Or maybe you don’t. Maybe you don’t even know what affiliate marketing is. If that is the case, a brief explanation is due. Affiliate marketing is really quite simple in concept, but hard to pull off in practice. Well, hard for me anyway. So, what is affiliate marketing? Affiliate marketing refers to the practice of using affiliates to market products or services to customers. In simpler terms, an affiliate is a “middle-man”. The affiliate connects a potential customer with a product or service of a vendor. If the customer likes the product or service, he buys it. Being an affiliate can be very, and I mean VERY, lucrative.
But how is it lucrative? What does the affiliate get for directing a customer to a product?
An affiliate gets a piece of the pie. In other words, an affiliate gets a cut of the profit the vendor makes off of the sale. THAT is the lucrative part. These cuts can be HUGE, though, they often vary between 1% and 75%.
If you’re an affiliate and you “sell” a $100 product to a customer, you could get 75% of the money. That is, in this case, $75. That’s a lot of money for just having someone click your affiliate link and buy a product.
Oh, how could I forget about the links! An affiliate uses product links to direct potential customers to a products, again, if the customer clicks the link and then proceeds to buy the product, the affiliate gets a cut of the profit. These links could be put any where. They could be put on web forums, blogs, websites, documents, servers, any where and every where.
Affiliate links are found on websites where users register to become affiliates. I’m an affiliate. The site I use is ClickBank. I registered there and I get my “promotional” affiliate links from the site. You may have noticed that I strategically placed affiliate links in some of these articles.
Being an affiliate sounds pretty great, doesn’t it? Well, it is great. But it’s tough to get people to click on your links and buy a product. Just because I placed my links on this blog doesn’t mean anyone will click them and buy the product.
So, how does an affiliate get people to click the links and buy the product?
How to get buyers
There are a few ways to advertise the products you are trying to sell. Here they are:
Friends and Family
This is a method, on the subject, that I haven’t seen any where else. It’s also a reliable and safe method, so I was surprised I didn’t see it elsewhere. Here it is: sell your product to family or friends. Seems simple, right? Well, it is. If you know of a family member or friend who want some kind of product, recommend a product from your affiliate products. Be sure to keep your ears and eyes. You’ll need to be ready to recommend a product. Or, you could just ask your friends and family what they like. Then, send them you affiliate link in an email. If you value your relationships, be sure to recommend products of good quality.
Youtube Method
One of the most common ways to promote both affiliate products and PPD links is by creating and uploading videos to Youtube. It’s rather simple, though it will be difficult to get views and purchases if you aren’t already an established member of Youtube. So, the method goes like this: create a video and upload the video to Youtube. Like I said, it’s simple. Make the video about the product you are promoting. You can review the product, test the product, or just give the product a shout-out. Be sure to put your affiliate link in the video description.
As I mentioned above, this method is simple, but it’s difficult to get views. I suggest creating multiple videos about the product. You could also buy views in order to get your video ranked higher in the Youtube index, but I wouldn’t do this immediately.
If you decide to review the product, be sure to give an honest review. Honest reviews, as opposed to exaggerated or dishonest reviews, tend to sell more of the promoted product. People will trust you more if you are somewhat critical of the product.
Blog Method
Create a blog or use an existing blog to promote the product you’re trying to sell. This method is also both simple and difficult. Here’s the method: create a blog about something in general (it could be about sports, gardening, social media, etc.) and put your affiliate links on that blog. I suggest first building an audience before you try selling them products. As you’ll likely discover, building an audience is the hard part of this method.
Website Method
Build a website around some general hobby or idea and include affiliate links to products that are related to that hobby or idea. This will cost a bit of money since you’ll need to pay your web hosting site, but it shouldn’t cost you any more than a few dollars.
Forum Method
If you participate on a forum, add your affiliate links to your posts. Be sure the forum allows you to post affiliate links.
Advertisement Method
This is the most expensive advertising method. Well, it depends on where you advertise. So, this method involves buying advertisement space on a popular website. Be sure you advertise a product site users will find interesting.
Okay, I’m going to end this article here, it’s getting a bit wordy. I didn’t intend for this article to be this long. Ha! Oh well…
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