All You Need To Know About Affiliate Marketing

Do you ever get bored of following the same work routine on a day-to-day basis? And does it slowly change into frustration and you actually consider quitting your job?To do that, you need to start with one thing – Affiliate Marketing!

You can actually wake up one day and after considerable thought quit your job. But let’s be honest – you need to make some money to meet your day’s end and save to finally go on that vacation you always wanted to! But what if there is another way to earn all that money without having to hassle your way into work and follow the same redundant routine? What if you can do it with the comfort of your home and whenever and wherever you want?

What Is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate Marketing is an online sales strategy where the owner of a product increases his sales by marketing about his/her product through a sales associate or third party. This sales associate or third party is referred to as the “affiliate” and their job is to target the same audience through different ways. In this process, affiliates receive a commission for recommending the products and services to others which makes up their earnings. Reports by Mediakix have revealed that over 80% brands use affiliate programs as part of their marketing campaigns.

It is basically referring a product or service to potential customers through social media platforms, websites, blogs and other digital methods. Every time a purchase is successful through the affiliate’s link, the product owner pays a part of the earning to the affiliate in the form of a commission. Although it may sound like a complex concept initially, the process is extremely simple and can help you earn a handsome amount if you do it well!

How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

Here’s some interesting information: A M Navigator has revealed that about 25% of all the affiliate programs are from the fashion industry.

Affiliate marketing can be understood through five simple steps. These are:-

1. You first need to research for affiliate programs and then join the one that suits your niche best.
2. Affiliate programs have several products and offers that need to be marketed. Select the offer you wish to promote and the product(s) you want to recommend.
3. Each offer and product has a unique affiliate link. Acquire that to ensure that the customers use it as your reference link.
4. Share the offers, product and/or services along with the unique affiliate link for each through the various online channels like blogs, websites, social media accounts, etc.
5. Finally, every time a consumer purchases through your affiliate links, you only need to collect your commission.

A report by Fetch Profits revealed that about 80% of marketers are of the belief that affiliate marketing revenues will register a considerable increase in revenue. There are three primary ways of payment to affiliates participating in a business’s affiliate programs:-

• Pay Per Sale – In this method of payment, the affiliate gets paid a percentage of the product’s sales price after a successful purchase through the affiliate.
• Pay Per Click – In this, the payment depends upon the traffic that the affiliate manages to divert to the merchant’s website from his/her own website. The payment is made on the basis of the increase in website traffic.
• Pay Per Lead – The affiliate is paid on the basis of the conversions of leads and for this type of payment, the affiliate needs to convince the potential customers to visit the merchant’s website and complete the process.

What Are The Types Of Affiliate Marketing Channels?

Statistical reports by BloggingX have revealed that affiliate marketing is estimated to have $12 billion worth globally. Affiliate marketers use more or less the same practices when it comes to marketing and promoting their products. However, the ways in which the products and services are advertised by the affiliates may differ. Some of the most common types of affiliate marketing channels are:-

1.     Bloggers

Bloggers are widely preferred when it comes to affiliate marketing because they have the ability to convert potential leads by acquiring ranks in and organic traffic through search results. The blogger, after using a certain product or service, writes reviews about the same and thus promotes the brand in a persuasive manner to help drive traffic to the merchant’s website. Awin revealed that almost 65% of affiliate marketers generate traffic through blogs.

2.     Email Lists

Email marketing is one of the oldest sources for affiliate marketing. Affiliates use their existing email lists that they have created on the basis of research or over time through different advertising campaigns to promote a business’s products and services by dispensing information about it, sharing newsletters, attaching hyperlinks of products, and more.

3.     Influencers

Another popular and trending affiliate marketing channel is the influencer. Influencers with a strong follower base and good hold on various social media platforms can be extremely profitable for affiliate marketers. Influencers can promote products through posts, blogs and through interaction with their followers and help in increasing the merchant’s consumers.

4.     Media Websites

Another widely sought after approach is the media websites that consistently have huge traffic and engagement rate and can be used to promote products to billions of viewers at once. Affiliates can share banners and contextual affiliate links on these media websites that can give superior conversion rates. Master Blogging reports have revealed that more than 65% of affiliate marketers use social media websites and platforms to connect with their customers.

What Are The Benefits Of Becoming An Affiliate Marketer?

There are several ways in which taking up the role of an affiliate marketer can prove to be profitable for you. Uniquodo reports have revealed that the affiliate marketing industry is responsible for more than 16% of all online orders. These benefits have been observed in affiliate marketers of all niche and status and across several industries. Some benefits of becoming an affiliate marketer are:-

1.     Work From Home

Work From Home is one of the best benefits you can get out of affiliate marketing. As an affiliate marketer, you can work from home without having to travel to a workplace. It is especially beneficial for individuals who are unable to commit to proper work spaces due to any other commitments or difficulties. Plus, you get to save on travelling fares!

2.     Performance-based Earning 

Working a proper job in an office might not be rewarding as you may not be paid a fixed amount for flexible and longer work hours. However, as an affiliate marketer you get paid according to the successful purchases made through your references and efforts as an affiliate. The better your skills and efforts in promoting and successfully converting clients for your merchants, the better are your earnings as you get paid for how well you perform.

3.     No after-sale services

You can also understand after-sales services as customer services/support. As an affiliate marketer, your job is to connect potential customers with merchants. Once this link is established, you need not worry about any other services to the customer related to the purchased products or other transactional processes. Any complaints or issues are dealt with by the merchant.

4.     Passive Income

One of the greatest benefits of being an affiliate marketer is that you can earn even after you have finished working on the promotion of a product and have a great shot at making passive income. All you need to do is invest some time and effort initially and if you are successful, your target audience and viewers will continue to buy the products you promote. Therefore, you continue to earn even when you are practically doing nothing and you can manage to create a steady flow of income.

5.     Flexibility and Convenience

Another major benefit of being an affiliate marketer is the flexibility and convenience to work at any time and from anywhere and as per your choices. You need not follow any fixed structure of going about your work. You can promote the product at any time and on whichever media platform you find suitable. Furthermore, you can choose your promotion practices and also how many affiliate programs that you wish to take up at a time. You can even abandon the poorly performing ones and focus on more successful products and programs, without having to answer anybody.

What Are The Drawbacks Of Becoming An Affiliate Marketer?

While affiliate marketing has some noteworthy benefits and is often referred to as the “billion dollar business” if done right, just like two sides of a coin, it has some drawbacks too. Entrepreneurs Unstuck have claimed that about 95% of newcomers in the affiliate marketing industry tend to fail in their initial projects. The most common drawbacks of being an affiliate marketer include:-

1.     Spam Campaigns

While affiliate marketers attempt to promote the product to the best of their abilities, they may often send spam mails and content to the potential customers in the name of their campaign. This content can be misleading and often drive the customers away from making a purchase. These spam affiliate campaigns can also result in cooperation breakup on the vendor’s end and you may have zero earnings!

2.     No Control over Competitors

Another drawback of being an affiliate marketer is that you have no control over your competitors. Due to the several benefits of being an affiliate marketer, anyone can try their hand at affiliate marketing and thus, you may be promoting a product with a lot of competition. Furthermore, extremely talented affiliates may create a problem for you and win over customers that might have been your potential leads.

3.     No Revenue Guarantee

One of the major drawbacks is that there is no guarantee when it comes to earning revenue. You may not always earn the amount you expected to earn and may feel underpaid for your time and efforts. An even worse situation may be when you are unable to get any commission at all because at times your affiliate marketing efforts might not be enough to connect any customer to the merchant at all.

We hope that the article was useful in understanding all you needed to know about Affiliate Marketing. While the process is really easy and popular and comes with several advantages, there are some obvious disadvantages to it as well. We therefore, advise you to research well before deciding to make any commitments in the affiliate marketing industry.

Team EMB

Our team of expert writers is committed to bringing insights on topics ranging in the fields of technology, marketing, and business. With a wide-reaching range of services on our platform, we help businesses achieve digital transformation end-to-end.