Affiliate Marketing Works

Affiliate marketing is a way to advertise other people’s products and get paid for sending customers to the vendors. An affiliate marketer is basically the matchmaker between customer and vendor. Some of the best known affiliate marketers are Expedia.com, AirBnB, etc. These websites merely give you leads, but they neither own nor guarantee the product. Ultimately, it is a matter of caveat emptor. The job of the affiliate marketer is to solve a problem for a person. It’s a service industry. That is the beauty of sites like Health Marketplace, Expedia, AirBnB, etc. Everything is in front of the person and all the customer has to do is decide whether the product works for him and if the price is right. If the customer clicks on the provided links to the vendor, the affiliate makes money! It’s just that easy. It’s not multi-level marketing, it’s a referral service.

Like any business, the true key to success is repeat customers. Once somebody uses your website and is satisfied with the result, they are more likely to keep coming back. Just think of how many times that you have returned to a YouTube channel or store like Walmart. The reason we go back is that we received something that we wanted. One should apply the same logic to their affiliate website. Make it so that it is easy to find things, keep everything up to date, and, when possible, have them subscribe and/or get their email address. This allows you to send them notifications of new products that they may be interested in, but don’t deluge their inboxes. Have compassion, otherwise it may go into their spam file or worse case scenario, they will unsubscribe, which means that you have lost them forever.

The real trick is to get people to use your websites and links. That is where the money is made. And let’s face it, there are a lot of websites competing for your business. You can either pay to get customers or try to get free traffic. Again, let’s think about a store. The store can rely upon pedestrian traffic and hope a prospective customer comes in. Let’s call this type the “window shopper.” The person had no real intent to buy, but is curious about the new store. The odds are that the customer will not buy anything.

Then there is the paid approach. One can buy advertising that will use ad campaigns to bring in perspective customers. There may be an incentive, for example, entering a free contest that brings the customer in, or some type of sale like BOGO (buy one get one free.) Ads can be expensive, so the smart campaign will be one that is targeted to a specific audience rather than everyone one the planet.

By the way, I would be negligent if I did not mention, “word of mouth” advertising. That is and always will be the best way of getting new customers. Reputation is something that must be earned. Present the product to the best of your ability and respect the customer, and the person will usually always return, even if your price is a little higher.

Personally, I think that all three methods should be used when possible. If you are seen as the expert in the field, reputation will bring traffic to your doorstep. People want help in making the right decision for them, and you will have the ability to send them to the product or service that they want. When using either paid or free advertising, make sure that you are presenting a problem with a suggested solution. That is what will potentially bring customers to your site.

Remember, people are wary of new products or programs that make promises, so just try to help them make a decision that is best for them. The money will follow.