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Affiliate marketing has become one of the top choices to earn money for freelancers, full-time and part-time employees or even students in the past couple of years. And why not? It has a broad, affordable and flexible reach, and there is no limit to how much you can earn in affiliate marketing commissions.
For companies, affiliate marketing provides a cheaper way to reach a large audience and promote their products. But how did affiliate marketing become a household name for marketers and companies?
Well, we have the answer for you. Technology! In 2022, anyone can post content online, gain followers and monetize their content through affiliate marketing. With a worth of over $12 billion in 2022, the affiliate marketing industry has become the new arena of opportunities brought on by the Internet and social media.
Traditionally, the affiliate marketing industry was dominated by bloggers who posted on their websites and gained an audience through Google, Bing, Yahoo and other global search engines. But today, things have changed.
While blogging may still have some steam left, other platforms have become much superior in the value they provide in affiliate marketing. Today we will discuss the best ideas and platforms, besides websites, that will help you become a successful affiliate marketer in no time.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Simply put, affiliate marketing is an arrangement that allows a person to earn a commission by promoting the products of an online retailer or service provider. Affiliate marketers share their links with their networks through various online platforms and earn a percentage of commission on every sale made. It’s that easy! You can do it part-time alongside your job or make it a full-time business.
What are the benefits of Affiliate Marketing?
1. Flexible Working:
Affiliate Marketing creates a culture of flexible working beyond 9-5 office work. Marketers can work any time, take any decision, and create whatever content they want. Every aspect of affiliate marketing is rooted in flexibility. Affiliate marketing allows creatives to earn money while sleeping, watching TV, playing video games, or just relaxing and having fun. Your work ends when you share your affiliate link.
2. Unlimited Earning:
With affiliate marketing, you’re never tied to a salary or bound to just one brand. Affiliate marketing is a job, but not defined by traditional ways of working. You can earn unlimited commissions through affiliate marketing while working for multiple brands. Focussing on building a loyal and engaging community will help you in the long term.
3. Work from Anywhere:
People have become keener to grab work-from-home opportunities. This WFH phenomenon has sprung out new terms like work from a hotel, a vacation, or work from anywhere you want. Like timing, affiliate marketing allows you to make money anywhere in the world. Whether you’re travelling, studying or just relaxing at home, you can make money with affiliate marketing.
Sources to earn money from Affiliate Marketing?
Websites still hold a lot of potential for affiliate marketers. This is evidenced by over 4.4 million blogs published daily on search engines. But, for our topic today, let us focus on some more affiliate marketing sources.
Instagram:
Instagram is one of the largest social media platforms in the world. With more than 1.5 billion monthly users, the application offers content creators an excellent opportunity to present their affiliates to a diverse audience and earn a substantial income. Instagram helps build a strong community of potential buyers. Also, you can post in various ways: Posts, IGTV, Reels, Stories, and more. Make your content as unique and fun as possible to attract more viewers and followers to your profile. Once you have enough followers on your profile, you can start working with companies for sponsorships and affiliate marketing.
YouTube:
YouTube can be the oldest social media platform for affiliate marketing. You can make money by creating content on YouTube through activities like dancing, singing, cooking, education, etc. YouTubers can earn money through sponsorships, advertising, and affiliate marketing. One of YouTube’s most remarkable features is its simple, easy-to-understand recommendation algorithm. Like Instagram Reels, YouTube has also released a short content platform – YouTube Shorts- a more manageable, less competitive way to become a viral content creator.
Online forums:
People have varied questions, and the primary source of answers for most of them is the Internet. As such, many forums and online communities have developed over the years. Platforms like Reddit, Quora, & Discord have become great places for affiliate marketers to answer people’s questions and engage with the general public. People who like your replies and posts can easily follow your profile. If many people are interested in your post, you can start mentioning affiliate products and services in the middle of your answers and posts. This will help you bring higher clicks and sales for your affiliate brands.
Facebook:
Facebook is the world’s largest and most popular social media platform. With a monthly user base of over 2.9 billion worldwide, including people of all ages, genders, locations, etc., it is the largest market for affiliate marketers. Like other social media platforms, marketers can create content to build an audience and promote their products to those people. Facebook also provides marketers with valuable insights and the ability to promote their content to a broader audience. With Facebook Ads, you can reach a wider demographic not yet in your follower base and optimize those ads to serve you best by changing metrics like location, age, campaign time etc.
Messaging Apps:
If you don’t want to create content, you can always use platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram to promote affiliate links to your network. You can share the link with family, friends, or strangers. These platforms offer an excellent opportunity to create groups where links can be posted, and those who want can shop through them.
Email Marketing:
This form of marketing involves sending attractive-looking cold emails to many strangers at once, hoping some of them will want to buy it. When starting with email marketing, it’s best to build a comprehensive list of email addresses and grow it to reach more users. Keep a tap on which addresses have brought the highest conversions for you, and keep recommending the best deals to them. There are several ways to streamline your email marketing process and get more conversions with minimal effort.
Podcasts:
With low production costs and a large listener base, podcasts have become the perfect place for affiliates and marketers to get their products out. People can mention their affiliate brands and products, benefits, need, price, USPs, etc.
Best Practices to Follow
Disclaimer:
Whenever you create a post containing affiliate links and encourage the public to purchase a product, you must always mention that you are profiting from that purchase. This helps build a loyal follower base for your profile. Your transparency encourages the public to support their favourite creator by buying affiliate products. Platforms like Instagram, Facebook, & YouTube allow you to add the tag “paid partnership” to your post.
Great Content:
Affiliate marketers can only succeed on social media if they create great content that people want to see and engage with. Creating unique and memorable content can go a long way in increasing your affiliate earnings. Finance, makeup, photography, video editing, dancing, singing, and memes are some of the most famous niches.
Add a CTA:
For those new to affiliate marketing, a CTA is an acronym for Call-to-Action. Asking viewers to take action after seeing your post is a subtle way to increase your reach. For example, if you’re marketing on YouTube, a solid CTA includes asking viewers to like, comment, subscribe and share your content. This will increase the number of new followers and viewers on your profile.
Simple Links:
If you provide affiliate links to users, ensure they are simple, readable links that users can understand. Using code-oriented links can drive away many leads and lose sales. You can also promote your profile by creating a custom link with your name embedded in it.
Research:
Research is a two-step process. Firstly, you must thoroughly research the topic you are preparing content on. Make sure to provide the best and most useful knowledge to the audience. If you are creating entertaining content, make sure it is unique and enjoyable. Secondly, you should research companies that offer affiliate programs related to your content. This helps you compare options and choose the best one regarding commission rate, pay-out time, and past reviews.
Quality Products:
Always ensure that the product you are promoting is of the highest quality. Your affiliates should have good customer feedback, a great product, and an attentive customer support team to address buyer concerns. Low-quality products erode audience trust, leading to fewer followers and fewer affiliate earnings in the long run.
Insights:
Several platforms provide specific insights to help you make better decisions. Follow these insights closely, showing metrics like engagement, reach, active time, and top-performing content to understand what needs to be done to improve your content’s performance on various recommended platforms.
Conclusion
At the end of this article, we hope you learned something from what you read. We’ve mentioned the most reliable and efficient platforms for affiliate marketing, which give the best return on investment. Choose the platform you think is best for you, follow best practices, and start your affiliate marketing journey today.