AFFILIATE MARKETING
If you’re someone who is looking forward to growing so your income, serve your drive, enjoy all benefits of Affiliate marketing, and having your Affiliate, you are in the right place!
How you can unleash your creative power to solve problems in the real world?
NAVIGATE WORLD ECONOMICALLY.
What is Affiliate marketing?
- To put it in the simplest form, Affiliate marketing is one among many methods of online marketing, wherein here, an affiliate marketer chooses to promote products for businesses, either by creating a link that will redirect the visitors to the actual page of the products and every time somebody buys a product or you get a lead, the affiliate marketer will be rewarded with a certain amount of commission, a piece of the pie
- A standardized commission scale contract is formed between you and the company for you to represent them online through an affiliate site.
- Every time you are making a sale, you are taking a commission.
To break it down further,
Four main players are responsible for effective affiliate marketing.
They are;
ü The creator of the goods/ products.
ü The affiliate/marketer who markets it.
ü The affiliate network that binds everything together.
And lastly, most importantly
ü the consumer, who decides to buy what is being sold.
“affiliate marketing has made business millions and ordinary people millionaires”
Just like any other business, affiliate marketing comes with its own set of pros and cons.
Be aware of going forward, do not get short-sighted with the money.
Always try to choose/promote products that you think are valuable, for the people to who you are marketing.
Advantages:
It demands no marketing degree/background to get started. You don’t have to hold a degree or necessarily have a sound marketing background to become an affiliate marketer, you can incorporate your skills in a way that makes sense.
Additional skills like knowing SEO can contribute to making your site rank high, similarly having a hold on social media can take your site places and make it viral.
It all comes down to your creativity, how stunning your content is, how luring your images are, and other forms of art that adds up to a click or a sale.
- No cost start-up:
Have money to make money
Making money as an affiliate marketer, the best way is to get started with an already existing brand/business. It is free to start and makes it easier if you have your website or at least a custom URL of yours, to begin with. There is just no barrier to entry to starting as an affiliate marketer, there is nothing to lose.
- You don’t have to deal with customer service issues:
One major benefit is that you don’t have to deal with customer service.
When you are an affiliate marketer you are a third party marketer, all you got to do is market the product, make a sale and get the commission. if the consumer bought the product and didn’t like it, it is going to be the brand’s/business’ problem but as an affiliate marketer, not yours. Unless you are planning on creating a private deal.
- Multiple affiliate programs available
- Can reach new customers real quick
Disadvantages:
- You have no control over the programs:
The rules set by the merchants for their affiliates can seem to be great today and turn out lousy tomorrow, but once you are in there is not much that can be done about it but instead wait until it turns out to be a good program
- You are likely to be forced to take the risk:
A major part of the marketing costs and risk is placed squarely on the shoulders of the affiliates. Though you send massive levels of traffic to a program site, if nobody is making any purchases, you don’t get paid anything.
- Not every affiliate marketing opportunity is a direct partnership:
A lot of programs have limited opportunities and limited payouts that can make it difficult to find profitability.
- Prone to fraud/false advertising:
Affiliates and say and do virtually anything to make a quick buck if they are allowed to do so. Strict rules to be laid on content creation so that the false representation of products or services can cut back.
- Growth potential is naturally limited.
- Easy to steal links and codes
Around 81% of brands have adopted an affiliate marketing strategy because of its performance-based nature and the return on investment.
Few steps for an affiliate marketing beginner:
- create a list of your interests, write down your ideas
- pick up a niche of your interest, for example; weight loss, the most popular niche online
- make use of the tools that help, tools like Google Keyword Planner, UberSuggest, etc.
- sign up with an affiliate network (do this even before buying a domain)
- check competition (better off to not compete with brands initially)
- set up your website (register a domain name, set up host and further procedures)
CONCLUSION: Affiliate marketing is a Win / Win for all when;
The merchant/vendor has products that are worthwhile and people will be interested in buying them. The network must be made easier to establish a platform for the merchant to use. The affiliate marketer must be smart enough to run unique and catchy campaigns that favour what the merchant is selling.
