Affiliate Marketing: How Does It Work?
In affiliate marketing, it is not necessary to have the product on hand to sell it . You are just the bridge between producer and consumer.
As an affiliate, you also don’t have to worry about inventory or bringing people into your network. And what’s more, if your product is down, you can simply switch merchandise at no cost.
It is worth mentioning that some companies have an affiliate program for the sale of physical products, such as Americanas.
Related Reading: Affiliate Marketing for Beginners.
What are the best channels to sell as an affiliate?
Discover now some of the channels you can use to sell as an affiliate!
This channel will allow you to write articles and reviews about the product you are promoting. In addition, it will also help you to keep in touch with your audience.
It is worth mentioning that, in the digital environment, we use the expression “ educate the audience ” a lot. This technique consists of showing people who visit your blog that they have a problem and, above all, that you can solve it.
The coolest thing is that it is possible to create websites and blogs for free. By the way, WordPress is one of the platforms that allows you to do this, for example.
Ideally, you should invest in a professional template so that your blog doesn’t get cluttered. Try to make it as clean as possible. This will prevent people from leaving your page before they finish reading.
In the article “ Content Marketing and SEO ”, you can find several cool tips to make your blog stand out in searches. After all, it’s no use writing valuable content if no one will read it.
So, know that mastering SEO techniques is essential and will help a lot!
Recommended Reading: 4 Things you didn’t know about Affiliate Marketing
Email marketing
Email marketing is a communication channel with leads through an email automation platform. That is, you can schedule messages and they will be automatically sent to your contact list.
And how are you going to create that contact list? One possibility is with the offer of some free material, such as an e-book, for example. In this case, email marketing is seen as a lead magnet.
Thus, on your website/blog or on your social networks, you can offer content and, in return, the person provides their email address. Okay, now you know that this person is interested in what you have to say!
Know that SqueezeWP allows you to create capture boxes and banners to place on your blog. You just have to assemble a box offering something, with a space, for the interested party to enter the email and/or other information that you deem necessary.
It is worth mentioning that email marketing should also be used after sales, as it is an opportunity to keep the doors open for old customers to buy again.
In the video below, we talk a little more about the best email marketing tool on the market. Try it for free!
YouTube
You sure know YouTube , don’t you? But did you know that this platform is “only” behind Google when it comes to searches? That is, if you manage to stand out on YouTube, you will be speaking to millions of people .
YouTube makes it possible to talk to your audience through videos. So, you can show your product, if you have it in hand, and you can also use the videos to make reviews and comments about it.
People often don’t have time for long readings. So videos end up being the fastest way to get to the information.
To succeed, the affiliate needs to be seen! So, in addition to YouTube providing this, it will also give you the chance to have a more open communication channel with your audience.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce is a SaaS that helps companies and brands grow day by day.
It is a very complete software that ranges from site SEO, site speed optimization, landing pages, payment customization, among others.
More than 60,000 merchants use BigCommerce in more than 150 countries around the world.
Its affiliate system also offers great benefits for its promoters.
Their commissions range from 200% of the first monthly payment of each referral, up to $1,500 if an enterprise customer is referred.
Check out their affiliate program
ConvertKit
ConvertKit is a platform for content creators, which will help promote their products, creations, content, podcasts, among others, through email.
It is a very interesting tool that offers great automation and ease of use that is more than interesting.
This email marketing platform offers a good affiliate system.
You will earn a 30% commission for every sale you make.
On its page it also has a very ‘user friendly’ calculator to know with certainty how much money you will generate for X number of referred users.
For example:
• If you refer 1 user, you will take a commission of 8.70 dollars per month
• If you refer 20 users, you will get $174 per month.
• If you dream big and manage to bring them 500 users, you will receive $4,350 per month.
The commissions offered by ConvertKit are quite interesting.
Click to learn more about their affiliate program and make calculations in their commission calculator.
Surfer SEO
It is the turn of one of the tools that has surprised me the most for good in 2021.
We are talking about Surfer SEO , which is an ALL in ONE SEO suite, which will allow you to improve your content including keywords from the competition, measure the number of words in the content on the first page, create custom content from within the platform, and of course, do competitor analysis and much more.
Its most well-known competitors are Ahrefs and SEMrush, however when it comes to affiliate programs, it stands head and shoulders above both.
With each affiliate you refer to Surfer SEO, you will earn a 25% monthly commission.
For example, if you refer 10 users who pay the intermediate plan (Pro) that costs 99 dollars per month, you will get almost 250 dollars of commission that is renewed every month if they continue to be.
This tool to program and manage your Twitter profile (or that of your agency, company, entrepreneurship, your clients, etc.) is one of the most impressive in terms of functionalities that exist today.
With Hypefury you can program tweets, group them into categories, retweet and comment on each mention, follow profiles of your sector and get ideas from there, connect with Gumroad to sell your products, among other things that I invite you to discover.
Their affiliate system offers a flat 25% profit when you start. You can reach 35% commission every month for every customer you refer to Hypefury.
If you want to know more about their affiliate program, go to this link.
Other platforms for affiliate marketing are:
• Awin
• Flex Offers
• ClickBank
• ShareASale
• Amazon Associates
• Avangate Affiliate Network
• Rakuten Marketing (Formerly LinkShare)
• CJ Affiliate (Formerly Commission Junction)
What are the benefits of affiliate marketing?
Low investment cost
This point must be analyzed from two angles. The first investment that comes to mind is financial, right? So, if we compare any physical business with an online one, the monetary value invested in digital is certainly much lower.
And in affiliate marketing, this goes for physical products as well. After all, you don’t have to buy them to resell . Just provide the link through which the person can complete the sale and your commission goes into the account. That simple.
Another savings to consider is time. Some people have more and others less talent to develop a quality info product, be it an online course or an e-book.
Thus, the time you would use to prepare the material can be turned into hours to promote a good product that is already available.
Greater sales possibilities
The internet is already consolidated as the most used means of communication worldwide. And every day more people are consuming online, which in product info product sales.
And as we know, the internet is a “store” open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. That’s why selling while you sleep is one of the perks of affiliate marketing.
No academic training required
Knowledge is essential in all areas of life. This is no different with digital marketing, which grows and evolves every day.
However, being your own boss, it is no longer necessary to present an academic degree to become a successful entrepreneur.
Allows remote work
Another sign of the times is the culture of digital nomadism. Working online allows you to be physically anywhere in the world.
You can have a blog, a YouTube channel, profiles on social networks and also promote products from each of these platforms.
So, another advantage of affiliate marketing is that it allows you to work remotely.
Extra income opportunity
You don’t have to leave everything behind, buy a motorhome and travel the world if you don’t want to. Affiliate marketing is also a good extra income opportunity . After all, you can work on campaigns and outreach in your overtime.
Allows you to serve multiple segments
The variety of products available is great. There is certainly one that you and your audience can identify with. And it doesn’t have to be just one. They can be products from related or complementary segments.
Is it possible to make money with affiliate marketing?
Yes for sure! According to Awin ‘s survey , in the first wave of the pandemic, affiliate marketing had a 72% growth in sales.
Therefore, the market is hot and this may be the time to work for yourself and use the methods you consider most appropriate to run a business.
Obviously, the start will not be easy. However, affiliate marketing gives you the opportunity to work from wherever and whenever you want.
That is, it is possible to start this activity as an extra and then turn it into a main source of income.
It is worth mentioning that the initial investment is very low, practically zero, and you will not need to create a product.
