Affiliate Marketing For Beginners: What It Is + How to Succeed
What is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is when you advertise a product or service for another firm in exchange for a commission on the sales you produce. Commissions are usually a percentage of the sale price, but they can also be a fixed amount on rare occasions.
Why do affiliate marketing?
Here are two compelling reasons to pursue affiliate marketing:
1. Low-cost and low-risk
Starting a business entails paying for items, workers, equipment, rent, and other expenses up front. This makes it both risky and costly. All you need for affiliate marketing is a website. Even if it doesn’t work out, you’ve only wasted a little time and money.
2. Easy to scale
A typical salesman only offers one brand of merchandise. You can advertise products from a variety of firms as an affiliate marketer and earn money from each one.
How does affiliate marketing work?
When someone clicks that link, a small file called a cookie gets stored on their device.
An affiliate cookie performs two functions:
1-It assists the merchant in attributing the sale to the correct customer.
2-It (typically) has an expiration date, so you’ll get paid even if the buyer’s purchase is delayed.
Here’s an example of how this works.
Consider a reader who comes across your article on the greatest winter clothing. They click on one of your affiliate links, which takes them to an Amazon product.
They soon realized, however, that they needed to pick up their daughter from school. So they leave their house, pick up their daughter, eat dinner, and then return to Amazon, where the thing is still available.
They decide to buy ski equipment because they’re already shopping on Amazon.
The good news is as follows: They previously clicked on your affiliate link, which resulted in the placement of a cookie on their device. Because Amazon’s cookie lasts for 24 hours, you are paid for both the winter clothing and the ski equipment, even if you didn’t advertise the latter.
How much money can I make as an affiliate marketer?
The basic response is that there is no such thing as a limit. It all depends on your niche and how hard you work.
Affiliate marketers who are successful earn six or seven figures per month.
In December 2017, Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income, for example, earned over $100,000 in affiliate commissions.
How to get started with affiliate marketing
Follow these seven simple steps.
- Decide on a platform
- Choose your niche
- Find affiliate programs to join
- Create great content
- Drive traffic to your affiliate site
- Get clicks on your affiliate links
- Convert clicks to sales
