Whether you have a website or are still dreaming up ideas for a blog, you can also look into affiliate marketing. With affiliate marketing, you partner with brands and businesses within the content of your website. If you mention a product or service, you link to that produce or service using a unique affiliate code you received when you signed up for that particular affiliate program. From there, you’ll make money any time someone buys a product or service through your link.
Generally speaking, you’ll want to partner with affiliates that are related to your blog concept. Since I’m a financial advisor, I have focused a lot of my affiliate energy on financial products like savings accounts, credit cards, and investment accounts.
In addition to signing up for individual affiliate programs, you can also sign up for an affiliate ad network that offers a ton of different affiliates in one place. That way, you can see what works and what doesn’t work over time.
Affiliate marketing isn’t a new trend. It’s been around for years. In fact, Amazon Associates, which is one of the first online affiliate marketing programs, has been in use since 1996. However, with advances in technology like the rise of mobile devices, affiliate marketing is evolving extremely quickly.
This means that if you haven’t considered affiliate marketing in the past, it may be time to give it another look.
Before we go any further, what exactly is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a way for a blogger or anyone involved in online marketing to make money by promoting products and services in exchange for a commission from the sales or leads they drive. This is usually accomplished when a merchant or web advertiser places a banner ad, button, or link onto a website site. The webmaster will be compensated when a visitor clicks on that link or makes a purchase through that link.
The Pros of Affiliate of Marketing
While making some additional income sound great to most of us, affiliate marketing does present some appealing benefits.
It’s quick and easy to set-up. Find an affiliate program that fits within your niche, sign-up, and paste the tracking code onto your site. That’s not to say it doesn’t involve any sort of effort, however.
You don’t need to be a marketer. Don’t worry if you don’t have a marketing background. Most programs provide you with all the materials and handle all of the marketing and transactions.
Reach a larger audience. Affiliate programs already come set up with a built-in audience.
Small investment. You don’t need to purchase an inventory and most programs are free to join.
Steady income. Once you understand affiliate marketing you can earn a steady income as you have an internet connection. Best of all? It’s something that you can do on the side.
