A POWERFUL FREE GUIDE TO AFFILIATE MARKETING

The marketing field is growing larger and more diversified by the day, with many modes of marketing arising as a result. One such is Affiliate Marketing, which will be highlighted in today’s post.

Affiliate marketing is an exciting and creative way to make money. By simply identifying a product you really like, making it known to others, and earning a part of the profit for each sale that you make of the company or person’s products. It is solely revenue-based and involves a relationship between the advertiser (the company being advertised), the affiliate marketer (also known as the publisher), and the customer (also known as the third party).

The Players & How It Works

The Affiliate Marketing industry consists of three core players:

• The Merchant
• The Affiliate
• The Prospective Customer

How can you start affiliate marketing?

• Just identify the product or service you would like to promote.
• You can get involved in a company’s affiliate marketing by signing up. Affiliate programs could be identified through large affiliate networks, as well as available affiliate directories.
• After signing up, the company is then able to track your performance by providing you with a special link.
• You do not have to worry so much about losing out in case you are not able to attract customers. Affiliate marketing is performance-based and if you get people to buy the company’s products, you simply get a commission.

With the development of technology, digital marketing, and affiliate marketing are often associated because digital marketing plays an integral role in how well the affiliate marketer advertises products. It could be via e-mail marketing, search engine optimization among others. Some vital tools also used in affiliate marketing include:

• Cookies

These serve as a tracker to help the advertiser know how often customers have clicked on the site through the publisher/affiliate marketer, and therefore helps in keeping track of progress as well as how much to pay the affiliate marketer.

• Websites

This is one main tool many affiliate marketers use. Links could, for instance, be placed on the site to help build traffic to the intended primary site. For example, when Amazon started its associate program in 1996, it enabled affiliate marketers to place banner ads or links on their sites, for particular books. Links could also lead customers directly to the Amazon home page.

• Blogs

Whereas blogs are mostly used in referrals, they could also play a vital role in affiliate marketing as they can help create awareness on the product being promoted, as well as on why anyone should even opt for the promoted product. Get started on blogging!

• Interactive online communities

Therefore, social media communities can just not be overlooked if you want to be a successful affiliate marketer. Affiliate marketers need to actively engage in various online communities by creating and managing up-to-date social media accounts. This does not only help to get the word out of the product out there, but also helps affiliate marketers to know what else customers are looking for, in order to relay relevant information to the companies being advertised for and create relevant niches.

Examples of affiliate marketing programs you can join include:

• LinkShare (Rakuten Affiliate Network)
• Commission Junction (CJ Affiliate)
• ShareASale
• Amazon Associates
• Google Affiliate Network
• ClixGalore
• PeerFly
• ClickBank
• MaxBounty
• Neverblue
• Affiliate Window
• eBay Enterprise Affiliate Network
• Tradedoubler
• iTunes Affiliate Program

Companies that are also involved in affiliate marketing include:

• Amazon
• Best Buy
• Home Depot
• Apple
• GoPro
• SalesForce
• E bay
• Etsy

The challenge of affiliate marketing is how to keep things simple and get easily noticed through search engines. How can you as an affiliate marketer target the right niche and make your product or site easy to choose? Though very technical, this is a great marketing field that can be explored by virtually anyone!

This is a way to make side income and can even become multiple income streams. And the tools you use are relatively free. There is no limit to the number of merchants you can work for, so you are free to develop multiple revenue streams. Some merchants will give you ongoing revenues based on customer activities.

So if you have a website, blog or social media account you can easily become an affiliate marketer.

Therefore we encourage more businesses in Ghana to tap into affiliate marketing as a medium for advertising. Affiliate marketing is targeted, measurable, cost-efficient, risk-free, and an effective medium for expanding a targeted market. Affiliate marketing is the equivalent of having an army of salespeople who do all the promoting, and who only get paid a commission if a customer purchases.

Do you have any tips for Affiliate marketing? Share your secret sauce with the Sidekick community.