Module 3: Affiliate Marketing 101
You’ll find the top three methods of creating an income online in this module and the next two.
Each one doesn’t cover all the details but gives you a birds-eye view of each method. Though seasoned marketers use many methods and strategies, I strongly recommend you begin with just one.
Learn it well, and when you have engaged it as best you can – and are making money with it – move on to other methods.
Affiliate Marketing, for First Steppers, is the simplest, fastest, and most efficient method of generating income.
What is it?
Google Dictionary says:
“A marketing arrangement by which an online retailer pays a commission to an external website (or individual) for traffic or sales generated from its referrals.”
To make it much simpler: Affiliates, also known as associates, are people like you and me, who advertise and promote products and services they don’t own, didn’t create, and don’t stock or manufacture.
If and when someone purchases an advertised product or service as a result of your “marketing” efforts, the product or service company pays you a commission.
Bottom line: You promote and sell and put money in your pocket. Easy, peasy!
The simplicity makes it very attractive for First Steppers!
All you need to do is promote and the company does the rest: product delivery, product returns, fund collection through a payment system, and customer service.
Affiliate marketing commissions range from 3% to 50%, depending upon the company controlling the product, the stock, and the manufacturing.
As I’ve already mentioned, Affiliate Marketing, for First Steppers, is the simplest, fastest, and most efficient method of generating income.
What is it?
Google Dictionary says: “A marketing arrangement by which an online retailer pays a commission to an external website (or individual) for traffic or sales generated from its referrals.”
Another way of putting it, Entrepreneur.com says: “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.”
And one more high-falutin’ definition for you. “Marketing Terms.com” defines affiliate marketing this way: “Revenue sharing between online advertisers/merchants and online publishers/salespeople, whereby compensation is based on performance measures, typically in the form of sales, clicks, registrations, or a hybrid model.”
Now that’s a mouthful!
To make it much simpler:
Affiliates, also known as associates, are people like you and me, who advertise and promote products and services they don’t own, didn’t create, and don’t stock or manufacture. If and when someone purchases an advertised product or service as a result of your “marketing” efforts, the product or service company pays you a commission.
Bottom line: You promote and sell and put money in your pocket. Easy, peasy!
The simplicity makes it very attractive for First Steppers!
All you need to do is promote and the company does the rest: product delivery, product returns, fund collection through a payment system, and customer service.
To be effective and profitable with affiliate marketing, you don’t need a domain or website, an autoresponder membership, link tracking system, or an expensive computer and other “cloud services.”
Simply promote and collect your commissions when somebody purchases the goods.
With affiliate marketing, you are paid for referrals. You’re an online salesman or sales representative who earns commissions for selling stuff.
This practice is a common, age-old sales model. You’re probably familiar with it if you’ve ever purchased a car, washing machine, a cell phone, or goods from the Amway rep or Avon lady who appeared on your doorstep.
Some companies pay money for a “cost per action” or CPA. If a customer referred by your advertising efforts merely clicks and signs up to subscribe or to receive information from the company, you’ll receive a small amount of money.
Companies place great value in getting people on their email or customer list. The amount could be $1 to $25, depending on the company and the product.
“Flat rate” amounts, sometimes $50 or more, can be earned every time a customer makes a purchase. A flat rate is paid no matter how much the customer ends up buying, including the upsells.
Affiliate marketing commissions range from 3% to 50%, depending upon the company controlling the product, the stock, and the manufacturing.
Higher commissions are generally paid to expand email marketing connections and contacts of the company which can increase their exposure, scope, or market share.
Major companies like Amazon.com have affiliate programs and pay you a commission when you sell one of their products. The commissions are low, so you need to promote and sell a lot to get decent return for your efforts. On average, commissions from such companies range from 2 to 10%.
Promoting digital products, like e-books, online or computer programs, and private label rights (PLR) have higher commissions (up to 100%) due to delivery by download with no physical inventory and no shipping costs.
Now, you may be asking yourself,
“Are there any downsides or drawbacks to this type of method?”
Hold on! I’ll get to that later in this module.
Watch my video, “Introduction to Affiliate Marketing” below.
What are the benefits of participating in an affiliate program?
- You don’t have to develop your own product.
- You don’t have to collect money from the sales of these products.
- You have few or no up-front costs to get started.
- You can work part-time.
- You have the opportunity to build a generous re-occurring or passive income.
- You are the owner of a small business.
What do you have to consider to begin affiliate marketing?
1. Choose a “niche” market. Try to find out where the hot niche markets are and what products have the most potential to bring you the highest income.
2. Join an affiliate marketing program. Many companies offer them, and you can scroll to the bottom of their main websites for links to learn which ones. Choosing the right one for you is essential.
Here are just a few affiliate marketing programs:
JVZoo – ClickBank – Warrior Plus – Strong Future International (SFI) – Commission Junction – Max Bounty – ShareASale – Wealthy Affiliate – Amazon.com –
Look over these quick tips before choosing an affiliate marketing program.
- Find a program or genre which caters to your likes and interests.
- Look for a high-quality program and check it out with the Better Business Bureau or Government Consumer Department before you sign on the virtual dotted line.
- Become a member of an affiliate company offering real and viable products. Many have a free trials or a “free-to-join” policy.
- Find a program that caters to a growing target or niche market.
- A great choice would be an affiliate program with a compensation plan that pays out a commission or residual income – of 40% or more. Do not waste your time with programs that don’t reward you substantially for your efforts.
- Beware of minimum quotas you must fulfill or sales targets too hard to achieve. Check into their compensation plan!
- Make sure the program offers plenty of resources to help you grow your business in the shortest possible time. Not every affiliate program has these capacities. Choose one with practical tools you can use and access.
- See if the program has a proven system which allows you to check your networks and compensation. Does the company have it available online for you to view anytime and anywhere?
- Check if the program offer strong incentives for members/affiliates who renew their membership each year or access to other programs and products?
- Beware of the things current (or past disgruntled) members are displeased with in a program. Ask someone involved in the program what their experience has been. Search for reviews and/or testimonials on the internet and read them carefully.
Here’s what I’m doing with Affiliate Marketing. Click HERE!
3. Choose a product or products to sell.
What specific niche do you want to promote? What products are available that support this niche?
- First, establish whether or not there’s a viable demand for this product. Aside from determining if people want the product, find out what type of people this product targets and determine if you can easily reach this audience.
- How good is the product sales page? If it doesn’t look as though it can convert visitors into buyers, you must decide how much work it will take on your part to override this drawback. Is it worth the extra effort you’ll need to invest? Go with your gut feeling. If you don’t feel comfortable with the look, the sales copy, or the order process, chances are the average viewer won’t either.
- Can you make enough profit by promoting the product? Some owners reward their affiliates by giving them generous commissions while others merely offer a tiny percentage. Getting an idea of how much you’ll earn versus your time and effort is crucial to your success.
- The quality of the product is vital. If you don’t feel confident about how good it is or how well it performs, it will be a challenge to convince your customers otherwise. And difficult for you to launch a successful promotional campaign and maintain it over an extended period of time.
- Down the road, you’ll need your own means to track and monitor everything related to your affiliate activities – things like the number of visitors (traffic) you sent to each sales page, how many of them actually made a purchase (conversions), and the ability to run sales and refund statistics. This will keep you informed of each product’s performance, and allow you to determine which campaigns need to be tweaked, expanded, or dropped altogether.
4. Create trust and build a standard of quality in everything you do.
Shakespeare in his epic story Hamlet, wrote these words:
“This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man”.
If you base your business on truth, honesty, and trust, you will go far. If you’re not happy with a certain product, then choose to eliminate it rather than be hypocritical and promote with lies and false information.
5. First Steppers . . . take the walkin’ slow!
As with all training in this series, there’s no need for you to be frustrated or overwhelmed by comparing your efforts with those who’ve been in the biz for years.
As a passionate pilot of radio-controlled airplanes, I say this:
“Fly your own plane and enjoy the journey! Be the pilot of your own craft and realize that your focused education, engagement, and expansion will pay off over a period of time and turn your dreams into reality.”
George McBride and I made an awesome video about Affiliate Marketing, your mindset, important elements of Affiliate Marketing, and the enormous opportunity for success today by implementing Affiliate Marketing.
George also shares what he likes to do with Affiliate Marketing and what it has done for him and his family.
There is a small $2.00 fee to watch this video. I guarantee you’ll get your money’s worth by watching. If you don’t, I’ll be happy to refund your fee, no questions asked!
