With a majority of shoppers relying on the internet to purchase different products and services these days, affiliate marketing is by far one of the best ways to make money in the digital space. Just for a recap, it involves promoting products and services of various companies or online retail shops as a third party, earning commissions from every sale that is made as a result of your efforts. Depending on the products you’re marketing and who you’re doing it for, it is also possible to earn from any clicks made on your affiliate link or the traffic generated for the specific page you’re promoting for a commission.
However, affiliate marketing is never a walk in the park. It’s not a get-rich-quick activity that will get you to quit your day job in a fortnight. Most people get into affiliate marketing to earn extra income. They take it as a side hassle. Even as you’re figuring out your family goals or readjusting your budget to meet the ever-increasing cost of living, it’s important to note that affiliate marketing requires a strategic approach, just like any other income-generating activity. To succeed in this particular internet marketing space, you need to master the various ways of making money and how to get the maximum number of target customers to notice you. You also need to be careful when choosing your niche, as well as the products or services to promote.
But to get down to the main agenda of this article, here are a few proven ways to make money with affiliate marketing.
1. Pay Per Sale
In this form of affiliate marketing, you’re paid a commission for every sale that is completed as a result of your marketing efforts. Commissions can be earned immediately when a sale is completed or payment can be done once you complete a particular threshold, usually in several days, a week, or monthly. PPS is unarguably the most common affiliate payment system out there and simply put, the amount you earn will depend on the number of sales you make, as well as their amounts since the commissions are usually a defined percentage.
2. PPC Ads
Pay-per-click or PPC is just as it sounds. Here, you earn a commission based on the number of clicks made by consumers to your banner, ad, or affiliate link, whether or not the customer ends up purchasing the product or service from the business you’re promoting. These days, however, PPC affiliate ads are hard to come by, especially since fraudulent behaviors have been observed in the past. Nonetheless, this type of affiliate marketing system has huge potential, especially if you secure a deal with a big company.
3. Lead Generation
Brands all around the world are always on the lookout for potentially valuable customers they can follow up on. These are known as leads and as an affiliate marketer, you can earn money for each lead you generate for such a company. It’s called the pay per lead system, where your main task is to conduct an analysis of the target audience and engage potential consumers so the merchant can follow up on them. It involves the use of various approaches, including newsletters, opt-in email, scheduling phone calls, using forms on your website and much more. The slight downside to this is that more often than not, it’s a thing for companies with bigger budgets or those that are unable to sell to their customers directly online, such as real estate companies and car dealerships.
4. Bounty Programs
Also known as customer acquisition, bounty programs involve simply sending a customer to the sales page and you get paid once they make a purchase. It’s like you’re paid for your referrals and your main task is to begin a long-term relationship between the client and the merchant. They are like the pay-per-sale program, but on a larger scale. Each sale typically generates a large amount of money and the sales cycle is usually much longer. The best thing about this affiliate marketing approach is that despite taking long most of the time, the payouts are usually high. The baby version of this payment system is the residual earnings program, which earns you smaller payments for every customer you refer to the merchant. You also get to earn commissions for every purchase your referral makes in the future, meaning that it can be a great way to generate consistent income over time.
5. Multi-Tiered Programs
This affiliate marketing option combines various income streams in one account. In simpler words, there are various ways you can make money as an affiliate marketer from multi-tier programs. In addition to making money from sales, clicks, or referred customers, a multi-tier program allows you to also earn commissions from affiliates you recruit. You get to earn a certain percentage of the profits they make. It’s often a great way to earn income from affiliate marketing without doing much.
Tips To Maximize Your Affiliate Marketing Returns
Whichever approach you choose in your affiliate marketing endeavors; you will definitely have to be strategic enough to come out on top. Affiliate marketing is a highly competitive space and if you go in blindly or without a solid plan in place, things might not work as well as you’d like them to. To get you up on a good footing, here are some tips you may want to borrow.
Carefully Choose A Niche
The niche basically refers to the kind of products/services you’ll be promoting or the industry you’ll be concentrating your efforts on. Your niche will dictate your target audience as well as the content you’ll provide. It will help you develop a marketing plan and your marketing campaigns will largely depend on it. When choosing a niche, some things you need to consider include:
- Passion
- Competition
- Profitability
- Scale
Create A Stunning Website
As an affiliate marketer, you’re better off promoting links, ads, products, and services from your website. Make sure that the website is well designed with user experience in mind. It should be optimized for SEO and mobile-friendliness. It’s where you’ll be posting engaging content to generate as much traffic as possible from your target audience.
Quality Content
Since content is king, you’ll need to keep it engaging, fresh, and up-to-date. If possible, try incorporating videos, images, and other forms of visual content such as infographics to make it more appealing. In addition to your website, you can post or promote this content on your social media profile pages to maximize traffic and reach out more to your audience.
Email Marketing
When it comes to internet marketing, email list building is one of the most effective tools in maximizing lead generation and sales conversion. Having an email list also allows you to keep potential and existing clients in the loop about new products or upgrades they might be interested in over time.
Choose Your Affiliate Products Wisely
Now that you’ve already chosen a niche, choosing affiliate products shouldn’t be a difficult task. However, you can’t pick just about any product on the affiliate space in your niche. It’s wise to choose products that will be easy for you to sell. Preferably, you will want to go with products that:
- Relate to your content
- You’ve used or have some expertise about
- Have good ratings from consumers
- Address the needs of your target audience
- Products that your target audience are eager to know more about
Affiliate Marketing Networks
An affiliate network is simply a platform that bridges the gap between retailers/sellers and affiliates. Manufacturers and retailers list their products there and affiliates can choose what to sell or promote. Some common options include Amazon Associates, ClickBank, ShareASale, and CJ Affiliate, just to name a few.
Tracking and Analysis
At the end of the day, you have to know how your affiliate marketing efforts are faring. There are many tools out there that can help you with research on what people need most as well as how your products are performing, so you can keep track of your earnings. These tools also provide insights that can help you know where you’re going wrong or which products are not profitable, so you can make the necessary changes to make your campaigns more fruitful. A good example of such tracking tools is MonsterInsights, which lets you know how your affiliate products are performing on a WordPress site.
In a world where the internet basically runs things, affiliate marketing can be a great way to earn income. However, you’ll only find it satisfying if you know how to approach it the right way. The above are just a few ways you can make money through affiliate marketing, along with some tips to help make it an easier and more profitable activity for you.
