This is a follow up article for the “How do I Start a Blog and Make Money Online” series that we have been publishing on this blog to help the newbie’s get started with a blog.
Before I start, I would like to make one thing clear:
I
do not believe in easy money and there are no magical tips in this
article that will help you get rich overnight. So if you are after easy
money then this article is not for you.
This article mainly covers the following topics:
- What affiliate marketing is and the different types of affiliate marketing
- The advantages of being an affiliate marketer
- Some tips and good practices to become a successful affiliate marketer
So, can you really make money from affiliate programs? Well yes and no; there is money in affiliate marketing but if YOU can make money from it or not depends on a lot of other factors such as your commitment, experience, site traffic etc.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
According to Wikipedia
“Affiliate
marketing is a marketing practice in which a business rewards one or
more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the
affiliate’s marketing efforts”
Basically,
you as a publisher will be rewarded when you help a business by
promoting their products or services. So for example, if you sign up for
Tips and Ticks HQ’s affiliate program and promote it’s products then you will get a commission when the visitor you send from your site makes a purchase.
Affiliate
marketing is probably one of the quickest and cheapest (not the
easiest) ways to start making money online as you don’t have to create
any products yourself. You simply link up a buyer and a seller, and you
take a commission on the sale that has been referred by you.
How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?
When
you join an Affiliate program and choose the products that you want to
sell, sellers provide you with a unique affiliate code that you can use
to refer traffic to the target site. Most affiliate programs will offer
ready made text links, banners and other forms of creative copies
whereby you only have to copy the code and place it on your website to
start referring traffic. When interested visitors click on these links
from your site they get redirected to the product site and if they
purchase a product or subscribe to a service you as the referrer make a
commission.
The sellers can track your performance through your affiliate ID and the affiliate softwares (eg. WP Affiliate Platform) that they use. You also have complete, real time access to all sales and commissions stats.
You
don’t need to sell products all the time to make a commission.
Different affiliate programs can use different payment terms such as:
- Pay per Sale: In this program a merchant pays you a percentage of the sale price when the purchase is completed.
- Pay per Click: In this program you get paid based on the number of visitors you redirect to the Merchant’s website from your affiliate site, whether or not a sale is made.
- Pay per Lead: You get paid once the referred visitors provide their contact information on the target site by filling out a simple contact form.
Why be an Affiliate Marketer?
Affiliate
marketing is considered to be one of the world’s fastest growing and
best internet marketing techniques to earn money online and I will
explain why:
- Cost effective: Marketing on the internet is cheap and you don’t have to worry about the production cost as the product is already developed by the seller. You don’t need a physical business location or hire employees either.
- Global Market: Online marketing gives you the opportunity to reach people all over the world easily.
- No Fees: You don’t need to pay anything to join affiliate programs.
- No Storage No Shipping: You don’t need to worry about storage, packing or shipment of the product. They are all taken care of by the seller.
- No customer support: You don’t need to provide any customer support or deal with consumer complaints as the Seller does that for you.
- Passive income: A regular job can give you a fixed income as long as you continue to work. Depending on your marketing skill Affiliate marketing can create a steady flow of income even when you are not in front of your computer.
- Work from home: If you make enough money then you don’t have to worry about going to work at the same time every day or getting stuck in traffic. You can work in the comfort of your own home.
Tips on Becoming a Successful Affiliate Marketer
After
reading all the benefits of affiliate marketing if you think you will
be rich over night by selling affiliate products online then you are
wrong. Affiliate marketing is definitely an excellent way to make money
online but it’s highly competitive too. In order to be successful in
Affiliate marketing you need to know the market needs, learn how to
promote products, what works and what doesn’t. The following are a few
tricks on becoming successful in affiliate marketing that I have learnt
over time.
1. Only Choose a Handful of Good Products
The
first mistake a lot of affiliate marketers make is that they register
with too many different affiliate programs and try to promote
everything. Pursuing affiliate marketing down this path can become very
overwhelming and you won’t be able to promote any product properly. All
you need in order to be successful is a handful of good products to
promote. Try to understand the market needs and look for products that
align correctly with the topic of your site.
2. Use Several Traffic Sources to Promote Products
Most
affiliate marketers put up the ads only on their sites. There is
nothing wrong with this approach but know that there are many other
traffic sources that you can tap into and promote the products
simultaneously. The more targeted traffic you can send to the sales page
the more your chances are of making money.
Google
Adwords can be used to drive targeted traffic to a sales page. You
simply make an ad in your adwords account then use your affiliate link
in the target page URL of the ad. Obviously, you will have to
continuously measure the conversions and see if the campaign cost is
less than the campaign profit in order to keep the campaign running but I
am sure you get the idea.
3. Test, Measure and Track Your Affiliate Campaign
It
is a very good idea to use different product promotion strategies so
you can figure out what is working and what is not. Try to do split
testing and measure the performance of each campaign then take actions
accordingly. Changing a few things here and there can increase your
profit dramatically. Make sure to place the banner ads on different
areas of your site’s pages. Some positions will make the ads more
noticeable than others.
Most
affiliate programs will give you basic stats that you may need but
there is nothing stopping you from using your own conversion tracking
software too. There are many conversions tracking sofware out there that
you can use to track your affiliate campaign.
4. Research the Demand of the Product
If
you try to sell a product that is in low demand then chances are that
you are not going to get many sales no matter how hard you try. So it is
a good idea to spend a bit of time researching and finding out if a
product that you are thinking of promoting is a product that your
audience needs. If your site gets decent traffic then you can conduct an
online survey and easily get input from your visitors.
5. Stay Current with New Methods and Techniques
Affiliate
marketing is a very competitive field and people are always coming up
with new techniques. Try to stay current with these new techniques and
market trends otherwise you will fall behind.
6. Choose the Right Merchant
When
you promote a product you also promote the person or the company who is
behind the product so try to choose wisely. You don’t want your
visitors to go and buy a product following your advice then come back
unhappy. Do you think that this visitor will come back to your site and
take your advice again? Most likely no; this can hurt your credibility
in the long run. Usually, websites/company that offer good customer
service will have better customer satisfaction so try to stick with
promoting their products.
7. Use Helpful Tools
If
you are serious about affiliate marketing then try to find tools that
will help you be more efficient. There are many helpful tools out there.
If you are using a WordPress powered site then consider getting a
plugin similar to theAffiliate Link Manager.
Don’t
just hope and pray that visitors will buy; setup everything correctly
and make it happen! If you think that visitors will click on your
affiliate links and buy just because you placed dozens of affiliate
links on your website then you are wrong! You need to have a structured
plan in place. Affiliate marketing is a business so you will have a much
better chance of succeeding if you treat it like one.
I am sure I haven’t covered everything so please feel free to share your tips in the comment area below.
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