Referral marketing allows you to make money online even if you don’t have a blog or website. After a few easy steps, you can get start Affiliate Marketing and earn your first commissions right away. Affiliate marketing is truly one of the fastest and easiest ways to make money online and should be part of every online business owner’s portfolio.
The affiliate marketing formula remains relatively constant regardless of your market or niche. Your main task will always be traffic generation (i.e., attracting potential customers to the merchant’s site using your unique affiliate link). You can start by looking for ways to drive free traffic and then add paid advertising methods to your traffic.
Writing good marketing copy (copywriting) is another essential skill for internet marketers. The good news is that when it comes to affiliate marketing, many vendors will provide you with a copy to use on blogs, ad websites, etc. They will give you emails to send, banner ads to display, and even messages that you can use on social networks (such as Facebook, Twitter, etc.).
Choosing the right affiliate network
The match must be right between you and the seller. The easiest way to start with affiliate marketing is to choose an affiliate network. There are many affiliate networks, some of which are associated with well-known companies such as Amazon, Google, and Apple, while others specialize in specific types of products and services.
You may have heard of ClickBank, one of the oldest and most popular affiliate networks. The billion-dollar company ClickBank specializes in digital products such as e-books and software, as well as paid subscription sites. If you are comfortable selling information and you do not want problems with the management and administration of a “real” business, then this is for you. ClickBank commissions can range from 10% to 75%.
Sometimes, sole proprietors with great products are noteworthy, although you should check and research them first. Sometimes companies can launch their own affiliate program and you can contact them directly to promote their products and services. For example, Amazon is always an option as they have you partnering for almost any type of physical product. Amazon is the fastest-growing online marketplace in the world.
Researching and choosing the right affiliate product
A sound product strategy is a must for new affiliate marketers. Ideally, you should choose a niche where you can make money online and has many different suppliers. This will give you a wide variety of products for your online community. However, limit yourself to two or three products at the same time so that you become an expert trusted by others when they pull out their wallet.
Once you are comfortable with affiliate marketing programs and processes, you can consider both specialized niches and popular niches such as “Lose Weight in 30 Days”.
Don’t forget to track your marketing metrics! They are usually provided by your trading and/or affiliate network. This way, you will be able to find out which products your audience is reacting to and which ones are not profitable for your business. This is especially important if you are investing in paid ads to drive traffic.
You need to determine which campaigns are profitable and which are losing money.
Buy the product before promoting
As a new affiliate marketer, you don’t have to buy every product before promoting. It goes without saying, however, that in fact, the use of the goods creates deeper trust.
Writing product reviews is a great way to build your credibility as a partner. This is especially easy with information products like e-books, which are relatively inexpensive. After establishing some constant income, it is worth buying higher-end products.
If you actually use the product and get some experience and results with it, then sharing this case study or your personal experience will greatly increase your effectiveness.
As you build up a large subscriber base and build on your reputation, partner sellers may offer you “free” samples of their products.
Note: In many cases, merchants will be happy to offer you a free copy/sample of a product, even if you don’t have a working business – it never hurts to ask!
Use social media to get traffic
Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are great places for word of mouth or viral marketing. Video marketing in particular is a great way to showcase your expertise through comments, screenshots, and live demos.
It’s extremely effective right now to create videos on Instagram Stories and also leverage YouTube for a long-term approach to video marketing.
While you may initially focus on using social media as free traffic, keep in mind that there are powerful ways to use paid social media ads to drive traffic to your website or your affiliate offers.
