If you spend even an average amount of time on the internet (which is pretty hard not to do) you must have heard about affiliate marketing. There are dozens of posts popping up on Facebook every day about people earning money working from some beach resort with nothing but a fruity cocktail in hand and a laptop in their lap.
If you’re like most people, you’ve probably wondered:
“Can this be true? Is it all just a scam? A trick to lure you into giving someone your money?”
Like with most things in life, the truth is somewhere in the middle.
Affiliate marketing is a very real (and growing) business opportunity in today’s modern world. While those often misleading Facebook posts are, clearly, way too market-y and don’t show things in their true light, you can actually make a nice living as an affiliate.
Interested?
Keep on reading – we will NOT ask you for any money! That’s a promise!
What Is Affiliate Marketing, Exactly?
Unless you actually know what it is, the name affiliate marketing is probably not self-explanatory enough.
“In a nutshell, affiliate marketing is a model where companies pay others (affiliates: be it individuals or affiliate companies) to market their products and help them reach more customers.”
Why would they do that?
Primarily because it is a model that works very well in today's highly connected world!
The idea of affiliate marketing isn’t a new one but it has really taken off over the past ten years or so. Companies are looking more and more towards affiliates as an alternative but also very effective marketing tool.
Earning Money as an Affiliate (Difference Between Traditional and Affiliate Marketing)
In traditional marketing, a company will pay beforehand to have their advert aired on TV or radio or appear on the social media a certain number of times. In this model, the TV station doesn’t particularly care about how much profit the company will make thanks to their ad. They’ve already been paid.
Affiliate marketing is much different and thus potentially much more effective.
In affiliate marketing, you get paid based on your sales. For example, if you’re an affiliate for a company selling beauty products, you’ll get a percentage of whatever the customers you refer spend with the company. It could be as little as 5% or as high as 80% - it all depends on the industry you’re in, the number of people you refer, etc.
The bottom line is, it is in your best interest to have as many people buy what you’re selling.
It works for you, it works for the company you represent, and, at the end of the day, it also works for your customers as long as you’re selling quality products.
For example, you could be making 20% of gross sales you generate. Users you send over in the first month spend $2,000 and you get $400. It’s a nice chunk of money but it is only a small taste of what you could be getting. What if you send more users and they spend $10,000. Or $50,000?
“Many companies are business savvy enough to understand that incentivizing affiliates is essential for keeping the mode alive. This is the reason companies will often bump your affiliate percentage as long as you hit certain targets. This means that, as you progres, there are even more reasons to keep working and expanding your business.”
How to Get Started as an Affiliate?
“The best piece of information lies in the simple fact that it has never been easier to become an affiliate.”
There is almost no business niche that doesn’t offer some kind of affiliation opportunity.
So, in order to start, the first thing you need to figure out is what you want to do. In this position, it is probably a good idea to get involved with something you’re already familiar with, be it makeup, tech products, online gambling, poker, or whatever else you can think of. Taking up an industry you’re familiar with means you’ll probably be able to add some extra value as an affiliate, which can help you get off to a great start.
Many people are turned off by the idea they need to build a website and spend money to get started but you don’t necessarily have to do all this before you start. There is nothing preventing you from starting small with a dedicated Facebook page or just doing it on a small scale, selling to people you know and think might be interested.
If you get a taste for it, you can use the money you earn to grow and expand your efforts.
“Affiliate marketing may not be the easiest thing to do in the world but it is also business model with a very low entry threshold. Anyone can give it a try without spending even a penny. Where you go from there is up to you and how much effort you’re willing to put into it.”
It may take a while to get to the point where you’ll be sipping cocktails on a remote island but the sooner you start, the closer you get!
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