If you’re interested in working flexibly from your laptop, affiliate marketing could be an option. With many products online for affiliates to promote and many ways to promote them, it’s a very flexible business model that can give you time and financial freedom. Initially though many affiliates struggle to make sales. It is a process to learn the skill of marketing affiliate products. However, if you are determined to learn that skill, it can serve you for the rest of your life.
Once you’re successful as an affiliate, you can live anywhere, be self-employed, and never need another job or employee again. This is a great “prize” and one worth working for. But many leave before they get to the point of making a single sale.
The learning curve for affiliate marketing can be steep and there are no guarantees. You will need to sell something before you can do anything. So if you’re desperate for money, it’s probably not something you should rely on for immediate income. But if you’re serious about earning online and willing to put in the effort, the rewards can be great.
There are many ways to do affiliate marketing, and depending on your own circumstances, you may opt for one of several strategies or pick a couple. However, the general advice is to pick a marketing strategy and stick with it long-term until you get traction. Jumping from one strategy to another can mean that you spread yourself too thin.
Any strategy can be difficult, so it’s a good idea to stick to one you’re comfortable with. Blogging or content marketing is a slower strategy than using paid marketing. Some affiliates will invest in high cost programs and then use paid marketing to build and scale their business pretty quickly. This requires much more investment than someone who wants to use free programs and generate traffic through blogs, for example.
Depending on your particular circumstances, you can choose a strategy that suits you and your budget. However, free marketing strategies can take a lot longer and require a lot more work. Blogging or video creation are two of those strategies. When uploading a video to YouTube every day or creating a blog post, you shouldn’t expect too much to happen any time soon. But over months and years of doing this, you can make a nice passive income by promoting affiliate products through your content.
Over time, your content will grow, and the videos and posts you wrote years ago can still bring you income. As her content volume grows, she should also see her sales revenue grow. This will also depend on a number of factors, of course. Depending on your topic and ability to create useful and interesting content, this can take several months or even years before you see regular traction in your online business.
A much faster method is to use list building and paid marketing. With list building, you build a list of email subscribers and send them regular emails through an autoresponder. As your list grows and you build relationships with your subscribers, they need to get to know, like, and trust you. You monetize your email list by providing useful affiliate products that will be valuable to your subscribers.
However, initially, as an affiliate marketer, it can be difficult. With a list of only 90 people, it is much more difficult to make sales than with a list of 90,000 subscribers. In the early days it can be hard to see this, and all you see is the lack of sales you’ve made!
Therefore, affiliates must be patient and understand that they are building a business. However, many affiliates don’t see this and quit too soon. Before they even build an email list of 1000 subscribers, they declare it “not working” and give up!
A good affiliate marketing analogy is to look at the Chinese bamboo tree. A Chinese bamboo tree gestates underground for 4-5 years before anything breaks the surface of the ground.
Once it breaks through the ground, it can shoot up to 90 feet in a six-week period.
Affiliate marketing is very similar. The gestation period can be months or years. This is the most difficult time for affiliates because they have no proof that their business is working.
There are also other ways you can optimize your traction with an online affiliate business. For years I struggled with affiliate marketing because I didn’t know this. I joined Amazon and eBay affiliate programs and worked hard creating content just to make next to nothing!
Later I found out about digital products that paid much more in terms of commissions. Amazon, for example, pays 1-11% commission on a product sold by an affiliate. Digital products typically pay much more, often 40% to 100% in some cases.
Subscription digital products also offer the affiliate a greater opportunity to earn regular income from a small number of sales. As a beginner, it is definitely worth using subscription affiliate products. These are things like memberships and software products used by the online businesses themselves.
A subscription product can allow a relatively new affiliate to start earning regular commissions much faster. Since earning your first commission is the hardest part initially, signups give you an added bonus and help you achieve more stability with the same amount of work.
High cost products are also another consideration for affiliates. With a high-priced digital product, you can earn much higher commissions on a single sale. A $100 product, for example, might offer you a commission of $40. While a $1000 product will get you a nice $400 payday, with that often equaling the same amount of work.
It’s also worth joining an online community and getting the help and support of mentors if you’re going down the affiliation path. With a mentor, you have support and guidance. In those times when you want to quit, they will get you back on track and support and assist you. When it’s just you working alone, it can be very difficult when you’re not making much progress.
