Did you know that you can monetize your social media pages and blog sites? Affiliate marketing makes this possible. It can be artistically and at the same time, economically rewarding, yet it does not take up too much of your time because it does not need too much legwork or other money-making methods.
An example of this is when you refer a friend of yours to your favorite spa, and you are offered discounts to a foot massage; it is already happening. Another sample case is when you want to buy a pair of shoes but could not decide on what brand to choose. You browse the internet to compare certain shoe brands and ended buying a pair online; somewhere out there, a marketer earned his commission from the sale made on the shoes you bought.
Sites like wikihow can provide a comprehensive guide and discussion on how to begin an affiliate marketing website.
How does it work?
Affiliate Marketing is a way of spreading the marketing responsibilities of a certain product.
This process of marketing involves three parties:
- Seller or Product Owners
- Affiliate marketer or the advertisers
- The buyers or consumers
All these three have a very significant role in this activity.
The seller of Product Owner – is the entrepreneur, producer, maker, or owner of the product or service for marketing.
The affiliate marketer or the advertisers – can either be a group, a company, or an individual person who markets or advertises the product for sale. They are those who publish, promote, and influence the consumers to avail or buy the “commodity” advertised online. If the consumer decides to avail of the products or services published by him, he gets a percentage of the revenue.
Affiliate marketers would sometimes even have targeted consumers only, those who most likely would buy the products advertised. This is called a niche.
The buyers or consumers – they are those who are influenced to buy the products or services offered. The consumers and their purchases are the driving force of this marketing strategy. Affiliates share to them the products and services by way of social media, blogs, and websites.
The product owner or seller of goods and the affiliates who publish them share the profit of the sales. Some publishers would come upfront and disclose to the buyers that they are getting a percentage of the sales, but most of the time, the buyer wouldn’t know about this setup. The commission is already included in the retail price.
But whether the seller knows about the commission or not, he will not be paying for more than how much the product or service is being marketed for. The buyer will receive the product bought, and he is not affected by this marketing process.
That’s the beauty of an affiliate marketing strategy: By promoting somebody else’s product, you can earn money while bringing together sellers and buyers. Often, the product creators will provide you with resources to make your content more attractive – such as images or video content. This means less work for you for the same return.
And speaking of returns – next, we’ll talk about the common ways you’ll get paid.
How do you get paid as an affiliate marketer?
Payment is dependent on the scheme or program used, and this means an affiliate is paid based on how his contribution to the sales is measured. In some schemes, the buyer does not need to end up buying the product being published for the affiliate to get a kickback. Below are the known payment schemes used:
Per sale
This is the standard program where the marketer gets a share of the merchant’s proceeds from the sale made for the interpretation that the product was sold because of the marketer’s strategies and effort in influencing the consumer to buy it. This also means the buyer must actually buy the product before the compensation is granted to the marketer.
Per lead
This is said to be a complex system where the marketer is paid based on the number of converted leads. Converted leads come in the form of interested individuals that are potential buyers or consumers of the product or services advertised. In this program, the marketer must convince and influence the consumer to visit the producer’s websites. Sometimes this is coupled with sign up invitations, downloading files or software, availing of a trial period, subscribing to an offered newsletter, and others.
Per click
This program gives incentives when they have influenced or diverted a consumer to shift from the affiliate marketing website to the merchant’s website. The marketer is therefore paid based on the increase of traffic on the merchant’s website.
Overall
In all these, the marketer has an avenue for quick and very inexpensive methods of making money. It enables successful marketing transactions without the hassle of face-to-face selling. It is a strong draw to people who are more adept with social media, blogging, and website maintenance and at the same time, would like to earn extra income.