If you are all about making money, I mean perfect money, without doing anything, then try Affiliate marketing!

However, the truth is, Affiliate marketing is a bit complex, but you CAN make money while you sleep.

In this post, we talk about different ways you can use Affiliate Marketing strategy to generate income and become a successful affiliate marketer.

According to a survey, 83 percent of the brands and 85 percent of the publishers have confidence in affiliate services for revenue generation.

Before we dive in deep, let’s look into what “Affiliate” really means and how you can use them to your advantage?

If you are already into affiliate marketing, you might still find something useful in this blog that you may not have thought before.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Waking up at an atrocious hour and driving to work? What if, instead of managing through the stupid rat race of life, you earn good bucks at any time and from anywhere?

That’s Affiliate marketing for you- making money even while you sleep!

Affiliate marketing is the way through which an affiliate, which is you, earns commission by marketing other person’s or organization’s products. The affiliate searches for the product is popular among the consumers and promotes it. In return, the affiliate earns a piece of the profit from each sale they make. The deals are tracked through affiliate links from one website to another.

In other words, when you refer someone to buy a product online and when that person buys the product using your recommendation, you receive a commission.

• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Pinterest
• reddit

Just try this,

• You prescribe a product or a service to your friends or followers.
• They purchase your products using the affiliate link from your website.
• You get a cut from the sale made through your affiliate link.

See, there is never a single process; many affiliates use different marketing methods and work with it differently.

For instance, if you are an individual who is looking to be an affiliate, then it is advised to know more about the brand’s affiliate program, their best practices in promoting their product and services and you will be compensated while doing so.

Since you are interested in getting into the affiliate business, just a caution of advice, DO NOT sign up with every affiliate marketing network and get overwhelmed and overloaded with work.

Take your time in knowing the affiliate scene before you even think of promoting a single product. 

What are the elements of Affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is the oldest form of digital marketing and even big companies like Google, Amazon, Apple and many others.

Affiliate marketing works by disseminating the workload of product marketing and creation among different parties. It is an effective way to utilize various abilities from a variety of individuals for a more effective marketing strategy.

It must involve the following factors:

The Seller or service creators

 The seller can be an entrepreneur or a larger enterprise, can be the retailer, vendor, merchant or the product creator. The product will be a physical object or a service depending on the type of industry they are associated with.

The seller does not necessarily be involved with marketing, but they can also be an advertiser and therefore, profit from the revenue sharing that is generated through affiliate marketing.

The Affiliates

Affiliates can be an individual or a company that markets the products of the service creators appealingly to potential customers. Another way of putting it, affiliates persuade the customer in such a manner that it compels them to buy the product. They convince the consumers by showing how beneficial the product can be and convince them to purchase the product or service.

They are usually, 

• Bloggers.
• Social media posters.
• Niche content sites.
• Product review websites.
• Shopping sites.
• Mobile applications.
• App-to-app marketing platforms.
• Mass media sites.
• Reward Websites.
• Other brands.

Affiliates often seem to have a targeted audience to whom they usually market. That is, taking keen interest and forming a well-researched opinion on the market’s concern on the product. This Is how affiliates create a well-defined niche that helps them to attract the customers who will more likely act on purchasing the product.

The Affiliate networks

They are marketing associates to the brands and usually handle tracking, reporting and payment to affiliates. In addition to that, some affiliate networks provide full or self-service management programs. This network gives the brand access to thousands of affiliates who are willing to connect to their network and bring substantial profit.

SaaS platforms

SaaS platforms provide performance tracking, reporting and payment to affiliates. But, they don’t manage affiliate programs or provide companies access to the affiliate network. It is focused on the technological aspects of the affiliate program.

Most brands select an affiliate network or SaaS platform as its technological partner-Never Both! 

Agencies

 They supervise and administer everyday operations along with implementing a marketing strategy for the brands. Additionally, they manage partner relationships, recruiting, activation and optimization. They work with the affiliates directly along with the affiliate network or with the SaaS (software as a Service) platform to meet the technological needs of the program.

The Consumer

Consumers are the central keeper of affiliate marketing. Without them, affiliates’ work will remain undone! The affiliates share the seller’s product on social media, blogs and websites for the consumers. It is only when the consumer’s buy the product the affiliates get a share of the profit. Sometimes, an affiliate can be upfront with the customers by disclosing they receive a commission from the sales they make while on other occasions, customers remain entirely unaware of the affiliate process behind their purchase. 

One way or the other, the customers do not pay extra for the purchased product from affiliate marketing. The affiliates share of the profit will be included and disclosed in the retail price. The customer will not be affected by the affiliate marketing system and will pay and receive the product as standard.

How does Affiliate Marketing work?

The Inner working of the Affiliate program can get quite confusing and mysterious at times!

 Some Marketers think the entire process can be shut down in an instant like turning off a bulb switch. Well, it’s not!

The structure of the Affiliate marketing program is built on transparency and strong relationships. 

The ultimate goal is to create a successful framework for both brands and the affiliates that will provide a significant portion of the online revenue for the brand.

Here is how an affiliate marketing works,

1. An affiliate joins an affiliate program
2. The affiliate partner promotes a product, through a unique affiliate link, on their website. 
3. They share the link through social media, YouTube videos, Facebook ads or any other social platform.
4. The customers then click on the brand promotion on the affiliate’s site, and a cookie is stored on the customer’s website. The cookie helps the affiliate network to track the customer’s progress and redirect it to the brand’s website.
5. Consumers then purchase the product from the brand’s website directly.
6. The SaaS platform then pays out a share of the profit to the affiliate directly for helping to make the sale.

Affiliate marketing also includes

Tracking performance

Affiliate marketing uses tracking cookies and pixels to track and measure market activity. The data generated from this tracking program tends to be more accurate and reliable from the other type of marketing strategy and leads directly to high ROI generation, including:

• Email registration and sign-ups.
• Sales, order and Subscriptions.
• Conversion rates.
• New vs returning customers.
• Average order sale.
• CPA or Cost Per Action. 
• CLV or customer lifetime value.

Program Management  

Most companies, on average, use affiliate marketing management either In-house or make an association with an affiliate management agency or OPM to organize and categorize day-to-day operations to effectively run the program. The brands also take the “Hybrid” approach where they manage the program requirements In-house while partnering up with an OPM to measure day-to-day activities effectively.

However, each program management has its strengths, such as

• In-House:  It works best for companies who have decided on running a small, private affiliate management program with a select group of partners. The In-house manager can manage any programming difficulty very easily. It is also the best choice for companies who are not looking to grow their affiliate program. If they are not looking to invest in other companies or wait till they find a suitable investor, In-house management is an appropriate option.
• Agencies:  Companies who lack the necessary resources, operation and industry experience, partnership with affiliate programs and a suitable affiliate platform, Agency program management tends to work best in this situation. This type of program management will help drive online sales and increase revenue and help them to manage their affiliate program effectively. 
• Hybrid management: Hybrid management programs are a combination of in-house and agency management programs. It is suitable for companies who require an excellent and well-experienced team of affiliates to run the show. It is beneficial for the companies who are looking to expand their geographic stage through carefully driven marketing strategy. 

How do affiliate marketers get paid?

Affiliate marketing has an undeniable influence on those who are looking to increase their income. It is a quick and reliable way to make money without always selling the product online. 

Affiliate marketing is a favourite set-up that drives sales and generates high revenue for both brands and affiliate marketers. In fact,

• Affiliate marketing spending in the United States increased by a jaw-dropping 10.3 percent. By this year, the spending has reached $6.9 million.

• In 2018, content marketing spending was determined to be 62 percent of the Traditional marketing schemes while simultaneously generating three times the lead of the traditional methods. Sixteen percent of all the orders that were made online contributed because of affiliate marketing.

• By March 2017, Amazon affiliate structure changed dramatically, offering rates of 1-10 percent of the product revenue for sellers and offering the affiliates an opportunity to increase their passive income depending on the niche they are selling on.

Therefore, the revenue generation of affiliate marketing is always changing and bringing better revenue generation opportunities.

The customers or consumers do have to buy the products for the affiliates to make money. Depending on the program, the affiliate kickback can be measured differently.

Here are some ways the affiliate can get paid,

Pay per click

The affiliate marketer must engage the customer to get incentives from the sale. That means the affiliate must persuade the customers in making a purchase that will move from their affiliate’s site to the merchant’s site. The affiliate gets paid depending on the increase in web traffic. 

Pay per lead

A more complex system, the pay per lead program incentivizes the affiliate depending on the number of lead generation. The affiliate other than persuading the consumer to buy a product must convince the customer to complete certain actions- such as filling out a contact form, signing up for a trial membership program, registering to its newsletter and many more. 

Pay per scale

This is the standard structure of most affiliate programs. Through Pay per scale, the merchant pays the affiliate a cut of the sale price of the product after the consumer purchases the work because of the affiliate’s marketing strategy. 

Are you thinking of becoming an affiliate marketer? 

If you are thinking of becoming an affiliate marketer, then it is an excellent choice! Many benefits come with the territory, such as

Latent Income

While most jobs require you to be physically present at work to get paid, affiliate marketing lets you generate passive income even while you sleep. By contributing a small amount of capital into an affiliate program, your return will come in ten folds as consumers purchase the products in the following days and weeks. You will also get money in doing your work after you have finished doing it. On the other hand, you will learn valuable marketing skills that will help you earn a steady flow of income. 

Free of customer’s hassle

Most traditional companies and organizations or the sellers of the product have to deal with the customers and ensure their satisfaction of the product was delivered to their expectations. However, with affiliate marketing, you do not have to deal with customer’s expectations or ensure their satisfaction. The customers choose the product they want as you work only and directly for the seller. The seller will deal with the customer’s feedback as you get paid for your sale. 

Work in comfort

If you hate going to the office, affiliate marketing presents you with the perfect opportunity to work from home. You will be creating and starting campaigns along with receiving revenue from the comfort of your own home. This is a job where you can have a good night’s rest and never get out of your pyjamas. Are you willing to slide this big of an opportunity? 

Cost-effective

Most startups require a fee as well as a steady cash flow to buy and maintain the products that are sold. With affiliate marketing, that can be done at the lowest cost. That means you start your affiliate programs instantly without any hassle. There is no program fee for affiliate marketing, and you do not have to maintain the product. The work is simple and straightforward.

Convenient

With affiliate programs, you get to set your own goals, work on your schedule, work at your convenience and change your settings depending on the workload and determine your working hours. That means you get to diversify your workday depending on the way you want to make your resume look outstanding. Since you are responsible for your work, your efficiency will not be held back by teammates who poorly perform. 

Earn as much as you want

You may work 60 hours a week and still get the same salary. However, if you put the same effort into affiliate marketing, you will be rewarded handsomely! Affiliate marketing is all about performance – you get as much your efforts! Upgrading and acquiring reviewing skills along with writing engaging contents will increase your revenue generation, and you will get paid for the outstanding work you do. 

If you are a beginner in Affiliate marketing, you can start by doing the following,

• Write a few blogs for a particular niche and promote the products. It is one of the simplest and easiest ways of getting started into the affiliate program. 
• Buy quality traffic from PPC sites from Google, Facebook etc. and rush some traffic into your affiliate products. It is also called PPC marketing. 
• Create a YouTube profile and start selling products by promoting and reviewing them.
• Create a mini-website and start generating email leads.
• Make podcasts for your affiliate products.

How do you become successful in Affiliate marketing?

Before you start applying yourself into the affiliate network, take account of the following step to become successful in affiliate marketing.

Know your audience

At the beginning of your affiliate career, you would want to capture the audience’s attention. For that, you need to understand their specific interest and tailor your affiliate campaigns accordingly. By targeting a particular niche, you increase your probability of success. Make sure to do extensive research on your target audience and products or services that are popular amongst them. By setting yourself as an expert on a particular market instead of being scattered all over the place, you make a reputation on a specific market, and the revenue starts generating automatically. 

Take it as your own

There are enough products to promote, and you need to sort the good from the bad. Believe in your intuition and pick and market those products you believe in. Make sure your affiliate campaign centers around valuable products that your customers will enjoy from buying and using it, make it a memorable experience for the customers and you will achieve fantastic conversion rates while establishing yourself as a reliable brand.

Review products and services

 Focus on reviewing the products that fall under your niche umbrella and leverage the audience rapport in promoting the products by telling your audience how they would benefit from the work by buying it from your site. Anything can be sold and reviewed if there is an affiliate program – from digital service to physical objects. It plays a significant role in comparing products that fall in the same category. Just make sure your reviews are honest, and you are providing detailed and accurate content that will improve conversions. 

Do not use one source.

Instead, use several sources. For instance, do not just focus on email campaigns but also focus on writing a blog, reaching out to your customers using social platforms and even promoting your products through cross-channel strategy. Try different marketing strategies and try getting acquainted with the new trend and notice to which one your audience responds the most. 

Understand the demand for the product

No matter how good you are with marketing strategies if you do not learn the demand for the products of your audience, you will make less money on your affiliate campaign. Therefore, it is advised that you take the time in learning the results of your niche market and research the seller that you are teaming up with. Your time is essential and make sure to know the products and the people you are going to spend it with.

Keep up with the current trends.

The competition in the affiliate marketing trend is enormous, and if you want to stay at the top, make sure you are well aware of the affiliate trends. That way, you remain competitive and active in the race. Moreover, you will benefit from the new affiliate marketing techniques that are always created. Be sure, to keep yourself updated on the current strategies, and it will guarantee you high conversion rates and therefore get you high revenue. 

What are the current affiliate marketing strategies of 2020 that you should employ?

Recommend products you know intricately

If you want to build trust with your audience with affiliate marketing, then recommend products that you have used before, and it is a good fit for your audience. Make sure you do not tell your audience directly to buy your products, just recommend them. The more helpful and informative your recommendation is, the more likely your audience will come back for your expertise. 

Promote products from different sellers

Do not get stuck with one seller! That will stiff your commission, landing pages and more importantly, the conversation rates. Diversify your merchants in your niche and develop a broad taste for a variety of products. This will increase your commission and help you create a steady flow of income on your affiliate website. 

Try new things to optimize your conversion rates.

Instead of spending hours beating domain authority using blogs and guest posts, try including landing page optimization, testing calls-to work action and have your conversion rates optimized. By trial and utilizing optimization strategy in place, you will get the best results with no effort!

Focusing on Affiliate traffic sources

It is crucial and vital to know where your traffic is coming from and the geographic foothold of your audience. That way, you can customize your message and the content of your niche to provide the best affiliate recommendations. You should focus on the traffic source and the type of audience visiting your site so you can bring the best of your converting traffic. This is crucial in making an informed decision to increase your future traffic and conversion rates. 

Therefore, the more time you spend honing your skills and serving for the right niche for your product, you will make a huge sum of profit for every link that you convert.