What is Affiliate Marketing All About?

You have probably heard the term “affiliate marketing” quite a bit these days.  It seems it is all the buzz  and more people are finding out that after they ask the question, “What is affiliate marketing?” they find the answer is very appealing.

Affiliate marketing is a system of getting paid commission for promoting a product or service.

Let me cut right to the chase.  It’s much easier that way.  This is how affiliate marketing works:

• A company or individual has a product or service
• You let someone know about that product or service
• As a result that person buys the product or service
• You get paid!

It really is that simple… well in theory anyway.  There are many different kinds of affiliate marketing but this is a post for those who want to become more familiar with what affiliate marketing is all about.

By promoting a companies product you are an affiliate, and are thus affiliated with this item.

There are 3 basic ways that you get paid on the internet for being an affiliate marketer.

1. Pay per click. You have a link on your website going to this merchant and you are paid when someone clicks on it to go to that site.  No sale is needed for for pay per click (although I am sure the company paying you really hopes there is a sale).
2. Pay per sale. This is the most common form of affiliate marketing program where the consumer not only clicks on the link on your blog or webpage but they go on to purchase the product.  It can be a one time sale or recurred billing, where a person pays a monthly fee for a service and you get commission on that every month too… yeah, I love those sales.
3. Pay per lead. A lead is simple a person who is interested in a product even they they have not yet made a purchase.  Leads usually come in the form of an email address, and you get paid when someone uses your link to subscribe to a service or submits there email to a company.

Now before I even go on.  I have found that the absolute best place to learn all about affiliate marketing is through Wealthy Affiliate. You pay a monthly fee of $30 to be able to access the site but it is basically a college for learning how to make a living online with affiliate marketing and all kinds of other ways.

I have been a member for a little while now and will continue to pay the $30 per month just because the information is valuable that it MORE than pays for itself if you just apply yourself.  And that, my friends, is the biggest key in earning a living online.

I wish I had found Wealthy Affiliate sooner, as I made a lot of mistakes when I first got started with Internet marketing, and this would have been a huge jumpstart for me.  But if you are just starting out, this website can be of more value than a college education.

There is an 8 week learning course, marketing tools and software, and VERY helpful forums for any questions, and… ya know what?.. just read my review on it if you want to know more, or click here to start your making money online education. There is just way too much info on that to cover here.

Here are some examples as to how affiliate mareting works and how you would get started.

Well this was supposed to be a brief page but there is just so much to learn about marketing online and I at least want to cover the basics.  So lets see how we would get started making money with internet marketing in a real world example.

Step 1.  Choose your niche. You would want to pick a niche or specific field you are interested in.  It really doesn’t matter what niche you choose there IS probably an affiliate program that you can promote with it.  So let’s say… for example.. you love golf.  Personally, I am horrible at it, but do find it quite relaxing when I am not hitting the ball into the trees.  But if golf is your passion, then you have already passed a huge hurtle in affiliate marketing.  After all, if you hate to golf, it will be very hard to motivate yourself to work day after day at trying to get sales through your links.

Step 2.  Get Your Keywords. Now that you have the niche that you want to promote i.e. golf, we need to get some keywords.  A keyword can be just one word, but you really want at least 3 words or more to make up a long tail keyword.  And here is why.  It’s allllll about Google baby!  If people can’t find you in the search engines you are going to have a hard time getting any targeted traffic to your blog, website, or article.  If you type in “golf” in Google, you will get about 507,000,000 (that’s 507 million) results!  Yeah, talk about finding a needle in the haystack.  A more specific and useful keyword to use would be: “how to improve my golf swing”, which in quotes results in 471 results in Google.  Now you know you can be found VERY easily when someone uses that keyword in a search.

Step 3.  Find a product to promote.  There are tens of thousands of companies that have affiliate programs you can join to promote their products, but if you are just starting out, it’s easier to work with ONE company that is an affiliate marketplace for thousands of others.  And lucky for us, there are several places like that including: Linkshare, Clickbank, Commission Junction and PayDotCom.  There are more, but these are some of the best.  So let’s go over to Clickbank, sign up for a free account, and search the database for a golf related product to promote.  Now even though Clickbank mainly sells data products and ebooks, when we type in “golf” we can find many products to promote.  Here is a product telling us how to improve my golf swing, which will be perfect.

Step 4.  Get Your Link.  The may seem obvious, but without an affiliate link, you will just be doing a charitable service for the guy who wrote the book on how to improve your golf swing.  Every affiliate program gives you a special link which tells them that YOU are the one who sent the hopeful customer there.  Only then can you get credit and make a commission on the sale.  So make sure you copy and paste that code into your website or blog.

Step 5.  Get a blog or website.  If you know how to make a website this will be easy, and if you don’t it will be even easier.  Sound strange?  hehe I know.. but it’s true.  At least for me, putting a website together can be a big hassle, but even if you have no clue how to make one you can just sign up with blogger.com and start your own blog in ten minutes.  And it really is a piece of cake.  I had no idea what html was and I was able to start a blog with no trouble at all.  Having a website is essential for down the road once your online business is thriving, but for now, a blog can still make you a TON of cash.  You will use this blog or website to talk about golf.  Everything about golf.  And throughout your posts, you want to include that link you just got, and tell the readers why you think it’s a great program (assuming you have at least read through the program or used it yourself.)  I really think it’s a good policy NOT to promote a product you have never tried or purchased yourself.  This is a bad habit to get into.  Your readers will pick up on dishonesty and no longer read your blog or trust your bits of wisdom, so be genuine and honest in what you write.

Step 6.  Build Traffic and more Traffic.  Without traffic you are like a piece of toast in a rain storm.  Yes, it’s a bad analogy but at least you thought about it.  The average affiliate gets about a 1-3% conversion rate.  That means for every 100 people that visit your site, you should get at least one sale.  So imagine if you are getting 1,000 visitors a day, which is VERY doable.. trust me.  That means you could bank between $400 and $1,000 per day with the program we have chosen on how to improve your golf swing.  Now that number can go up or down, but that give you an idea of how lucrative affiliate marketing can be.  And you never have to ship or stock a single item.