What Are The Basics Of Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a great way for anyone with a website or blog to monetize their online presence. Let’s take a quick look at the basics of affiliate marketing.
Imagine this scenario: A friend tells you that they are selling their car but they haven’t been able to find a buyer for some time. A few days later you’re talking a person who is looking for a car just like your friend’s car. You put the two of them in contact with each other, and a sale is made.
As a sign of good faith and friendship, and because you were able to do something that your friend wasn’t able to, your friend gives you a portion of the proceeds from the sale.
What just happened is the basics of affiliate marketing. You connected two parties together – somebody who had something to sell and somebody who was looking to buy that item.
The Basics Of Affiliate Marketing
The basics of affiliate marketing are that you promote services or products sold by a company that is online or offline. When a sale is made, you get a commission. All the customer service hassles, and product delivery, are managed by the company. All you have to do is find an audience, pitch the products, and if you successfully convince someone to make a purchase you get paid.
How To Start Affiliate Marketing For Free
Let’s say that you already have a website or a blog. If you check your online analytics, you’ll see that some posts and pages receive the majority of your online traffic. Once someone has read a popular post or page on your website, the next logical step for you as a marketer is to think about is what type of product would be a natural extension to your content. You can offer a product or service that has to be purchased that improves on the information you gave away for free.
For example, if your content is about security and firewalls for computer systems, then type ‘security and firewall software offers’ into Google, or your preferred search engine. Approach companies you find in the search results, and tell them you would like to be an affiliate for their products and services. You’ll be surprised how many companies have an affiliate program.
FREE Checklist: Affiliate Marketing For BeginnersHow To Start Affiliate Marketing With Amazon
Amazon is the largest retailer in the world, and affiliate marketing is their premier marketing method. More products are sold by this retailer than any other worldwide, simply by using the affiliate marketing model. It’s free to become an Amazon affiliate, and you can sell anything on the Amazon website. Amazon sells physical and digital goods. You start off with a 4% commission rate, which gets larger when you sell more products.
When you are deciding exactly what type of service or product to promote on your website or blog, don’t just choose something that you think will sell. As an Amazon affiliate, you can use their search feature to browse the products that you want to promote. Choose your niche, for example, ‘security and firewall software’.
Type that search term into the Amazon search engine. On the left-hand side of your search click on the ‘4 stars & up’ filter. Amazon’s rating system works on a score of 1 to 5, 5 being the best rating. If a product receives a score of 4 or higher, you can be certain that the customers that purchase those products and left those reviews are very happy. These are the types of products you want to be promoting. You can then apply other filters to your search results depending on parameters that make sense for your prospects.
How To Start Affiliate Marketing With Clickbank
ClickBank is a popular online marketplace where product creators list their products for affiliate marketers to sell. Clickbank is free to join and is a widely-known, respected company in the online business world. The majority of its products are digital information products. This means that as soon as the customer buys the product from you, they are able to download it instantly to their computer.
The Clickbank online marketplace contains tens of thousands of affiliate products to promote so you’re sure to always find offers that will appeal to your audience. Once you have found the product that you want to promote, Clickbank will issue you with a unique Clickbank ‘hoplink’ which is your affiliate link the product’s sales page. This is the link that you want your prospects to click. When your prospect clicks the link and buys the product, the sale is tracked to you and Clickbank will pay you your commission. On ClickBank you can earn commissions of 25%, 50% and even 75%.
Why Start Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a wonderful way to start an online business for very little investment. It’s perfect for those who don’t want to be the creator of a product and for those who don’t have a lot of start up money for their online pursuits.
Consumers love to get advice from an outside source before they go shopping. The sheer number of items for sale can be daunting, and if you, as an affiliate, take time to compile “best” lists or lists of items for a specific purpose, it’s very helpful to the shopper.
Aside from affiliate marketing providing you with an extra income source, you’re helping your readers and followers. It’s a win-win situation. You win, your readers win, and the company who is paying you a sales commission wins as well.
Which Products Do You Promote?
You can promote a wide array of products and services with the affiliate marketing business model. But it’s best to start off promoting products that you know something about and are genuinely interested in. People will want to get buying advice from someone who knows what’s best for them. Remember that your goal is to get the reader to click through on the link. But that doesn’t mean you lie or gloss over obvious criticism of the product. Consumers are savvy, and you want to cater to their needs with honesty.
Affiliate Marketing eBook Free Download
Affiliate marketing is the quickest and easiest way to make money online, for the beginner or veteran Internet entrepreneur. Companies are happy to pay commissions to people just like you, in return for selling their products and services. Make a plan and stick to it. Focus on what the people of your niche really need and want. As an affiliate marketer, you have the potential to generate an online income when you choose the right niche, stay committed, and understand your audience. To learn more about the basics of affiliate marketing, download my free Affiliate Marketing For Beginners PDF Checklist.