I’ve been asked this by both merchants and prospective affiliates. Merchants obviously want to know exactly how affiliates will be promoting their products, but most often this question comes from people who want to get started making money online. If you Google “how to make money online,” affiliate marketing will nearly always be one of the top suggestions.
That said, if you’re here looking for an answer, I’ve got great news for you. You! Yes, you absolutely can become an affiliate. Think about it this way, have you ever purchased a product and then told your friends or family how awesome it is? Did those people subsequently buy that product too?
There you have it, you’re an “unofficial” affiliate! If it hadn’t been for you, those people might not have ever become customers. I’m sure the merchant would have really appreciated that. If only they knew, perhaps they’d cut you in on the profits.
That’s exactly the service that an affiliate network provides.
When this whole entire process occurs online, it’s not too difficult to track all of this.
It’s the 20s (why does nobody say this yet?), so I’m just going to assume that you have social media. If you were part of an affiliate network and had tracking links for a particular merchant, you’d be able to share a link with your friends and earn affiliate commissions on any purchase they make, provided that they actually click your link in the process.
Let’s be real though. Doing this isn’t exactly the best idea. No one wants to be spammed with messages nagging them to buy things they probably don’t even want.
So how do you actually make decent money like this? The best affiliate marketers on social media are more commonly known by another name: influencers.
Influencers usually have a large following of people that they don’t actually know in real life. Their audience is composed of people that simply enjoy the content that the influencer posts.
The stereotype of an “influencer” is an attractive person posting travel content, but that’s just one example of many. There are plenty of influencers that post content about pets, the outdoors, car maintenance, cooking, etc.
The people that subscribe to a chef’s YouTube channel are highly likely to be interested in purchasing kitchen equipment. Therefore, the chef would have quite a bit of success from posting affiliate links for kitchenware.
None of the above should dissuade you from taking a shot at becoming an affiliate, however. You just have to understand that, in order to be successful, it’s imperative that you build some kind of audience first.
This is, at the end of the day, a form of advertising. There’s a reason that the commercials aired on the Super Bowl broadcast sell for so much. The more people that see your content, the more people that see your ads, and the more valuable you become.
During my time in the affiliate industry, I’ve seen a lot of people attempt to join merchants’ affiliate programs without having any kind of website content or social media following. Like I said above, this absolutely is something that anyone can do, even if you aren’t a supermodel or have crazy cooking skills.
But if that isn’t you, then what are your options?
The most important thing by far is to find your niche. If you’re going to be a content creator, what will that content be about? It definitely helps to pick something you’re passionate about. Let’s say you’re a farmer. There are plenty of other farmers out there that might be interested in learning your secrets for successfully raising livestock.
Next, you need to determine the medium you’ll use to get your content in front of people. I mentioned social media before, but blogging is also a great way to generate affiliate income. Videos are great as well, and podcasts can be successful too. You could even create a “fan club” page on Facebook for your favorite sports team.
After you’ve settled on the above, start creating your content and keep at it. Affiliate marketing is not, by any means, a “get rich quick” scheme, but here’s a closer look at how much you can potentially earn doing affiliate marketing. You have to be motivated to create quality, engaging material that people will want to view and share.
Even if your agricultural secrets are helpful, your viewers aren’t likely to watch more of your videos if they look like they were shot on a potato. They won’t keep reading your blog if the posts are incomprehensible.
So if you feel that your skills could use some sharpening, don’t be afraid to seek out videography, marketing tools or blogging courses online to help get you started.
Once you have your audience built up, the rest is easy. If you get a large enough following, you’ll even start to get merchants reaching out to you to promote their items.
It takes time, passion, hard work, and a willingness to learn, but before long you’ll be on your way to earning through affiliate marketing.