What the Heck is Affiliate Marketing?
(and how does it work?)
Affiliate marketing is e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e.
Literally everywhere.
It’s just most people don’t realize it.
There’s this whole other layer to the selling that’s happening, right out in plain sight, and practically no one knows!
So What’s Affiliate Marketing — exactly.
In it’s simplest terms…. affiliate marketing is like this …. companies will pay people who refer customers to them. That’s affiliate marketing.
Regular people just like you (and me) can get paid.
A bounty of sorts (as a one time payment).
Or sometimes it’s a portion of a recurring subscription.
Sometimes it’s for a single purchase. Paid one time and then not for future purchases.
Sometimes it’s for the ‘life of the customer’, which means that so long as that customer’s account stays active and makes purchases, you, the affiliate would be paid your portion of the sale.
I’m telling you this sort of relationship is available to just about anyone … (sometimes you do have to have a bit of experience or a track record or a certain size following or email list or a website — but not always!)
This happens through what’s usually called an affiliate or associates program.
And the number of companies that have this sort of program is far greater than you can possibly imagine.
Here’s an example.
I just Googled (funny how that’s actually a word isn’t it?? lol) … I Googled “Walmart”.
Yes. I said Walmart.
Did you have even the tiniest clue that you could be an affiliate for Walmart? It’s true.
Reading their program page — it does look like you need to have a US based website to qualify for this one.
How’d I find that page so quickly?
- I searched on Google and then clicked on their main website link — Walmart.com
- Then you have to hunt a bit.
- One place to look for a link to an affiliate program is in the footer links — you know, the links that are often at the bottom of a website’s home page … nope, not today.
- Next thing I did … did get me there though.
- IN the Walmart search bar (where you normally search for whatever it is you’d like to buy) … I typed “affiliate” and voila.
- Took me straight to the sign up page.
Here’s what their affiliate program sign up page looks like:
It’s Easy to Create an Affiliate Account
Yep, it can be super easy to become an affiliate with many many affiliate programs (though it’s not always the best way to be an affiliate — right now we’re just practicing and getting a clue)
So how might that work?
For our example in this case — Walmart — here are the steps:
- sign up (here’s the direct link to their sign-up page):
https://affiliates.walmart.com - wait up to 24 hours for approval… they’ll email you when they’ve come to a decision
- you’ll get a login to their affiliate member area
- login and get your links (these are specially coded links that will track any sales that happen after someone clicks on them → to your affiliate account)
Next, you could have all your friends and family buy all their Walmarty stuff through your site … the one that’s got your affiliate links in it — and every time they purchase something that way (through your link), you’d get a little small portion of that total purchase.
Looks like at the time of publishing this post, that amount is 4%.
For one-time sales (not recurring and not lifetime)
Click here for a link to their Affiliate FAQ
To read more about their particulars ^^^.
Each affiliate program will have a different set of rules and particulars. In order to keep your account in good standing, it’s important to make sure you understand what their guidelines are.
Some sell physical products, some sell services (like a monthly software — those are called SaaS Companies — Software as a Service), some sell events, some sell digital or information products.
Let’s say you’re not especially excited about selling stuff for Walmart. Like it offends your small town mom and pop business sensibilities. Perfectly understandable.
I like digital information products and events especially.
Another way to get a feel for what’s available in any industry or niche is to head back over to Google and search:
“Your Topic + affiliate program”
So in other words — want to find a fantasy football affiliate program?
(how on earth I just ended up at that as an example I couldn’t say … but go, do that search, and dang if there aren’t a gob of them)
And that’s it! That’s how simple it can be. ← at its most basic.
Well, there actually can be quite a few more moving parts.
Maybe you’d like to learn more? Get some further guidance and training?
One of my favorite companies to promote is a Digital Marketing Education company.
It’s run by my friend Dave.
Click Here and I can personally introduce you to him.
See you on the next page :)
*Important to know — If you purchase anything through a link in this article, you should assume that I have an affiliate relationship with the company providing the product or service that you purchase, and that I’ll be compensated in some small (or even large) way, at no extra cost to you.
