What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is referral marketing or sharing profits with an individual or company that owns the products or services you market. It means that you refer customers to a business that you do not own, for commissions. The products or services you promote don’t have to be your own.
You make money by promoting products or services online. This means that you make money by driving online traffic to the website of a merchant, who is either the manufacturer or the retailer of the products.
Affiliate marketing is performance-based marketing so an affiliate is only paid when a sale is made. The merchant rewards the affiliate for business resulting from their efforts.
Why Choose Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is one of the easiest home based businesses to start. Anyone can join an affiliate marketing program because it is normally free to join and no special skills are required. One just needs to complete a form and is ready to get started. There is no need to produce or stock any products so the costs that are involved with running a shop – including an online shop – are eliminated.
- No stock
- No employees
- No business premises
- Minimal overheads
Affiliate marketing offers a wide range of products, platforms, and markets to choose from. Training tools, books, personal care products, household items and much more are just a few of the possible options. However, to build a successful affiliate marketing income, one needs to learn Internet marketing skills.
Is Affiliate Marketing a Get-rich-quick scheme?
Do not imagine that all that you need to do is to set up an affiliate marketing site and dollars will flow into your bank account without doing any work. Affiliate marketing is real work. It is not a get-rich-quick scheme. You will need to invest in knowledge, acquire skills and put in the work.
What skills Does one need to succeed in Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing, like other online jobs – requires critical thinking and a high level of creativity. It is a wide field and one needs to understand where to fit in. Being a marketing job, one needs to learn marketing skills and especially online marketing.
Some of the skills such as data analysis are technical. Success is about the traffic to one’s sight and that needs to be interpreted. Much as one normally sources services such as blogs and websites from others, it is important to have basic programming and web design skills.
Success is based on performance and since one has no boss over them, it is critical to know how to self motivate. Time management skills are also very important, meaning that one needs to prioritize and do what needs to be done when it needs to be done. Problem solving and people skills are important for long term success.
Affiliate marketing requires consistent effort. You need to not only attract a substantial amount of people to your site but you need to convince at least some of them to buy. You don’t have to pay some guru a handsome amount of money in order to reveal some secrets to becoming an overnight millionaire. There is no shortcut to success. You have to learn by doing. Learn more about how to succeed in affiliate marketing here.
The good news is that there are a lot of helpful blogs, websites, and videos to guide you as you get started on the road to becoming a successful affiliate marketer. You will just have to discover what works for you through practice and more practice.
What will you market?
First, you need to identify your niche, something you can be passionate about. Choose quality affiliate products or services that match your niche, those that you can be passionate about. You do not have to restrict yourself to any particular product. Give yourself permission to experiment with different products and you will eventually discover what works for you.
You can be successful marketing many different products on different websites or blogs. Give your affiliate marketing career your all if you want to make it big.
Your niche might be hair care and choosing haircare products would easily fit in with what you are already doing. Alternatively it could be skin care. Do not become a jack of all trades and a master of none. If you have to handle different niches, have separate websites, blogs or YouTube channels for each of them. Select a credible affiliate marketing platform also. Do your research before you make such decisions.
Become your own boss
Be your own boss. Take charge of your life. Set your schedules, set targets for yourself and commit to continuous learning. Evaluate your progress regularly and make modifications as you learn and grow.
Do not focus on trying to make a sale as that won’t keep those who are not interested in buying something here and now. Give people value and they will keep on coming back to learn helpful information. You want them to be around to buy from you when a time comes for them to buy. Make them your faithful followers.
There is no fixed income since the affiliate marketing business is volatile. All days are not the same. An affiliate marketer has no control over the products or services on the affiliate marketing platform. You can drive traffic only for clients to be disappointed by the merchant’s services or quality of products.
Increase your chances of success by finding out as much as you can including the percentages you get paid on your efforts plus how often you get paid.
It is also good to note that some affiliate marketing platforms do not permit email marketing. The client, therefore, belongs to the merchant. That has a negative impact on your income since you will not get paid on subsequent sales by the customer you introduced.
It is helpful to build trust with the visitors to your affiliate marketing site by letting them know about your affiliate relationship.
If you give people value and give them a reason to keep coming back, they are likely to order through your link even in future. That is why it is important for them to know that you are an affiliate and that you get compensated when they buy from you.
Affiliate Marketing Running Costs
Affiliate marketing though free to join does come with some costs. You will need to have a computer and to also be connected to the Internet. Setting up your affiliate marketing site does also come with some costs that include securing a domain name or getting your website designed.
You will also discover that to attract adequate traffic to your affiliate marketing site, you might require an advertising budget. You might need to boost your Facebook page or Instagram ads.
Bloggers, coaches and people who train online can earn extra income through affiliate marketing, which can be incorporated into existing home-based business. This can make running the business cost effective. Online writing and transcription trainers can promote laptops and computer accessories such as keyboards and headphones.
Your Affiliate Marketing Strategy
Blogging works very well with affiliate marketing. You will need to decide what works for you; a blog, a website, social media platforms or a mix of more than one. Setting up an informative blog and driving traffic to it from social media is an effective affiliate marketing strategy. Setting up a YouTube channel is also very effective. Videos are fun and interactive.
Unlike offline marketing efforts or door-to-door marketing, all sales happen online. This is very suitable for stay-at-home moms and people who would like to earn extra income working from home during their free time.
Passive Income
Affiliate marketing does require a lot of effort at least in the initial stages but if you do it right, you can earn passive income once you get the flow of things right and automate some functions. This can free time for you to focus more on your family or to participate in activities you enjoy such as traveling.
The Internet has transformed the world into a global village and as e-commerce grows around the world, there is a lot of money to be made in affiliate marketing. This is something you can do in your free time, as a secondary source of income.
Susan Catherine Keter transformed her life from a stay-at-home mom to a work-from-home mom.
Financial Independence Africa
