WHAT IS AFFILIATE MARKETING AND HOW IT WORKS

When you refer and earn by referring with the help of online channels or mediums. This way of referring and earning, makes it one of the most popular way of earning passive income. To know more about it in detail… keep going.

Many a times you must have come across the word affiliate marketing or affiliate programs to earn money online,but have you thought about earning with it? No

It’s not just you 90% plus people are in the same category thinking what it is, while for the remaining – it is how to get it started.

The idea behind this kind of marketing is quite simple, you take up other people’s product, promote the product through your affiliate network, and when the product is purchased you earn a commission out of it.

The logic behind affiliate marketing is quite simple, you help those who wants to scale up their products being sold in market but don’t have the proper channel to promote them. In the process of promoting, to landing on product page, to complete selling process, you gain something, and that something is the commission you earn out of it.

There are two aspects:

First, you have products but wants to increase the sale, you can get the affiliate marketing program wherein you offer incentives to the promoters who promote your product on their platforms.

The other way can be you want to earn money, but you don’t have products, you can subscribe and promote the products that you think has the potential and value to reach mass market which ultimately gets you some income.

Process that makes up Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is generally seen as a process of promotion of products by the people who have the consumer base to make the product reach a mass level, but one thing is constant in this process – how confident you are about the product and the way you get it promoted. Let’s look how the process is all about.

Let’s understand what makes up the affiliate marketing in simple steps:

1. Joining an affiliate marketing program. 
2. Selecting the product which you wish to promote.
3. Creating awareness about the product via blog, YouTube videos, social media, Facebook or any other form 
4. The last and final step earning you commission when someone purchases the product through you affiliate link.

If we try to comprise affiliate marketing program there are just two sides: the affiliate marketer and the product creator and seller.

This kind of marketing can be seen from the view where ultimate goal is to benefit all on revenue sharing basis, where everybody earns their share of profit for the contribution they had given in getting the product reach the customer.

With this one thing can be stated that at the same time you can be both the creator and the marketer and still benefit on the idea of sharing revenue.

Let’s deep dive to know more about who comprises affiliate marketing

The affiliate

This person is the one who is responsible for all the promotional activity related to the product. They can be a single individual or a company.

They works on just one motto - to get product to the eyes of customer which is of value to them and tries to convince them through their views of their convincing power, so they ultimately lands up buying the product.

The merchant

These people are the ones who own the product, and are generally referred as creator, the seller, the retailer or the vendor, as per user’s suitability. They can be individual or can be a big company.

The fact here is we all know that we have a product but to get to product to mass market is not an easy task, but can be made easy with the help of people know as affiliate marketers.

The consumer

The chain of affiliate ends here, all the efforts being put in gets successful if the products is liked by the customer of consumer and gets a purchase hit. With the final sales the cycle ends leading to generation of profit to the merchant and commission to the affiliate marketer.

One thing that a good affiliate marketer tries to do is to let their customers know that the product they are showcasing are a part of affiliate marketing, but it’s not a compulsion too, its solely on the part of the marketer to tell the customer or not to tell them.

Letting all the processes of delivery and tracking remains constant and work in background affiliate still ends up being paid their respective commission.

Reasons why people try and fail in Affiliate Marketing

I’ll start by quoting a line “if you want to reach the other shore of the river, you have to swim, not just swim you have to put in right efforts”

People start out with ambitions and crazy expectations with earnings tons of thousand dollars within few months and then think of being able to quit their job, but that’s just a dream. It’s not impossible but it’s not technically right too. 

1. Product selection: whenever a newbie enters the market they try to choose the products which they think can be of great worth to the customers, where the commissions being received after its purchase takes a major lead in getting the product selected, but this commission game tends to get the marketer get out of the race and ultimately leads them to drop the plan. No matter if a customer comes to your website and gets that product which you promoted, but if the product you promoted turns out to be a nightmare, chances of the same customer purchasing again after your promotion is very low. As in anyplace your first impression is the last impression follows it. One wrong product and you are out of the customers list along with carrying a tag of, you selling.
2. Patience: things takes time to reflect results so do the process of establishing yourself as a good affiliate marketer, but giving time is generally not accepted as they want instant or quick results especially when it’s about making money form their online business. This is the reason that the affiliates almost leave this business after investing just few weeks or months. Remember all good things comes to those who act patiently so do it follows here as well.
3. Selling, but not giving value: it is very easy for a beginner to get carried away and get struck in a trap of thinking that the customers will buy things from you just because you are promoting it, but it’s just the reverse a customer comes to you to get exposed to a product which will be of use to them, it is simple if they product promoted looks useful to the customer they will buy, otherwise not. You just can’t just push any product to customer. In this case the only thing that you will witness is the no of clicks and impressions on the product but no sales and commissions. In simple words he product should be adding value to the customers whereas solving their problems.
4. Making low profits: many affiliate marketers make small profits out of the sales, though going in right direction, targeting right customers, promoting the right products, which makes it difficult for them to reinvest that money into more of marketing or quality content. All you need is to find a product which impresses the people to buy it online, giving good commission per sale and ultimately makes the money worth investing.
5. Not targeting the right audience: an inexperienced marketer fails to make any commission as they fail to address the importance of right audience. To get the audience, purchase the products you try all paid and non-paid methods to get the product reach the customers, you may be getting clicks but there won’t be any sales, as the customers knew the product is of no use to them. Till the time the newbie understands their mistake huge sum of money is already spent. So you should be through with what your product is, who is it for, where are its customers, what benefit will it be providing, how you should be promoting it so that you can make maximum commission.
6. Getting distracted by new shiny niches: in this online world of earning passive income you easily get tempted to maximize your affiliate earnings, with the understanding of how profitable niche marketing business is, you try to enter as many niche markets as you can, and ultimately ends in failure. Managing many niches at a same time is not at all a difficulty tasks but all you need is experience, but as a newbie it is not at all a good idea and will only dilute your efforts causing you lose your hope, time, money and energy. In the starting your focus should be a single niche giving maximum returns and by gaining proper experience only you should step into more markets or try other business models.

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