By the time you get to half of this post, you will get a clear understanding of what affiliate marketing is.

I know you have been hearing about this. There’s a buzz everywhere.

You’d hardly go 3 minutes on the Internet, or binge-watch a youtube video without someone telling you why affiliate marketing is the only thing that can save you.

It’s almost annoying, frankly.

But, still, you wonder, is it worth the hype?

Can one make a decent living doing affiliate marketing?

How do affiliates make their money?

How can you start Affiliate Marketing?

What exactly is Affiliate marketing?

Today, I will answer all your questions and more.

Even better is that I will answer you honestly.

So, let’s begin.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Let us seek a few external help to get the basic definitions of Affiliate marketing.

A quick look at an online dictionary says

Affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based marketing in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought by the affiliate’s marketing efforts. Wikipedia

Another definition from Oxford says Affiliate Marketing is a marketing arrangement by which an online retailer pays a commission to an external website for traffic or sales generated from its referrals.
“Most of my earnings are from affiliate marketing, direct ad sales, and sponsored posts”.

In both cases, they talk about a similar system. Selling for a third party.

So, in a very basic summary, affiliate marketing is simply referring to products, to prospective buyers, for a commission.

These products can be either physical products or digital products.

This simply means that you sell other people’s products for a commission.

You have no involvement in the production, distribution, or follow-ups that comes with running a regular business or service.

This is not a sparkling new idea as people portray it. Affiliate marketing is one of the oldest business methods known to man

This is a very popular way of doing business but covers a wide range.

At some point in your life, you have done affiliate marketing without even knowing it or being paid for it.

From the moment you refer someone to get a product or service, you have practised this business model… Albeit, without earning a commission.

So, businesses are saying, if you get us a customer, we will pay you for this.

What’s even more astonishing, is that they pay you without any additional cost to the buyer.

This is because this is a sale they would not have made without you.

The world is a chain.

Say, you refer me to buy a bag of rice worth $50… I buy it because you approved of it and referred it, you make a commission out of this. Even without me incurring any extra cost.

This is the same for everybody you have referred to buy this rice too.

WHO SHOULD DO AFFILIATE MARKETING?

So, who can do Affiliate marketing, you wonder.

Is it hard?

Simple answer. Yes and No.

Anyone can do Affiliate Marketing if they feel the need to be making some money on the side.

Some do this full-time. This is because the earning potentials are unlimited.

Although Affiliate Marketing, in general, isn’t very hard, it’s still not that very simple either.

Although, it is much simpler than starting a full chicken and sauce business from scratch.

Or even looking for a job… Or doing something you don’t fancy.

If you want multiple streams of steady income, you will want to look at affiliate marketing.

If you are looking for a seamless and easier way to start earning online, you should look at affiliate marketing.

If you want an almost passive way of income, then, you should do affiliate marketing.

This can be a side hustle for you or even a full-time business.

One thing is sure though, affiliate marketing is probably one of the easiest ways of making money online.

How do Affiliates Make their Money?

Affiliate Marketers make their money through commissions.

If you refer people to buy products on Amazon, or any shop for that matter, as long as you have enrolled on their affiliate program, you are entitled to a commission.

These commissions are per product or sale and will be listed in the terms of the agreement.

Physical Products or Digital Products?

Digital Products offer more lucrative commissions than physical products.

You can get as high as 50% to 80% commission paid to you for getting sales for digital products.

So, if a product costs $100, you will be getting $50 for every sale you make. Or even higher.

This is so because with digital products the cost of production isn’t as compared to physical products. Also, there’s no warehousing, taxes, rents, and a lot of these hassles and charges that come with running a regular business.

These are some of the reasons why their high commission is justified and easily sustainable.

Physical Products on the other hand don’t always offer high commissions… This could be a result of the cost of running businesses like that and how easy it is to sustain them.

Because these sales would not have come off not for you.

PS… There are a few physical products that pay high commissions too.

Also, some of the affiliate commissions are recurring.

So, you work once and earn multiple times.

Easy money.

Pros of Affiliate Marketing

• This is almost a passive income.
• You have unlimited earning potential.
• Affiliate Marketing is easy to start.
• It’s very flexible and convenient.
• You can do Affiliate Marketing from anywhere in the world.
• You can do it anonymously.
• Affiliate Marketing gives you the chance to be Independent and Creativity.

Cons of Affiliate Marketing.

• Affiliate marketing requires time.
• With affiliate marketing, you don’t own or control the product. This is a come because sometimes, you just want to be in charge of what you promote.
• It takes time to start seeing huge results. If you want something for instant double income, it’s not going to be affiliate marketing
• Earning depends on the level of sales you make. So, it’s not a job where you are entitled to full sure monthly pay.

How to Start Affiliate Marketing?

Like every other business, affiliate marketing requires a strategy.

This means that you have to understand that you are providing solutions to people’s problems through the products you affiliate with.

So, to start and be successful.

You must do the following.

• Pick a niche.
• Pick an Affiliate Platform.
• Find a problem-solving product.
• Run traffic to this product.
• Take commission.
• Rinse and Repeat.

 

Pick a niche.

Picking a niche is important for affiliate marketing.

There are a lot of products and affiliate opportunities out there, jumping into all of them is nearly impossible and counterproductive.

You need to pick a niche to focus on.

This can be with physical or digital products.

Take the time out to find a profitable niche you have some passion for, and then go from there.

Pick an Affiliate Platform.

Affiliate Platforms are marketplaces where these products are listed.

Sometimes, you can do this directly with the products company but in most cases, products are listed on affiliate marketplaces like ClickBank, Expertniare, CJC, Shareaskill, etc.

You can do Affiliate marketing on amazon for physical products.

You can also do Affiliate marketing with amazon for Digital Products.

Find a platform that serves your niche.

Find a Problem-Solving Product.

After picking a niche, you have to find the problem in the niche, and then, a solution to this problem.

These products are a solution to people’s everyday problems, all you have to do is to find the right working solution for them.

Pick a good profit.

Find the Traffic.

Affiliate Marketing is a commissioned-based business model. This means you have to be able to make sales to earn.

Finding the right traffic for the business is how you earn.

You can find traffic through organic ways or paid ways.

Paid Traffic.

This involves the use of paid advertising platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Quora, Pinterest, Twitter, Youtube, etc to push traffic. This is a faster way to generate sales but comes with a fee as ads aren’t free.

You will be paying these advertising platforms for using their platforms to push traffic to your products.

This is very effective and straightforward.

Organic Traffic.

This includes the use of SEO and other sources of organic traffic. This is the most standard way to generate traffic, as they can stay up for years without the need of running sponsored ads.

However, one has to understand and master the SEO system to see tangible results.

This simply means that you will have to create content on your website, blog or 3rd parties sites… These contents must follow the SEO system so they can be easily searchable online.

The trick is that you make content based on organic searches on search engines like Google, Bing, youtube and the rest.

This gives organic lasting results, but it does take time to begin to rank on SEO.

Take Commission.

After you have completed your set-up, you are set to start earning your commissions.

It’s important and easier to sell valuable in-demand products. Something people are already searching for.

This makes the entire process easier since you solve problems that people would readily pay for.

Conclusion.

Affiliate Marketing is a lucrative business model that will continue to thrive, although it requires a bit of work, it’s worth it.

It’s not a coincidence that it had stayed successful all these years.

So if you ask me if you should do affiliate marketing, I will give you a simple answer.

If you read this far, then yes, you should, by all means, do affiliate marketing.

That’d be all for this post.

See you in the next one.