From the standpoint of a business, affiliate marketing is a model that helps them increase traffic, sales, and revenue, for which they don’t exactly have to hire an individual or set up an entire sales and marketing department. (Though, no business should and can overlook the importance of their sales and marketing processes!)
For an individual, affiliate marketing offers a great source of income without having to join a company as a full-time employee. It gives the individual or affiliate marketer the freedom to work from anywhere and anytime. The more you sell, the more you get paid as an affiliate marketer!
The fact that 81% of brands leverage the power of affiliate marketing illustrates how popular affiliate marketing has become in the era of digitization and ecommerce.
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What Exactly Is Affiliate Marketing? How Does It Work?
Affiliate marketing is a process, in which you can earn a handsome amount in form of commission on products sold by an ecommerce company to buyers sent by you on their website.
As a marketer, you have the freedom to promote whichever product you want among your followers/fans using your marketing skills.
When a user (or potential buyer) clicks on your affiliate link (which is a unique link given to an affiliate marketer) and completes the checkout process to buy that product on the company’s website, the ecommerce company pays you a certain percentage of revenue in form of commission as per your agreement.
If you want to start your career as an affiliate marketer, this blog will guide you on how to get start with affiliate marketing
3 Tips How to Start Affiliate Marketing
1. Choosing The Platforms –
This involves discovering the platform and ecommerce website you will be working with as an affiliate marketer. Here, the platform and the website are two different factors.
Ecommerce website is the business or company, the products of which you would promote on different channels.
And the platform is the medium (such as blog) or social network where you would promote or market those products.
For example: You can sign up for affiliate marketing programs with any company, such as Amazon, HostGator, GoDaddy, etc. And you can market their products via your promotional blogs, your Facebook and Instagram posts/ads, and YouTube explainer videos.
There are countless ecommerce businesses to partner with and dozens of platforms to promote their products.
2. Pick The Affiliate Marketing Program –
Basically, there are three types of affiliate marketing programs you can join. These include – high paying low volume programs, low paying high volume programs, and high-paying high volume programs.
Before you join any program, it would be wise to read the terms and conditions of the company, so as to avoid any confusion or issues in future. Do read the feedback of other users on social networks, affiliate marketing forums, and the company’s Google My Business page.
This exercise will also require you to select the niche you want to work in. For this, you should pick an industry you have a good knowledge of.
For instance: If you do not have any knowledge in fashion and cosmetics, there is no point promoting or doing explainer videos or writing blogs to market products related to beauty and fashion. Pick a niche you are comfortable in!
3. Grow Your Audience –
A large number of affiliate marketers market their deals on social networks. And to see your commissions grow, you will need active and engaged followers in huge numbers on your social networks.
You will always need to be on a mission to grow your audience on each platform.
Some of the best practices to earn more followers on social media is to share relevant and valuable content and engage back with your users.
Never miss a chance to make your audience feel valued.
Start Your Affiliate Marketing Now!
The quality of marketing content you share on your social networks, blogs and vlogs paves way for your success as an affiliate marketer. Ensure that your audience can relate to your content. You content should be able to explain that the product you are promoting is an ultimate solution for their lifestyle.
So, always focus on the quality of your content.
Most affiliate marketers put efforts to generate both organic and paid traffic. You, too, can boost your affiliate marketing revenue by involving these traffic-boosting tactics.
Don’t forget to optimize your content for search engines. If your content gains visibility on search engines for high volume search entries, there will be no looking back for you.
Last but not the least, measure the performance of your campaigns and content, and shift your marketing and content strategies accordingly.