The Complete Guide To Affiliate Marketing

If you own a business website or you have a presence online, affiliate marketing can be a key way to increase your income. This article explores how affiliate marketing works and how you can use it to make a profit.

Affiliate marketing is best described as the process of earning a solid commission by deciding to promote products by a company or an individual. Once you find a product that you like, you can start promoting it and thus earn a profit for every sale that is created due to your promotion. 

Essentially, affiliate marketing is the process of dividing the marketing of the product and the creation of the product across various different properties. This allows each party to receive a revenue share which will be based on the contribution. As well as benefiting the affiliate, this form of marketing also provides an advantage for the owner of the product. They gain money due to the increased levels of sales. 

Affiliate marketing can involve promoting the product on a variety of different platforms including

• Blogs
• Social networks
• Websites

This can be more than a side hustle. It can become a fully-fledged passive income and a massive boost for the original product creator.

How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

Getting started with affiliate marketing is a simple process. The first step is to find and join an affiliate program. There are countless examples online. Once you join a program like this, you will be able to choose which offers and products you want to promote. You will then receive a unique affiliate link for each particular offer. 

These links can be shared on any of the platforms mentioned above that you have access to. You will be able to collect a commission each time anyone uses a link to complete a purchase of the product.

It’s worth noting that the rates of commission can vary quite dramatically. This largely depends on the company that you are working with as well as the offer. For instance, you can earn between 4% and 50% of the sale. Usually, rates will be higher if you are promoting a class or an event rather than a product. Certain affiliate marketing programs also provide a flat rate. This can provide more peace of mind as you know exactly what you are being paid for this particular service. However, the returns may not be anywhere near as high.

Affiliate Marketing Best Practices

There are various smart practices to keep in mind for affiliate marketing. First, as an affiliate marketer, you should focus on delivering value to your target audience. You can do this by providing content and ensuring that the affiliate link fits naturally. The best way to do this is to introduce a problem that your audience is facing, target a pain point and then present the link as an example of a solution. 

You also need to select high quality services and products for affiliate marketing. If you don’t do this, you are quickly going to lose the trust of your audience. Work to establish and build relationships through the content that contains the affiliate marketing link. Try to understand what your audience wants and how the product you are promoting can help them achieve this. 

If you are the creator of the product, you need to ensure that you are paying your affiliates on time. Late paychecks are going to kill any connection that you have with your affiliates and make them think twice about working with you again.

Legal Issues With Affiliate Marketing

There are numerous legal considerations to keep in mind when you are setting up an affiliate marketing campaign. For instance, you should ensure that there is a privacy policy in place. This protects the interests of every party involved in this process. Without a privacy policy, you will be mistaken for a business that uses affiliate links to exaggerate advantages of a particular product or service. 

If you are running an affiliate site or operating as an affiliate then you should include a disclaimer. This is separate from the privacy policy. You should ensure that this disclaimer is used frequently and appears on your homepage as well as directly in any content that you create. It should let users know whether you have been paid to mention any service or product. You need to make sure that this is as clear as possible. Avoid any technical jargon that could confuse a reader.

Best Ways To Promote Products Or Services And Increase Sales

There are countless ways to promote products and services as an affiliate marketer, boosting levels of sales. You should definitely ensure that you are using call to action buttons. Don’t forget that most readers will just scan the article and click the button. So, the CTR must be effective. Using tables is another smart choice.

It makes the information easy to digest, understand and separates it from the rest of the content. You might also want to complete a keyword list that is based on commercial keywords. Some examples could include: best, cheap, offer, promo, improve and alternatives to name just a few. You also need to make sure that you build up your reputation. If your viewers trust you, they are far more likely to click on one of the links.

Disadvantages Of Affiliate Marketing

There are a few issues with affiliate marketing that you should be aware of. For instance, it can take a while for you to get established. This is not a short term way to make money, it’s a long term business strategy. It can take as long as 36 months to start earning a real income with affiliate marketing and that’s if you put the work in. This also means that you need a solid level of self discipline. The only person you are accountable with affiliate marketing is yourself. 

Furthermore, you don’t have any control over commissions or pricing. As an example, the Amazon Associates Affiliate Program provides a certain percentage to affiliates. You can’t negotiate to increase this, regardless of how effective you are. 

We hope this helps you understand affiliate marketing and how it could benefit you.

Featured image source: Freepik (Affiliate Link)