Affiliate internet marketing is a growing industry internationally, and particularly in the United States. Many aspiring affiliate marketers take this up as a hobby initially and develop the skills to turn their hobby into a rewarding and profitable full-time career. We will explore some of the top benefits of becoming an affiliate internet marketer, but first, let’s address some of the basics.
What is Affiliate Internet Marketing?
Affiliate internet marketing (also known as affiliate marketing) is a way of earning commissions from the sale of other people’s products.
The broad steps involved in this process are:
- Finding a product attached to an affiliate program
- Signing up as an affiliate
- Receiving approval from the vendor to become an affiliate
- Promoting the product on the affiliate’s website or via various internet marketing strategies
- Generating sales and receiving commissions from the vendor
The process behind affiliate internet marketing is quite straight forward and once the skills have been mastered, there are numerous rewards to be reaped. Let’s have a look at eight of these benefits.
- Minimal Upfront Costs: If you choose to create a website to promote your affiliate products, the main start–up costs will be purchasing a domain name and hosting the site. You may also choose to utilize the services of a website designer however this is not necessary if you are happy to start a free blog with a provider such as WordPress.
- Promote what you’re passionate about: Because there are thousands of affiliate programs to choose from, you can affiliate to just about any product you can think of. A quick way to get started is to think of something that you really like and could easily write about and promote; then go out and find a suitable affiliate program. For example, one of my passions is singing and I often purchase backing tracks, so I was very pleased to discover that one of my suppliers offered an affiliate program for backing tracks. I signed up, got approved and started blogging about one of my very favorite topics!
- No product ownership costs: As mentioned above, affiliate commissions are earned by promoting products you don’t own. This means you don’t incur any of the product costs. Your referral is tracked via an affiliate link and once the customer purchases from the vendor, the commission is paid into your account.
- Receive marketing support: An additional bonus of being an affiliate is that many companies that offer affiliate programs also provide a range of free marketing tools. This can include banners of various sizes, product images, logos how internet changed education and sample emails. Some companies also allow you to set up sales campaigns so that you can trace your sales back to a particular web page.
- Create a passive income stream: The beauty of affiliate marketing is that once you have an established website and a solid customer base, you can continue to serve your customers with new products and offers with minimal effort required. This can generate a passive income, especially if your site has a strong search engine ranking.
- Express your creativity: Your style of promotion is entirely up to you. Personally, I find that each of my affiliate websites reflects different aspects of my personality. Depending on the products I’m promoting, I experiment with colors, layouts, images and even my writing style.
- Earn small or big profits: As an affiliate marketer, the earning potential is entirely at your discretion. You can choose to start with one product as a hobby while you develop your marketing skills online, and over time you can potentially earn a full–time income from a selling a range of products. Some companies will also pay solely based on referrals generated, even if a product isn’t purchased. By pacing yourself and prioritizing your internet marketing education ahead of immediate profits, you can set up a realistic earnings plan that will be sustainable for many years to com