Affiliate marketing is a marketing technique that helps you create and publish your content and through this content, you promote someone else’s products or services. You get paid when someone purchases through your affiliate link.
This marketing technique is based on a revenue-sharing model where the merchant shares a percentage of the revenue generated with each sale (via your affiliate link).
Earn Money while Sleeping
For those who want to earn money while sleeping and follow the 4 hours workweek culture, affiliate marketing is the perfect strategy if done correctly with a proper plan. It provides a win-win situation for both parties.
Someone who has products or services and wants someone to promote them can get an influencer via the best affiliate programs that eventually help them to increase their sales and revenue.
Thereafter, the content curator can get the products or services of their choice to promote through the best affiliate marketing currently available. While this helps the publisher to earn significant money without any hassle, this also keeps them going as it can be a motivating factor to produce more and more money.
Advantages of Affiliate Marketing for the Customers
- The affiliate marketing technique helps the customers to find the right product/service at the right time.
- It helps them to make a final decision whether to buy a product or not.
- The best part is that they are getting these purchasing suggestions from someone they can trust. Customers know that the person recommending a particular product or service knows about it. So, the buying decision is taken on the basis of trust which is very essential for the buyer as well as the seller.
Usually, there are four parties involved in affiliate marketing: The Merchant, The Affiliate, The Consumer, and The Network. Let’s talk about these 4 parties that make affiliate marketing possible.
1) The Merchant:
This is the person who owns a product/service. He is the creator or producer of the products who is looking for someone to promote his products or services. The merchant can be the owner of a huge firm with lots of money to invest in affiliate marketing.
Or it can be a small entrepreneur with a limited budget but has enough money to put some part of his advertising money into affiliate marketing.
2) The Consumer:
This is the targeted person to make a purchase. This party is perhaps the most important of all the parties involved in the affiliate system because the consumer is the person who buys any product or service. Without the customer, there is no sale and there is no significance of any other party participating in affiliate programs proving the fact that the customer is indeed the king.
Every activity performed in affiliate marketing or any other form of marketing is performed to convert an audience into customers. Most of the time consumers know that they are the part of affiliate system. But many a times they ae not aware that they have purchased a product via someone’s affiliate link. It all depends on the person promoting the product whether they wish to disclose it or not.
In the next point, we will know more about the party called affiliate.
3) The Affiliate:
This is the person who creates attractive and persuasive content to make affiliate marketing possible. This party is the reason for the success of the entire affiliate marketing campaign. While other form of marketing techniques always exists, an affiliate is one of the most important participants who can leverage the power of affiliate marketing whether it is the producer or the consumer.
An affiliate can market the products/services of the merchant by writing blogs making videos or podcasts or even creating a complete website on reviews of different products in a particular niche.
4) The Network:
This party is optional in an affiliate program, but this party can be an advantage for both the affiliate and the merchant. Let’s see how:
- It’s because this party works as an intermediate between the merchant and the affiliate.
- The merchant can find a suitable affiliate using these affiliate networks.
- Moreover, an affiliate can find a suitable product or service to promote.
- The affiliate removes the hassle out of the equation which is otherwise very prominent for the content publisher and product owner.
Let’s have a look at the list of 30 websites for the best affiliate marketing programs available right now. This list could be handy to you whether you are an affiliate or a merchant.
- Amazon Associates
- eBay Partner Network
- Clickbank
- CJ affiliate by Conversant
- Rakuten Linkshare
- ShareAsale
- Avangate
- Avantlink
- Revenuewire
- Flexoffers
- Terraleads
- Affiliate Partners Ltd.
- Commission Factory
- ReviMedia
- AdCombo
- Olavivo
- AffiBank
- Target
- Walmart
- JVZOO
- Warrior Plus
- VigLink
- Skimlinks
- Affiliate Window
- FlexOffers
- Link Connector
- Max Bounty
- Peerfly
- Mindvallley
- Udemy
Now that you know about the resources that can help you promote the products and services, it’s time we know how to become a successful affiliate marketer.
- Create content where you can review products or services in your niche. You can take advantage of many platforms to make this happen. You can use your blogging website, a YouTube channel, or by running podcasts. Customers use Google and other search engines to check product reviews before making a buying decision.
So, we know that while the consumer is checking online for product reviews, he is in one of the final stages of the purchasing funnel. This helps improve the chances of conversion if you are reviewing products/services online. - Start collecting emails to create your own email list. Because email campaigns allow you to connect to your audience in a better manner. It also gives a personal touch to your conversation with your audience and followers. And the best part is, you own your email list and nobody else.
- Start educating your audience about your niche and create content that is useful to your followers. Create something that makes some difference in your audience’s life.
- You should find an affiliate program that provides products related to your niche and interest. Make sure the affiliate marketing program is the best fit for your content and brand. You can also use the above list of best affiliate programs in the industry.
Final Words
Affiliate marketing is indeed one of the best ways to market your product these days for a merchant, and your golden opportunity to earn those quick bucks as an affiliate marketing.
Learn more about it, associate with the right affiliate marketing programs, follow the best practice, be diligent, and there’s no stopping you from the road to success.
