What is Affiliate Marketing and How to profit from it (2021)?

November 7th, 2019

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Make money while you sleep..That’s the dream, right?

Passive income doesn’t have to be a dream. More and more people, especially in 2021, are making money online with Affiliate Marketing. 

This is one of the top ways to earn passive income online.

Affiliate marketing is not new, in-fact, Amazons associate affiliate program was first developed way back in 1994.

This means, that for nearly 3 decades, Affiliate Marketing has been a popular way to promote products and earn money while doing it.

The basic principle behind affiliate marketing is that:

  • You would refer someone to a product or service
  • The customer purchases as a result of your recommendation
  • You receive a commission when the purchase is made

As an Affiliate Marketing beginner, it may seem complicated, but it really isn’t. 

How does it really work?

how-affiliate-marketing-works

The world of Affiliate marketing isn’t as complicated as you may think. The cycle starts with the Affiliate: 

  • Affiliates

There are all types of affiliates, whether it be an individual or big corporations. Anyone can earn money by referring a product/service. 

An Affiliate will advertise an affiliate product or service to potential customers. The job of an affiliate is to convincingly recommend this product or service to its visitors.

To do this the Affiliate will usually own a website, have a blog, landing page, YouTube channel, Instagram etc. 

Whatever “platform” you choose as an affiliate, you will usually include a special link to the product or service, known as an Affiliate link.

This link connects the Consumer to that Merchants product page.

  • Creators/merchant 

The merchant or creator are the people the create the product or service. They usually have an affiliate program, where they’ll share a portion of the revenue with the affiliate who recommends them. 

Put simply the affiliate earns a commission every time the referred customer purchases the product.

The commission amount varies from business to business. Some companies, like Amazon Associates, offer a small percentage. Therefore you would need to sell multiple items to make a decent amount.

  • Affiliate Network  

 The networks work as a middle man between the affiliate and the merchant.  Clickbank and Shareasale are popular affiliate networks.

Affiliate Networks, like these, handle the links, payment and delivery of the product. This will make your life a lot easier.

Sometimes the product creator and the network used to promote the product can be the same person.

  • Consumers 

Put simply, the consumers are the one who makes the transaction.

They purchase the product or service and as a result of that purchase, the affiliate (you) will earn commission.

Why become an Affiliate Marketer?

There are many benefits to joining an Affiliate Program as a new Affiliate. 

Affiliate marketing has grown massively over the last couple of years because more and more creators are beginning to realize it is the most efficient way to handle your online advertising.

It is extremely flexible and provides numerous benefits that you might not get with any other online business, they include:

Passive Income

Like the idea of making money while you sleep?

Affiliate Marketing can be a legit way to generate passive income and has been an ideal money-making scenario for many.

Most of the hardwork is done upfront, as you’ll have to invest time creating a website/landing page & generating traffic.

However once this is done, your affiliate links can continue to drive traffic and deliver you a steady income every month.

Related Posts:

The 11 Best ways to build Passive Income

Little to no start up costs

Most startup businesses require initial fees as well as a surplus of cash to keep the business going. 

Being able to sell products online, without purchasing them beforehand or holding any stock means your start up costs are non existent.

It’s a great option if you don’t have a lot of money, or want to be able to work from home and save cash. 

There are no affiliate program fees to worry about and no need to create your own product.

Work from home 

work from home and earn 'big' money

Being at home and having the ability to generate some extra cash is a dream of many. Especially if you’re a mom, affiliate marketing can provide you with a flexible way to make Money from home.

Even if you don’t have kids, and only want to generate a few extra pounds each month, Affiliate Marketing can be the perfect solution.

You’ll be able to work in the comfort of your own home, whilst generating passive income from products other businesses create. 

Related Posts:

10 Highly Paid Ways to Make Money Online Working From Home in 2021

Convenient and flexible

As an Affiliate you are essentially a freelancer, so you get ultimate independence in setting your own money goals and choosing the products that suit you. You can also choose the hours that work best for you.

Very different than a typical 9 to 5 job. 

When you have a full time job, kids or other responsibilities, Affiliate Marketing can provide the flexibility you need to make extra money online.

Rewards based on your Performance

With Affiliate Marketing, you get out whatever you put in.

Successful Affiliate marketing, the majority of the time, is based on your performance.

The beauty of this performance based career is that, the more sales you get the more it inspires you to keep going.

In a traditional 9 to 5 job you very rarely get rewarded based on the single effort you put into a project.

When you are able to build up a strong following on social media and your website, businesses actually pay you to represent them and may send free products to review and promote their brand.

What a bonus!

How much can I earn?

If you are willing to learn and take action, with a good website and great niche, you will start to earn money.

As long as you understand, that what you get out is directly linked to the effort you put in, you will succeed.

It can take a while to learn which programs to promote and how to promote them effectively. Put in the time and the results will show.

Getting set up can be quick. Services such as WordPress and Siteground, can have you up and running in hours. But you must must provide something of value to your potential customers.

Throwing a bunch of affiliate links at your potential customers will absolutely NOT work.

Consumers are a lot smarter now and can sniff out a phony product recommendation a mile off.

Remember it’s your business and it’s important you take it seriously. The rewards can potentially be life changing.

As mentioned, it depends which niche you choose and which products are promoted.

Some Affiliates Programs, mostly offering digital products, pay as much as 80% commission for every product sold. Some, on the other hand, only pay up to 10%.

There are affiliates who earn $10,000 every month and those that just earn $200 every now and then. 

How much you make depends on the right niche and the right amount of effort.

How do I start?

To get started with a successful affiliate marketing career, you will need to follow some very important steps:

  • Build a website/blog/channel around a ‘niche’. It’s important to choose a niche that you know will be profitable. Weightloss, personal finance and relationships tend to do very well but they also are very competitive. Provide great content and give the consumers a reason to listen to you. Learn How to start your very own money making blog/website here…

  • Find products to sell that are relevant to your niche. The majority of businesses which have an affiliate program. Join the program and get a link personalized to you. Click here to learn more about the Best Affiliate you can join in 2021.

  • Use these links on your website, blog, Instagram or YouTube and this will direct your visitors to the products

  • When they buy . . . you earn commission, yay!

How to get traffic to your blog/website

Driving traffic to your site affiliate marketing

As an Affiliate it’s your job to build a relevant audience and drive traffic to your website or blog. 

You can do this with a variety of different ways. Many Affiliate Marketers choose to promote their affiliate links on Social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. Others choose visual search engine Pinterest to generate income. 

Whatever method you choose, it needs to be relevant to the platform you’re using.

Click here to learn more about how to generate traffic from FREE and PAID methods >>

You must identify your target audience.

What people is your product trying to attract? Think about possible answers to questions to consumer could be asking.

The last thing you want is to drive traffic (people) to your carefully constructed blog, and the product is completely irrelevant to them. 

  • Content is king

Give people a reason to come to your blog and purchase a product you recommend.

Always create content of high value. You want to be able to get your content all over the internet, and providing valuable content is vital.

The more people that see and share your content, the more Google will recognize it as ‘relevant and valuable’ content.

If your content is valuable, people are more likely to send it to their friends.

Create incredible content and your visitors will keep coming back for more and more. 

Creating something truly amazing firstly comes from how passionate you are on the subject. Readers can see right through content that isn’t authentic and personal.

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. 

Make your posts appealing and attention grabbing. Create enough content which will make the reader want to click your link to learn more. 

  • Use effective SEO techniques

seo affiliate marketing

Search Engine Optimization, better known as SEO, is so important to be successful at Affiliate Marketing. A good SEO campaign can increase your brands identify on the internet.

SEO involves the optimization of your content for various search engines. Search engines such as Google and Bing will rank your content based on relevancy to a certain topic.

So depending on how relevant your content is to the search query entered on Google, will determine your visibility on that search engine.

Optimizing your content for Search engines doesn’t take long, but can make the world of difference and help you boost your organic (non-paid) traffic.

When you’re just starting off, you are not required to be an expert in order to make money from Affiliate Marketing.

To achieve a successful SEO campaign, the most important step is identifying relevant keywords. Instead of trying to rank for words/phrases like “make money”, focus on long-tail keywords such as “make money working from home”.

Because of the sheer competition on the internet, you’ll have more success ranking for longer phrases.

Well-researched relevant keywords will continue to bring in lots of traffic.

  • Paid Traffic

Paid advertising is a sure fire way to get more visitors to your website or blog and there are many platforms where this can be done.

This is where you extensive keyword research comes into play. Once you know which long tail keywords to rank for, you can start your first paid advertising campaign.

When using free traffic methods, it can take you a while to rank high on Google’s search algorithm. 

  • Build an email list

Creating an email list can significantly boost your traffic and sales.

When people come to your website or blog, you want to be able to hook them in with your valuable content, enough to hopefully purchase the product/service.

If the visitor doesn’t purchase, then they’ll be lost forever.

However, if you are able to create a magnet to capture their email, you’ll be able to further promote that or other relevant product/services later on down the line.

This is called Email marketing.

Regardless of the type of online business, email marketing is an extremely effective generator in otherwise “lost” sales.

Tips to Boost Conversions

  • Make sure you have a fast loading site and landing page. When the page takes too long to load, people will get frustrated and leave!
  • Make good use of  social media, choosing the right platform for your selected niche.

Avoid this…

avoid affiliate marketing

There are a few things you must look out for, if you want to become an affiliate marketer. Here’s my tips for avoiding classic beginner mistakes: 

1. Becoming too attached

Use your head NOT your heart. Don’t become romantically attached to your idea. Avoid picking a product purely because you are passionate about it. You should always believe in the product your selling, however, there needs to be an equal balance between passion and profitability.

2. Promoting TOO MANY products

things to avoid in affiliate marketing

Stick to one affiliate product and go full force. If you concentrate in promoting too many affiliate offers, you will almost certainly be overwhelmed and won’t be able to focus your energy on. Choose quality over quantity and research the niche thoroughly.

3. Promoting poor quality products

Avoid selling affiliate products you know are low quality or don’t work. You’ll gain more customers and followers if you promote legitimate products. It’s totally IMMORAL to sell a scammy product and the money won’t last. Offer you customers quality products only and they’ll keep coming back.

4. No Keyword Research

things to avoid affiliate marketing

This is probably the most vital step in promoting and successfully selling an affiliate product. Do your research and find the most relevant keywords to target your audience effectively.

Use a Keyword research tool like Keywords Everywhere. If you target the right words from the beginning, you won’t need to go back later and edit your content.

5. Designing A Poor Quality Website

Your website does not need to be technologically advanced, have fancy buttons or design, but one things it does need to be is clean and quality.

Make sure the site is fast loading and easy to read.

6. Thinking it’s a get rich quick scheme

things to avoid in affiliate marketing

It’s not quick and easy, don’t make that mistake.

It is, however, a fairly simple formula. Put in the hours (days, really) of hardwork, dedication and perseverance now and see the results later. 

7. Not providing Quality content 

This is essential to succeed at Affiliate Marketing.

Good quality content will drive traffic to your site and keep them coming back. they’ll also build up trust with you and your brand, thus converting into sales.

8. Not Disclosing your affiliation

earn money while you sleep

It’s a requirement by the FTC (Federal Trade Commission), that you disclose your affiliate links within your content. Include a short snippet at the top of every page that contains any affiliate links.

Wrapping it up..

Affiliate Marketing is still very much alive and continues to evolve.

You’ll find success if you stick the above guide and continue to do your own research. If you work for it, it will continue to bring amazing money making opportunities.

And you can do it all from home. Bonus!

Want to find an amazing product/niche to start promoting today? Take a look at my post on the Best Affiliate Marketing Networks.

Good luck and comment your progress below!

I created this blog to provide super helpful information and advice regarding all things health and wealth. I love creating content related to making money online and also ways to live a happy and healthy life. Enjoy!

Affiliate Marketing Batch #1

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