The Ultimate Guide To Affiliate Marketing 1. What is Affiliate Marketing? 2. How Does Affiliate Marketing Work 3. Avenues Through...
The Ultimate Guide To Affiliate Marketing
- 1. What is Affiliate Marketing?
- 2. How Does Affiliate Marketing Work
- 3. Avenues Through Which You Can Make Money
- 4. Important Terms in Affiliate Marketing Programs
- 5. 3 Different Types of Affiliate Marketing
- 6. How to Start Affiliate Marketing?
- 7. What Are the Top Affiliate Networks to Consider
- 8. Quick Tips to Increase Your Affiliate Marketing Earnings
- 9. How to Be a Successful Affiliate Marketer?
- 10. Affiliate Marketing Frequently Asked Questions
- 11. Conclusion
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate
marketing is the process in which you earn a commission for promoting a
product or service that belongs to another person or company.
In
other words, you find a product or service that interests you, promote
it to other people and earn a fraction of the profit whenever someone
buys the product.
The
cost of buying a service or product through an affiliate is similar to
that of buying it directly from the owner of the product.
Product
owners must pay affiliates a percentage of the sales as a commission,
which means they probably make less money per sale.
However,
product owners gain more because an affiliate helps them to reach more
potential customers (and make more sales) than they’d have done on their
own.
So, it’s a win-win.
As
an affiliate, you can earn a commission on a one-off purchase or earn
recurring income by promoting membership or subscription-based programs.
When it comes to the actual marketing, the affiliate equation has two main parties:
- The product creator or owner
- The seller or the affiliate marketer
However, successful affiliate marketing has about three parties:
First: Merchant
The merchant is also referred to as the advertiser, seller, brand, vendor, retailer, or creator.
It’s
the party that creates the product. It can be a single person or a big,
Fortune 500 company. Anyone can be the vendor behind an affiliate
marketing program.
Merchants don’t necessarily have to be actively involved. All they need is a product to sell.
Second: Affiliate
Also
known as the publisher, associate or partner, an affiliate can also be a
single person or an entire company. Affiliates can generate a few
hundreds of dollars per month or tens of millions in commission.
An
affiliate plays the marketing role by promoting one or several
affiliate products. The party attracts and convinces potential buyers of
the product’s value so they can end up purchasing it.
Third: Consumer
This
party makes the entire affiliate system to go round. Without sales in
sight, there won’t be revenue to share or commissions to give out.
The
affiliate will make efforts to market to customers using any suitable
channel whether it’s a digital billboard, social network or content
marketing on blogs.
How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?
First off, you should find the product or company you’d like to promote.
Start by finding a service or product you know is relevant to your blog’s niche and one that your audience will find useful.
My quick 1-minute video will be of great help. Watch it below!
Next, you should partner with the merchant by signing up for their affiliate program. This will make you an affiliate.
After
joining their affiliate program, you’ll be given a unique affiliate ID
to be included in all the affiliate links you post on your site to
promote the service or product.
You can promote
the product in several ways including recommending it in articles,
writing product reviews, sending email newsletters or displaying banner
ads. Your merchant will use the unique affiliate ID to track all the
traffic you direct to their website.
When
a user buys a product, you earn a commission. The merchant issues your
payment when the earnings reach a set threshold, and this can be
anywhere between 45 and 60 days.
Google Trends
shows an increased interest of 15% in the term ‘affiliate marketing’
between April 2018 and March 2019 (see the diagram below).
According to Awin,
81% of brands in the United States use this strategy, and if trends are
anything to go by, this figure will increase. Everyone is responding to
it!
Read the full article
Credit: The article was published in collaboration with author Master Blogging
