Affiliate Marketing is a fascinating field. It is a profession in which the marketer is not creating or supporting said product, nor is one dealing with customer service. The whole profession and way to make money is to have the would-be consumer click on your special link and buy the product. As a reward for driving the customer to the product, the affiliate marketer receives a certain percentage of the purchase price. The percentages vary greatly, even as much as 100%. Not bad for a day’s work! The marketer should understand the terms of payment before getting involved.
The beauty of Affiliate Marketing is that it is done remotely. One can use their home, library, coffee shop, etc wherever the internet is available. One can be in pajamas, shorts, or tie and jacket, if that is the way one is comfortable. Start up costs are minimal and the business is run according to one’s schedule. The more one wants to work and study from the “masters” the better one can operate the business, as one would not have to make the “rookie” mistakes.
Studying from the masters does not take money, just time. Go to YouTube and search for affiliate marketing. The plethora of masters is unbelievable. They all present step-by-step procedures to make money, promising that if you follow their directions, you will make money. They will always offer 2 disclaimers:
1) Not all results will be the same. The examples used are from people who worked very hard. 2) Most people will not even try what they are saying and therefore will never achieve anything.
Many times the methods that are proposed do not seem ethical to me, but I leave that decision up to you. For example, one person explained how to copy somebody else’s work, who was very successful, and then change a few words here and there, so as not to be a plagiarist. While technically, this may be accurate, I wouldn’t feel comfortable doing it.
I would suggest reading the articles and see how the top sellers are enticing the customer to click their links. Are they offering value? (Most marketers will tell you that this is the most important part of the campaign. Giving value to your customer.) Do you trust their recommendations or do you feel like you're being sold? (Most marketers will argue that people don’t want to be sold, yet will continue to try to sell you.) Do you like their presentation and do they get to the point? Do you want to click their link immediately? (If you do feel that way, then they have a chance at making a sale. Once one leaves the website, blog, article, or ad, the odds of them returning and finding the article again are not good.)
(As a side point, there have been times that I was watching a video on YouTube and liked what the person was saying. But I didn’t subscribe to the channel, figuring, “If I want to listen again, I’ll just search again. The problem is that unless it is a small niche, the odds of finding that person again are small. That’s why, these days, if I like the speaker or think that I may want to reference him/her, I just subscribe. I can always cancel later and it doesn’t cost any money. If I like a website, I put it in my favorites.)
After reading the articles, take notes on what you found positive and felt working on you. Synthesize the articles and come up with your own style. While imitation is the highest form of flattery, seeing the same types of sales pitches becomes monotonous and lost in the “crowd.” (This is solely my opinion and one that goes against most of the gurus.)
Once you’ve done the groundwork, it becomes time to find an affiliate site such as clickbank or digistore 24, etc and see which products you would like to sell. There are top categories of items and niches which convert well. Some of the top categories to date are health & Fitness, Money, and Food. Of course, courses on affiliate marketing are in high demand, or so they claim, because everyone wants to make passive income.
While there are multiple ways to get traffic to your offer, you will have to decide how much you are willing to spend, both in terms of time and money. Most will advise you to make a funnel and have a way to collect emails for future offers. The reason for collecting email addresses is to build an asset for later. If you do not capture the address, and the client goes directly to the sales page, even if one buys the item and you get paid the commission, the business will have the new customer and not you.
I hope you found this somewhat helpful. If this sounds like something you’d like to pursue, I wish you much success.
