Published on January 28th, 2018 | by Guest

Affiliate Marketing – Money making system demystified

Affiliate Marketing is a dream way of earning online. Who doesn’t want to earn passive income?

Uhh! Here we make mistake at the very beginning. On the contrary of the popular belief, affiliate marketing requires very active efforts initially to make a moderately passive income source.

Be it is an active or passive way, it isn’t hype anymore. Many smart marketers are making handsome money through this popular way of income online.

However still there are many of us out there who actually don’t know how affiliate system actually works. Here I came with this article to make your concept clear.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is one type of performance based marketing (more likely to brokerage). One can earn commission by promoting or selling other people’s products and services.

Suppose you have a popular website which attracts a good number of visitors every day. And some ecommerce site sells shoes on its website who offers commission for other website owners for promoting their shoes. So, you joined their affiliate system (sometimes are managed by third-party). And you started promoting their products (you’re publisher here) on your site. Now a potential customer searched for best steel toe boots, and landed to a page of your website. They clicked on a product link and landed to the seller’s site. The visitor then purchased a pair of nice shoes (or other products) from that website. And you get commission of that sell as the buyer reached to the ecommerce site through your affiliate link.

If you are not still clear enough, check the picture carefully:

Source: http://socialmediaimpact.com

So we see, there are 4 parties (sometimes, 3 parties) involved in an affiliate system- the Merchant, the Network, the Affiliate, and the Customer.

Now I will explain all four parties here.

The Merchant: This is the party that manufactures or sells the product. It can be called as a brand, or vendor or retailer. This is the party who actually owns the product (or service). It can be a big company like Amazon, or can be small home based entrepreneur.

The Affiliate: The Affiliate is the party who promotes the Merchant’s product. It can be publishing through a website or by other way of digital marketing like email marketing or social media marketing. Mostly the affiliates are single publishers. But a very good number of big companies are also involved as affiliates. Some of these companies earn a million a year.

The Network: Network is that party who connects the dot between the merchant and the affiliate. You have to promote some of the products only through an Affiliate Networks like ClickBank or Commission Junction. On the other hand, some of the affiliate system is independently managed and doesn’t involve a network. Amazon affiliate is most popular name in this kind.

The Customer: The customer or the consumer is most important part of the system. An Affiliate System works well, when the affiliate can make sale of the merchant’s products to the customer or consumer.

Now what can we see? The process of Affiliate Marketing isn’t that complex as we think. Next question is – Can I make money fast?

Here comes the truth. Like many other online income method, some of the so called guru’s spreads that you can get quick money through affiliate marketing without a little or no effort. And many people follow them buying their training programs with high price. What actually happens that only the Guru itself get quick cash. And the follower ends up with a belief that affiliate system actually |is scam.

The reality is different. Actually make money and get success with Affiliate System; you have to get skills on many areas what I will describe here. And you have to work very systematically to implement it to work for you.

Niche Selection: At first you have select a niche (specific targeted subject) around which you will build your site and promote products or service.
Product Selection: You have to choose products and services carefully. Because bad selection of products or services will harm your business in the long run.
Affiliate Selection: Before selecting an affiliate program or network its’ wise to study the system thoroughly and be abreast about every rules.
Website Creation: You have to create a good website on your niche. And post quality contents so that you can attract visitors, and make trustworthy relationship.
SEO: You have to gain targeted visitors who will be interested to the products or services you promote through your website.
Email Marketing: Create a prospective email list by luring your visitors using funnel system. Promote free contents, and more affiliate offers to make best from the list.
Social Media Marketing: Through the use of social media reach your target market with your offers.
Analysis: Now when you’re enjoying success, you’ve to measure it with different analysis tools so that you can reach optimum result.

So what we can see there is several skill areas involve for making success with affiliate marketing. While it isn’t require you to master every areas of the list, you have to really be very good in few areas and have working knowledge on other areas so that you can get things done by outsourcing to others.

I wish every success in your journey into Affiliate Marketing.

About the author:

Mr. Md Iqbal is an IT Professional and Data Analyst, with hands-on experience in ERP Implementation. In a typical day, you will find him either doing complex analysis using spreadsheets or preparing reports for top management.

He devotes a substantial time in writing for his niche projects and lifestyle blog www.healthyrize.com. Occasionally he writes for his friends’ projects.

At his free time, he spends quality time with his family. He likes to travel and hanging on with colleagues and friends.

Tags: affiliate, demystified, marketing, money making, system