What is affiliate marketing, and can you do it too? Affiliate marketing is a popular online business model in which “affiliates” recommend other people’s products and services on the internet. When an affiliate makes a sale (through their unique affiliate link), they earn a commission.

Anyone can join an affiliate program and promote other people’s products and services. One of the main benefits of affiliate marketing is that anyone can do it from anywhere. They only need a laptop and internet connection. The key to being successful as an affiliate marketer is finding a strategy which works for you.

Affiliates do all kinds of things to generate sales. This can include blogging, video marketing, paid advertising, off-line advertising or building an email list of subscribers. Some affiliates build YouTube channels and create videos to attract an audience. Others create content on a blog, or use social media channels to find people who are interested in products.

What Is Affiliate Marketing – Referral Marketing

An affiliate marketer will only get paid when they make a sale. It’s a performance based business model so unless they generate sales through their links, they won’t earn any commissions. You can think of affiliate marketing as a bit like recommending a friend to a nice restaurant. Only, when someone makes a purchase (or goes to the restaurant), the affiliate makes money!

To make sales online, affiliates join an affiliate program and get a unique affiliate link. When a sale is generated through their link, the sale is attributed to that particular affiliate and they earn a percentage of the sale value. There’s many affiliate programs which you can join to make money online. Amazon is one of the most popular affiliate programs and there’s thousands of products you can promote.

Once you have joined an affiliate program, you need to promote your affiliate links somehow to generate sales. This can be done in a number of ways.

What Is Affiliate Marketing – What Do Affiliates Do?

Affiliates generate sales by finding customers online and sending them to products and services. This is a skill you need to learn if you want to earn money through affiliate marketing. Here’s a few of the activities which affiliates use to generate sales:

• Blogging – this article is an example of a blog. As people find my blog posts they can purchase my recommended products. If they make a purchase, I make a commission
• Video marketing – video can be used organically or through paid marketing. Some affiliates will create hundreds of videos and upload them to YouTube. As their channel grows so does their following. If their message is a good match for a certain product/service, they can direct their followers to those products. See how to know your target market.
• Paid marketing – You have probably seen some paid advertising online through places like Google search, Facebook and YouTube. Paid adverts pop up and are targeted at specific people according to their interests, location, age and other demographics. These are specifically chosen to target a suitable audience who are more likely to want/need a certain product/service.
• Email marketing – most affiliate marketers have an email list of subscribers. They build this through using an email marketing service (autoresponder). (See the power of email marketing).
• Offline advertising and other methods – the job of an affiliate is to make sales through their affiliate links. They can do this through any means they can achieve it with. So, nothing is off limits really.

Can Anyone Become An Affiliate Marketer?

Pretty much anyone can learn the skills to sell affiliate products online. You can join an affiliate program and get your own affiliate link quite quickly. What takes more time is understanding the methods which affiliates use to actually make sales through their affiliate links. Most affiliates who succeed at earning money online will have some form of training. Access a free video series here to learn more.

Affiliate marketing isn’t an easy route to riches however. It shouldn’t be treated as a “get rich quick scheme”. But it can bring about huge rewards to those willing to put in the time and effort necessary for success. The affiliate marketing failure rate is fairly high. In part this is because affiliate marketing is so easily accessible. For many other businesses, entry is dependent on high levels of investment: buildings, staff equipment etc. But with affiliate marketing, you only need a laptop and internet connection. This means most people can “give it a go”. But this also means many will quit far too early because they miss the bigger picture.

Difficulties With Affiliate Marketing

If your affiliate business doesn’t produce an income quickly, will you quit or keep learning? Those who learn from their “failures” are generally the ones who go on to build profitable online businesses from affiliate marketing. See also how difficult is affiliate marketing.

An good analogy for affiliate marketing success is the Chinese Bamboo tree. With the Chinese bamboo tree, there’s a gestation period of 4-5 years before anything shows through the soil. After that, the tree can grow 90 feet within 5 weeks! Affiliate marketing works in a similar way. Initially, growth seems slow. But over time, things can work by themselves without much input once things have been automated.

You shouldn’t expect to make quick money with affiliate marketing. It takes some time and dedication before the results start showing. But once this happens things can really take off and you can ultimately replace pretty much any income over a long enough time period. This also depends on the business model you use and your method of marketing. See affiliate marketing business models for more on this.

Get Started

Most affiliates will have at least a website, landing page and email autoresponder in order to attract customers and communicate their message. It’s worth also getting access to training and mentorship if you’re going to take an affiliate business seriously.

Access an all in one program which offers step by step tutorials, software training and a product range you can sell. You’ll be able to follow the step by step process and set up a website, landing page and email follow up series. You can also access over 10,000 training courses through this program to learn the strategy which is most suitable for your particular situation and circumstance.