Whatever you search on Google related to the keywords “affiliate marketing”, it suggests all the results related to it.
Points covered in the article:
As you can see in the above image, these are some of the high volume searches in Google made by the people. Google only suggests as per the niche keyword, the searcher wants to know or get results as such.
Today, the one who is been associated with some or other affiliate program searches for the keyword “How do I become successful affiliate marketer”. The main aim of writing the article is that the affiliates should know the ways or tactics where to dig the hole and earn profits.
There might be some readers who are new to affiliate marketing and are not known to its benefits. So, first I will get them on the track by clearing some of the questions and history related to affiliate marketing.
Overview
Everyone wants to earn through affiliate marketing, but do you know, how it all started. The term affiliate marketing was founded by William J Tobin who started in 1989. He was a pioneer in affiliate marketing who usually started to kick off in the online world. He first started the affiliate program for his company named “PC Flowers & Gifts”.
Among all the affiliate programs, Amazon was the first company to start their affiliate program and use it for their marketing purpose. They build links for their products and use them for their marketing. Their system named as “Associate Program” allows people to sign up and make their links visible on their website.
The invention of cookies:
Cookies were added over the web and that changed the affiliate marketing forever. These cookies are some data that is stored on the web browser where the user can track his work. This is helpful when the user returns to the browser and analyzes the work that he has left behind. This is done with the help of cookies that have made a difference today.
For your information, the cookies got their name from the web browser programmer “Lou Montulli”.
What is affiliate marketing?
The best definition of affiliate marketing can be found on Wikipedia:
“Affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based marketing in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought by the affiliate’s marketing efforts”
There might be some of you that are still confused after defining affiliate marketing.
No worries.
Sit back and tighten your seat-belts as the next topic will clear all your doubts regarding the same.
What are the key factors or pillars in affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is fully based on these four core pillars that make affiliate program work. But actually, three factors complete the affiliate marketing circle.
The advertiser
The publisher
The consumer
There is one more term named as affiliate network that acts as a medium between the advertiser and the consumer.
Affiliate marketing is based on the above three pillars. But when it comes to actual marketing there are two sides, one is the seller or product creator and the other one is an affiliate marketer. Both are correlated to each other in some or the other ways. It’s a cycle where one relies on other, which results in profit sharing.
In a quick power check mode, I will explain to you all about the three pillars along with the fourth one.
The advertiser:
Sometimes the advertiser is also known as a merchant, a seller, a vendor or a product creator. There are many names that we know. This is the party which creates the product or service. It can be a big fortune company like Amazon or a small company or startup.
Starting from the solo entrepreneur to massive fortune 500 companies anyone can be the advertiser or merchant to the affiliate marketing service. Just they need to share some part of the commission with the affiliate and that is termed as “revenue sharing” as per the product.
The publisher:
The one who makes it work is called as an affiliate. It can be the individual or the whole company. The affiliate marketing business can easily make millions of dollars on a commission basis.
Here is the part where the marketing happens. An affiliate promotes the advertiser’s products and services and convinces or targets the potential customers which value the merchant product, ending up the buying process.
The consumer:
The customer is the one which finalizes the deal. Without the customer, there is no commission. The affiliate can target any customer they want as per the niche, but the customer completes the circle and makes the deal happen.
The affiliate can market the products and services on various channels such as
Digital Billboards
Social Media
Content Marketing on a blog
Whether the customers know that they are part of the affiliate marketing system or not, it fully depends upon the affiliate whether to inform or mention it to the customer.
But as per the stats, many of the affiliates don’t feel like sharing or mentioning about affiliate marketing.
It’s because there might be the possibility that the customer may:
Cancel the order.
Ask for profit sharing.
Can join that affiliate program and earn a profit.
Customer will not pay the higher price to the affiliate marketer as they have already had the retail price in the affiliate network.
The network:
Some of the affiliates consider affiliate network as a part of the affiliate marketing system. I feel that affiliate network should be added in the affiliate marketing guide where it acts as an intermediate between the merchant and the affiliate.
In the affiliate network, you can easily find out the best affiliate program as per your niche or interest and can promote for example an online product of the company or of someone else. Then you can share the commission or profit with them and let the affiliate networks handle all the payment process and product delivery.
On a serious note, affiliate network needs to be taken under consideration and make it work for both the advertiser and publisher.
The affiliate networks work as a database for lots of products and help the affiliate to choose a different affiliate program. Some companies rely on the affiliate network for their overall affiliate marketing program.
In terms of household, books, toys and overall products, the biggest affiliate network today is the Amazon network. But as you know where there is a crowd, you don’t get much benefit from it. As it is said that affiliate marketing takes time to make a profit so, does the affiliate.
The first affiliate network was Commission Junction(CJ) and Clickbank that opened their doors for the companies to market their products on their platform. They are the top affiliate networks in the history of affiliate marketing that have set a benchmark.
As I have mentioned earlier, there are two sides of the affiliate marketing system, the seller and the affiliate marketer.
One is that you can become a merchant and let other affiliates promote your products and services and in return, you share some part of the commission with them.
OR
Else you can become an affiliate marketer where you promote the products and services of the company to the potential customer and earn money.
It’s SIMPLE!
You either can be one of them.
Note: But both sides or parties need patience as it depends upon the idea the merchant chooses to promote or the strategy that the affiliate marketer is going to use as per the niche or channel is chosen.
What is an affiliate link?
According to the definition of webopedia:
“In affiliate programs, it’s a special URL that contains the ID or username of the affiliate. This URL is used by the advertiser to track all traffic the affiliate sends to the advertiser’s site as a part of the affiliate program”
Here it goes…
The entire affiliate marketing program is based on the affiliate link. Here the affiliate shares the affiliation link with the client and if the customer completes the order using the affiliate link then the affiliate marketer gets the commission.
As you are clear about affiliate marketing, now it’s time to get on the track and let you know the strategy to become successful in affiliate marketing as an online marketer.
Related: How Does MilesWeb Affiliate Program Works?
Power-pack Mode To Become Successful As An Affiliate Marketer:
As mentioned in the previous statement that now it’s time to get started with the ways to become successful in the affiliate marketing business as an affiliate marketer.
The following context will help you to understand the position of where you stand in affiliate marketing platform and what you need to look forward to.
Note: Before getting started, I need to make it clear about one thing that there is no shortcut or golden spoon where you will make money at overnight.
A successful affiliate marketer can earn more than five-figure per month as compared to other affiliates. They are so-called as “super affiliates”. Only 1 to 5 percent of the affiliates claim that status and make huge profits.
When you sleep, you dream to become big.
But what makes you stop doing it? Have you ever asked yourself?
Many of you easily give up as you are not earning through it but some want to know the key behind becoming a super affiliate.
Affiliate marketing is the golden spoon that can make your dream come true, just you need to follow the correct guide or steps to make it happen. Below pointers will help you to gain success and make it work for you.
Find a Unique Profitable Niche:
The one that is most common among all affiliate marketers is that they like to offer everything under one roof rather than focusing on a specific niche market. Some profitable niche markets include web hosting, books, clothes, etc.
Wait!
Don’t scatter all around. Find the specific niche that you are interested in and market the product and sell.
It’s like:
SEARCH > NICHE > FOCUS > PRODUCT > SELL
Know Your Product, Know Your Audience:
See your website as a resource for your customers. Take time to learn about the products and services that you are offering and also your target audience. Once you are done with it, work on the content for your website that will help you build the credibility. The credibility will help you to build trust because if your customers don’t trust you, how they will consider the product that you are reselling.
So, always make a deep study of the products you promote and then make a strong strategy to attract the target audience.
Don’t put all eggs in one basket:
Go with promoting the products and services of the different merchants. So, if you don’t receive the payment or if the product of merchant is not been converted then the effect on your business will be minimal. Always make a habit to target good products that people are looking for. This is your business and there is nothing wrong promoting different products of different merchants.
At last, you need to make money out of it.
But it’s not always worth in registering or getting associated with the number of the affiliate programs. However, if you are confident about the product that will benefit your business then you can go with it.
Make the best choice:
Affiliate marketing business is a sea where you get many boats. It is up to you to choose the wise one as per the interest and other factors. There are many well-known niches that help the affiliates to earn the commission. One of the niches that have an ever-increasing graph of revenue is web hosting.
As you know every minute a website is LIVE, the customers tend to look for a web host.
JACKPOT!!
Here you will play the main role to introduce the merchant’s product to the customer and make him drive to sale and earn a profit.
Seek Knowledge and Implement:
If you are familiar with internet marketing then you would know what worked 6 months before, may not work today. Everyday technology changes and we see something new is coming. The banner ads that were used one year ago may not work today even if those relate to the customer in some or the other away. Customer is bombarded with the banner ads many times and he avoids it.
So, always make it a habit to seek knowledge about affiliate marketing and try to implement it in your daily business.
Don’t Give Up:
Many of the affiliate marketers try to gain success at an earlier duration of time. But affiliate marketing is all about patience. Most of the affiliate marketers give up and switch to some other affiliate programs.
Note: But every affiliate program has the same structure or we can say the same process.
Here you need to make a plan for every niche you choose and should work accordingly. There is no shortcut as such where the customer will come to your website and place the order.
First, you need to drive traffic on your website which may result in a conversion.
I hope that the power-pack pointers that I have covered in the article will help you start with a new hope which will lead you to success.
And as I said earlier to become a super affiliate, you need to work hard. It will not come without hard work and reading fairy tale articles that will work. A super affiliate also possesses the patience, persistence, thirst for knowledge, never give up attitude.
The above four traits will help you become a super successful affiliate marketer.
