Imagine you have the key to your life. You are the leader or boss of your job and can work anytime and from anywhere. You can wake up at any time and still earn money just by sitting on your bed. Even after that, you will be able to earn more than a normal seven to five job. A six-month-long survey was conducted and it was found that there were a total of 611,081 ad impressions, 15,082 clicks, and 2,672 social media messages leading to a huge profit[1]. What would you choose: seven to five jobs or the job in which you can work from your home at any time? Heard of Affiliate Marketing?
Many people would opt for a job that is less tiring and more profitable. That’s what passive income is all about. Isn’t that interesting stuff? You can actually work, whenever you feel like. You can be the king of your kingdom, and the harder you work, the more you will earn from it. So, let’s dive deep into the topic and explore this unknown field.
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Table of Contents
What is Passive Income?
Do you know one fact? You can even earn while you are sleeping and this is the specialty of affiliate marketing. This is known as passive income. The income which you receive from a product or company in which you are not actively working is known as a passive income.
For example, you buy a three-room flat and don’t have a plan to live in the apartment. You wish to rent it, and in return, you will receive an amount of payment from the renters. The generation of payment from that flat is passive income. You will get paid even if you are not working for it. In the same way, affiliate marketers generate links and posts by which they earn.
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What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate Marketing is a tactic that is used to generate leads and sales for the company or its products. You either work for yourself or a company and by promoting their products you receive an amount of profit from them. It is all about searching for a product, then promoting that product and generating income from it. Once the user clicks on the links provided by an affiliate marketer, you will get a part of the profit from that single click.
Work of an Affiliate Marketer
Affiliate marketer works by distributing the work among different sets of people with different abilities. It’s all about mind games. There are no perfect steps to be an affiliate marketer, but there is certain advice that must be followed to be successful in this field. For the success of affiliate marketing and to enjoy the fruits of affiliate marketing, the relationship between these three communities is very crucial.
Relationship Between the Three Communities
The Creators of the Products:
The seller is an entrepreneur who markets his product. That product can be any physical object like a good or service. The entrepreneur is responsible for the production of products. To advertise the product, the seller doesn’t need to be active in the market.
The Affiliate Marketer:
It can be an individual or company that markets the products of merchants to appeal to the customers online. If the customers get attracted to the product and buy it, the affiliate marketer is successful in generating leads and avenues for the company.
The Consumer:
The main drivers of affiliate marketing are the consumers. They are real ones who run this whole concept of digital marketing. Once a consumer buys a product or a service the seller and the affiliate marketer receive an amount as a token of success.
Detailed Guide to Ace this Field
Choose Your Niche:
You should consider the topics which interest you. Choose the topic for which you have the potential to work. One of the biggest mistakes which entrepreneurs make is that they think the business is going to benefit them, but this shouldn’t be the case they should focus on the benefits of the people. If you will be focused on the topics in which you want to be an expert that won’t gonna benefit you, as the audience demands for the topics which benefit them.
Another big mistake is to select a niche that has no competition. For example, if you have an idea in your mind, it might be possible that some other person has already written about that niche. This is where the real game begins. You need to execute that idea better than that person.
Start Blogging:
Start writing blogs that would generate traffic towards your website. This is also a great start to your affiliate marketing journey. Consider your blog as your bicycle’s hub. The main hub is your blog. The spokes of the bicycle are social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, etc. These social media acts as a source to attract audiences.
Be a Content Creator:
Add value to your audience. Give them some knowledgeable content via blogs, Youtube channels, and many more. Your audience is your real gem. Watch out for your target audience and deliver content according to their needs. This would make the audience trust you and your products.
Create a Target Audience:
Select your audience according to your product. Say for example you are having a product for toddlers i.e, shampoo, your target audience will be their parents. The best method to create a target audience is through organic search also known as Search Engine Optimization or SEO. A huge percentage of the audience say 90 percent are attracted towards your products through organic reach.
Choose Affiliate Programs:
Carefully select your affiliate programs according to your niche and target audience. In this way, you will become a partner of that affiliate program. By becoming a part of an affiliate program, you can advertise your products or services via your blogs. Must look at the terms and conditions of the affiliate program before becoming a partner to that program.
Being an affiliate marketer is not an easy field. It requires your time and your intelligence. Don’t treat your competitors as your enemy. Instead, consider them as your friends and build a good rapport with them.
Payment of Affiliate Marketers:
Whenever you generate sales and lead for a company, you get a profit from it. This is also known as Cost Per Action(CPA). CPA is the famous process of payment to affiliate marketers. But there are other options available, which are as follows:
Pay Per Lead:
In this, you get paid for the number of clicks that indirectly generate leads.
Pay Per Click:
This is just the acronym for an ad banner. In this website traffic determines the amount of payment to the affiliate marketers.
Pay per Sale:
In this method, the seller pays the marketer some percentage of the selling price of the product.
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Most of these marketers get paid via direct deposit, Google Pay, or Paypal. You could earn a lot from digital marketing. The major advantage is that you could earn a handsome amount of money and still be free from any hassle of selling and buying.
Why opt for an Affiliate Marketer?
There are many advantages of being an affiliate marketer. Due to the increased number of online businesses, there has been a huge demand for affiliate marketers.
Perks of Being an Affiliate Marketer:
Work as per Wish:
This allows you to be a freelancer. In other words, you can choose your working hours according to your wish. There will be a hassle-free and no bossy environment.
Remote Work:
This is one of the jobs which is available from the comfort of your home. You don’t even need to change your dress to a formal one in order to get to work. Sit at home, launch campaigns, generate leads, and earn profit.
Search Engine Optimization:
Consider Search Engine Optimization(SEO) as your bread and butter. Treat SEO as your god. This key will open the doors to various opportunities. Learn on-page and off-page SEO, and you are ready to go with your journey.
Rewards based on Performance:
The better you perform, the better leads and the better profits would be generated. Whatever you put into your job, you will have the results of that.
Inexpensive:
Most of the fields require money to get started. But this field is cost-effective. It only requires skills and willpower to get started.
Types of Affiliate Marketers:
While looking around you, you will find most of the people are actually doing affiliate marketing. They are busy creating content and generating leads for the company or their products. For example one of the famous entrepreneurs or social media influencers- Ranveer Allahabadia also popular as Beer Biceps is one of the most favored men over the internet. He is also guiding his team of affiliate marketers.
Influencers:
An influencer practices his power to influence people towards a brand. Instagram is famous for influencer marketing where famous influencers collaborate with various brands and advertise their products. This is the way through which the influencers, as well as the brands, get profit.
Bloggers:
Bloggers have the ability to convert people to leads. The tool of a blogger is the words. Their words are their weapons. A good blog that is aimed towards getting a good reach should contain affiliate links in it.
Emails:
Email marketing has still not vanished from the market and helps to generate leads. The emails can be used as a tool to promote a specific brand or the products of that brand.
Media Websites: These sites focus to attract the audience by the use of affiliate links and various posts. This creates most of the revenue for both the sellers as well as the affiliates.
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Ways to be an Excellent Affiliate Marketer:
Build Relationship:
In order to be an excellent affiliate marketer, the first and foremost thing is to build a good rapport with the audience. Create an environment, so that they can trust you. Never fake anything with the audience.
Choose Products:
Choose the right products according to your own choice. Don’t focus on what others are saying. Test a product and if it satisfies your needs then go ahead with that product.
Trends are a must:
Always work hand in hand with the new trends. The audience loves trending things. Always keep on updating the technology, strategies, and resources. This will generate very high revenues.
Involve different sources:
Don’t stick to any one source for your business. Try all sources, as risk leads to greatness[2]. Test a variety of sources and choose the one which suits you and your audience.
Summary:
If you want to be out of the rat race, then definitely you are made to be an affiliate marketer. If you have the courage to work every day with your laptop and internet connection, then you are ready to go. The success of any business depends on two factors- the effort you are putting in and the demand of the audience. Keep these two points in your mind and begin your journey.
References:
[1] Olbrich, R., Schultz, C. D., & Bormann, P. M. (2019). The effect of social media and advertising activities on affiliate marketing. International Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising, 13(1), 47-72.