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Types of Affiliate Marketing and How to Find the Best Ones to Promote.
You Do Not Have To Be A Pro To Start Making Money With Affiliate Marketing today
HOW I FINALY GOT IT RIGHT WITH AFFILIATE MARKETING
When I first started digital marketing, it was very difficult for me to know the difference between the various types of affiliate marketing and how to find the best ones to promote.
Because I did not know the basics even though they are on plain site, I could not break even. You too do not have to go through all that because I am giving you what I never had when I got into promoting affiliate products. First things first though.
WHAT IS AFFILIATE MARKETING
In this article, we will be delving into Affiliate marketing, what it is, types of affiliate marketing, and how to find affiliates to promote.
In ordinary words, affiliate marketing is simply when you as a promoter help a product owner make a sale by referring customers to them with the aim of a reward in the form of a commission for your efforts.
Well, that may sound very simple but there is a bit more to it. As an affiliate marketer, your job is much like that of a traffic warden, an advisor, a leader, or whatever you choose to call it. Here is what all of that means:
An affiliate marketer is like a traffic controller
An affiliate can access ‘web traffic’ and control or direct that traffic to the desired location based on the web user’s intentions.
In this case, the affiliate directs the traffic to the product or service he promotes, intending that the ‘traffic’ will carry out the desired action, resulting in his commission.
According to a report by the University of Baltimore, in 2020 alone, the estimated value of affiliate marketing was $15.
That is a massive chunk of the global economy.
The top actors are the United States at $6.8Billion, Germany at $1.3 Billion, and Australia at $930 Million. Brazil was further down the line at $33 Million.
The question is, what is holding you back from being part of this huge pool of funds?
The objective of an affiliate marketer
As an affiliate marketer, you usually have one goal: to achieve the desire of the vendor whose product you promote.
And when you do promote a product or service, the result is that a sale is made.
Still, in some cases, other effects might be agreed upon by the parties involved, like paying commission as per how many visitors you direct to the seller and not by whether they buy or not.
Sometimes, you could earn a commission if your traffic downloads an app or tries out a new product or something similar.
No matter the scenario, you help a seller achieve the desired goal and the seller pays you a commission for that.
To get the above done, several factors must be precisely put in place for it to be seamless and profitable.
In this article, l am going to work you through them all one after the other.
You may be wondering how the sale will be accredited to you for you to make a commission, well there are dedicated links with cookies that show the source of the traffic is from you.
But we will go deep into it in a moment.
At this stage you may be wondering how to find products and services to promote, we will get to that but let us talk about the different types of affiliate marketing.
TYPES OF AFFILIATE MARKETING
There are different types of marketers in the affiliate business, and knowing this will help you choose what is best for you.
Sometimes, a combination of more than one type of this business may be necessary to achieve maximum ROI.
Here are the different types of affiliate marketing:
Those who have no authority or attachments with the product they are promoting:
This type of affiliate marketers are in it just for the money, they simply promote a link through things like PPC (Pay per click) and when somebody clicks on those links and eventually buys what they are promoting, they make a commission.
Affiliate Marketing Based on Relations:
This group of marketers promotes products or services not because they have used or love them, but because it relates to the niche they have chosen in some ways.
Let’s break it down more, assuming you have a social media handle where you talk about your love of dogs, with time you will have a considerable number of followers.
Some of them may come to trust your judgments about dogs, and they may engage with you.
As an affiliate marketer, you may promote a dog product that you have used and are happy with. And your followers will be satisfied also.
But suppose you are a marketer based on relationships.
In that case, you will promote a product not necessarily because you have used it but because it has something in common with your niche and audience.
You may not like using a short leash on your dog, and you may not even own one but if a short dog leash is profitable and you think it will benefit your audience, you may choose to promote it.
The downside:
The risk with that is that you may end up promoting a crappy product.
That will hurt your relationship with your followers and if that happens, again and again, you will not stand a chance to build a sustainable business.
Participant Affiliate Marketer:
Sometimes referred to as involved marketers, this is the type of affiliate marketer who tries out every product they promote before promoting it.
As a participant affiliate marketer who owns websites, l may choose to promote the services of my Web Host, the registrar l use, and the premium plugins l use because l have tried them out and found out they are so good.
A woman who uses a type of beauty product and likes the effect of it might choose to promote that to her audience.
This can be done through various means, may be Youtube or Facebook, perhaps Instagram of a combination of different platforms
Advantages: This advantage is that l will have more authority and moral justification to beat my chest and say hey this service is good based on firsthand experience.
If you are good with stories, you can easily narrate how you went from trying out so many products and no one works to how you finally found that awesome product you are currently using and how it has changed your life. Stories like this abound on Instagram and TikTok and they can generate a lot of traffic and conversions.
You may be thinking now about how to get products to promote, the next heading is dedicated to just that.
BEST TECHNIQUES TO FIND A PROFITABLE AFFILIATE NICHE
One of the first things you do in this business line is to find a profitable product and niche to promote. But first, we will talk about the niche part of it.
You cannot promote all the niches in the world, which will be too broad a venture to go into, so you will need to pick and choose.
There has been an ongoing debate as to what a niche truly is but here is a simple way to understand it:
Simply put, a niche is a segmented or small category of product, service, or interest that appeals to or concerns a small segmented group of people.
Let us explain that further by using our dog illustration.
DOG is a niche but very broad. You can narrow it down some more like this:
- Dog training
- Dog toys
- Dog breeding
- Veterinary for dogs
As you can see in the above, you can choose to promote veterinary and focus on bringing value to people who need help in selecting the best vet for their dogs.
Or you can focus on toys for dogs, I hope you are getting the hang of it now.
Let us give another example. Suppose you want to write about dating, how do you go about the niche? Here is the thing:
It will be too broad to talk to an audience that comprises both males and females, but you can focus on a segment, in this case, girls, or boys.
You can choose to talk about dating for widows or widowers.
Or even target people who have had to break up before but are looking for ways to give love another try.
When you segment like the examples above, your content will resonate with people who will appreciate what you have to offer.
With time you will be the go-to place for matters concerning what you talk about.
Those in the medical profession are a bit close to what we are talking about, that is why you have people dedicated to being Opticians, Cardiologists, Genetics and genomics, Neurologists, Gynecologists, and so on.
Of course, you can still get people who specialize in other smaller practices in this field but it helps you to understand more fully what a Niche is all about.
The difference between a product and a niche may be so narrow that it is difficult to distinguish, but l will try to point out the difference with examples.
Let us do just that now.
HOW YOU CAN FIND A PROFITABLE AFFILIATE NICHE.
LOOK INSIDE YOURSELF
The best way to go about niche hunting is to look at what you are good at doing.
No benefit will from you dabbling in something that does not interest you with the hope of building a lasting business.
You will find it easy to write or talk about things that you find interesting.
If we refer again to our dog example, if you have a thing going for dogs, you can choose to write about different aspects of owning and taking care of dogs.
Some of the things you will talk about will have to come out spontaneously because that is where your passion lies.
But that is not to say that if you put in enough effort you cannot scale any topic or niche regardless of your interest in them.
But the point is that it will probably take you more time, and what will you do when you hit the bump?
We all do at one time or the other, we get to the stage where we no longer feel like to keep pushing.
You will give up if you do not find your niche to be fun.
But if you are writing or making a video about things you are fascinated about, the ordeal will be reduced to the barest minimum.
I enjoy writing a lot and that is why l built a business out of it. So you too must have something you enjoy doing that you can create a business out of.
Or you can learn some things along the way, perhaps by paying for it. But the point is to do something you find interesting and fun, that is what will keep you going.
The internet has made things easy these days that with a few clicks of a button you can set up a system to let people read, watch or listen to what you have to say
LOOK FOR A PROBLEM TO SOLVE
If you are serious about making it on affiliate marketing and want to choose a niche, look around for a problem that needs a solution.
This is easier to do than you can imagine. You have several apps on your phone, right?
Are you satisfied with everything about the app? Are there things that could be done better, what are the reviews on those apps saying?
If you find that something needs overhauling about the app, you have a problem that requires a solution.
Create that solution, look for ways to bring it to those who need it and you have a business.
You probably belong to several forums, what are the predominant topics on those platforms? Are people constantly complaining about a certain irregularity in a service or product? Can you make that product better?
If yes then go for it as it is a fact that so many businesses were born that way. Uber is a good example.
But no matter what you do, do not create a product that brings no added benefit to the market. Give value and you will be rewarded for it
CARRY OUT KEYWORD RESEARCH:
This is one of those obvious things that people tend to forget or overlook. Whatever product or service you want to produce, make it a point to research the keywords your target audience uses to find the solutions.
Every demographic has its way of communicating, and a failure to use the same to communicate with them is a sure guarantee of losing money in business.
ANALYZE THE PRODUCTS YOU USE YOURSELF AND SEE WHAT IS LACKING
In our example of the dog niche, assume you like and use dog toys but you find out that another product will complement the toys you have, if that complementary product is not easily available, step in and create one.
All you need is to come up with a clear idea of what you want to create and there are factories in China ready and willing to help you see it come true.
RESEARCH THE COMPETITION:
Before you jump into any niche, do yourself a good to research who is already serving that niche. Are there many people promoting the product? If so, it is a sign of demand and supply, and profit. It means there is a market for it.
Secondly, researching the competition will help you figure out whether you have the resources to compete.
When you carry out research, you will be able to know for sure if you would rather focus on alternatives to the niche you first intend to go into.
Google trend is one of my favorites when it comes to knowing what goes.
VALIDATE YOUR PRODUCT:
Product validation might not seem like much if you do not give it a thought. But would you invest a lot of money on a product you do not even know if it will sell? Validation will help you separate facts from fiction.
You may want to go through with a product based on how you feel about it but face it, your clients will not buy that product simply because you are in love with it.
So make product validation a major part of your planning. It is at this stage that you will be able to know for sure
- if people will buy, and if at first, you did not make any sales do not give up, it takes time to gather the momentum to generate sales. You can check out their article on 3 simple ways to sale on Facebook, it can get you going as a beginner.
- If it is worth it to produce your product or service.
- Validation will help you to reduce risks
- Keep the cost of production to a minimum
- Create awareness
The validation exercise will give you the needed feedback to make your final decision.
One of the best ways to validate a product is to read an ad on Facebook for the product and see how people react to it. You can check this article on 3 Easy Ways Tale On Facebook
This will give you valuable insight into what may or may not work.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A PRODUCT AND A NICHE
I will not go over all we have said about the niches above but will focus on the product side of things.
A product unlike a niche is the elements of a niche that keeps it alive. What this means is that, in a single niche, there could be numerous products that serve that niche.
For instance, in the Dog veterinary niche, we mentioned above, numerous dog medications, therapies, and so on exist.
In the dating examples cited above, there is a lot of product one can promote when it comes to dating. You can promote a premium membership for single mothers looking for someone to date. That is a product for that niche of single mothers dating. You can also promote an eBook on how to find and keep a man for single moms. That is another product for the same niche.
THE CHOICE YOU MUST MAKE IN AFFILIATE BUSINESS
What this all boils down to is that you must have to choose a niche, narrow it down some more, and choose a product, product service, or service in that niche to promote as an affiliate marketer.
I once created a social media handle where l talk about Latest Smart Phones, which is a niche, and once in a while, I put in an affiliate link about where to get the latest phones at a discounted price. You see, there is endless opportunity in what you can do with affiliate marketing.
But there are thousands of affiliate marketers out there, how am I going to stand out and make commissions?
In that case, you will need to develop a voice for yourself, we call it USP, and I will tell you about it in the next topic.
DEVELOPING YOUR UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION
There are thousands of affiliate marketers out there, and if there is a product or service with no affiliate to promote it, it may be a sign that the product is not profitable or that the product is new in the market, and if that is the case, sooner or later people will promote it.
However, one of the major ways to stand out is to develop your unique voice. This may be a sentence or a video explaining what makes your merchandise thick.
You can be very creative with this as there is no rule written on stones on how to stand out from your competitors. I personally have 5 touches that help me make more sales as an affiliate.
You must show your followers why they should choose you instead of your competitors, there must be something you are bringing to the table that is different from what your competitors are bringing.
If you can fill a need outstandingly, people will flock to your doorstep.
HOW TO DEVELOP YOUR UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION
In crafting your unique selling proposition, pay attention to what makes you different from thousands of others recommending the same product as you.
Learn the tricks to master and write a better hook. This will get your audience to read your first sentence, the second, and then the rest of your copy.
- Know your product
- Define what makes your product different
- Put yourself in your customer’s shoes, if you were a customer, will you, in all honesty, buy your product?
- If your product is a new version of what is already in the market, list, and highlight what the difference is and what makes it different from what used to be in the market
- If there are people who tested it during the validation period, get them to give you positive feedback and use it to your advantage
- Know and narrow down your target market, this will make it easy for you to communicate effectively with them.
- As mentioned earlier, use the communication style peculiar to your audience or demographic to communicate with them. You would not use the same style of communication you used while selling PS2 to sell arthritis medicine to senior citizens. You must talk to them in a language they understand for you to be effective.
- Do not use ambiguous terms or phrases when you don’t have to
- Get the word out and let people know what you are up to. Use social media (link to the Facebook post) platforms to start as this is free to use.
TOOLS AND RESOURCES NEEDED FOR AFFILIATE MARKETING
As is true with every trade, there are different tools you must have in your tools box to make headway in affiliate marketing.
A good number of these tools are free, some are premium, and it is left to your discretion to decide what to check out. Remember that the extent you want to take your business will determine the tools you would want to use, be it free or premium.
Website Tools
This will have to include your
- Web site or blog
- social media handles
- SEO tools
- Ad campaigns
- Website Builder
- Landing page automation
Domain Name
While you can make money in an affiliate business without a website, it is a generally accepted fact that when you do your business off a website, you create a corporate and legitimate image, that people will see you as a serious business.
And this starts with the acquisition of a domain name. You can Google it to see the registrars that can work for you. I use namecheap and Namessilo (I get no reward for mentioning them here).
It costs a couple of Dollars to get one unless you want to acquire the premium domains. Maybe l should mention that if you need help in choosing a good domain, we can help you do that for a price close to nothing.
Website Hosting
After you acquire your domain, you will have to host it for it to be accessible to the public, in this case, a good WebHost is all you need. Unfortunately, l changed the hosting provider and am still testing out this new one so l cannot make a hosting recommendation at this time.
However, a simple Google search will show up what will work for you. Be sure to check out the reviews on web hosting.
Website Builder
You will need a website builder to develop a good affiliate business. You do not have to spend a ton of money to do that as WordPress.org is a wonderful solution and it is open source.
Plugins for affiliate success
There are tasks you cannot do by hand or by yourself and that is the beauty of WordPress.
To make a success of your affiliate marketing, you need to get ahold of some plugins that will make business more fun and your life easier.
Below are just a handful of some of the best plugins:
- Optin Monster
- SEMrush
- WPForms: as a beginner, I used this to create sign-up forms. And it is very easy to use since it is simply a drag-and-drop approach
- Easy affiliates: this plugin will help you track your progress especially if you plan on starting your own affiliate program.
- ThirstyAffiliates: this makes your links management a breeze. Go give it a try.
Of course, I cannot list all of the tools you need here, feel free to Google some more but L will keep updating it as I use them. So keep track of us by signing up for when we roll out updates.
Landing Page Builder
Depending on the other factors, having a landing page is one of the best ways to have repeat customers. You do not just want to send your visitors to the sales page when they are not ready for the purchase, otherwise, they may just hit the back button and that will be the end of that relationship as you may never see them again.
Your landing page is like the vet ground, where you put your marketing into practice, tackle the fears of your customers, answer their questions and clear whatever doubts they may have.
And what is more, you will have the golden opportunity to capture their emails at this stage and if you have a gift for them, they are more receptive to take it now.
All of this will make them paying customers when they eventually get to the sales page because they have come to know, love and trust you.
A good place to start is on your WordPress, you can simply create a page and customize it to serve the purpose of a landing page.
Of course, this will not have the automation needed for optimum conversion but it will get you going. If you need automation of some sort as l know you would, here it is for you:
- Instapage
- Instabuilder
- Keap (the bold inscription on their home page says it all, “Absolutely everything an entrepreneur needs to win”)
I have a resource here that will help you make the best of your landing page. I will advise you to go check it out. But for now, here are a few tips to make the best of your landing page:
- Write an engaging headline
- Keep it simple and uncluttered
- Maintain the relationship between your headline and the call to action
- Have only one call to action for each landing page
- Think about your customer and endeavor to solve their problem with your pitch
- Your customer should know why they landed on your landing page just seconds after they are there.
- If you have testimonials, add them to your landing page as this tends to create a community of happy customers.
- Do not request unnecessary information on your forms.
- Be as consistent and coherent as you can be
Email Marketing
To be successful as a promoter, you need a way to reach your customers over and over again. It is said that you need at least 5 contacts or touches with your customers for them to finally buy from you.
Without a means to reach them, you cannot complete the process of those 5 touches, they will only be a one-time visitor to your site or social media handle.
But with email newsletters and marketing, you set yourself up for a long business relationship with your prospects.
Do not pay attention to people who put the power of social media ahead of email marketing. To make the best of email marketing you need to make sure of the following:
- Capture your prospects’ email, this can be done by simply generating a signup form with a captivating promise of something good in return
- Send out emails regularly, telling your prospects what’s happening in the industry, notifying them about product launches, discounts, and any news or tips that will benefit them.
- Remember to keep your emails short as nobody will ever read them if they are too long. If you have more to talk about, discreetly direct them to your site.
- Keep free from typos and grammar errors. Grammarly has everything you need for this purpose, even the free version of it can get you going.
- There are several platforms you can use, they all have their strengths and weaknesses but will give a fair return on investments no matter what platform you choose. Here are some, (arranged in no specific order):
- Aweber
- Mailchimp
- ConvertKit
- ActiveCampain
This when used together with a good landing page, will give you results as a promoter.
Market Research
To succeed as a publisher, you need to do your research. This will help you not to waste your effort.
When you research your market, you will know where to channel your marketing efforts.
Part of the things to research are:
- Product research
- Competitor research: to do this, you can use a site like iSpionage or SEMrush
- Keyword research: the go-to place tool for this purpose is the famous Google Keyword Planner
- PPC research, use Adspy to know what others are doing that is bringing in results
Now let us go a bit into how you generate traffic to your wonderful content
Traffic Generation
Did you build your business simply for nothing? You want to make sales, and to do that you need traffic. So you will have to generate that traffic one way or the other.
You can go by the way of PPC, Pay Per Click, or other forms of ads to drive traffic to your site or landing page. Like Facebook Ads
But what if you can get those traffic organically? That will be awesome, would it not?
You can leverage the power of social media as a traffic generator. Start by creating a page or group on Facebook targeting an audience who will be interested in your niche.
Post regularly and consistently with engaging posts, if you find it difficult to do, do a little Google on how to go about it and you will be good to go.
Or you can hire a social media manager to do the work for you. If you contact me, we can work out a deal.
Search Engine Optimization is one other way to keep generating traffic if done right.
Tracking And Converting
It is one thing to do everything you have been reading here correctly, it is another thing to be sure that you are doing it right.
But what happened if you are doing anything the wrong way, how would you even know it?
That is where tracking comes in. you need to track every step of the way to know what works and what does not work.
You need to keep an eye on your affiliate links, to know what and where the money is coming from.
If something is not working or bringing the desired return on investments, you will be able to see it and tweak things some more.
To get started, you will need to install Google Analytics. This is a free resource by Google and it works wonders when it comes to knowing what is happening on your site.
If you want to take it a step further, go on and install Prettylinks. Here is why: it can be set to automate your link strategy, each time you mention certain words, a pretty link inserts an affiliate link intelligently into your content that you do not need to do anything more. That is an awesome way of monetizing your content.
Content Marketing
Your job as an affiliate is to educate and inform. You can do that through various means.
SOCIAL MEDIA: You can use a social media handle to publish content. Places like Facebook personal profiles, or a business page on Facebook will get you started.
But you will have to work towards having a place of your own like a website or blog, you do not want to build your business around someone else’s platform, it can be taken down at any moment for any reason.
LINKEDIN: You can use linked in as they allow you to publish articles and link back to your landing page or sales page.
In your content marketing, all you have is to convince with your content, hence you will have to put quality over quantity.
Make sure you are creating content that solves a problem or at least takes your readers from point A to point B.
You can download my CONTENT CHECKLIST HERE FOR FREE
- Use graphics on your content, if you are not a graphic designer, you must check out Canva. Or you can hop over to Fiverr to get a graphic designer for less than 10 Dollars.
- Make use of infographics
- Research your content before you write them. Use tools like Google Adwords, Soovle, and Ubersuggest
- Edit your content until you have removed all the unnecessary junk.
If you find it overwhelming to do your content yourself, then hire a writer to do the job for you.
AFFILIATE MARKETING PROGRAMS TO JOIN
I know that by now you are all wormed up to launch your affiliate marketing. But what programs will you join that will not waste your time?
Here are two things that will determine what program to join.
- Are you a product owner or creator? Looking for affiliates to sell your product?
- Are you a promoter, publisher, or content creator, looking for products to promote?
If you need affiliates to promote your blog, by all means, check out their website or social media handle where they intend to promote your product and see if they have active followers or readers.
Also, check if their audience is what you want for your product to avoid wasting efforts.
Pay attention to the content of your would-be promoter, are they free from plagiarism?
On the other hand, if you are looking for a product to promote, it is recommended that you do not just enlist a lot of affiliates at a time. Start with a few and promote several products from the same program.
I have listed some of the major programs below:
- .eBay Partner Network
- CJ Affiliate
- Thrive Market
- com
- com
- com
- Affilorama.com
- ClickBank.com
- ShareASale.com
- Amazon Associates
Before we wrap it all up, as is true with every business, there are pitfalls you must steer clear of.
And the same is true with making money through affiliate marketing.
Below you will find some of the things you should stay away from in your efforts as a publisher.
AFFILIATE MARKETING MISTAKES TO AVOID
There are so many of them, l will list some here but you will be able to learn more as you go forward with your business.
- It is a mistake not to do any of the things we talked about above. Like failing to track your business.
- Low-quality website
- Crappy content: write good content, and avoid copying from other sites, you can imitate a design concept, which is fine but keep your content original. Search engines will love you for that and your audience will appreciate you.
- Biting more than you can chew. Focus on a few or maybe, 2 or 3 from a single platform, and promote the heck out of it until you see results. Joining too many affiliate networks might seem to be the way to go but you cannot perform well on them all for a long time and it will overwhelm you trying to reach their payment threshold too.
- While you can automate things, failure to regularly update your content is a big no.
- Promoting the wrong product. You should always focus on products that create a connection with your followers. No matter the promise of commission, only promote what is relevant to your audience. The more targeted your promotional, the more conversion you will see and the more sales you will record.
- Neglecting the terms and conditions of your platforms: this alone will always land you in trouble sooner or later.
- Having a poor landing page design and content: this is where the real business happens and if you do not give it your best, you are in essence wasting valuable time and resources.
- Make your landing page outstanding,
- Have a clear call to action, one call to action per landing page
- Make your heading bold and catchy,
- Use colors to your advantage.
- Relying on a single source of traffic: it is best to diversify and shoot for organic traffic if you can but no matter what you do, try to broaden out and drive traffic from as many sources as possible.
The reason is that the internet keeps changing and one update on a platform’s algorithm might mean the end of your traffic from them. So post on social media, use YouTube videos, and PPC, and keep trying out different things so that when one does not bring in the desired results, the other will.
- Another mistake I see people making in this business is: forgetting who you are!
You are an affiliate, your job is to get people to the landing page and possibly take more action and, your job is to also educate and help people make a decision.
When you forget this and go by the way of screaming in people’s faces to buy this or that, you have already lost your level as an informant.
Lead people to the point where they want to bring out their credit cards and not bully them to do that.
That was a rather long one but you are more ready now than ever to succeed in affiliate marketing, a handful of resources has been added to the article for your further benefit, be sure to check them out.
If you think there are more ways to make this article better, or you do have a question, please use the comment section.
