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What You Need to Know About Affiliate Marketing in 2020

Affiliate Marketing is an excellent way to make money online. It is ideal for those who want to gain control over their income by focusing on performance-based revenue options. The barrier to get started is very low so anyone can give it a go. Affiliate Marketing is a form of promotion that can add enormous value to all involved parties: the seller, the affiliate and the customer. The seller benefits from growing his business. The affiliate earns money for creating value with his expert opinions. The customer can make a more informed decision before buying a product.

What Is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate Marketing is a successful marketing model based on commissions. Affiliates earn a pre-agreed commission for marketing another person’s or company’s products. This commission can be either a percentage or a fixed amount. The affiliates would find products they enjoy. They would promote these products to earn a part of the profit from each sale they make. They can do this by endorsing the product, writing a detailed review or other direct ways of marketing. The promotion is done on the affiliate’s website or over a social media platform like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, etc. The sales are tracked through affiliate links. Each affiliate gets a specific link which he or she can use in their promotions. Thus the seller knows which affiliate sent which new customers and can share the profits accordingly.

In 1994, William J. Tobin has first conceptualized the idea of an affiliate marketing program for his company, PC Flowers and Gifts. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J._Tobin).

For 99% of people, Affiliate Marketing is the starting point of passive income.

Important Facts About Affiliate Marketing 

  • Since 2015, the revenue from Affiliate Marketing programs has grown by 10% annually.
  • Affiliate Marketing is a global industry worth well over $12 billion.
    • US: $4.5 billion
    • UK: $1.7 billion
    • Germany: $1.3 billion
    • Rest of the World: $4.5 billion
  • Affiliate Marketing is suitable for all ages.
  • Jason Stone, one of the top Marketers and otherwise know as Millionaire Mentor generated over $7 million in affiliate sales in less than two years.
  • Ad blockers don’t affect Affiliate Marketing when it is done right.
  • 81% of brands and 84% of publishers use the power of Affiliate Marketing to grow their business further. This number is expected to increase more because the spending in Affiliate Marketing increases every year in the United States.
  • Fun Fact: The Affiliate Marketing industry revenue is bigger than the GDP of many countries.

How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

To make Affiliate Marketing work, there are three different parties involved:

The Seller
The seller is also referred to as vendor, merchant or retailer with a product he wants to sell. It can be a solo entrepreneur or a large company. The product can be a physical object like clothes, or a virtual product or service like an education program.

The Affiliate 
The affiliate is also known as publisher. He promotes the seller’s products in an appealing way to potential customers. An affiliate can be a single individual or an entire company. The affiliate tries to convince the potential customer to buy the product. If the affiliate is successful, then he receives a part of the revenue. An Affiliate Marketing business can produce a few hundred dollars in commissions each month. Or millions of dollars.

The Consumer
When a consumer buys a product and becomes a customer, the seller and the affiliate share the profits. Normally the consumer does not pay more for the product through Affiliate Marketing. The commission for the affiliate is already included in the retail price. Hence it does not make any difference to the consumer whether he buys directly or through an affiliate link.

What Are Affiliate Networks?

Further to the three parties described above, often there is a fourth party involved. Affiliate networks are platforms which bring sellers and affiliates together. They act as an intermediary between those two. Companies use affiliate networks to reach a larger audience of affiliates easily. Some sellers have their own platforms and don’t use external Affiliate Marketing networks. As an affiliate, you only have to sign up once to an affiliate network. You will then be able to easily find and take part in many affiliate programs which are suitable for your niche.

Are There Different Types of Affiliate Commissions?

Convincing a consumer to buy a product is not the only way of getting a commission for affiliate marketers. There are several different types of affiliate programs:

  • Regular. Affiliates are paid for every sale they make and the commission is either a percentage of the sale or a fixed amount.
  • High Ticket. This is the same concept as for regular commissions. The only difference is that the affiliate gets paid USD 1’000 or more for one single sale.
  • Subscription. If the consumer signs up to a subscription model, the affiliate gets regular commissions for as long as the consumer has the subscription.
  • Cost Per Action. The affiliate gets paid for a specific action that the consumer does. This can be if he subscribed for a newsletter, completed a survey or similar actions.
  • Pay Per Call. The affiliate is getting paid for generating a phone-in lead. This model is used in places where the seller runs physical offices and wants more customers. Example: there is a large chiropractor company which pays for every consumer who calls them. This is for the call only. If the consumer makes an appointment, the affiliate gets an even higher commission.

What Are The Top Affiliate Networks?

Why Become An Affiliate Marketer?

Passive Income
In regular jobs you need to work to earn money. In Affiliate Marketing, you can earn money while you sleep. That said, you need to put effort into the initial setup of your campaign. Also you will need to watch and tweak your campaign to see improved results. Once your campaign is set up, you will be earning you a steady flow of passive income. Regardless if you are in front of your computer or not.

Work From Anywhere
You don’t have to go to any office to launch your campaigns. You can work from home, from your favorite café or coworking office. Or from the beach as long as you have Internet connection.Especially in this current COVID-19 situation, it gives you the flexibility to work from home. You don’t even have to get out of your pajamas.

No Customer Support
Sellers of products or services have to deal with their customers and ensure that they are happy with what they have purchased. As an affiliate, you will never have to worry about customer support. Your entire job is to bring the seller and the consumer together.

Cost-Effective
In traditional businesses you need to invest first to create your products, setup your office etc. Affiliate marketing can be done at a low cost. So you can get started quickly and without anything to worry about.

Performance-Based Rewards
In a normal job, you could work 80 hours a week and still receive the same salary at the end of the month. Affiliate Marketing is only based on performance. You will get from it what you have put into it.

Flexibility
You don’t have to deal with any boss or any company restrictions or regulations like in a normal job. You have the freedom and flexibility to choose the products that you like. You also determine your working hours – how many and when.

How To Become A Successful Affiliate Marketer?

First of all, becoming an affiliate marketer is very easy. Just sign up for any affiliate network that you like. It helps a lot if you have a website, blog or a social media account where you can promote the products you like and share the affiliate links. Anyone can become an affiliate but the real question is how to become a successful affiliate. I’m gonna talk about that now.

Build A Specific Audience
If you market to all, you market to nobody. Better target an audience which has very specific interests. You have got a specific interest or passion that you would like to focus on? Make that your niche. If you establish yourself as an expert in one area, you will be able to market to the people who will most likely buy the product.

Make It Personal
There are millions of products you could promote. Choose products which you believe in. This will make sure that your campaigns are authentic and centered around valuable products for your consumers.

Review Products and Services
Review products and services which fall into your niche. You have already established a connection with your audience. Using that connection, tell them why and how they would benefit from purchasing the product or service that you are promoting. A especially effective way is to compare this product to others in the same category.

Choose Campaigns With Care
You can be very efficient without being effective. In other words, no matter how good you are at marketing, you will earn less money on a bad product than you will on a valuable one. Take the time to study the demand for the product and the seller before you start campaign. Your time is precious.

Stay Up-To-Date With Trends
There is serious competition in the Affiliate Marketing space. You want to make sure that you are on top of new trends to ensure that you remain competitive. Learn new marketing techniques which are constantly being created. You might benefit by using some of them.

What Are The Affiliate Marketing Strategies for 2020?

Only Recommend Product That You Know and Support
It is very important that you build trust with your audience. The fastest way of losing this trust is to recommend products which you have not used or which are not a good fit for your audience. Also, never tell anyone to BUY a particular product. Only recommend the product.

Promote Products From Different Sellers
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. If this basket breaks, you are stuck. You need to diversify your income. It is important to work with many different sellers in your niche and also promote a variety of products.

Build An Email List
One of the most successful strategies to build a relationship with your audience is an email list. Yes you are reading right: email is not dead! Get your audience to sign up for your email list. You can then build trust by adding value and sharing useful content. You can also setup automated email sequences for anyone who signs up. AWeber is one of the best and most established platforms when it comes to email marketing and automation. They offer a free one-month trial when you join from here.

Optimize Your Campaigns Constantly
Let’s say you have a website where you promote a product through affiliate links. If you currently get 1’000 visits per month and you have a 2% conversion rate, you have 20 referrals. To double the referrals and increase them to 40, you can either try to get 1’000 more visitors. Or you simply try to increase the conversion rate to 4%. There are many different areas where you can optimize. Improve your landing page, test different call-to-action messages, improve your ads if you do paid advertising, etc. By monitoring your stats and optimizing your website and campaign, you will get much better results over time with less effort.

Review Your Traffic Sources
It is important to understand where your traffic comes from and the demographics of your audience. This will help you to optimize your messaging and focus on your audience. You should focus on the traffic sources and audience who visits your website. Traffic sources may include organic, paid, social media, referral, display, email or direct traffic. Google Analytics or other web analytics tools will help you big time.

Which Are The Most Profitable Niches For Affiliate Marketing in 2020? 

  • Hobby – Photography, Travel, Sports betting, Event Tickets, Casino
  • Money – Debt Settlement, Bitcoin, Investing, Credit Card, Mortgage
  • Health and Fitness – Weight Loss, Fitness, Yoga, Organic, Nutrition, Vegan
  • Lifestyle – Luxury, Cruises, Travel, Online Ddating, Airlines, Fashion, Jewelry
  • Home & Family – Home security, Coffee, Baby products, Dogs, Gardening
  • Tech – Web hosting, WordPress, VPN, SaaS, Gaming, Software
  • Alternatives – CBD, Marijuana, Essential Oils, Herbal, Personal Development

Source: AuthorityHacker

How Much Money Can You Make As An Affiliate Marketer?

There is no real limit. You will not find official numbers because the profits differ from one niche to another. Generally speaking, if you are starting from scratch without any established website or social media account, you will be making no money at all in the first few months. It takes time to build an audience. Many statistics about Affiliate Marketing will make you go crazy because they are talking about people getting rich in no time. The truth is that this is a business like any other. You need to put efforts, dedication, persistence and a vision but finally you will see results. And really, the sky is the limit!

What Is Conversion Rate?

The conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who take the action you want them to do. This can be the sale of a product. It can also be less tangible actions like the completion of a survey or a subscription to a newsletter.

In any case, you calculate it by dividing the number of purchases by the total number of website visitors and multiplied by 100:

(Sales / Visitors) x 100 = Conversion Rate Percentage

Conclusion

Affiliate Marketing is an excellent way to make money online. It is ideal for those who want to gain control over their income by focusing on performance-based revenue options. The barrier to get started is very low so anyone can give it a go. Affiliate Marketing is a form of promotion that can add enormous value to all involved parties: the seller, the affiliate and the customer. The seller benefits from growing his business. The affiliate earns money for creating value with his expert opinions. The customer can make a more informed decision before buying a product.

A motivated affiliate marketer will be able to setup passive income streams from anywhere in the world. No worrying about creating a product or doing customer support. Affiliate Marketing is not a walk in the park or a get-rich-quick scheme. It can be an effective way to increase your income either as a career or as a profitable second job. But only if you put great effort around a strategy. There is no shortcut to success.

If you don’t know where to get started and need in-depth training, guidance and mentorship, find out more here.

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