Affiliate Marketing

What is Affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is the process of promoting a brand or product for which the promoter (also called as the affiliate) will earn a commission after every successful sale is completed through his/her referral. The commission can be a percentage of the total amount billed to the buyer. It is one of the most popular ways of earning especially if you are a blogger or an influencer with a decent presence on social media. But irrespective of whether you are a blogger or not, anyone who can drive sales for a particular brand or a product can become an affiliate.

How does Affiliate marketing work?

Affiliate marketing works on a revenue sharing basis. A brand shares a portion of the profit with an affiliate marketer for every successful sale driven through their referral. This is explained with examples.

Scenario one: You have a product in excess which you want to sell. You take help from your friends to promote it. You give them an incentive for every unit they sell on your behalf. Here, your friend is called an affiliate for marketing your product.

Take another scenario: You want to earn but don't have any product to sell. So, you promote another brand's product or service. You earn a margin after every successful sales conversion. Here, you are the affiliate doing the marketing and promotion on behalf of the brand.

How to get started with affiliate marketing?

Although it is not difficult to get paid for what you promote as an affiliate marketer, it takes some effort to be able to sell. For that, you need to have an ability to influence people into buying what you promote. It primarily helps if you already have a presence on social media with some domain expertise. Promoting only niche products gives an assurance to the potential customers that you have enough knowledge about whatever you are asking them to buy and that your product recommendations can be trusted.

If you are not already active on social media, it is recommended that you pick a product niche and start building your media presence around it. You can do so by reviewing products, connecting with people through I various online groups, posting relevant news or information on your status etc.

Once you are ready to become an affiliate marketer and know your niche, there are so many companies and products that offer affiliate marketing programs. Here are some of the easiest ways to find the product that you can promote.