What if you could make money at any time, from anywhere — even while you sleep?
This is the concept behind affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketing is the process by which an affiliate earns a commission for marketing another person’s or company’s products. The affiliate simply searches for a product they enjoy, then promotes that product and earns a piece of the profit from each sale they make. The sales are tracked via affiliate links
A quick and inexpensive method of making money without the hassle of actually selling a product, affiliate marketing has an undeniable draw for those looking to increase their income online. But how does an affiliate get paid after linking the seller to the consumer?
The answer can get complicated.
The consumer doesn’t always need to buy the product for the affiliate to get a kickback. Depending on the program, the affiliate’s contribution to the seller’s sales will be measured differently.
If you feel overwhelmed by the prospect of earning money online, we have good news. It’s easier than ever to start earning today. Companies are making it clear and convenient for consumers to earn money through a multitude of online programs. The most popular ways to earn today range from online stores, ‘pay per clicks’ and ‘get paid to’ programs. While you may not want it to be your only source of income, these are all viable ways to start collecting a decent amount of money.
Affiliate marketing comes with is a huge income potential for content creators. And yes, you can make money while you sleep.
Affiliate marketing is when someone pays you a commission for sales or leads generated from your efforts.
Here is what you need to consider:
Before buying anything, people like to take advice from experts online. Now, let’s say you are quite popular among your audience, and people love to listen to your tips and tricks.
You have the power to influence your audience’s buying behavior or inspire them to buy something through your enticing content. That is where you can generate passive money through affiliate links.
How many sales or leads you generate are tracked through an affiliate link.
Not sure how affiliate links work? Let me help you out!
You place an affiliate link within your blog or site, linking to a product. Now, whenever someone clicks on that link and buys the product, you will receive a commission.
For example, if you create content about education, you can consider selling some educational products through affiliate marketing.
Another example could be putting a link in your blog for an Amazon book or partnering up with prominent influencers to sell their products and services.
We also use affiliate marketing to make money all the time. For example, we help Kartra Agency sell their products on our blog. Whenever someone buys their offer by clicking the affiliate link on our blog, we get a commission.
Imagine if you can monetize every visitor that visits your website even if they don’t click any of your banners. Sounds appealing, right? This post aims to teach you secrets about advertising with pop traffic and how to make money with pop ads.
Common Types of Affiliate Marketing Channels
Most affiliates share common practices to ensure that their target audience is engaged and receptive to purchasing promoted products. But not all affiliates advertise the products in the same way. In fact, there are several different marketing channels they may leverage.
Bloggers.
With the ability to rank organically in search engine queries, bloggers excel at increasing a seller’s conversions through content marketing. The blogger samples the product or service and then writes a comprehensive review that promotes the brand in a compelling way, driving traffic back to the seller’s site.
The blogger is awarded for his or her influence spreading the word about the value of the product, helping to improve the seller’s sales.
Paid search-focused microsites.
Developing and monetizing microsites can also garner a serious amount of affiliate sales. These sites are advertised within a partner site or on the sponsored listings of a search engine. They are distinct and separate from the organization’s main site. By offering more focused, relevant content to a specific audience, microsites lead to increased conversions due to their simple and straightforward call to action.
Influencers.
An influencer is a content creator who holds the power to impact the purchasing decisions of a large segment of the population.
This person is in a great position to benefit from affiliate marketing. They already boast an impressive following, so it’s easy for them to direct consumers to the seller’s products through social media posts, blogs and other interactions with their followers. The influencers then receive a share of the profits they helped to create.
Influencer marketing campaigns are particularly popular on Instagram and TikTok, where brands form partnerships with influencers who are seen as experts or authorities in their specific niches. Depending on the deal, a campaign could consist of a series of product reviews with photos, account takeovers or live videos.
While an influencer might have their own branding and aesthetic, it’s important to add elements that tie up with your brand to ensure brand recall and recognition. This can be achieved by using apps like Instasize, where you can quickly edit and customize your campaign’s creatives in a tap.
Email lists.
Despite its older origins, email marketing is still a viable source of affiliate marketing income. Some affiliates have email lists they can use to promote the seller’s products. Others may leverage email newsletters that include hyperlinks to products, earning a commission after the consumer purchases the product.
Another method is for the affiliate to build an email list over time. They use their various campaigns to collect emails en masse, then send out emails regarding the products they are promoting.
Large media websites.
Designed to create a huge amount of traffic at all times, these sites focus on building an audience of millions.
These websites promote products to their massive audience through the use of banners and contextual affiliate links. This method offers superior exposure and improves conversion rates, resulting in a top-notch revenue for both the seller and the affiliate.
One of the most well known sites is the Amazon affiliate program, Amazon Associates, which boasts the largest market share of affiliate networks (46.15%).
Other big-name affiliate marketing programs include:
- AvantLink.
- LinkConnector.
- CJ Affiliate.
- Affiliate Future.
- ClickBank.
- ShareASale.
- FlexOffers.
Or, if you prefer, you can even reach out to retailers directly and see if they offer an affiliate program. If not, they may still be willing to offer you a special coupon or discount code to share with your audience to help drive traffic to their online shop.
The affiliate may get paid in various ways:
Pay per sale.
This is the standard affiliate marketing structure. In this program, the merchant pays the affiliate a percentage of the sale price of the product after the consumer purchases the product as a result of affiliate marketing strategies. In other words, the affiliate must actually get the investor to invest in the affiliate product before they are compensated.
Pay per lead.
A more complex system, pay per lead affiliate marketing programs compensates the affiliate based on the conversion of leads. The affiliate must persuade the consumer to visit the merchant’s website and complete the desired action — whether it’s filling out a contact form, signing up for a trial of a product, subscribing to a newsletter or downloading software or files.
Pay per click.
Affiliate marketing is largely about generating traffic to websites and trying to get customers to click and take action. So, the myth that affiliate marketing is all about SEO (search engine optimization) is no surprise.
However, while organic traffic is free, SEO simply can’t sustain affiliate marketers in such a saturated market — which is why some affiliate marketers utilize PPC.
PPC (pay per click) programs focus on incentivizing the affiliate to redirect consumers from their marketing platform to the merchant’s website. This means the affiliate must engage the consumer to the extent that they will move from the affiliate’s site to the merchant’s site. The affiliate is paid based on the increase in web traffic.
There are two common concepts in PPC:
CPA (cost-per-acquisition): With this model, the affiliate gets paid each time the seller or retailer acquires a lead, which is when an affiliate link takes the customer to the merchant’s online store and they take an action, such as subscribing to an email list or filling out a “Contact Us” form.
EPC (earnings-per-click): This is the measure for the average earnings per 100 clicks for all affiliates in a retailer’s affiliate program.
Pay per install.
In this payout system, the affiliate gets paid each time they direct a user to the merchant’s website and installs a product, generally a mobile app or software.
So, if a retailer budgets for a $0.12 bid for each install generated via an affiliate program, and the campaign results in 1,000 installs, then the retailer will pay ($0.12x 1,000) = $120.
Why Be an Affiliate Marketer?
Passive income.
While any “regular” job requires you to be at work to make money, affiliate marketing offers you the ability to make money while you sleep. By investing an initial amount of time into a campaign, you will see continuous returns on that time as consumers purchase the product over the following days and weeks. You receive money for your work long after you’ve finished it. Even when you’re not in front of your computer, your marketing skills will be earning you a steady flow of income.
No customer support.
Individual sellers and companies offering products or services have to deal with their consumers and ensure they are satisfied with what they have purchased.
Thanks to the affiliate marketing structure, you’ll never have to be concerned with customer support or customer satisfaction. The entire job of the affiliate marketer is to link the seller with the consumer. The seller deals with any consumer complaints after you receive your commission from the sale.
Work from home.
If you’re someone who hates going to the office, affiliate marketing is the perfect solution. You’ll be able to launch campaigns and receive revenue from the products that sellers create while working from the comfort of your own home. This is a job you can do without ever getting out of your pajamas.
Cost-effective.
Most businesses require upfront startup fees as well as a cash flow to finance the products being sold. However, affiliate marketing can be done at a low cost, meaning you can get started quickly and without much hassle. There are no unexpected fees to worry about and no need to create a product. Beginning this line of work is relatively straightforward.
Flexible and convenient.
Since you’re essentially becoming a freelancer, you get ultimate independence in setting your own goals, redirecting your path when you feel so inclined, choosing the products that interest you and even determining your own hours. This convenience means you can diversify your portfolio if you like or focus solely on simple and straightforward campaigns. You’ll also be free from company restrictions and regulations as well as ill-performing teams.
Tips to Help You Become A Successful Affiliate Marketer
Ready to try your hand at affiliate marketing? Here are our top online marketing tips to help you get started.
Develop a rapport with your targeted audience.
When beginning your affiliate marketing career, you’ll want to cultivate an audience that has very specific interests. This allows you to tailor your affiliate campaigns to that niche, increasing the likelihood that you’ll convert. By establishing yourself as an expert in one area instead of promoting a large array of products, you’ll be able to market to the people most likely to buy the product.
Make it more personal.
There is no shortage of products you’ll be able to promote.
You’ll have the ability to pick and choose products that you personally believe in, or even products from your favorite brands, so make sure that your campaigns center around truly valuable products that consumers will enjoy. You’ll achieve an impressive conversion rate while simultaneously establishing the reliability of your personal brand.
You’ll also want to get really good at email outreach to work with other bloggers and influencers. Use a tool like ContactOut or Voila Norbert to gather people’s contact information and send personalized emails to garner guest blogging and affiliate opportunities.
Start reviewing products and services.
Focus on reviewing products and services that fall within your niche. Then, leveraging the rapport you have created with your audience and your stance as an expert, tell your readers why they would benefit from purchasing the product or service you are promoting.
Almost anything sold online can be reviewed if there is an affiliate program — you can review physical products, digital software or even services booked online, like ride-sharing or travel resort booking.
It is especially effective to compare this product to others in the same category. Most importantly, make sure you are generating detailed, articulate content to improve conversions.
Use multiple sources.
Instead of focusing on just an email campaign, also spend time making money with a blog, creating landing pages, posting on review sites, reaching out to your audience on social media and even looking into cross-channel promotions.
Test a variety of digital marketing strategies to see which one your audience responds to the most. Make frequent use of this technique.
Benefits To Joining the BigCommerce Affiliate Program
High commissions rates.
In the BigCommerce affiliate program, you receive a 200% bounty per referral and $1,500 per Enterprise referral, with no cap on commissions.
Plus, the more referrals you drive through the program, the higher your commission tier will go.
Powerful tracking.
Our affiliate dashboard offers a comprehensive look at your clicks, trials, sales and commissions. You can view your earnings, track metrics and performance and get paid at the same time every month
Promotion made easy.
In your dashboard, you will have easy access to our pre-made text links, banners and content. Promote BigCommerce anywhere on your site by simply inserting our affiliate links on your pages.