What is affiliate marketing and how to use it for generating revenue?


What is affiliate marketing and how to use it for generating revenue?

There are hundreds of ways that people use to earn money online. One of the ways is affiliate marketing, which usually people say is the best way to earn money even while you sleep. This is something which is being practiced all around the world and you might not even know but you are probably paying huge sums of money to these marketers. The usage of affiliate marketing is so widespread that affiliate programs are being used by individuals, small bloggers, micro-influencers, youtubers, celebrities and even big enterprises.

What is affiliate marketing?

Have you ever wondered while reading an article or blog post online that why do these writers include links to different products (websites, softwares, books, tools etc.) or when you watch a youtuber's video, why do they include links to all the equipments (camera, mic, gopro, gimbal, lenses etc.) they use in the description box. Well you will get to know in just few seconds.

 Affiliate marketing involves individuals or firms marketing products of some other entity so as to make a commission on the sales of that product or to draw traction towards that product. The product range in affiliate marketing is very huge and therefore there are abundant number of affiliate marketers out there. However if you have strong skills and knowledge to sell products you can make a very luxurious living out of this.

 The products can include events, eatables, new kind of travel conveyances, utensils, electronic products, furniture, websites, online courses, books, services, mutual fund apps etc. To give you a perspective you can be an affiliate marketer for any of the products that are listed on Amazon. Clearly, the list is too long. 

 How much do established affiliate marketers make?

 Some of the well established affiliate marketers are Pat Flynn, Mark Ling, Rae Hoffman, John Chow and many more. These marketers get lakhs of visitors on their websites and make 6 and 7 figure incomes (in dollars) every year. So, yes definitely it is a good career if you can devote time to it. Also, it can be a side stream of income for you. Did you know that more than 50% of affiliate marketers work from home.

 How to earn through affiliate marketing?

 First of you need to get the word out that you are an affiliate marketer who works individually or with a strong team, so that people can start contacting you for marketing assignments.

 Having a pre-built network or audience be it through a podcast, blog, youtube channel, twitch or any other social media channel is an added benefit, as you will already have an audience to cater to. A merchant will usually have a product of which he would outsource the marketing to an affiliate marketer, and he would pay in a designed fashion to the affiliate. The pay can be pay per click, pay per sign up or pay per sale.

 An affiliate marketers role is to analyse what would be your own cost to acquire a single customer for the merchant's product and then charge a percentage of sales price as a commission which would be greater than your cost. This way you will be able to earn on each sale. However, this is a strenuous process and therefore affiliate marketers sometimes even charge 10-30% of the sales price in case of digital products and sign ups to hosts like bluehost for domains.

 Companies like bluehost and amazon have affiliate programs which you can enrol to and then earn commission on every product(any product that is listed on site) sold by you. You will directly receive money in your account whenever a customer purchases a product from your link.

 Another way the affiliate marketing works is use of discount codes, which affiliate marketers use in their name. For eg, use code RDHM to get 10% discount. This is actually a method where company is earning money through sales and also track what amount is due to the affiliate marketer. The affiliate marketer will get money on each sale, where customer used the code RDHM.
Bluehost affiliate program.

Amazon affiliate program

As you can clearly see, anyone can sign up to be an associate and then start selling products to earn commission. 

The most common way the affiliate marketers use is of review and sell, wherein these marketers review a product either on a webpage or a video on any of social media platforms and then provide a link for the product in description, which people can use to buy the products.

So, yeah its really interesting to pursue this source of income and if given a considerable effort, you can make a good living out of it.

Follow me on instagram @rdhmfinance for latest updates!

Thanks for reading!

Please comment on any financial query you had like me to address. I will try to post something worthwhile.

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