Affiliate marketing is a process in which one person (the affiliate) earns a commission for marketing another person’s products or company. It must be clear that it is a safe and legal business, it is not a pyramid.
The affiliate searches for a product that they want to endorse, like, or get it through an affiliate network and promote it. You get a part of the profit if a sale is made from the link you place on your website.
Sales are tracked through affiliate links between one website and another.
Passive income is the dream of any person, to make money without lifting a finger. It is based on profit sharing, if you have a product and want to sell more; you look for promoters and give them a monetary incentive through the affiliate program.
And if you don’t have a product and want to increase your income, you promote a product that you think has value and make money as a marketer.
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Benefits of doing affiliate marketing
For those who become an affiliate there are several benefits, including:
- Passive income: you will invest time and money to start a campaign and over time you will see the profits. You will not have to be in front of the computer all day.
- You will not have to offer customer service: you do not sell the product directly; therefore, you do not have to be aware of their satisfaction. The seller is the one who has to see this.
- You will work from home: you will be able to launch campaigns and receive profits from products that sellers create.
- It is cost effective: it can be started at very little cost.
How does affiliate marketing work?
There are generally 4 parties involved in this process. They are the merchant, the network, the affiliate and the customer. Others only talk about 3: the seller, the affiliate and the consumer.
In the end, each party will receive a share of the profit, according to their contribution.
The merchant, creator, seller, brand or store
It can be a person, an entrepreneur or a large company, it is the one that has a product on the market. That can be something physical, like a t-shirt, or a service, like tutorials for the use of social networks.
This part does not always have to be actively involved in the marketing process. But you can also be the advertiser and profit from the profit sharing of this business.
A vendor can be a new online store that pays other websites to promote their products, or a company that pays to sell an app that they developed.
How to become a merchant
- You need a product or service idea. It may be that you already have something or a theme that interests you.
- You have to validate the idea.
- Create the product. If it is physical, you will need an investment and it could mean certain risks. If they are digital it is much easier.
- Find affiliates to promote the product. They can get tools like Gumroad, getdpd, among others. But they must be people who reach an audience that is interested in your products.
The affiliate or the publisher
They can also be individuals or companies. You can earn from little money to millions of dollars in commissions. It all depends on how you promote the products and how you attract and convince potential customers.
It is responsible for promoting the product or products, persuading consumers that it has value or that it offers benefits. In short, it convinces them to buy something or hire a service. They usually have a specific niche that helps them attract the right people.
If the consumer makes the transaction, the affiliate receives a portion of the profit. It is the key to how affiliate marketing works.
Some ways to convince others of the benefits of a product or service is through a blog post that reviews a product. They could also create an entire site dedicated to a series of products, advertisements, social networks, among others.
If you have a website, SEO positioning will be key to getting organic traffic and thus increasing your sales.
How to be an affiliate
- You need to start reviewing the products. It can be on YouTube, on your blog, social networks and more.
- You have to get a mailing list together. So you can connect with your audience at any time and invite them to see new content.
- You can use pay-per-click ads.
How to make money with affiliate marketing?
They use affiliate links. These are given to them after entering the affiliate program, it is a URL with an ID that you place on your website, social networks or in advertisements. When people click a cookie is left in their browser and tracked. If they convert the company will know and you will receive your earnings.
The affiliate can get money through the sale of the products, but also in other ways. They commonly obtain income through payment per sale, they must have previously established a percentage.
They can also receive payments for leads, that is, for getting the consumer to click, go to the merchant’s website and complete an action. Another option is pay per click, by getting the person to go from the affiliate’s website to the one that sells.
The consumer or customer
It is the last part of the chain, the person who buys may or may not know that they are doing it through an affiliate marketing link.
When the person buys a product, the seller and the affiliate share the profits. Sometimes the latter makes it clear to people that he is getting a commission for the sales he makes, other times he is not. And sometimes it’s very clear that it’s a sales infrastructure, which is not a problem.
People do not pay more when buying through affiliate marketing than when they do it directly in an ecommerce store. The affiliate commission is included in the sale price. And they will carry out a normal purchase process and receive the product as they do on a regular basis when buying something online.
Network
Not all include them within the parts of affiliate marketing, but it often happens that there are networks that function as intermediaries between the affiliate and the producer.
Some create an affiliate network to promote their products more easily. For example, Amazon has a great affiliate program that allows you to promote and sell any product that is active on their website.
Knowing how affiliate marketing works is necessary if you want to start in this business. Contact us if you want to design a website or improve your SEO.
