Affiliate Marketing: What Is It and How do I do It?
Affiliate marketing is the act of promoting a product, service and/or website with the intention of receiving a commission when your referrals make a purchase or complete any other action (register, sign up for a newsletter, or sometimes just even click on a link) beneficial to the owner of the product or site.
Affiliate marketing is a great way to earn additional income without having to give up your primary vocation. While you may be able to quit your job sometime in the future after having mastered the art of affiliate marketing, it’s probably not something you’re going to want to do right away.
Finding Products or Services
You may be wondering what types of products or services are available for affiliate marketing. The answer is websites in every niche that do. Take some time to think about your passions and what types of products you would like to sell, and go from there. There are a few ways to find affiliate marketing opportunities.
One way is to visit popular sites like Click bank, which already have a long list of products for visit various sites in your target niche. If a company offers an affiliate marketing program, there will generally be a link at the bottom of the page entitled, ‘Affiliate Marketing Program,’ or ‘Affiliate Marketers,’ or some relevant variation.
You could visit each individual site or do a search for companies in your chosen niche that offer affiliate marketing programs.
Process of Affiliate Marketing
When you sign up for an affiliate marketing program, you are given a unique link that you are able to promote. When your referrals click the link, it will bring them to the website hosting the product you are promoting, and that website’s cookies will track your referrals activity. Different affiliate programs offer different pay structures.
Some pay out only at certain thresholds and some pay monthly or semi-monthly -regardless of balance. When you join the affiliate marketing program, you will provide your bank account or PayPal information so the money you earned can be deposited into your account when it’s time.
Basic Tools of Affiliate Marketing
Ideally, as an affiliate marketer, you should at least have a blog. A blog is a great way to generate content online and build a list of readers who trust you and enjoy what you have to say. On your blog, you will have the opportunity to showcase the product(s) you’re promoting, and there are a variety of ways to do it.
You can create banners on your blog or you can mention your product specifically in a blog and insert your link by hyperlinking one or more keywords. A website isn’t a bad idea, but it’s way more involved than a blog and may take more of your time and resources than you have available or want to invest. It may be something that you want to consider later once you start generating sales.
Another reason why a website may not be the best idea in the beginning is because you probably don’t have any traffic or faithful readers yet. One of the biggest mistakes that fledgling affiliate marketers make is starting to refer products right away. That can’t be your goal in the beginning.
When you first start your blog, your goal is simply to provide relevant and accurate information that’s easy to read and has a tone that will appeal to your target audience.
Once your blog starts to generate traffic and you’ve developed a reader base, it will be time to start listing like they’re being offered the information they need without an agenda, so if they were satisfied with your information on their first visit, it’s very possible they will return to your blog in the future.
Also Read: Best Way to Promote business in 2024 with Video Content
Write with SEO in Mind and Keep Your Blog Active
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and it refers to the way your blog or website looks to search engines. Take some time in Google AdWords or another online keyword search tool and get some highly searched terms to use in your blog. Choose only one or two primary keywords for each post and include some LSI keywords and keyword strings, as well.
LSI stands for List Service Index, and they are keywords and keyword strings that are relevant to your product or niche and support your primary keyword(s). Make sure your primary keyword is in the first sentence, the last sentence.