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21 Jan 2021
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12 Feb 2019
There’s no such thing as “easy money” and if you think that affiliate marketing can help you become rich in an instant - you’re wrong.
The truth is, just like video marketing or any other type, affiliate marketing requires hard work, patience, and creativity. Moreover, it can be considered a business model.
Even if you think that it’s a passive income, you need to have a plan and act accordingly. We see many successful bloggers, vloggers, and other people who earn money by doing what they love - creating engaging content. But, when we want to actually start doing it, we don’t know where to start.
So, first of all, you need to know what affiliate marketing is and its basics. In this article, you will learn more about it, its pros and cons, the types of affiliate marketing and how you can make money by doing it.
Nick is a YouTuber. He created his YouYube channel when he was 20. At first, it was just a hobby because he liked testing different products and sharing it with his audience. Within time, he started getting more views on his videos and interested followers. So, to monetize his video content, he joined different affiliate programs and shared his affiliate links in his product review video descriptions. This is how he created a passive income with affiliate marketing.
Nick is a fictional character, but his story is based on real-life facts and examples.
There are many other ways of generating passive affiliate income. But, what is affiliate marketing itself? And, how do we define it?
Basically, it’s a performance-based marketing type which helps content creators earn commissions by promoting different products and services online. In other words, you join a program, share a link with your audience and earn commissions for each sale.
Like any other field, affiliate marketing also has its special terms. Let’s check out some of them:
Source: CFI
If you’re seriously thinking about becoming a YouTuber or a blogger, or if you want to know how to monetize your existing content, continue reading this article to learn more about affiliate marketing.
Now that you know what affiliate marketing is, it’s time to go through its main benefits and drawbacks. Before diving into planning and execution, think about how your efforts will pay off (sooner or later).
Here are the advantages of affiliate marketing:
You don’t have to be a marketing specialist to join a program. You can learn everything along the way. It’s all about developing different long-term and short-term strategies, testing them and picking the ones that bring more revenue.
Why is affiliate marketing considered a low or no-cost business opportunity? Well, there are a couple of reasons such as:
So, if you don’t have extra money to invest in a business, here, you don’t need any.
If you have a full-time job, you don’t have to quit it. Have a passive additional income with the help of affiliate marketing. Develop your marketing plan and spend as much time as you want on your side project, as your life doesn’t solely depend on it.
Doing affiliate marketing full-time is also an option because of its flexibility. Join any program and start working on your campaigns whenever and wherever you want (if you have a wifi connection). You can do it from home, from a cozy cafe, or at a co-working space.
Dealing with customers can be very time-consuming and tiring. But, in this case, you don’t provide customer service, which means you fully concentrate on product promotion. Customer service is provided by the product/service providers.
Depending on the programs, you can get commissions based on the desired actions. The action is not always a sale. It can be a sign-up, app installation, or any other action.
And, here are the main disadvantages:
The beginners usually have a hard time trying to stand out among the well-established competitors - websites with thousands of visitors. Besides, the number of affiliate marketers is growing day by day. So, your success depends on your strategy and creativity.
Of course, you want everything and at once. But, with affiliate marketing, you can’t earn money in an instant. So, in general, the revenue is very low (or none at all). If you think that this is something you can overcome, you’re ready to start.
Affiliates don’t have control over the product and service the customers get. This is why choosing the right products and service providers is crucial. If the customers get poor service or a low-quality product recommended by you, you’ll lose your credibility.
To boost their sales and increase revenue, some beginners start using black hat affiliate marketing methods. They don’t realize that they put their online reputation at risk, which is hard to recover. Many affiliate programs have strict regulations regarding black hat strategies and they can shut down the users’ account when they get caught.
Retaining customers is more cost-effective than generating new leads and converting them into customers. In case of affiliate marketing, you can’t retain your customers and have to generate new leads over and over again. Once your lead converts, they become a customer but you won’t get any commissions from new purchases.
You don’t want to lose your generated revenue, right? Choose carefully what programs to join and learn how to find reliable platforms to avoid scams.
If you know all the pros and cons but still want to start your affiliate business, then check out what types of affiliate programs you can join.
One of the most popular e-commerce affiliate programs is Amazon Associates which has more than 1 mln registered affiliates. The affiliates, especially the beginners, choose this program as it has everything that one needs: digital and physical products in different categories. Besides, it offers up to 10% of commissions from each sale. This is just one example of an affiliate program.
When you start looking for affiliate programs, you’ll notice that there are different types of programs. The difference between them lies in the options they provide. Depending on what you’re looking for, you can find the right programs for you. Basically, there are 6 common types of programs. Let’s go through them.
Before joining affiliate programs, be attentive to the details. Learn more about the payment details, the payout frequency, refunds, tracking, and cookies, also the types of marketing which are allowed.
Yes, it’s possible to make real money through affiliate marketing. It’s not a miracle, but there are also no shortcuts to success. Your efforts and hard work will determine how much money you will make.
According to a survey by Rakuten, affiliate marketing will reach $6.8 billion by 2020. Moreover, most of the companies said that more than 20% of their yearly revenue is from affiliate partnerships. These results show that affiliate marketing is constantly growing and creating new opportunities for making money.
What can you do to increase the effectiveness of your campaigns and increase your income? The following tips will help you optimize them. But, it all depends on execution.
You already know about different types of programs. So, now you need to try them to find out which type works for you best and which one brings you more commissions.
First, you can join the most popular programs which have been tested by other affiliates. The popular programs are 99.9% trustworthy, and you can be sure that you’ll be able to withdraw money from your account.
You can start with the trustworthy ones until you try out the others. This will take some time. But, before trying new platforms, read the reviews to learn more about them from the real users. This will help you save time and stay away from the scam.
Depending on the program, you can optimize your income and increase it within time. So, do it wisely.
It doesn’t matter what marketing strategies you use, you must always track and optimize them to maximize the return on investment. Besides, you must learn new ways to generate traffic. If you only concentrate on social traffic, also consider optimizing your content for search.
There are so many ways to increase your reach and attract more visitors. You can start contributing to other blogs, create your communities on different platforms, use paid ads, collect an email list and send newsletters, collaborate with influencers, and more.
But, if you don’t track your campaigns, you won’t find the most cost-effective ones. Select the right metrics to measure the success of your campaign and compare the results.
Increasing your traffic is one thing and being useful to your audience is another. Obviously, providing value is more important because if you don’t solve their problem they will be disappointed.
But, if you provide a solution, they will be happy and will definitely come back to you for more. So, you wonder how to do it. Here are some tips:
Always be helpful and educate your audience. Being devoted to them and providing useful information will help you build your affiliate business.
Every business requires hard work and motivation. Affiliate business is no exception. Research and implement the best practices of affiliate marketing to create a passive income. Join the right affiliate programs and promote your content with the help of effective marketing campaigns. Choose the best products for your audience. In the end, you will see the results of your efforts.
Would you like to join Renderforest Affiliate program? Help other creatives to find the best platform for making websites, animated videos and cartoons, music visualizers, slideshows, video portfolios, event promos, website logos, and so much more!
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