How to Make Money in the Affiliate Marketing Business

Affiliate marketing can be an incredible thing to get into. It is an important part of the digital marketing ecosystem. In the United States alone, the affiliate market is expected to reach a value of $ 8.2 billion by 2022.

That’s a lot of money to go around.

Getting involved in affiliate marketing is easy – all you need to get started is basically just a blog.

However, there is a big difference between getting involved and actually making money in the affiliate business. After all, it is a very competitive industry.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Think of affiliate marketing in the same light as an independent seller for a brand. Your job is to attract people to a product with the intention of selling it. However, the product was not produced by you.

You are also not responsible for storing, delivering, or even making the actual sale. Before we get into that, let’s take a look at the ecosystem as a whole.

There are three key roles in affiliate marketing:

1. Affiliates

This is the role you want to fulfill as an affiliate marketer. Your job is to convince people that a product is worth buying. Once someone swallows your pitch and buys the product, you get a commission from the merchant. You need to provide potential customers with useful information to help them evaluate products for purchase.

2. Traders

These are the guys who have a product they want people to buy. However, they have an interest in building the best product they can and supporting their customers. To get more customers, they look to affiliates who pitch the products on their behalf.

3. Customers

Outside of branches and merchants, the rest of the population on the Internet is potential customers. As a customer, they have needs or interests. When trying to find products to meet these needs, they want more information than sales brochures typically provide.

While the roles of merchant and customer are fairly straightforward, your job as a partner is a bit more challenging. Part of this stems from the fact that there are many affiliate marketers out there.

Your success depends a lot on how well you can capture (and convince) an audience.

Exactly how this is done is where the magic happens. There are several methods that affiliate marketers can use. For example, you may decide to have a simple blog with affiliate links embedded in it. Or maybe you build an e-book, do a live pitch via stream or make podcasts and videos.

Aside from the form or medium of your communication, you also need to decide what tone to take on your audience.

Are you going to shower them in unicorns and sunshine on the product? Will you give them ideas and gently invite them to what you are selling? One or more of these methods are possible, but there are a few models that I’ve seen work quite well.

Different approaches to affiliate marketing activities

1. Influencer model

Influences are people who manage to attract the attention of a wide audience. They build large groups of loyal followers and can steer them towards certain opinions or even products (hence the term ‘influencer’).

Who are influencers:

• Bloggers
• YouTubers
• Podcasters
• Social Media Users

Building on their popularity, influencers will try out products and introduce them to their audiences in a variety of ways. Some offer unbiased opinions, while others directly advertise, present utility models, or use other means to increase public awareness.

In these situations, they will provide affiliate links that their followers can use to purchase the products. Every time a purchase is made, the influencer receives a commission from the brand that sells it.

Influencers come in a huge variety of flavors, and you might be shocked at the possibilities. Let’s take a look at some examples.

Notable influencers

Choice platform: YouTube

PewDiePie has been around for so long that it probably doesn’t need an introduction. With more than a decade on YouTube, he has created a following that could conquer most countries if the numbers were to be counted.

PewDiePie ignores the nature of its content and is the model influencer, using not only its subscriber base but the media and hype to rise to the top. This turns everything he touches into gold and he takes home not only the bacon but the whole pig.

Pat Flynn

The platform of choice: blog

Like the average Joe going through rough times, as many of us, Pat Flynn is the perfect icon for an audience. He has done this with great success through his blog: Smart Passive Income.

He shares his thoughts and experiences in affiliate marketing to help others, as the blog name says, build an income. Pat also uses podcasts and conducts workshops to share his wealth of knowledge.

Benefits of the influencer model

The great thing about influencers is that they don’t necessarily have to do anything special. People love (or hate) and follow them naturally and in large groups. As you could say, “You too, chief.

Because of their huge following, influencers are very popular with advertisers. They are often versatile and can fulfill the needs of multiple brand profiles. Best of all, so much attention is focused on them that anything they suggest or promote is immediately put in the spotlight.

Challenges that influencers face

Despite its huge popularity, influencers are often threatened by the risk of a quick fall. Their worst nightmare is to wake up one day and find that they are a thing of the past and are no longer trending. After all, the audience is fickle.

In addition, due to the massive follow-up and monitoring, small incidents can quickly escalate into large ones. Promoting a ‘bad’ product can result in massive and immediate backlash from an angry audience.

2. Niche-focused model

Affiliate marketers with a more surgical strategy will try to build a small but focused following in a particular niche. As with influencers, the platform can vary according to your choice. However, most of the time their choice of content won’t.

Niche-focused affiliate marketers:

• Bloggers
• Website Owners
• Experts in a niche market
• engineers

This is the most common affiliate marketing business model – you build a website, blog, or even YouTube channel around a niche. Your goal is to get the attention of a very specific group of people.

While the numbers may seem low at a glance compared to the influencer model, those most interested in your niche are likely to buy the things you recommend as well. However, niche marketers are not necessarily separate from influencers, especially under more popular niches such as food.

Well-known niche marketers

Mark Weins from Migrationology
The platform of choice: YouTube/niche: food and travel

Mark Weins ( Migrationology ) is one of my own favorites as I like all kinds of foods, especially spicy foods. He is an American-born man who moved to Thailand and simply immersed himself in the food culture there.

In his early days, Mark wandered the streets to showcase real-life examples of the local street food. As his fame grew, he continued to focus largely on Thailand but also included other areas such as the US and even Africa.

Ryan Kaji from Ryan’s World

Ryan Kaji of Ryan’s World
Choice platform: YouTube / Niche: toys

The first thing to know about Ryan Kaji ( Ryan’s World ) is that he is a kid. This eight-year-old boy has a subscribed audience of more than 26 million people from all over the world. To put that in perspective, Australia’s entire population is lower than Ryan’s subscriber base.

On his YouTube channel, Ryan has a lot of fun alone or sometimes with friends. His job: to share with the world all the great ways to have fun. Along the way, he looks at toys, food, and other things that kids love.

While he’s having so much fun, Ryan also walked away with an estimated $ 25 million in 2019 earnings. This is a kid who will likely wallow in toys for the rest of his life.

David Janssen of VPN Overview

Choice platform: website/niche: internet privacy and security

David operates an affiliate site – VPN overview , which is heavily focused on Internet privacy applications – primarily Virtual Private Networks. He not only shares knowledge about how but also why users should defend their digital rights.

This is a niche that is building value in a real-world sense, especially given the pushiness of even legit companies. Of course, there are also many cool things you can do with the same applications.

Benefits of Niche Marketing

This segment of affiliate marketing is arguably the easiest to get out the door. All you need is a suitable platform and to start creating content. It is especially important to be aware of the niche you are in and to build appropriate content for it.

Entry costs can be immensely low and if you are committed enough, the content can build steadily. All you need is passion, a computer with internet access, web hosting, and some research skills.

Challenges for Niche Marketers

Due to the low entry cost, niche marketers abound and everyone tries to claim to be an expert. Within that group there are top niche marketers who have already captured a good chunk of the market share and taking something away could be like trying to climb Mount Everest.

Niche marketers also rely heavily on search engines and social media algorithms to help them drive more traffic. This can be very erratic and what works today can disappear overnight and be gone forever tomorrow.

3. Digital Megamall concept

The world has become even more digital in recent years. A combination of factors has led to a massive explosion in the digital retail space. Part of this is due to increasing internet penetration and borderless trade.

Getting a slice of this pie, however, is a bit more difficult. Due to the space required for success in the digital megamall space, those seeking entry are usually the 800-pound gorillas with the skills and money to support their efforts.

Who enters this space:

• Startups
• Established, well-funded affiliates
• Media companies

As the digital marketing space increases in value, more players are entering this particular category. Some of this is based on successful affiliate marketing careers, but other interests, such as venture capitalists, have seen the potential.

Notable Digital Megamall Concept Players

TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor has become such a household name that not many people realize it is actually an affiliate site. Growing into the online travel giant, it has its fingers in almost all aspects of the business and makes money on hotels, airlines, other travel companies, and more.

They control about 10% of the total global travel spend – that’s an astonishing $ 546 billion on the latest estimate. Most of the money they make comes from click-based ads, so their content can be as independent and user-driven as they want.

WireCutter

WireCutter is a great example of two things. The first is the transition from a niche-based affiliate to the megamall concept. The second is of investable funds taking control of a successful entity and moving it to the megamall concept.

It’s a two-in-one demonstration of how much value and money there is in this scale of affiliate marketing. At the time, WireCutter was independently focused on the technology and technical equipment market, even with the NY Times Acquisition.

Affiliate marketing success is not all about individual campaigns

With all this talk of success, it can be easy to become enamored with the appeal of affiliate marketing. If this is really what you want, you should know that despite the potential, success doesn’t build overnight. This is especially true when it comes to making money in the affiliate marketing business.

It’s not something you can put X hours into and then make money for the rest of your life. Affiliate marketing is more than a full-time job and to be truly successful, you have to be willing to work hard for hours on end.

Aside from that, there are a few more things to consider before you start:

Making the right choices

Industry Matching – While it is important to do something that you are truly passionate about, keep in mind that not every industry has the same potential. Ideally, you would enter the one that has an established ecosystem of notable brands and demand – and is still growing.

partnership – By affiliate I mean brands and this is one area that affiliate marketers should approach with some caution. Brands aren’t always your friends and sometimes try to cheat you out of your fair share of the earnings. Choose the right partners and work closely with those you choose.

Substantive approach – First determine on which platform you live or die. Don’t try to settle on all or even several at the beginning. That’s a sure recipe for heartbreak. Not all platforms accommodate different approaches, so think carefully about yours.

Marketing angle – Decide how you will market your content. Are you attending the gold school and relying on your SEO skills to pull search engine traffic? Or are you willing to invest and dump money in PPC and social media promos? I would recommend that you consider a holistic approach.

Deliver value to your users

Whatever platforms, models, or choices you make, always remember that you need followers, viewers, or readers. They are your main source of income and the only way to attract and keep them is to provide them with real value.

This doesn’t mean that you constantly give them freebies or the like, but that you give them something. If you are an entertainer make sure they have a good time. If they want to see the food culture, investigate and show them. When they run a business, she shows how to simplify solutions or solve problems.

Take the case of TripAdvisor, for example. Much of the reason for their success is that they provide such a wealth of useful information such as guides and tips from those who have actually experienced the places. The value is unimaginable.

Places to join affiliate programs

When you’re ready to start making money, there are two main types of places you can look to. The first and most direct are the brands that run their own affiliate programs. For example, many software publishers have affiliate programs such as ManageNinja or Microsoft Advertising

For those looking to work with a larger brand stable, it might be a better idea to look for affiliate networks. These include many big names such as CJ Affiliate, ShareASale, and many more.

Frequently asked questions about affiliate marketing

Is Affiliate Marketing The Same As Network Marketing?
No.

When you participate in a network marketing program, you are actually participating in a franchise-type operation. As a network marketer, you typically pay upfront costs to market products/services through direct sales.

Affiliate marketing differs from network marketing specifically in this way: the company you sign up for will reward you for every customer you bring in as a result of your marketing efforts. You get paid every time you manage or lead a customer to the business you’re affiliated with – instead of waiting for every time you sell a product.

Who started the first online affiliate program?

According to Small Biz Trends, the first online affiliate marketing program was done through a company called PC Flowers & Gifts in the mid-1990s. William J. Tobin founded the Prodigy Network as a vehicle to start a revenue-sharing program. Tobin convinced thousands of member companies to promote his company’s products, and a new method of online marketing was born.

Who is affiliated?

In affiliate marketing, affiliates are the people who market products for a company. An affiliate company (often referred to as a publisher) can be an individual or an entire company. As an affiliate of a particular company, you would market the company’s products/services to make sales for the company. You would most likely promote the products on your own website or blog.

Where can I sign up for an affiliate program?

Opportunities for partners are everywhere. An example is the Amazon affiliate program. Whether you sign up as an individual or as a business, you register, start advertising through your website and/or business, and start making money when others respond to your marketing efforts.

You can become an affiliate marketer in two ways.

You can sign up with an existing company’s affiliate program (such as Amazon’s internal program and smaller merchants). This would mean promoting the products Amazon needs. Every time you promote the business and send leads that way, you get paid.

The other option is to join an affiliate network (such as Commission Junctions and ShareASale) and connect to merchants already on the network. We will talk more about this in FAQ # 6 and # 7.

What are some of the popular affiliate networks?

CJ Affiliate by Conversant – offers a range of service levels and packages
ShareASale – strong reputation for being fair and fair, and known for its fast technology
Impact Radius – easy-to-use software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform
Amazon Associates – over a million products available
Clickbank – more than six million products, with an emphasis on digital information products
Rakuten – one of the best e-commerce companies in the world

How are affiliates paid?
As a partner you can be paid in various ways; that is determined by the company you are affiliated with.

The basic options are:
In Cost Per Sale (CPS) – You receive a fixed amount per sale or a percentage of the cart value.
The Cost per lead (CPL) – You will be paid for each validated lead completed.
In Cost per click (CPC) – You are paid for driving traffic from ad clicks.
The Cost per action (CPA) – You get paid when people complete actions that you advertise (such as quote forms or surveys).

What is an affiliate cookie?
An affiliate cookie is the same as a regular cookie (it keeps data). Rather than tracking login information like a regular cookie would, it tracks your affiliate account information – so you get credit if someone on the site being tracked makes a purchase based on your ad referral.

How long does an affiliate cookie usually last?
The duration of the cookies depends on the trader. Some affiliate programs allow cookies to store and send information for up to 90 days, while others only track the data for 24 hours (which is terrible from the affiliate’s point of view).

Do I need a website to get started as an affiliate>
However, you don’t need to have a website as an affiliate having a website usually improves your chances of making more money. For example, you can post your affiliate links on social media sites that allow it.

One way to advertise as an affiliate without a website is on YouTube. However, you will probably find it a lot easier to advertise as a publisher if you have a website. At the very least, you should have a blog that you can do as an affiliate marketing.

Remember, the more places you advertise, the more responses you get – it’s a numbers game. Also remember to post links to all of your social media pages, blogs, and other websites across the board; For example, if you advertise through a YouTube channel, post links to your websites, channels, and social media pages there.

What is a product data feed?
A product data feed is a list of products and their attributes organized and displayed in such a way that shoppers can make purchasing decisions based on the information provided. This kind of streamlined information makes it easier for a partner to market products to site users. A product data feed can be turned into descriptions, image links, and clickable links that visitors can use to make informed purchasing decisions.

What does EPC mean?
EPC stands for earnings per click. This is an important statistic for affiliates. It typically indicates how much an affiliate can expect to earn after every 100 clicks through to a link.

What does EPM mean?
EPM refers to the revenue per 1,000 impressions of a publisher or website.

Are there costs associated with signing up for an affiliate program?
No. If you participate in a program as an affiliate, you usually don’t have to pay a fee.

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