Earning money while you sleep sounds like a dream for many. If you are one among those red-blooded human beings on the earth, then the idea of making money while you sleep must have crossed your mind. However, as impossible it may sound, earning money, literally while you are sleeping, is not just possible, but also doable. Yes, you can. Want to know how? With Affiliate Marketing. 

Affiliate marketing is the procedure of earning money whenever you promote a company’s products and services. You will get paid every time you initiate a sale, like a commission. 

Simply defined, affiliate marketing includes referring to a product or service by sharing it on social media platforms, blogs, or websites. The affiliate earns money every time somebody clicks the link and makes a purchase. Done rightly, this performance-based prospect can become a significant part of your business by helping you earn income.

  • 81% of brands depend on affiliate programs to enhance their business.
  • Affiliate marketing contributes 30% of revenue for the companies.
  • 80% of brands use affiliate marketing to generate new leads. 
  • About 84% of publishers use affiliate marketing. 

How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

As affiliate marketing involves distributing the responsibilities of product marketing and establishment across different parties, handles to influence the abilities of a huge variety of people for an efficient marketing strategy while offering contributors a profit share. To make affiliate marketing work, three parties are involved. These are:

  1. Product creators or sellers
  2. Advertiser or affiliate
  3. The Customer

Let us understand how these three parties work to make affiliate marketing successful. 

  1. Product creators or sellers- The seller, no matter whether a large company or a solo entrepreneur, is a merchant, vendor, retailer, or product creator with a product in the market. The product can be anything like a service like makeup tutorials or an item like a household or office item.

Also popularly known as the brand, the seller does not need to be enthusiastically do marketing, but they may be the advertiser and earn profit from the revenue sharing related to affiliate marketing.

For instance, a seller could be an eCommerce merchant who started a dropshipping business and wants to reach a new group of the target audience by paying affiliate sites to advertise their items. Or the seller could even be a SaaS company that controls affiliates to assist sell their marketing software.

  1. Publisher or the Affiliate- Popularly known as a publisher, an affiliate can either be a company or an individual that attractively markets the product to potential clients. In simple words, the affiliate or the publisher promotes the product to convince customers that it is beneficial or valuable to them and encourages them to buy the product. If the customer buys the product, the affiliate or the publisher gets a part of the revenue earned. 

Often, affiliates have a specific target audience to whom they market, usually adhering to the interests of the audience.  This develops a defined niche or personal brand that helps affiliates attract customers who will be likely to act on promotion.

  1. The customer- Whether the customer understands it or not, they are the main pillars of affiliate marketing. Affiliates share their products with them on blogs, social media, and sites. 

When a customer buys the product, both the seller and the affiliate divide the profits. At times, the affiliate will prefer to be upfront with the customer by revealing that they are getting commission for whatever sales they make. Other times the customer may be oblivious to the affiliate marketing infrastructure behind their buying. 

Either way, they will hardly pay more for the item bought through affiliate marketing. The profit of the affiliate’s share is included in the retail value. The customer will complete the buying process and attain the product as normal, untouched by an affiliate marketing system in which they play an important role. 

If you want to know more about affiliate marketing you can do a digital marketing course to get a better and hands on knowledge about Affiliate marketing.

Why You Should be an Affiliate Marketer?

  1. A source of passive income- While any “regular” job demands you to be at work to earn money, affiliate marketing is something different. It provides you the chance to earn money while you are asleep. By investing a small amount of time into campaigns, you will observe a constant return on that time as customers buy the product over the following weeks and days. You get money for your work after many days of finishing the work. The best part of affiliate marketing is that you do not have to be in front of your computer the whole day. If you have strong marketing skills then, you can enjoy a steady flow of revenue.    
  2. Customer support not required – Individual companies and sellers providing products and services must handle their customers and make sure they are satisfied with what they have bought. 

Thanks to the unique structure of affiliate marketing, you do not have to think about customer satisfaction or customer support. The whole task of an affiliate marketer is to link the seller with the customer. The seller deals with any customer complaints after you attain your commission from the sale. 

  1. You can work from home- If you are somebody who does not like to prefer going to the office, affiliate marketing is the best option. You can launch campaigns and earn revenue from the products that sellers generate all from the comfort of your home. Now, this is a task which you can do even in your nightdress. Isn’t it?
  1. Cost-efficient – Most businesses need startup investments and cash flow to finance the items being sold. However, affiliate marketing requires low cost, which means you can start the business fast and that too without much problem. You do not have to worry about the affiliate program charges and creating a product. Starting a business in this line is simple. 
  1. Flexible and convenient – As you are playing the role of a freelancer, you get the opportunity to set your own goals, redirecting your way when you feel motivated, selecting the product that you like, and even deciding your working hours. This accessibility signifies you can expand your portfolio if you focus solely on simple campaigns. You neither need to think about company restrictions nor you need to work with any ill-performing team.
  1. Execution-based payments- In other jobs, you might have to work for around 80-hour every week but still earn the same amount of money. However, affiliate marketing is different. It is based on how you perform. You will earn what you put into it. Improving your reviewing skills and curating engaging campaigns will help you to earn maximum revenue. You will ultimately get paid for the excellent work you do. 
  1. Never undervalue SEO – There is a lot of organic traffic you can receive from search engines if you do Search Engine Optimization the right way. Gone are those days when SEO meant keyword stuffing. Today, it is all about how you are making your website useful for your visitors. You must learn the basics of on-page, off-page SEO, link building, and keyword research to be the first source of information for things people are looking for.

Important Players Involved in Affiliate Marketing

Most affiliates share customary practices to make sure that their customers are engaged and responsive to buying promoted items. But not all affiliates promote their products in the same manner. There are different marketing channels they may use:

  1. Influencers- An influencer is a person who holds the power to influence the buying decisions of a huge segment of the population. This person is in a great position to attain benefits from affiliate marketing. They by now boast an exciting following, so it is simple for them to direct customers to the seller’s items through blogs, social media posts, and communications with their supporters. Then the influencers attain a share of the revenues they helped to generate. 

Influencer marketing campaigns are specifically popular on Instagram where companies partner with the influencers who are believed to be experts in their niches. Based on the deal, a campaign could include a sequence of product reviews with account takeovers, photos, and live videos. Though an influencer might have their branding, it is vital to add elements that tie-up with your company to make sure about recognition and recall.

  1. Bloggers – With the capability to rank organically in the search engine queries, bloggers outshine at growing a seller’s conversions. The blogger samples the products or services and then curates a thorough review that convincingly advertises the brand, drives traffic to the seller’s website.

The blogger is appreciated for his or her authority in spreading the information about the product’s value, helping to enhance the sales of the seller.   

  1. Email lists- Though it is an old tactic, email marketing is a viable source of income. Some affiliates have email lists that can be used to advertise the products of the seller. Others may leverage email newsletters that have hyperlinks to products, earning a huge commission after the customer buys the product. 

Another method is for the affiliate to create an email list over time. They use different campaigns to collect email addresses and then send emails to those about the products they are endorsing. 

Affiliate marketing is a perfect solution for those who are looking to attain control of their income by concentrating on performance-based revenue choices. Working along with a seller, an affiliate marketer will be able to earn revenue from the comfort of their home without even worrying about designing their products or services. 

Follow these affiliate marketing tips and engage your target audience, convert passive readers to active customers, and boost your revenue, all at a time.