Ring in the new year with your own online business.
If you are looking to start a business for the new year, try affiliate marketing, it may be the way to go because it is very quickly becoming one of the most significant ways to make money online. Affiliate Marketing is by no means a way to get rich quick; it requires time and patience to learn the process, develop the relationships you need with the businesses you are marketing for and the with consumers you are trying to reach with your content. With that in mind, many people want to learn how to become affiliate marketers because of the freedom it offers you to work from home or work at your leisure and the financial opportunities that it can provide. In this post we will discuss how you can start your own online business for free.
One thing to keep in mind is if you want to have success as an affiliate marketer it is essential to learn from those who have been successful. This article is an introduction to affiliate marketing focusing on what it is, how it works, the advantages of becoming an affiliate marketer, and where to get the proper training.
What is affiliate marketing?
A simple explanation for Affiliate Marketing is that it is the process of earning a commission by promoting another company’s products. You promote the product to others and receive a piece of the revenue for each sale that you make. For example, large online retailers such as Amazon, realize that using affiliate marketers is the best way to get their good and services out to a larger and more diverse audience.
Affiliate Marketing is based on revenue sharing since the affiliate Marketer shares in a percentage of the company’s revenue in exchange for bringing them business and exposure.
Directly, you the affiliate marketer will get paid when you help a business sell its products or services. For example, if you sign up as an affiliate in the Amazon affiliate program and promote Amazon’s products, you will get a commission when your referral makes a purchase.
Affiliate marketing is a quick and cheap way to make money online. You don’t have to own products. Your job is to bring the buyer and seller together.
How does affiliate marketing work?
According to Wikipedia, the affiliate marketing industry has four core players to make it work successfully: the merchant, the network, the affiliate or publisher and the consumer.
- The Merchant is the party who owns the product. It can be a big company, like Amazon selling millions of products worldwide or a small company with a product to sell
- The Network contains offers from different companies that affiliate can choose to join and is responsible for paying the affiliate’s commission. For example, Clickbank and Share-a-sale are two networks with tons of offers for members to join. However, not all affiliate programs have networks to represent them. Those that don’t the affiliate has a direct relationship with the merchant.
- The Affiliate, also known as the publisher, is the party who promotes the merchant’s products whether he does so through a network or, by working directly with the merchant.
- The Consumer is the last and most important party involved. Without sales, there is no revenue to be shared and therefore no commissions to hand out. The affiliate will promote the product to the consumer trying to convince him of the value of the product hoping for him to buy.
When you join an Affiliate program whether through a network or not, the merchant will provide you with a unique affiliate link to place on your website to start referring traffic. When interested visitors click on this link on your site, they will end up on the merchant’s site and if they purchase a product or subscribe to a service you as the affiliate make a commission.
The big question is, can you make money with affiliate marketing? The short answer is yes; An affiliate can earn an extra income working part-time or even a full-time salary working from home. However, the long answer is that long-term success as an affiliate marketer comes if you do what needs to be done correctly and in a consistent way.
The problem with affiliate marketing is that there are many so-called experts out there with get-rich-quick programs suggesting that affiliate marketing doesn’t need much effort. Nothing could be further from the truth. The reality in affiliate marketing is that some people have become wealthy, a lot of people are making money, but there are a lot of people in the industry who are not making make any money. The question is whether you can make it work for you.
!!! The key to becoming a successful affiliate marketer is to learn from other successful affiliate marketers. !!!
Why Should I become an Affiliate Marketer?
Here are some of the critical benefits of becoming an affiliate marketer:
- Cost effective: Online marketing is not expensive, there is no need for office space or to hire a staff, and you don’t have to worry about production costs.
- Global Marketplace: As an affiliate marketer you are working within a global marketplace, You get to reach people all over the world.
- No Fees: Most affiliate programs are free to join. So, you do not have to pay.
- No Storage No Shipping: Storage and shipping are all taken care of the merchant.
- No customer support: All contact with the customer after the sale is the responsibility of the merchant.
- Passive income: A regular job can provide you with a give you a fixed income for as long as you choose to go to work. Affiliate marketing can provide ongoing income even when you are sleeping.
- Work from home: If you achieve success as an affiliate marketer you can work from home permanently.
How to learn Affiliate Marketing?
There are many organizations online offering training to prospective affiliates. Some of them are legit, but you also have many fly-by-night gurus out there claiming to have all the answers.
However, for newbies, the Wealthy Affiliate University is the best training facility online. It is a training website for affiliate marketers that offers free lessons on how to build a website and start your own online business. Wealthy Affiliate has been training affiliate marketers since 2005.
You can get a free starter account from Wealthy Affiliate and let them show you how to start your own online business for free (See chart below).
Conclusion
Can you make money from affiliate marketing? Yes, many people are making money as affiliate marketers. Super affiliates make lots of money, and many people work from home as affiliate marketers making enough money to replace their salaries from the nine to five jobs. However, lots of people online are also making little or no money. The difference is that successful marketers have learned to do it the right way. There are many factors to take into account if you want to be successful, such as your commitment, experience, website setup, and traffic, and more.
That is why the proper affiliate training is so essential. At Wealthy Affiliate, you are learning from a world-class affiliate training platform which has trained thousands of successful affiliate marketers and other online entrepreneurs since 2005.
Get a free starter account and learn how to start your own online business.
