Imagine this: you only need a website to make money. You don’t even have to offer a service or produce a product. Sounds incredible, right? Say hello to affiliate marketing.

According to Statista, business spending on affiliate marketing will reach $8.2 billion in the US by 2022. 

15% of e-commerce revenue is attributed to affiliate marketing.

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We recommend you start today so that you can be in a prime position to reap the benefits later on.

In today’s guide, you’ll learn:

• What is Affiliate Marketing
• Types of Affiliate Marketing
• How to Start Affiliate Marketing
• How Much Money You Can Make As An Affiliate Marketer
• Pros and Cons 

Let’s dive in.

What is Affiliate Marketing

It’s an advertising model where a business compensates third-party publishers to generate leads or traffic to the business’s products/services. Affiliates are third-party publishers and the commission fee incentivizes them to find new methods to promote the business. 

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Affiliate marketing has become an excellent source of earning money. Thanks to Amazon, it has been popularized to this extent that almost all companies are now adopting this model. 

Affiliate marketing is a pay-for-performance marketing program where the act of selling is outsourced across a large network.

Companies running affiliate marketing programs track links that bring the leads through analytics and see how to convert them into loyal customers.

Affiliates are hired by e-commerce merchants trying to expand their product’s reach. Affiliates often have email marketing lists and multiple websites where they promote the merchant’s products. 

The affiliate promotes the products by adding links on the websites, sending emails and running ads. The advertisements can also be in the form of images, videos, reviews, and articles to draw the target audience’s attention.

Once the visitor clicks on the link or the ad, they’re directed to the merchant’s site. If they make the purchase, the merchant credits the affiliates account with 5%-10% of the sale price.

Therefore, the goal of affiliate marketing is to increase sales. This creates a win-win situation for both the affiliate as well as the merchant. This system is not only unique but also profitable.

Today, this model is easy to implement. Merchants can track their leads and pay commission with the help of internal analytics. Analytics also allows them to identify errors and optimise strategies and ad placements. This helps further improve sales. 

Affiliate marketing is an effective, low-cost way to advertise products and services. In addition, it helps spread brand awareness and expand the customer base. 

3 Types of Affiliate Marketing

Select a model that works best for you by understanding the key differences. 

1. Involved Affiliate Marketing. It establishes a deeper connection between the product and the affiliate. The affiliate has used the product and is confident that others should have the same positive experience. Their experiences are shared in the form of reviews, videos or ads. The affiliate is a trusted source of information and therefore, it helps boost the sales of the product. Since they’re recommending the product, their reputation is compromised with problems arising from these products. 
2. Unattached Affiliate Marketing. Here, the affiliate has no connection with the product they’re promoting. They might not even have the related expertise or skills to promote that product. Therefore, the affiliate makes no claims about the product and just focuses on promoting it.
3. Related Affiliate Marketing. It includes the promotion of products where the affiliate has some relation to it. Often, it’s the connection between the product and the affiliate’s niche. The affiliate has expertise and influence to generate leads because of their authority. However, the affiliate makes no claims about the product.

How to Start Affiliate Marketing

Follow these simple steps to learn how to do affiliate marketing:

1. Choose a platform. You can do affiliate marketing on any channel. But, it’s easier to increase your sales and build an audience on your Youtube channel or blog. Starting on either of the platforms is cheap and easy. Once you have started, optimise it for search engines so that you rank higher. 
2. Decide your niche. To increase your chances of success and reduce competition, niche down. Choose a topic that focuses on a specific category. For instance, food is a vast category. Choose something specific such as vegan food. However, remember to pick a niche that you’re interested in. You’ll not be able to create great content if you’re not passionate about a topic.
3. Decide on affiliate programs you wish to join. There are three different types of affiliate programs you can choose from. You need to decide on a platform depending on your level of expertise and niche. 
4. Create awesome content. To become a successful affiliate, you need to create great content. Your affiliate links should naturally fit into your content. Don’t blindly curate products from the merchant’s best sellers. Go the extra mile to ensure that your content solves your reader’s problem. For instance, if you’re sharing reviews, it’s important that you actually purchase the products and test them. 
5. Drive traffic to your site. You can get paid traffic, optimise your SEO strategy or build an email list to generate more traffic.
6. Get more clicks to your site. Do this by optimising your link placements, content and callouts (CTAs).
7. Convert these clicks to sales. Use the tactics above to generate more clicks. Remember to choose an affiliate program that works the best for you. Figure out which affiliate program is worth your time and effort. 

How Much Money You Can Make As An Affiliate Marketer

The right answer is: there’s no limit. It all depends on your niche and the kind of effort you’re putting in. 

The most successful affiliate marketers make somewhere between six to seven figures a month.

For instance, Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income generated more than $100,000 in December 2017 in affiliate commissions. 

The Wirecutter, an affiliate website earned an estimated $10 million in revenue.

However, please note that these people have done an incredible job building their brand. It took them years of hard work to succeed. 

Therefore, don’t expect millions of dollars in your bank account every month. It’s best to have realistic expectations. 

The success of others is an inspiration that with time, knowledge and hard work, you will reach these levels.

Pros and Cons 

It’s wise to evaluate the pros and cons of affiliate marketing before you decide to become an affiliate. 

Pros:

Here are 10 solid reasons to consider affiliate marketing.

1. Minimal/Zero Investment. You can use free tools and platforms to promote products and services. For instance, you can use Instagram and Youtube to build authority in your niche.
2. Easy. It’s one of the easiest ways to start a business. Just perform the basic steps to complete the process and start promoting!
3. Billion Dollar Industry. It’s growing rapidly and has a lot of opportunities. 
4. Earning and Learning. You can learn new things about it as you continue to earn. This will help you generate more income. 
5. Flexible. You not only get to be your own boss but also select your reward type. The most common reward types are “pay per lead”, “pay per click” and “pay per sale”. 
6. High Income Potential. Generate a high volume of sales to maximize your earnings. The more leads you have, the higher your earning will be.
7. Market-Ready Audience. You have different products from various brands to promote to an audience who’s ready to buy them.
8. Extensive Marketplace and Products. You get to promote a large variety of products through the marketplace. 
9. Promote Complementary Products. Promote complementary products in addition to the main products to increase your earnings.
10. Independence. Work from anywhere, at any time of the day (or night). 

Cons:

Like any other type of marketing, affiliate marketing has its own disadvantages.

1. Requires a Lot of Hard Work. It takes years of hard work and patience to build authority. 
2. Commission Based Payments. You may only receive payments when a customer makes the purchase. Not every merchant will pay you for clicking on ads.
3. High Competition. It’s a competitive field and there are thousands of affiliates who are promoting the products better than you. You need to be highly creative to build your authority.
4. Uncertain. There are high risks associated with affiliate marketing. There’s no guarantee that you will earn six to seven-figure amounts after a few years. 
5. Too Many Products. You need to choose the right products to promote for your audience. You will not earn anything significant if your product selection is not accurate.
6. Work as a Third-Party. You don’t have a direct relationship with the customers as you’re someone who simply promotes products. 

In Conclusion

Affiliate marketing is a great source of income. It’s easy to understand and implement which makes it easy for all types of people to become affiliates.

You can develop a solid stream of income if you know how to do affiliate marketing the right way.

Focus on your most effective channels to increase your reach. In addition to it, set new goals, experiment and optimise to become a successful affiliate. 

This is how you will build a website that starts generating a decent income.