What is Affiliate Marketing?
Simply put, affiliate marketing is a tactic that helps brands drive sales through affiliations with content creators, publishers, and websites that promote unique affiliate links to their product pages through their channels. Affiliates earn a commission when someone visits the link and makes a purchase. 81% of brands and 84% of publishers leverage affiliate marketing, implying its growing popularity, as US Affiliate Marketing spending continues to significantly increase every year. In 2017, affiliate market spending was capped at $5.4 billion, while in 2022, it increased to $8.2 billion. Becoming an affiliate is relatively simple: 👏 You join a store’s affiliate marketing program 👏 You show the affiliate ad or link on your website, blog, or social media channel 👏 The customer clicks the link and is redirected to the store 👏 The customer makes a purchase on the store’s website using your affiliate link 👏 The purchase and transaction details are recorded by the affiliate network, which will then be validated by the store as a valid sale 👏 The proceeds of the transaction will be credited to your account 👏 You get paid In affiliate marketing, there are three parties usually involved: 👉 The seller or brand and/or the product creators The seller is the entity with the products to sell, whether it’s a physical product or a service. There’s no need for the seller to be actively involved in the promotion of the product; however, in some cases, they may also work as the advertiser and split the revenue with the affiliate through revenue sharing. 👉 The affiliate The affiliate is responsible for marketing the seller’s products to their audience. If a visitor ends up buying the product that’s being marketed, the affiliate earns a commission, which is a portion of the revenue generated from the sale. 👉 Visitors or consumers The consumers are the driving force behind affiliate marketing. When they buy a product, they generate revenue for the seller and the affiliate. It’s worth noting that consumers won’t need to pay extra for purchases made using affiliate links, as the price already includes the affiliate’s share.
How Do Affiliates Get Paid?
There are several ways to pay an affiliate, according to Adam Enfroy: ✨ Pay per sale Considered as the standard structure for affiliate marketing programs, pay per sale is when an affiliate gets their share of the sale price after a product they’ve promoted has been purchased. ✨ Pay per lead The pay per lead method is when an affiliate gets paid when a lead undergoes conversion. This entails a more complex process where the affiliate encourages the visitor to visit the seller’s site and complete a desired action, whether it’s leaving their contact details, signing up for a newsletter, or downloading certain files. ✨ Pay per click Pay per click requires the affiliate to encourage the visitor to move from their site to the seller’s site. The affiliate is paid based on the performance of the seller’s web traffic.
The Types of Affiliate Marketing
According to Pat Flynn, affiliate marketing has three main types: ✨ Unattached affiliate marketing This represents the standard pay-per-click marketing campaigns and doesn’t necessarily require affiliates to establish a connection with the product consumer. With unattached affiliate marketing, you won’t be required to have a presence or authority, making it an appealing prospect for many affiliates. There’d be no need for you to build a reputation or engage your visitors. All you need to do is run ads and hope that your audience will click them and make a purchase so you can earn a commission. ✨ Related affiliate marketing This is another common affiliate marketing type that you can see on blogs, videos, or social media. Here, you’ll be featuring affiliate links that are related to your niche on your site. The affiliate links under this type of affiliate marketing are for products that you don’t necessarily use. ✨ Involved affiliate marketing Involved affiliate marketing is when you actually have some form of involvement with the product that you’re promoting, such as when you’ve used the product or recommended it to your visitors. It’s basically something that you put in our blog, for example, because you believe in it or it plays a key role in what you’re talking about in your post or video.
Affiliate Types
It’s worth noting that affiliates have several types, including: ⚡️ Coupon and cashback sites Coupon sites offer deals or discount codes to consumers. When a consumer uses the discount code, they can earn a commission from the sales proceeds. Cashback sites operate in a similar manner. Unlike coupon sites, they give back money to consumers who’ve made a purchase using the affiliate links on their site. As an affiliate, cashback sites receive a commission for every sale. However, they opt to give their proceeds back to their visitors. ⚡️ Content websites Content websites like online magazines are a viable source of affiliate links. These sites may monetize traffic through ads that double as affiliate banners. They can also include affiliate links within the body of their content. ⚡️ Blogs Blogs work in a similar way to content websites, where they can feature affiliate banners or links on their website. ⚡️ Mobile apps Mobile apps are also one type of affiliate partner. These apps can use affiliate links to redirect consumers to a vendor’s site or to an incentivized offer. ⚡️ Influencers Influencers are seen by their audience as credible sources of recommendations. Given their large following, it’s relatively easy for them to promote a product and get their followers to visit their affiliate sites.
Benefits of Affiliate Marketing
More than being just an alternative revenue stream for passive income, affiliate marketing offers a lot of benefits to entrepreneurs and content creators.
💯 You can work wherever you like
Affiliate marketing lets you earn passive income wherever you may be, whether you’re at home or in your favorite coffee shop. It gives you the opportunity to work on your campaigns remotely, giving you the freedom to earn according to your own terms, without having to worry about restrictions or regulations. Moreover, you’d be able to determine your own hours and which products to promote.
💯 It’s a cost-effective means to earn
There’s a lower barrier to entry with affiliate marketing. It doesn’t require you to have a large capital and is fairly easy to set up. Most programs also don’t require you to pay registration fees.
💯 It’s performance-based
Affiliate marketing offers affiliates performance-based rewards. This means that you’ll earn according to how much effort you put in your campaigns or promotions. Being able to create content skillfully encourages consumers to click on your affiliate links and make a purchase, which gives you the potential to increase your revenue. With this in mind, it helps if you’re able to leverage SEO best practices to create a website that’s more appealing to your audience. Optimizing your website for SEO doesn’t just apply to your affiliate links, but to your entire website. It can drive more leads and conversions, which translates to more sales and earnings for affiliates. In addition to those benefits, search engine optimization can boost your website’s organic discovery and bring you improved website traffic, all while giving you an edge over your competitors.
💯 Affiliate marketing is a lucrative industry
Affiliate marketing is already a very lucrative industry, with affiliate marketing spending predicted to grow to up to 10% in the coming years. In 2020, affiliate marketing spending grew to almost $7 billion from around $4 billion in 2015.
💯 Doesn’t entail a steep learning curve
Affiliates don’t necessarily have to be marketing experts to start this venture. Given its convenience and flexibility, you’d be free to choose how you want to execute your campaigns. For example, you can use optimized content on your blog to promote affiliate links.
💯 It offers many opportunities for marketing
The beauty of affiliate marketing lies in the various marketing methods that you can apply. You can promote the affiliate links through your blog, in your YouTube videos, or in online courses, where you can recommend the product to your audience. You can also create a separate website that’s dedicated to affiliate marketing, where you feature or review the products you’re sharing links to. When a visitor clicks the affiliate link and makes a purchase, you’d earn a referral fee, which can vary depending on the product category you select.
How Much Can You Potentially Earn as an Affiliate?
How much you earn will mainly depend on two factors: how many referrals are generated and the product category you select. In general, you can earn anywhere from $100 to $20,000. In rare cases, some affiliates may even earn six-figure incomes from the program. If you’re just starting out or if you don’t have a large following yet, the figures may not be as impressive. However, if you work on optimizing your campaigns, you can eventually earn more.
✅ Start a website or blog
✅ Fill out the application form and include your website’s address and preferred store ID
You’ll be required to fill out an application form that asks for account information including your name, address, and contact details. You’ll be required to include your preferred store ID, as well as information on what you hope to accomplish with your online channel.
✅ Include how you’re going to drive traffic to your site
✅ Select your preferred payment method
Choose your preferred payment method and tax ID on the next page. You can skip this process and work it out later. Once you’ve submitted your application, you’ll be redirected to your Associate homepage. Here, you’ll find your performance dashboard, which also doubles as a search engine where you’ll be able to find products that you can create affiliate links for. 📌 Click the “Product Linking” button at the top of the dashboard and select “Product Links” from the dropdown menu. This redirects you to a page where you can search for a product. Using this search engine, you can look for a product using generic terms or a specific brand or model. 📌 Click the “Go” button to start your search. Once the results appear, select the product you want to create an affiliate link for. 📌 Click the “Get link” button found next to the product. This will open a pop-up window that lets you copy the HTML code, which you can use as is or customize.
⚡️ SiteStripe
SiteStripe lets you create affiliate links directly from an item’s product page. If you’re using SiteStripe: 📌 Visit the product page you want to promote. 📌 Select “Text” (for plain text link) from the “Get Link” menu found at the top of the SiteStripe dashboard to get the link. Alternatively, you can also choose “Image” (image with embedded link) or “Text+Image” (text and image ad) from the menu. You can also create your own link by clicking the “Custom” button found next to the “Get Link” button. 📌 Once you’ve selected the type of affiliate link you want to use, copy the ad code that appears below your selection.
Rules and Requirements You Need to Remember
🔍 You need to disclose on your online channel that you may earn a commission from your affiliate links. 🔍 Refrain from indicating prices as these can periodically change. 🔍 Refrain from using link shorteners for your affiliate links.
Earning as an Affiliate
🧷 Direct deposit 🧷 Check Having fewer competition means you’re more likely to land sales and conversions. In a similar manner, having a niche for your website means you can promote the products that interest you and you can promote them without sounding too salesy. Moreover, having a niche gives you the opportunity to establish yourself as an expert, thus making you come across as more trustworthy to your audience. It’s also important to work on your website promotion. Not promoting your site can negatively impact your traffic, which can lessen the likelihood of visitors coming across your affiliate links, clicking on them, and making a purchase.
Final Thoughts
Signing up for the program is also relatively easy and is free. The challenge lies in how you can utilize your online platform and optimize it so you can encourage more visitors to click on your affiliate links and make a qualified purchase you can earn a commission from.
