INTRODUCTION
Affiliate marketing is referring people to products of companies that are not your own. Then, you receive commission if those people sign up or take upon your referral. In simple words, affiliate marketing is just referrals. It usually takes place via a link.
Everyone does affiliate marketing. All the famous YouTuber’s, all the tech reviewers, people on Instagram, all those fitness people, big companies like Uber, Lyft, blogs like Smart Passive Income, and even small food blogs do affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketing is also a digital marketing. Many people confuse affiliate marketing with network marketing. But, network marketing is multi-level marketing. It is pyramid schemes. On the other hand, affiliate marketing is not pyramid schemes at all. It is legit sales and commissions.
Smart Passive Income is an affiliate marketing blog. Pat Flynn created it. Through affiliate marketing, the guy is earning about six figures a month. Hence, there is a lot of scope in affiliate marketing.
EXAMPLES OF AFFILIATE MARKETING AND HOW IT WORKS
If you watch any tech review on YouTube, you will see some links in the description.
Amazon
Amazon Associates is Amazon’s affiliate program. Amazon Associates has a broad range of products. So, it is the largest in terms of affiliate marketing. There you can earn up to 10 percent advertising fees with a trusted e-commerce leader. Follow these steps for affiliate marketing:
- Joining Amazon Associates is free. But sometimes, you might need to have a website to get approved. Some people register without it too. Then, you need to log in. You can see all the products that you can promote.
- After that, you need to choose a product you want to promote, like a PC. Then, click on the get link option on the right side. The link is your personalized tracking link. You can include it in your videos, your website, or your landing page. Then, that link is personalized to your account. The link has a tracking code through cookies. If somebody clicks that click, it is going to be tracked back to you.
- If somebody buys anything from Amazon, not just the PC, within 24 hours, you receive a percentage of the commission. The commission ranges based on the product category. It can range from 4 percent up to 10 percent. You can check the Amazon Associates rates to see each specific product category and how much they pay. There is a fixed rate for each product.
- For instance, you promoted a PC. The fixed standard program fee rates for PCs is 2.5%. So, if you sell something from the PC category, you will receive 2.5% of that sale.
That is how affiliate marketing works in Amazon.
Bluehost
Bluehost is a web hosting company. There were over five million paid in commissions in 2017. Just like Amazon, it is free of cost to join.
Go to their website. Then, you need to promote Bluehost on your website with custom banners and links. For every visitor who clicks through these links and signs up within 30 days, you will receive $65.
ADVANTAGES OF AFFILIATE MARKETING
- In affiliate marketing, you don’t need your product or service to make money. Affiliate marketing allows you to sell someone else’s products and get fat commissions. The majority of digital products are paying out from 30 to 75 percent. Similarly, physical products pay you from 2 to 20 percent on average.
- If you have experience with e-commerce or Shopify drop shipping, you will know what payment gateway is and what kind of problems you can face running your own business. The majority of affiliate marketing offers you painless and hassle-free payouts. So, you don’t need to deal with any gateways. Also, the refund is not your problem.
- You can make the affiliate marketing 100 percent passive. As soon as you set everything up and start driving traffic to the products that you are promoting, you can step aside and enjoy your fat commission.
- You have an unlimited potential for financial growth. You are free to promote any product that has an affiliate program. You can promote as many products as you want. You don’t have to create your goods every single time when you want to test out the niche. Also, if you have to scale your business, you don’t need to create any products either. You can speak more products or, you can change products and promote something more lucrative for you and scale things out.
- Affiliate marketing is beginner-friendly. You don’t need to much hard work as compared to other marketing strategies. All you have to do is set everything up, create valuable content, and see commission coming in.
