How to Make Money Online: Affiliate Marketing
Alright, so I know that "affiliate marketing" sounds a little sketchy to many people, especially those new to the online sales world. But, affiliate marketing is one of the few ways that bloggers and website owners can make a reasonable income without creating a brand new product or service. In fact, affiliate marketing is part of why they can keep offering their great resources and work!
What is affiliate marketing?
In a nutshell, affiliate marketing is the act of advertising, recommending, and directing potential customers to someone else's goods or services in order to make a commission. This can be done in a variety of ways. Bloggers and website owners might:
- Incorporate ads throughout their website
- Write about product or service from time to time in various posts
- Tweet or post about the company
- Share special offers
How do you find affiliates?
Although there are affiliate opportunities everywhere, some of the most popular places to find affiliate marketing offers are through these websites:
- Commission Junction
- Share a Sale
- Clickbank
- E-Junkie
- PayDotCom
Personally, I prefer the interface of Commission Junction, but I also like the ready availability of smaller scale digital products through E-Junkie.
The best places to look for affiliate marketing ideas are the websites you already use. Check out what they sell, and investigate the income platforms set forth by those organizations. Focus on your audience, what they'd want, and how they tend to behave. It's better to find one or two products you really like than to hock a bunch of junk you don't really care about!
I tend to think of affiliate marketing as unintended sponsorship. The company doesn't necessarily know that you're going to go all out crazy for them, but you perform many of the same actions and present a similar brand loyalty to your readers.
Is affiliate marketing profitable?
Now, there's the rub. Have you ever been to those websites where people say that they make unbelievable amounts of money each month? Those numbers might be from Google AdSense or the sales of their own product or service, but that might also be through affiliate marketing. If you're a good salesperson and truly believe in what you're selling, you might be able to make some dough.
But, affiliate marketing really requires the right audience, ample traffic, and your time and dedication. It takes a lot of time and practice to find the right product and the right way to sell it, and not everyone will achieve success.
Plus, you don't want to put all of your eggs in one basket. Although you might love Product X and want to sell it forever, you never know what might happen with that organization. Diversify, find relevant products that fit the same niche market, and integrate everything into a seamless marketing campaign.
Okay, so should I shut off my AdSense Account and start affiliate marketing?
That's the tricky part. Really, no, but also, yes. If you're already making money through AdSense, you're converting page views and readers into clicks and income. That's good. That's what Google does. It finds the right ad for the right viewer. Your affiliate products might not evoke such click-worthy thoughts and actions from your readers. Therefore, your income would go down, and it might not go up if you don't have the right set-up.
But, you will sell more of your affiliate product if you emphasize that and not any potential competitors (through AdSense). At first, just keep doing what you're doing. Integrate the affiliate program a little bit at a time, monitor your analytics, and then move accordingly.
Have you tried affiliate marketing? Do you want to? Have any horror stories? Tell us below!