For a few years now, the internet has been a place where people can make some extra cash or start a full business online with little to no initial investment when compared to more “traditional” businesses. However, during the great pandemic of 2020, the whole world was forced to stop and look for different ways to make money. Many found affiliate marketing as a quick and viable solution to supplement their regular income or even replace their income entirely without having to leave the comfort of their own homes.
Affiliate marketing is relatively simple in concept yet more complex to execute once we get down to the real nitty gritty. When done correctly and professional, you can generate real profit and consistent income without having to worry about fulfillment or support to customers. In some cases, you don’t even need to have a website, blog or product of your own. If you chose to start a dropshipping business, ecommerce or create your own infoproduct, understanding how to properly do affiliate marketing is going to work in parallel to whatever you chose to create more income pretty much on auto-pilot
How to work in Affiliate Marketing
No matter which niche you choose to attack, the formula for success in affiliate marketing is almost the same for all them. The main task that you have to focus on is list building and creating value for a the specific audience that your product serves. Basically, you want to get qualified people who are interested in solving a specific problem to checkout a product or service that solves that problem perfectly.
The product that you are recommending just so happens to be one that you are an affiliate for and will make a commission (portion of the sale value) if somebody makes a purchase. What you have to learn is how to get qualified people to your website/blog/social media account so that you can redirect them to said offer.
If you want to get quick results, you will have to invest in what is known as paid traffic through sources like Facebook Ads, Google Ads or other Ad Networks. However, as the name suggests, this costs money. Not a lot, but some to get started and if you don’t know what you are doing properly, it could become costly.
Or you could go the free route but that has a different hard cost which could end up being much greater than if you paid for it – your time. No matter what you chose, pick one and go all in until you become an expert in it.
Copywriting For Affiliate Marketing
Another important ability for an online marketer is good copywriting. The good news here is that when it comes to affiliate marketing most of the time this is going be done for you because many sellers offer advertising copy for you to copy and paste. They’ll give you the banner ads to display, the emails to send, and even social media posts that you can publish to help you get more results. This is a win/win kind of situation because the more materials that vendors give their affiliates the better chances an affiliate has to make sales for them.
So, now that you know a little bit about this amazing world, I set aside 5 critical steps necessary for you to launch your profitable affiliate marketing business quickly and easily.
Firsts Steps in Affiliate Marketing
You need to do some research and select the right affiliate products before doing anything else. If you are new on this, I suggest you pick a niche that you have some knowledge and passion about. Yes, you can approach pretty much any niche that you can think about and still succeed. However, the more you know and are truly in tune to how people think, feel and speak in said niche, the greater the chances of you connecting with them through your copywriting and advertising.
Pick the Right Niche
Pick a niche where people WANT TO buy and CAN buy any product that you are looking to promote. The biggest mistake newbie affiliate marketers makes is trying to offer something that people simply don’t want to buy or can’t (because they are broke). Rule #1 of sales: DON’T SELL TO BROKE PEOPLE.
Know your Numbers
This is essential for your success in pretty much anything in life. You have to keep track of your marketing metrics so that you know exactly if something is work or not, pretty much immediately. This is one of the greatest advantages to online marketing versus other forms of sales or business. You know exactly when to scale or when to kill a particular campaign.
Affiliate Network
Pick the right affiliate network for your niche. There are many affiliate networks out there that you can choose from such as Amazon and Airbnb. For online digital products, one of the most popular affiliate networks is called ClickBank. One of the best ways to create a solid diversity is to mix between digital and physical products that are in high demand and easy to fulfill and sell.
One big advantage to digital products is that they tend to offer higher commissions than physical products because of the margins. The fact that your customer gets instant access and immediate gratification when buying a digital product is also something to think about.
Amazon.com itself is another network that you should take into consideration. Any physical product you can think of is probably being sold in Amazon. Selling products there as an affiliate can bring much higher volume business because most people trust Amazon as a merchant, making it easier to sell products as an affiliate.
On the other hand, a network is not your only option, you can work with a company or individual directly as an affiliate. You can apply to their own affiliate program to promote their services and materials. If they don’t offer this kind of program, you can always reach out to them to try to work out a private deal.
Buy the Product Before Promoting It
Most people don’t trust reviews where people say they don’t own the material themselves. Of course that as a new affiliate marketer, you don’t have to purchase every single product that you choose to promote. However, this is a very good way to gain trust and credibility from your clients, and writing product reviews is the best way to do that.
The easiest product to write reviews about are eBooks or another type of information product, once they are relatively not expensive at all. You can also buy higher-end products and write about them once you already established some steady income. You can get in touch with the product creator to work out a strategic marketing plan. This will take you to the next level, for sure.
Sharing personal experiences and case studies are even better for getting your client’s trust and build up your audience but remember this is only valid if you really see any results from using that product. As you have more subscribers and buyers to your list, the companies may even OFFER you free samples of their products for you to sell.
The Importance of Social Media in Affiliate Marketing
Nowadays, social media are vital for viral marketing. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest and so many others are great vehicles. If you need to pick one, I would suggest video marketing because is a great way to demonstrate your expertise via screenshots, commentary and live demonstrations if necessary.
I would say that YouTube is a long-term approach, so for starters you could go with Facebook Lives. Also, keep in mind that there are influential ways to use paid advertising on social media to reach your audience and drive that traffic back to your site or your affiliate offers.
The bottom line here is that whether you a newbie or an oldie, affiliate marketing is going to be GREAT for your life, helping you generate a side income that will help ease the burden in hard times, or maybe become a new business altogether.
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