Affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based marketing in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought by the affiliate’s own marketing efforts. In affiliate marketing, you get paid to promote something indirectly by the means of an affiliate link, banner, or hosted form.
The industry has four core players: the merchant (also known as ‘retailer’ or ‘brand’), the network (that contains offers for the affiliate to choose from and also takes care of the payments), the publisher (also known as ‘the affiliate’), and the customer.
As an affiliate, you will place your link on your website(s) or blog(s) and then you ask your customers or visitors to click on your links. A “cookie” is placed on the visitors computer, and when the customer makes the desired action, you get paid.
Your affiliate network will handle all the links and scripts which contains the code that shows the ads on the your site and also tracks your ID.
The market has grown in complexity, resulting in the emergence of a secondary tier of players, including affiliate management agencies, super-affiliates and specialized third-party vendors.
The Evolution of Affiliate Marketing [Infographics]
How to Make Money From Affiliate Marketing
Before you can make money from affiliate marketing, you need to find a niche to write on. Your niche can be one of your interests, hobbies or skills. Any subject can be your niche.
One thing you should remember when finding your niche is to avoid being too broad with your selection. Your niche could be work out tips, motorbike, camera, guitar, trekking etc.
After choosing your niche, you will have to make use of the social media to promote your content and drive traffic to purchase items via your product reviews.
You can’t do affiliate marketing alone (it will take a while to figure out the methodology), it requires mentor-ship. Don’t forget that it is also very easy to get scammed as a newbie since there are many internet guru out there who only delivers on empty promises.
I agree with you that it is not easy to stand out in the market. However, it is still possible for you to make a sustainable income with affiliate marketing by choosing the right niche.
Affiliate Marketing: How Affiliate Marketing Works (Video Lesson)
Affiliate Marketing Video 1 Lesson Outline
In this video, Marcus will show you the following topics: Where to find affiliate programs, who can be an affiliate marketer, how you can become an affiliate marketer, where do affiliate marketers find customers, when does an affiliate marketer get paid, and how you can become a successful affiliate marketer?
Don’t forget to share your experiences with affiliate marketing at the comments section.
The Ideas Plus Business Editorial Team is led by Adeyemi Adetilewa, a Digital Marketing Consultant. If you’re interested in writing for Ideas Plus Business, read this article first.