What Is Affiliate Marketing And What You Need To Know To Succeed

What Is Affiliate Marketing & What You Need To Know To Succeed

Affiliate marketing is a great way to generate additional income for your retirement.  It’s how we began our online career back in 2010 albeit we didn’t know back then that was what we were doing 🤣

Today 13 years later we can safely say it rescued our retirement and has helped us recover our savings we lost in the 2008 world wide recession

For you reading this you are likely just doing your research, your due diligence.  You’ve probably heard about it and been searching online how to make money online and it’s popped up in searches.

What is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a process where content creators like ourselves earn a commission by promoting a product or service that we didn’t have to create ourselves.  It’s a model we like because we don’t have the headache of creating a program, handling sales and distribution.  Every time someone makes a purchase through a unique affiliate link associated with a particular recommendation we as the affiliate will get paid for the recommendation.

The most well known affiliate program is Amazon  (Clicking this link takes you to our best selling book The Mindset Shift to demonstrate how it works)

Basically here’s how affiliate marketing works :

• An affiliate shows an ad or a link for an offer on their website, blog, or social network
• A customer clicks the unique affiliate link
• The customer makes a purchase
• The affiliate program/product owner records the transaction
• The purchase is confirmed by that product owner
• The affiliate gets paid a monetary commission

Obviously this is in it’s simplest form 😊

What’s The Best Kind Of Affiliate Marketing

There are different types of affiliate marketing but the one that we focus on and have done since the beginning of our online career is what is known as “involved affiliate marketing“.  Basically this means that as affiliate marketers we only recommend products and services the we have used and truly believe in.

In this type of marketing, we use our influence to promote products and services that our followers may actually need. It takes more time to build this type of credibility with an audience, but it’s necessary for building a sustainable business.  This is the model we’ve based our online career on and will continue to do because it absolutely works.

When you get it right you can make a lot of money!

Writing an organic Instagram or Facebook story or blog post about your personal experience with a product will go a long way.  It’s honest and is the only genuine way to become a trusted source on a particular topic in our opinion.

Chris and I have always made our marketing about serving the 50 plus retirement audience and we’ve become a trusted source on that topic and it’s what we’re known for.

The products and services we recommend are shared through our personal story

Like this one here

In the post we’re telling a story and mention a product we are promoting (Happy Juice)

It creates engagement and curiosity

Why Affiliate Marketing To Generate An Online Income

The affiliate marketing industry had an estimated worth of $8.2 billion in 2022, making it a popular marketing strategy for businesses who need affiliates to help them promote their business. For you the affiliate marketer, it’s also a low cost business venture you can profit from without all the hassle involved in develping and fulfiling offers.  Your job as an affiliate marketer is handling the digital marketing side of the equation.

Once you’ve done the work of building an audinece you can just refer the product or programs you have chosen and generate your income from the commissions paid for the referrals.  You can also of course iintroduce new products to your current audience.

Bear in mind  however that great affiliate marketing is built on trust.  While there are seemingly an endless number of products or services you can promote, it’s best to only highlight those you personally use or would recommend.

This is exactly how we’ve built our affiliate marketing business over the years.  We became known for referring the very best online business education and training programs, associated softwares and tools and today because our niche is very much the 50 plus entrepreneur we’ve added to our business products in health and wellness and travel because they do go hand in hand.

We do want to stress as this point that affiliate marketing despite what you may read from less than honest marketers is not a license to print money or a get rich quick scheme.  It takes time and patience and an investment in personal development and skills to grow an audience and gain influence (plus the know, like and trust element).

Today we can happily say that our consistent content creation across numerous social media channels touches people who follow us for months and even years before they feel they know us well enough to take the next step.

We don’t get involved in anything we’re not proud to put our names to because our reputation is everything.  That being said despite best due diligence sometimes there are factors outside our control that can change a relationship with a particular business that either closes or you no longer feel good about.

How To Make Money With Affiliate Marketing

There’s no boss handing you a weekly paycheck as an affiliate marketer. Affiliate marketing programs work on a commission basis, whether you’re paid by lead, click, or sale.

Commission rates for affiliate sales vary depending on the company and the offer.  On the low end, you might earn about 5% of the sale, but with some arrangements, you can earn as much as 40% with high ticket affiliate programs.

Statistically, some affiliate marketers who make a few hundred or even thousand dollars per month and others make six figures a year.  The larger your following (audience), the more money you can make as an affiliate providing you are selling the right products to the right audience (we say this a lot because it really is important!)

The Main Ways Affiliates Get Paid

Pay per sale : where you earn a commission for each sale you make. It’s a common payout model for ecommerce offers and the one we are most familiar with.

Pay per action : where you earn you a commission for a specific action taken. Many affiliate programs use this payout model because it’s broad and can be applied to different offers: a newsletter signup, a click, contact request, form submission, etc.

Pay per lead : where you are paid you every time someone signs up for something that you are promoting.

There are other types but these are the most well known and popular for affiliate marketers.

Getting Started With Affiliate Marketing

• Pick your platform and method
• Determine your niche and audience
• Find your products
• Choose your first affiliate program

Remember this is a business not a hobby and to be successful takes dedication and discipline

When it comes to choosing your niche think about something you’re knowledgeable or passionate about or at the very least willing to learn about.  This way you will come across as a trusted source of information for your potential customer.  You will remember we knew nothing about affiliate marketing when we started out but we knew and understood business and had purchased a product in the education niche to help our own clients in our management consultancy grow their businesses with all the new internet marketing resources that had come on the scene (see our story).  That made for a strong connection with the niche and topic.

No matter what route you take, authenticity and building an audience are the most crucial elements of affiliate marketinng.  If you can’t authentically connect with your audience then it’s unlikely you will be attracting the right people to take action on your referral.

To begin your audience building we suggest using the platform(s) you are most familiar with.  If you are just starting out we suggest Facebook or Instagram.  Get to know how they work and then start building your audience.

Common platforms that we as affiliate marketers use are:

• Blogging
• Instagram
• Facebook
• Tik Tok
• Pinterest

Thanks for reading today’s blog What Is Affiliate Marketing

We hope you found it helpful.

Are you now excited about taking the first steps towards becoming a successful affiliate marketer… Eager to tap into a wealth of knowledge, expert strategies, and personalised guidance to reach your goals?

Then let’s talk.  You can book a free call here

What Is Affiliate Marketing