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Introduction
Affiliate marketing is my favorite business of making money online. This is because I find that it is the closest thing to earning passive income.
Why do I say ‘closest thing’?
Over the years of working and making money online, I have learned that there is really no pure and complete way of earning passive income.
Over the years of working and making money online, I have learned that there is really no pure and complete way of earning passive income. The reason I say this is because for every way of earning passive income, you must at least put in some work.
Coming back to Affiliate Marketing, as I said above, I do find it the closest way of earning passive income. After you have set up your funnels, or landing pages, or anything you create to get affiliate sales, you drive traffic to that and get sales.
That is when passive income happens.
For example, I was on vacation in Malaysia. Every morning, before going out to see the sights and eat really delicious food, I would check my emails on my laptop.
And it was fun to see commissions made while I was asleep as well as out having fun.
Business
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Watch: What Is Affiliate Marketing?
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Or if you prefer to Read, continue from here.
So, What is Affiliate Marketing?
So, what is Affiliate Marketing?
Well, simply put, it is when you find and choose a product that you like to promote. Then you approach the company that sells the product to be an affiliate.
They approve you as an affiliate and give you an affiliate link. You promote the product and give the affiliate link for potential customers to click on.
Then, when someone clicks on your affiliate link, and make a purchase, you earn a commission.
Really, this is nothing new.
Before the Internet, salespeople were already doing this. Except that they did not use a website.
They went around, knocking on doors, did some personal selling, sold the products, and they received commissions for all their efforts.
The Merchant
In Affiliate Marketing, we have The Merchant. This Merchant can be a company selling a product such as airline tickets or hotel rooms.
The Merchant would like to increase sales of the product or service that they offer.
They create an affiliate marketing program, and offer Affiliate Marketers a commission when a customer buys their product or service.
Different affiliate marketing programs have different systems.
Usually, the affiliate marketers would be given an affiliate link that they can use to promote the product or service.
There can also be an affiliate dashboard for the affiliate marketers to create unique affiliate links, track leads and sales, and even get reports on their sales.
Most affiliate marketing programs would send an email whenever an affiliate sale has been made.
The Publisher / Affiliate
Then there is you, the Publisher, or the Affiliate.
You promote The Merchant’s product.
You might do it on a website, or social media.
On these platforms, you will add your affiliate link for people to click on.
When someone clicks on your Affiliate Link, and makes a purchase of the product, you earn a commission.
Besides an affiliate link, some Merchants provide banners, or any other form of marketing communication.
You, as The Affiliate, can use these to promote the product.
The banners, or other forms of marketing communications, will be programmed to include your affiliate link.
As such, when people click on them, it would be tracked and recorded as yours.
The Customer
Finally, there’s The Customer.
This would be the person who has consumed your content, and is interested in the product you promoted.
The potential customer clicks on your affiliate link.
They go to a sales page, and they make a purchase of the product. This is known as a Conversion, which means the potential customer has been converted to a Customer.
You, as The Affiliate, gets a commission from the sale.
The Cookie
How does The Merchant keep track of people who clicked on your affiliate link?
They use something called A Cookie. This is not the same as the cookies you eat.
It is a unique affiliate code that records that a person has clicked on your affiliate link. The record is sent to The Merchant’s server, and stored there.
For a limited period, The Merchant would have that record of the potential customer who clicked on your affiliate link. So, any time the potential customer makes a purchase, The Cookie informs The Merchant that this sale is yours.
You then earn a commission.
How Do Affiliate Marketers Promote Products?
There are many ways an Affiliate Marketer can promote products.
You can create a blog, and write about the products. You add the affiliate link for people who reads your blog.
Some Affiliate Marketers promote their affiliate links on social media such as Tiktok, Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook.
Today, the popular and very effective way to promote affiliate marketing products is on Facebook. And there is a way to do it so that you can get more sales easily.
If you are interested to learn more about this, drop me a comment below to express your interest. Or you can join my community (see below).
Would you like to learn how to start and grow an affiliate marketing business? Join my I Love Passive Income community for more tips and useful business information. Simply fill in the details below, and you will receive an email with instructions on how to join this invaluable community.
What Is Affiliate Marketing?
Timotheus Final Thoughts
As you can see, there are three parties involved in affiliate marketing. Each plays their part to make the whole system work.
As an affiliate marketer, you must make sure you find the right merchant. First, find the right product. Then do background check on the merchant selling the product.
Of course, if you do it through a marketplace like Amazon, you have their assurance to some level.
As an affiliate marketer, after you have the right merchant and product, then you need to find the right customers. This would require a lot of time and effort spent on promoting your brand and the affiliate product.
This part is not easy. You need to be committed. Also, you must really set aside time to do the content creation and promotions.
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Timotheus
Digital Marketer, Lecturer, and Amazon Bestselling Author