Do you ever come across those bronzed happy looking people working from their laptops in dreamy tropical locations and think - how on earth are they able to work from their laptop anywhere in the world?!?
It's highly likely that they've dabbled in a concept called affiliate marketing, it's how 99% of people get started making an income online.
The 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris revolutionised the idea of ?working smarter not harder' by creating the fundamentals of a business based on passive income and outsourcing.
The dream right? Earning thousands of dollars while you sleep, or even while you're sun baking on the back of a private yacht sailing around the San Blas Islands.?It seems too good to be true at first, but once you learn the ropes and take action, it could change your life.
Affiliate marketing is the process of earning a commission by promoting other people's (or company's) products. You find a product you like, promote it to others and earn a piece of the profit for each sale that you make.?
Basically, instead of exchanging?time for money like traditional business the idea behind affiliate marketing is you promote other peoples products, receiving a % of commission when people actually?buy the product through your affiliate link. So by getting high numbers of targeted traffic to your blog or website, there's potential to earn a high income, especially on high ticket products.
This allows ordinary people to create profitable online businesses by?monetizing their blog or website by easily implementing niche products to their site.
The beauty of affiliate marketing is that you don't have to invest the time and effort to create a product to sell. You can begin selling something as an affiliate as soon as you have a platform to sell it on.? ~ Smart Affiliate Marketing
Although there?are 4 parties involved in the exchanging process, I'm only going to cover the most relevant one in this post, the affiliate.
Once you've created a blog its easy to set it up like a piece of property whereby each article or page is like it's own piece of online real estate. From my own experience and through in depth research I've discovered that there's two main rules to follow:
Only recommend products as an affiliate that you?have tried yourself and believe will positively help people. Your reputation is on the line here, if you lose the trust of your followers, that's bad business. Know your products, and always stand by them 100%.
There's no need to directly tell anyone to buy a product. Sharing your positive experience with the product/service and recommending it is all that's necessary.
The word ?niche' gets thrown around everywhere when it comes to business but for good reason - it's super important! This is one of the biggest determining factors in whether you'll be successful long term, or not.
Choose a job you love and you'll never work a day in your life.? ~ Confucius.
To generate significant sales you'll need to be posting regular content, which is why I recommend marketing something that you're passionate about. Besides, who doesn't want to get paid to write about / review something they love?!
You're starting with a blank canvas here so take the time to discover a niche you'll enjoy working with.
And lastly, how much do you know about this topic? Would you be able to write an abundance of articles on this topic?
Once you've decided on a niche write down all the goods and services you can think of that relate to this niche. What do people buy relating to that specific market?
For example a travel & lifestyle blog like Wallflower Diaries has the opportunity to promote products like travel guides, digital training products, travel accessories, hotel booking, insurance?the options are endless!
TIP: The easiest way to ensure that you're going after a topic that can make you money is to look at the affiliate products first which I'll cover in the next step. If there are lots of products that you can promote, and they look like they're going to sell well, then you're set!
Amazon Associates , ClickBank and Google Adsense are the most popular sites to affiliate for. Each have their pros and cons so make sure you research what works best for your situation. Amazon is bursting with tangible products while ClickBank offers hundreds of various courses that merchants have submitted which you can then resell and Google Adsense?is a program that allows publishers in the Google Network to place automatic text, image and interactive ads on your website.
Possibly the best way to discover highly targeted?brands to promote is by simple using search engines - ?brand / affiliate program or network'.
TIP: Research what other influencers in your niche are doing, find a hole (need)?in the market?and choose your products accordingly. Always as yourself, do you want to be associated with this product?
Starting a new venture is obviously going to bring challenges and mistakes. Finding a mentor is the most powerful tool?to fast track success, iron out mistakes and plus you'll probably meet a life long friend through it!
I'd always recommend finding a affiliate network which offers a personal mentor and coach assigned to help you make money, so then it's in their best interest to help you succeed.
TIP: Joining a community of like minded individuals is a great way to networking with more experienced marketers, bouncing ideas off, get feedback and help you stay motivated. To learn more about the affiliate company and community I'm apart of click here.
The aim of affiliate marketing is to MAKE money not spend it, so I suggest that you make content your king until you have the return on investment to spend on Pay Per Click advertising.
This means producing articles, product reviews, and aiming to get?as much engagement on your blog as possible. High quantity and consistency is ideal but more importantly ensure it's useful good quality content.
TIP: The more visitors you can attract to?your blog the greater chance you have of making sales!?So get social and spread the love over all your platforms (change it up for each platform though so you're not posting the exact same thing at the same time).
Building an audience is the next piece of the puzzle. Once you start creating your quality content people will flock to your website naturally, with a bit of extra help of course. Setting up affiliate marketing business names a Facebook page, Twitter , Instagram , Pinterest , YouTube , and other social media platforms then sharing your content will dramatically increase the rate of?getting viewers to your offer.
TIP: Remember to show love to your followers once they start flowing in. Reply to peoples comments, show them appreciation and don't take the first followers for granted once you make it big time! Loyal long term followers are the ones who will recommend you to their friends & family plus engage the most!
The moment you've been working towards?after completing each step you'll finally be able to start promoting offer on your page. Don't get disheartened if you don't see results straight away, building the foundation to any business takes time and online is no different.
TIP: Enjoy the journey! Affiliate marketing provides you with the freedom to work when you want, where you want, and with any niche that tickles your fancy. Take advantage of it! If there's one common thing that successful marketers have it's their dedication and commitment to their sites, and providing their valued followers?with consistent good customer service.
Please note this is NOT a get rich quick scheme, in fact they don't exist. An overnight success story is simply a breakthrough from months if not years of hard work, commitment and dedication. Expecting to create a blog or website and make $1,000 the next day isn't realistic. This is still a business and to succeed you need to treat it like one.
The beauty of starting an online business is you can see profit much quicker than traditional business, you have no overhead costs, you can work from anywhere with internet and there's no?limit on potential income. BE PATIENT and you'll see results.
Did you find this useful? Have questions? Post in the comments, I always love hearing from you!
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