Some clients often ask me if affiliate marketing is a way to make money on its own. My answer is always the same: no, affiliate marketing is a business, not a job. Just like any other business, you have to put in the work to make money from it. To give you an example, let’s say there is a small winery that makes and sells five types of wine to a few loyal customers and local liquor stores. The manager of the winery is happy with their current sales but feels it’s time to expand and attract more customers. They approach a friend who owns an online fashion boutique and ask if they can promote the wine on their site. The two parties negotiate the sales price, shipping cost, and commission for the friend. The friend agrees to add the wine to their boutique as a complimentary gift for any customer who spends $50 or more online. After receiving positive feedback about the wine, the friend decides to run an online advertising campaign on Google and Facebook to promote the wine. They spend $200 on the campaign and manage to attract eight new customers. Soon, they have even more customers signing up for a monthly subscription for wine delivery.
In this scenario, the winery manager is a producer and a business owner, and his friend is an affiliate and, on the other hand, a business owner. They both have one main goal: selling as many bottles of wine as they can. They both need to invest, have a business plan, and follow their selling strategy. This scenario is one type of affiliation business relationship. This is the best form of affiliate marketing because it is based on its nature.
What is Affiliate Marketing? Affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based marketing in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought by the affiliate’s own marketing efforts. It is a way for a company to sell its products by signing up individuals or companies (“affiliates”) who market the company’s products for a commission. In affiliate marketing, the affiliate promotes the products of the company and earns a commission on each sale or lead generated from their marketing efforts. The company provides a unique link to the affiliate, which the affiliate can use to promote the company’s products. When a customer clicks on the link and makes a purchase, the affiliate earns a commission. The company tracks the sales and leads generated through the unique link and pays the affiliate a percentage of the sale or a fixed fee for each lead.
There are several types of affiliate programs:
- Pay-per-sale: This is the most common type of affiliate program. Under this program, the affiliate earns a commission each time they refer a customer who makes a purchase.
- Pay-per-click: Under this program, the affiliate earns a commission each time a customer clicks on a link to the company’s website.
- Pay-per-lead: The affiliate earns a commission each time they refer a customer who fills out a form or signs up for a service on the company’s website.
- Pay-per-install: The affiliate earns a commission each time a customer installs a software application on their computer.
- Revenue sharing: Under this program, the affiliate earns a percentage of the revenue generated by the customer they refer.
- Two-tier: This is a type of affiliate program that allows affiliates to recruit other affiliates and earn a commission on their sales.
- Lifetime or recurring: The affiliate earns a commission on the initial sale and any subsequent purchases made by the customer.
- Hybrid: This is a combination of two or more of the above types of programs.
It doesn’t matter what product you pick as your niche and which company you promote; the only important factor to your success in affiliate marketing is how fast you can build a reliable network of buyers. In other words, your social knowledge plus your sales proficiency, and your persistence, are significant variances that affect your success.
Qualia Cycle 