What is Affiliate Marketing? A Guide for Beginners
At MoreNiche, working as we do with affiliates on a
daily basis, it can be all too easy for us to forget that some people (in fact
many people) literally have no clue what affiliate marketing is.
How many times have you
tried to explain to your mum just how you managed to afford that new car,
latest iPhone or trip to Barbados despite just working part-time, only to be
accused of being a closet drug dealer? If this is a frequent problem for you,
you may want
to hand her this article.
to hand her this article.
What is affiliate marketing?
We have a wealth of
brilliant articles on our website covering the many various aspects of
affiliate marketing in depth, however, for those of you who are completely new
to the concept, I’m going to go back to basics and explain in detail exactly
what affiliate marketing is, what it takes to succeed and how you could become
a successful affiliate marketer, too.
Affiliate marketing for beginners
So, what is affiliate
marketing? Well, it’s the practice of recommending a companies products or
services to potential customers, generating a sale and earning a commission in
return.
The process of affiliate
marketing generally involves four parties: the affiliate website, the affiliate
network, the advertiser and the buyer.
Many beginners find this
confusing, but there’s no need. Let me explain in layman’s terms.
The affiliate
The affiliate owns a
website. That affiliate could be me, you, or that weird guy next door.
Seriously, it’s not that complicated to build a website suitable for the job
(although marketing that website effectively is another matter, we’ll get to
that later).
The website an affiliate
owns contains details (or reviews) about a product sold on the advertiser’s
website. It also links to the advertiser’s product page via a special link,
known as an affiliate link.
The advertiser
The advertiser could be any
business which sells a product or service online. It could be John Lewis,
Amazon, a car insurance company, or even your local skateboard shop if it
has an online store.
The affiliate network
The affiliate
network drops a tracking cookie into the buyer’s browser when they visit
an advertisers website as a result of clicking an affiliate link on the
affiliate’s website. They are effectively the glue which makes affiliate
marketing possible, and they’re the guys who send your payment to you.
A working example of affiliate marketing in action
As this article aims to
cover affiliate marketing for beginners, here’s a little example for you. So,
let’s assume John is an affiliate. He has a website which is all about
skateboarding. On it, he has a blog where he shares videos of his latest
stunts, pictures of the parks he’s visited, and in-depth reviews of the best
and worst skateboards he’s ever used. The reviews contain a deep link to the
page on the advertiser’s website where the recommended skateboards can be
purchased. The key to this is that the link is not a standard link such as:
·
bobsskateboardshop.com/amazing-red-skateboard
But actually, its an
affiliate link, which looks something more like:
·
bobsskateboardshop.com/amazing-red-skateboard/affiliateID123456
So, if a visitor to John’s
site decides after reading one of the many raving reviews that they really want
to buy one of these skateboards right here, right now, the affiliate will be
rewarded with a commission for referring the buyer to the advertiser’s site.
Result!
On the other hand, they may
need longer to think about it. Perhaps they’re waiting for payday, or they’re
not quite sure yet whether they prefer the blue one that they also spotted
while browsing around the advertiser’s site. They may go away and come back in
a couple of weeks’ time, no longer able to resist the urge to blow their wages
on a better board.
The great thing is, the affiliate
will still be awarded commission for this sale provided the cookie placed by
the affiliate network remains in the browser.
A word about cookies
In case you’re wondering,
there are a couple of ways these cookies can and will disappear:
1. If
the buyer clears the cookies in their browser, either manually or using a tool
such as CCleaner.
2. If
the cookie expires. Most affiliate networks work with a 30-day cookie period as
standard. MoreNiche
is slightly different as the vast majority of our advertisers offer lifetime
cookies. (That’s not the only reason we’re great – keep reading to find out
more!)
Advantages for affiliates
The advantages of the
affiliate marketing business model for the affiliate are quite obvious to
anyone. Having the opportunity to effectively ‘sell stock’ without having any
of the costs or responsibilities of manufacturing, buying or storing it is very
liberating. In addition to this, when working with a high-paying network like MoreNiche, the
profit potential is enormous.
If approached correctly,
this can eventually turn into an almost passive income. While it’s likely
you’ll always need (and want) to keep your eye on the ball, if you can get the
business bringing in a substantial income, you may be able to outsource many of
the routine tasks to freelancers in the long term.
Where many people stumble,
however, is in believing that success in affiliate marketing is quick and easy.
It’s not. It takes many hours of learning, commitment and a willingness to
adapt to bring the best out of every changing situation.
Aside from the obvious
advantages of running your own business, being able to work online from
anywhere at any time, and having the freedom to choose just how hard you work,
there are a few other perks. Affiliates with a strong social following (also
known as influencers) can expect to receive freebies from advertisers looking
to boost their brand awareness.
If an affiliate’s website is
generic, such as a health and beauty blog, the possibilities are endless: from
beauty creams to entire pampering sets, if you can give a company enough
exposure, they will be begging you to trial their products for free!
Advantages for advertisers
Many advertisers are unaware
of the potential of the affiliate marketing business model for their own
businesses, in fact, most small businesses have never heard of it. But imagine
marketing your products only to interested people for no upfront fee. Paying
only when you get results is a risk-free way of advertising that requires no
marketing budget to get started. As you can imagine, this is great for any
start-up business with little funding for marketing their new brand.
Not only this, but what
could be better than having hundreds, if not thousands of websites promoting
your product? This is the perfect way to get people talking about your
products, buying your products and generally just getting your brand ‘out
there’.
How much can you earn from affiliate marketing?
This is a ‘How long’s a
piece of string?’ question. Your income as a beginner affiliate will depend
massively on several factors:
1. The
efficiency and reliability of the affiliate network you work with.
2. The
commission levels and conversion rates of the advertisers you work with.
3. Your
level of commitment.
4. Your
depth of knowledge and willingness to learn everything about your niche in
order to succeed.
Networks and commissions
vary widely. New affiliates could take over a year to make their first sale,
but with the correct training (which MoreNiche provides for free) and persistence, you could
earn anything between $5 and $100 per sale from products on our network!
It’s easy to see how this
can add up to some pretty impressive earnings. Some of our top affiliates earn
in excess of $8000 per week! Who needs to be Walter White when you can earn
this much legitimately, online, from anywhere in the world?
Like
and share this article, please.
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