Into to Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is when you try to earn money by placing ‘affiliate links’ on your website, social media, blog, etc. and people purchase a product through your link. This is hands down my favorite way to earn money online! If you do not already have a blog or website to place affiliate links check out this quick post on how to set up your very own: LINK ME

Of course you cannot just slap affiliate links on your website or blog or randomly tweet affiliate links out and expect people to purchase the item. This is a common mistake that many people make when first starting out but if you continue this mistake you will eventually burn your followers and they will begin ignoring your affiliate links – resulting in no income!

Make sure you have honest experience with the products you choose to become an affiliate for. This shows that you’re speaking from the heart and from actual experiences. Readers can tell – it is important to be authentic and is the single greatest way to increase your affiliate sales.

Affiliate Marketing is actually very simple to be honest, which is why I am such a big fan of using it as a means to earn money online. A simple example is below.

A product creator wants to sell more product. The product creator will allow you to sell their product and keep a piece of the sale! In this example, we are acting as the ‘affiliate’ and the piece of the sale we keep is known as the ‘affiliate commission’.

So how does the product creator know that the sale came from you? How can they know to credit you with the sale and, rightfully, your commission? This is where the affiliate link is so important. Each affiliate gets their own unique link that tells the product creator that the sale came from affiliate 12737 and to pay affiliate 12737 his/her commission.

The best part is.. the product creator will provide you with a unique affiliate link. All of this tracking and monitoring is already taken care of for you. All you need to do is get consumers to your affiliate link, purchase through your link, and boom! Money in your pocket.

There are some great resources available out there to help you find reliable products and trusted product creators who will certainly pay you for your efforts. The last thing anyone wants is to be scammed, so it is important to use trusted products and affiliate networks. You can find my full list of product resources here. LINK

1. Amazon Associates – Amazon will pay you a commission for selling products they have listed already! This is a simple way to get started; however, amazon does not need much help in selling their products so they do not offer a very high affiliate commission!
2. Clickbank – this is arguably the second most popular affiliate network. You can apply to join and view thousands of product offerings that you can be an affiliate for. each product has a different affiliate commission and terms and conditions so make sure to do your homework.
3. Social Influencers – I found it much simpler to work with ready made internet stars. They already have a fan base, usually have a unique product, and will often times pay a larger affiliate commission because I was dealing with them directly (no one else to have to pay out in the process like an affiliate network). I was also able to negotiate higher payouts as my success continued to increase – this is a great situation if you can find them.

Do not be alarmed if affiliate networks or people you choose to be an affiliate for ask for personal information or even require you to fill out a tax form. This protects both you and the company you’re doing business with as it ensures proper business is being conducted. You do not want to risk your reputation selling an affiliate product for someone shady, and they do not want someone shady selling their product! Always do your research and think twice before sharing information, just understand it is all part of the process (as it is with any in-person job).

Another important factor in finding great affiliate products is the threshold for payouts or the minimum amount earned required before you can be paid your affiliate commission. Some product creators or affiliate networks will only pay you after you have earned $100 (for example) and others will pay you right away. This may or may not factor in your decision to promote a product. In my experience, once you get rolling you will adjust and the minimums don’t seem like a big deal.

The question I often debated was, “Should I promote ‘low ticket’ products or ‘high ticket’ products?” The thought process being that I could sell more ‘low ticket’ products because they were cheaper and it would be easier for people to commit to cheaper products. On the other hand, I might be able to make the same money by only selling a few ‘high ticket’ products.

Product 1: Sells for $20 and the affiliate commission is 25%. Each affiliate sale I make earns me $5. If I wanted to make $100 per week I would need to sell 20 of them to earn $100.

Product 2: Sells for $200 and the affiliate commission is 25%. Each affiliate sale I make earns me $50. If I wanted to make $100 per week I would need to sell 2 of them to earn $100.

So is it easier to sell 20 $20 items or 2 $200 items? This all depends on the product, your readership, your presentation, etc. However, I think the best approach is why not do both? Higher ticketed items may surprise you and sell because people have the extra money or you may just be an expert and effectively convey the utility of the product to make it sell. On the other hand, if you have a large following you may have many readers/visitors whom many of could benefit from the simple low ticket product.

There is no reason to limit yourself. The best approach is to comfortably do as much as you can so you can earn as much online as possible! The beauty of online income is there are no limitations. You have the power to build your passive income however you want!

DO limit the products you are promoting. Sticking to less than 10 will help you manage in the beginning. I found it easier to focus on a few ‘core’ products and get them earning nicely before expanding too much.

DO add affiliate links to your top blog posts. Majority of your traffic will come from your top posts! So take advantage of all those eyeballs.

DO use multiple strategies and product offerings to increase your chances and shorten your time to success.

DO (if possible) add a bonus to the product you are promoting. For example, if you are selling a gardening tool and find a great free gardening ebook then pair them together and you might wind up selling more of the tool just because it comes with a free ebook!

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DONT hide the fact that you are using affiliate links. Be up front with your readers as this builds long-term relationships and trust.

DONT include your affiliate link hundreds of times in the same blog post. This will appear as “spammy” and might make a few extra sales in the short-term but in the long-run readers will despise reading your articles.

DONT be afraid to position yourself as an expert or experienced user. Your readers want your opinion for a reason and read your blog for a reason. Be bold and explain your exact experiences – even in my own personal shopping this is a tremendous value to know exactly how someone I trust feels.

DONT do this without a blog/website. You certainly can but once you have a good list you might want to redirect your traffic and known buyers to another article, product, or source of information. Reminder if you dont have your own blog take a peak at this free guide here: LINK ME

Anything new requires some effort but I promise you it is possible with enough work and determination. I will never forget the first $1,000 affiliate payout of my life. I blurred out the company to keep it private for them, but hopefully this serves as motivation to get you started!