No matter what your particular expertise or niche is – whether you’ve been in it for 5 months or 5 years – there is money to be made in affiliate marketing. Just about every online business or merchant has an affiliate program available for you to begin with, and if that’s not quite your speed, you can find businesses online that specialize in affiliate marketing. Many of these latter allow you to sign up for free before trying their premium memberships, and this is especially great for a newcomer, as it allows you to feel out the program and the company to determine if they are a good fit for you. Though some of you are saying this is old news, you’d be surprised at the number of people who don’t realize this is a possible avenue for them to make a career out of. If you fall into that second category, then you’re in the right place!
Affiliate Marketing? What’s That?
Simply put, affiliate marketing is a program that many online companies employ to give their affiliates an opportunity to promote their products for them in exchange for compensation. The amount compensated to the individual is based on the amount of revenue the individual earns for the company on their behalf. For instance, if you were to become an affiliate for a company and write an article or social media post about their product, people interested in that product would simply click your affiliate link provided in the article to get to the company’s website. If someone makes a purchase from them using that link, then you get a percentage of the revenue generated from that sale.
Finding Where You Fit
Anyone who’s been on the internet knows that there is a market for everything out there, and because of this, finding your niche can be extremely simple. All you have to do is think of the things you are passionate about, things that you like, and look for online retailers that sell those types of things. A good place to begin is places you already frequent on the internet. Places like Amazon and Ebay, for example, have affiliate marketing programs, and all you have to do is fill out their online form to apply. Some companies require a little more experience than others, but for every one of those, there exists a company that is willing to give you the chance to make money affiliate marketing with them.
Promoting Products
Once you’ve become an affiliate with a company, you’ll move on to finding products to promote for them. This part is relatively easy, especially if you’re already a frequent customer of theirs, because that means you’ve already got experience with their product. You can either buy products to try for yourself or do your research on them. If you choose to do the latter, you’ll want to gather as much information as possible about the product or service they offer so you can answer any questions your friends or viewers may have.
Once that’s done, you’ll promote the products using the affiliate link provided to you by the company. Promotion can happen in a few different ways: Number one, you can promote on your own website or blog by writing articles on the product, which brings us to our second method of marketing; Two, you can write an article about the product on the company’s website itself, if that’s something they allow; and three, you can promote the products or services on social media or online forums. One important things to remember when promoting through other sites, however, is to be sure that you thoroughly read through the site’s Terms of Service or Terms of Use. This is especially true for forums or blogs that allow writer submissions, because some websites have a limit to how many times an affiliate link may be used within a single article. Some don’t allow it at all, so it’s much better to be safe than sorry. Nothing good comes out of getting banned from a site because you couldn’t be bothered to read and adhere to their content rules.
Product Demand
Knowing the products you want to promote is a great start, but it’s not enough on it’s own; knowing how well these products sell and the overall demand for them will get you farther in your affiliate marketing journey. You can choose products you like while also picking good quality products, and you can gain a lot of insight by researching the average sales of each product you want to promote to see what your potential customers need, versus what they aren’t buying a lot of. There are also a lot of tools available that allow you to keep an eye on your site and track your affiliate links to see which products sell better than others, as well as which sites are earning you the most revenue. This will give you insight on which sites are worth growing and investing in, versus the ones that aren’t doing you much good.
Valuable Content
At the end of the day, good content is what will keep people coming back to your site. Don’t just promote the product: Educate people on it. People like to know everything they can about the product before they buy it, and usually aren’t keen on someone who’s just trying to sell them something. Make sure you’re telling your audience what the product is good for, what it does, and how it can improve their life, or make it a little easier. If possible, tell them about your experiences with the product, and what you liked and disliked about it. And most importantly, don’t just sell the product, be honest. I seriously can’t stress this enough; even though your ultimate goal is to make money selling the product, your first priority should always be building an open and honest reputation with your readers and customers. The first time someone clicks on your affiliate link to purchase a product, they are essentially taking your word for it. All future visits and purchases depend entirely on how that first experience was, so being up-front and thorough is in your best interest. Remember the affiliate marketing rule of thumb: Never promote a product or service that you wouldn’t use yourself.
