Thanks to the internet and fast changing pace of technology, with just a few strokes on the keyboard, you can buy just about anything and have it shipped to your doorstep. With just a few clicks you get access to thousands and even millions of pieces of information and data on virtually any field of interest. Things that you would have to go to school for 4+ years is now accessible for anyone who is willing to learn. And with that, comes the opportunity for business that any entrepreneur would not want to miss out on.
You might be thinking only businessmen and computer geniuses can make money on the internet. But with the internet, came along something called affiliate marketing. You might have come across these words over the net while surfing or talking to someone.
Understanding What Online Affiliate Marketing Is
Affiliate marketing is a revenue sharing program between a merchant and an affiliate, in this case, you, who gets paid for referring, marketing, or promoting the merchants’ products and services on your blog or website. It is one of the biggest industries nowadays because it is proven to be cost-efficient and a great means of attaining great profit both for the merchant and the affiliate and other players in the affiliate program, such as the affiliate network or affiliate solution provider.
Affiliate marketing works effectively for the merchant and the affiliate. To the merchant, he gains
- Opportunities to advertise his products to a larger market, which increases his chances to earn. The more affiliate websites or hard-working affiliates he gets, the more sales he can expect.
- By getting affiliates to market his products and services, he is saving himself time, effort and money in looking for possible markets and customers. When a client clicks on the link in the affiliate website, purchases the product, recommends it to others who look for the same item or buys it again, the merchant multiplies his chances of earning.
- Commission per sale, which can be fixed percentage or fixed amount.
- Little to no inventory to have to worry about
To get a basic understanding of how affiliate marketing works, lets use Amazon Affiliate Program (Amazon Associates) for an example.
So lets say that you have a blog or a website going, you have a good following or your site gets thousands of views per month and you want to earn some extra revenue. You can sign up for Amazon Associates, which is their affiliate program and earn revenue by placing links on your site.
Once you have signed up, you can begin placing links and banners on your site by simply copying and pasting the code onto your site. The banners are usually place on the side walls of the blogs and the links, whether it is pictures or text, they can be placed anywhere throughout the article you are writing. The next section will give you an example of using text and picture links in the content.
For instance, if you were doing an article about Water Filter Pitchers, you can go on Amazon.com and find dozens of water filter pitchers available but looking at the top 3, you can easily see that the PUR 18 Cup Dispenser w/ 1 Filter is the top selling water filter pitcher in its category. (*Note - Links above are affiliate links. I will receive a commission if you choose to purchase something on amazon.com after clicking through via any of these links. Thanks for your support if you do!)
As you see from above, a link of the product was incorporated into the text along with a picture link to show the product I was talking about.
What happens next is that the visitor, if he or she decides to click on any of those links will be directed to that products' page on Amazon.com. If the visitor then decides to purchase the product, then you will make a commission from that purchase. Another great thing about Amazons' affiliate program is that if the visitor decides that they don't want the pitcher and goes to buy something else on Amazon, you will make a commission from that sale as well because it was your site that led the visitor to Amazon in the beginning.
Now this is not the standard for every affiliate program you sign up for but this just serves as an example using Amazons' Affiliate Program. It is best your check the commission rates, the terms and conditions, and more which all can be found here in an article I published, Qualities To Look For In a Online Affiliate Program.
Placing The Link on Your Website
If you decide on using Amazon Affiliate Program for your, it is not hard to get the links on your webpage or into your content. Actually, most online affiliate programs gives you the link in a code that can easily be copied and paste onto your website. Since we have used Amazon in the example above, it would be easier to continue with it.
Once you have signed up for to become an Amazon Associate, you will be directed to Amazon Central, which is where you can check statistics on your link, check to see how much money you have made, access account settings, and many other options. But most of all you can get the links and banners for your website to start promoting. You can promote just about any product or service Amazon has on its' site and make a commission from it. Once you have decided on the product you want to promote or write about, you can access the links by going to the product that you are promoting page, and clink on the top link that says Link To This Page.
A screen will pop up that will give you access to HTML code for the Text Link, The Image Link, or Text and Picture Link.
You can customized these links to your needs and once you are finished, copy the HTML code and paste it to your webpage code on your site. When you are done, the links will appear on your website wherever you placed the code. Visitors will be able to see the links and be able to click on it, which will direct them the product on Amazon.
Now there are many tips and tricks that you may or may not learn and also hear from other affiliate marketers but, the one thing that everyone can agree with is that when you are first starting out with affiliate programs, start with something that you know.
If you want to do affiliate marketing and make money online, you may find the following the most basic and easiest ways to start an effective affiliate marketing program:
- First is to identify a particular thing you are interested in or passionate about so you won’t be bored and forced to develop your affiliate web site later on. Focusing on a specific area you know very well will help you bring out your best without much risks and effort.
- Next is to look for good paying merchants and products or services related to your interest and create now a website. In choosing the products, you must also consider its conversion rate.
