How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?
Are you interested in becoming an affiliate marketer? Good choice. This is a billion-dollar industry where thousands of internet marketers rake in thousands or even millions of dollars every month. Are you ready to know how the process works? Let’s start by answering a few questions.
Are you interested in becoming an affiliate marketer? Good choice. This is a billion-dollar industry where thousands of internet marketers rake in thousands or even millions of dollars every month.
As e-commerce grows bigger every day, so does affiliate marketing. Business will have spent $8.2 billion by 2022 in the US alone to pay affiliate marketers.
Are you ready to know how the process works? Let’s start by answering a few questions.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
In simple terms, affiliate marketing is promoting companies’ products at a small fee. You can compare it to a car salesman. The salesman will get an average commission of $330 after closing a deal.
But in this case, an affiliate marketer promotes products sold on e-commerce giants like Amazon, Google, Apple, and Alibaba.
The difference between a typical salesperson and an affiliate marketer is that an affiliate marketer can promote products from different companies. This allows them to earn the top-dollar at the end of the month.
Who Does an Affiliate Work for?
Affiliate marketers work for companies, also known as merchants, advertisers, or retailers. The companies must be willing to offer commissions to affiliate marketers after promoting their products.
As an affiliate marketer, you will help generate more leads and sales. The companies then pay you in what is called performance marketing. This is divided into;
- Pay per sale – It’s where a company pays a commission for any sale generated.
- Pay per lead – Where companies will pay a fixed commission for any qualified lead.
- Pay per click – You get paid for valid clicks generated if it makes or doesn’t lead to a sale.
How Much Can an Affiliate Marketer Make
There is no set limit to how much an affiliate marketer can earn. It all depends on how much effort you are willing to put in the business. Plus, the niche you choose has a part to play.
Successful marketers that have partnered with high ticket affiliate programs like ClickFunnels can rake up to 7 figures. A good example is Spencer Mecham, who has earned over a million for promoting ClickFunnels.
Pat Flynn, known as the demigod of affiliate marketing, made over $100,000 of commissions in 2017 as an affiliate marketer.
You have the potential to earn the top-dollar. But it all depends on the strategies you choose and how you optimize them.
How do you Get Started with Affiliate Marketing?
Starting as an affiliate marketer can prove a hard task for the first few months. You will mainly be setting yourself as an authority before you start getting affiliate purchases.
Below are the two most important steps you should take to get started.
1. Choose Your Affiliate Platform
Ideally, you can do affiliate marketing on any platform, even on social media sites like Facebook and Instagram. The only reason people prefer to use blogs and YouTube channels is that it’s effortless to build an audience quickly.
Starting a blog is easy today. You only need a hosting and WordPress platform to set it up. There are gazillions of videos and articles which will help you get started. YouTube is even easier. Creating and uploading of content is totally free.
After you have set up your chosen platform, start creating top-notch content that will set you apart from the masses. Also, optimize the sites for search engines.
2. Choose a Niche and Start “Selling”
Most people claim that choosing a niche is the hardest part of affiliate marketing. This is true because the competition is high. There are approximately 31.7 million blogs in the USA alone, and all want to be relevant.
With all these, you have to narrow down to a sub-niche that separates you from the masses.
For instance, the “kitchen” niche is saturated. You might go for a specific niche like kitchenware. After getting the right product, join an affiliate program. You can consider low paying, but high volume affiliate programs when starting.
Bottom Line
Don’t give up when you see things, not working. Affiliate marketing is not an overnight money-making scheme. In some cases, you will wait for a few months before you make a single cent. It’s until you gain a huge audience that you will start getting results.