand your business with affiliate marketing and its advantages, here’s an overview of how to get started.
What Is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate Marketing is an online sales technique used by owners, vendors, retailers, and advertisers of a product or products, to increase their sales. They give the rights to affiliate partners/publishers to promote their products, and the affiliate partner earns a commission each time a buyer makes a purchase, via a unique link associated with the product.
Done strategically, this performance-based opportunity can be an essential part of your business, in that it provides you with another income source without having to create your own products.
Performance-based Marketing And How It Works
To get started, you must be affiliated with an affiliate marketing program. At its basic core, you:
- Join an affiliate program
- Select an offer or offers
- Get a unique affiliate link for each offer
- Share link(s) on your website, blog posts, social media platforms, emails, YouTube channel, podcasts, etc., and you could also take-out ads and send traffic to a specific page.
- Get paid – commission
Commission rates vary, depending on the vendor and the offer. Some offers can be as low as one percent, all the way to one hundred percent. For the latter, you may wonder why the product owner would want to pay an affiliate one hundred percent. The reason is he will make money from back-end sales. And some vendors give a flat rate per sale, rather than a percentage.
Is Affiliate Marketing Worth The Effort?
You most certainly can make money with affiliate marketing. However, like all businesses it takes knowledge, a plan, strategy, tactics and, of course, execution to get the product/service in front of your audience, or an interested audience. Nevertheless, the basic skills required to use this model is rather simple.
After you’ve been accepted into a program, select the product/service link, and share it by using one or more of the methods noted above. For instance, you could write a review, include the affiliate link within the body of the text, place it on your blog and encourage people (drive traffic) to the post with a call to action (CTA). If you have a YouTube channel and or podcast, do the same.
You can also repurpose the review by converting it to text and place it on your blog. Or it could simply be a link to a masterclass, workshop, challenge, boot camp or virtual event.
If you’re promoting an evergreen product/service, be sure to add it to your editorial/content calendar. This is so you can consistently promote by staggering it over time.
Success With Affiliate Marketing
Adding affiliate products to your existing business can undoubtedly be profitable. The most exciting part being you don’t have to create the product or service. It’s already done for you. Further, many owners provide marketing creatives and emails that you need only tweak and include your affiliate link.
The scope of success in affiliate marketing alone is worth the effort. With the correct knowledge, flexibility, and preparedness, it’s a model worth considering.
A word to the wise, select products that not only compliment what you already sell, meaning they’re relevant to your established audience, but suits your personality. It’ll be a lot easier to promote them with authenticity.
© Cherry-Ann Carew
Cherry-Ann Carew is an Online Business Coach, who supports emerging business owners simplify their start-up journey and helps existing businesses scale to the next level, so that they can earn uncapped income and live life on their terms.
You have delivered an important key message: “promote with authenticity”.
I understand that bloggers would love to make money. Some blogs, however, lack content, plus they’re crawling from ads, product “recommendations” and not so subtle “if you don’t order right now, you’re missing out, and so will I”. Not cool.
Happy Weekend!
No, not cool. I, too find them off putting. No interest in their customers. Happy weekend to you, too:)
Thanks for the great information. I am an affiliate with Amazon and without trying I earn enough to pay for my blog.
That’s fantastic, Martha:)