A Simplified Guide to Affiliate Marketing

“Affiliate marketing has made businesses millions and ordinary people millionaires.” – Robert Foster Bennett

According to the World Economic Forum, the pandemic caused 114 million people to lose their jobs in 2020. If these 114 million people were to form a country, its population would be the 13th highest in the world!

Due to the carnage caused by COVID-19, people are looking for ways to make money online. Although there are many ways to make money online, 99% of people start by Affiliate Marketing.

Now, you might ask “What is Affiliate Marketing?” This is what I am going to share in this blog. In this blog, I will explain Affiliate Marketing in a simple, easy-to-understand language, so please read on.

(1) What is Affiliate Marketing?

• Affiliate Marketing is the process of earning money (commission) by promoting products or services of some company or an individual. In other words, if, as an Affiliate, you drive sales of a product (or service) created by someone else, you will get commission for generating sales of that product (or service).
• For example, the Amazon affiliate program (Amazon Associates), will give you a commission of 4% if you generate sales of mobile accessories or musical instruments.
• The image below illustrates how Affiliate Marketers earn money:

Step 1: A vendor creates a product or a service.

Step 2: An Affiliate Marketer gets the product’s link and promotes it to her / his audience.

Step 3: When people purchase the product, a sale is recorded at the vendor’s end and commission is credited to the Affiliate Marketer.

This video of mine explains Affiliate Marketing in a very simple language.

(2) What makes up Affiliate Marketing?

• As the above image depicts, 3 components make up Affiliate Marketing:
  1. Product Creator / Vendor
  2. Affiliate Marketer
  3. Consumer
• Product Creator:
  • Product Creator is also called a Vendor, Merchant, Brand, etc. They are the ones who actually create and own the product or service.
  • The Product Creator can either be a big company or an individual and the product can be either a physical product (for example, mobile phone, t-shirt, shoes, etc.) or a digital product (for example, online course, e-book, etc.)
• Affiliate Marketer:
  • Affiliate Marketer or Publisher promotes products to people. The aim of Affiliate Marketers is to convince people or potential customers to purchase the product.
  • As an affiliate you can promote products (or services) through videos, blogs, live and recorded webinars, social media, etc.
  • The people you promote products to will vary depending on the product. For example, if you promote health related products, your audience will be of a specific kind – people who search for fitness related workout, diet, etc. On the other hand, if you promote beauty / fashion related products, your audience will be different.
• Consumer:
  • The Affiliate Marketers promote their products with the intention of convincing people to purchase their product. The people who end up buying their product (or service) are called Consumers. 
  • Consumers are the end-users of the product (or service) and without consumers, no Affiliate Marketer can earn a single penny. They are what I call the “Soul” of Affiliate Marketing business – or any business , as a matter of fact!
  • As an affiliate, you can be transparent with your audience about the fact that you will get commission if they purchase the product or you can choose not to tell them and it’s entirely up to you.

(3) Where Can I Find Products?

• If you want to start Affiliate Marketing, you must have a product. It’s as simple as that! However, if you are a beginner and have no idea about where to find products, you will have a hard time as finding vendors takes a lot of research and time.
• This is where Affiliate Networks enter the picture! An Affiliate Network is like a warehouse of products of different categories.
• Affiliate Networks act as middlemen connecting Affiliate Marketers and Vendors. So, instead of searching products on various platforms, you will get a large number of products stored in one place.
• The most popular Affiliate Network is Amazon Associates. There you will fund a huge amount of products and based on your interest (called niche), you can select a product to promote.
• Other Affiliate Networks where you will find a plethora of products are:
  • ClickBank
  • DigiStore24
  • CJ (Commission Junction)
  • Impact
  • JVZoo
  • ShareASale

(4) Facts About Affiliate Marketing

• The Affiliate Marketing industry is worth more than $12 Billion.
• 81% of the brands and 84% of the publishers leverage the power of Affiliate Marketing and the number is increasing each passing day.
• There are more than 170 Million affiliate transactions per year of which 57.44% are from the USA, 9.71% from Canada and the UK accounts for 5.24%.
• Jason Stone, known as Millionaire Mentor, earned around $7 million in retailer sales just in the months of June and July in 2017.

(5) Why Should You Be An Affiliate Marketer?

• Work From Home:
  • The corporate sector was forced to embrace this mode of work where employees completed their tasks and achieved deadlines from the comfort of their homes. However, if the pandemic ends (fingers crossed!), you will have to get back to working from the office and more importantly get up early! 😀
  • However, with Affiliate Marketing, you can permanently work from home. You can work anytime you want and take a break whenever you want (and as long as you want :P)
  • The need to go to the client’s office for meetings and work is completely eliminated. (Phew!)
• Passive Income:
  • If you read business magazines and articles, I am sure you would have read this quote by Warren Buffet, “If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die.”
  • With Affiliate Marketing, you can actually make money while sleeping. Run a campaign for a week or a month and you could see continuous results long after you have finished your work.
  • Successful Affiliate Marketers run ads on Google, Facebook, YouTube, or Bing and the ads do the work for them while they sleep, go on a vacation, or play games.
• Multiple Sources of Income:
  • With Affiliate Marketing, your range is not limited to only 1 product. You can promote shirts, books, shoes, mobile phones, laptops, and so on based on your passion.
  • When you promote multiple products, you could earn from all of them which will ensure income from multiple sources.
• No Overheads:
  • When you create a product, especially a physical product, the cost and effort of production, storage, shipping, etc. rip your pockets. You will have to monitor every stage carefully and ensure a smooth and timely delivery of the product to the consumer.
  • As an owner, you will have to answer people’s queries, provide support, compensate for damaged products, etc.
  • When you promote other people’s products, everything is handled by the product creator or vendor and you can start with as low as ₹0/-. If you run ads, you will only pay for the ads and no other costs will be incurred.

(6) Who Can Be An Affiliate Marketer?

• I will answer this in very simple words. You can start Affiliate Marketing if you have the following 3 things:
  1. Internet connection
  2. A smartphone, a laptop or a computer
  3. Product’s link (also called as an affiliate link)

Do you want to master Affiliate Marketing?

Learn the 3 principles and secrets to excel at promoting people’s products in our free training!

Conclusion

• Due to the pandemic, 114 million people have lost their jobs and as job security is threatened, many people are looking for ways to make money online. As per a research, 99% of people start making money online by Affiliate Marketing.
• Affiliate Marketing is the process of earning money (commission) by promoting products or services of some company or an individual. In other words, if, as an Affiliate, you drive sales of a product (or service) created by someone else, you will get commission for generating sales of that product (or service).
• 3 components make up Affiliate Marketing:
  1. Product Creator / Vendor: The person / company who creates the products
  2. Affiliate Marketer: The person who promotes the products
  3. Consumer: People who buy the products
• You can find affiliate products on Amazon through their Associates program and other platforms like ClickBank, DigiStore24, JVZoo, CJ (Commission Junction), Impact, ShareASale, etc.
• You can promote affiliate products through videos, blog posts, live and recorded webinars, social media, and so on.
• Affiliate Marketing is an exciting business for you if you want to generate income from multiple sources, want to work from home, and be your own boss..
• You can start Affiliate Marketing if you have the following 3 things:
  1. Internet connection
  2. A smartphone, a laptop or a computer
  3. Product’s link (also called as an affiliate link)

Did you find this post helpful? Please comment your biggest takeaway!