What Is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate Marketing is the act of promoting other people’s products or services through a website or by a link online, and in the end, the publisher or the promoter is paid. Affiliate marketing allows one to earn money by promoting and selling other people’s products. It’s one of the best ways to earn money as there are many people who have earned a living from it.

How affiliate marketing works

Affiliate marketing involves referring a product or service by sharing it on a blog, social media platform, podcast, or website. The affiliate earns a commission each time someone makes a purchase through the unique link associated with their recommendation. 

Affiliate marketing has very simple and straight forward cycle:

• The publisher (product promoter) helps the company promote its product via a link or code specific to the publisher.
• By clicking the link, the user (potential buyer) is brought to another site where the good or service is being offered.
• Conversion rates of that single link or code are tracked back to the publisher.
• The publisher is paid out a percentage of the sale as stipulated in the agreement from the clicked link or used code

To review:

1. You show an ad or a link for Store X on your website, blog, or social network.
2. A customer clicks on the advert link.
3. The customer makes a purchase in Store X.
4. The affiliate network (store X) records the transaction.
5. Ones the purchase is confirmed by Store X you get paid your commission.

An affiliate, in simple words, is a salesman who sells different products and in-turn earns commission through it.

Tom Kency

Types of affiliate marketing

Unattached Affiliate Marketing

In the unattached business model, the affiliate marketer has no connection to the product or service they are promoting. They have no expertise or authority in the niche of the product, nor can they make claims about its use.

Typically, an unattached affiliate will run PPC (pay-per-click) marketing campaigns, using an affiliate link in hopes that shoppers will click it and make a purchase on their own.

While unattached affiliate marketing may be attractive due to its lack of commitment, it’s generally for those who simply want to generate an income without investing in the product or customer relationship.

Related Affiliate Marketing

Related affiliate marketing is where you promote products and services you don’t use, but that are related to your niche. Affiliates in this case have an audience, whether it’s through blogging, YouTube, TikTok, or another channel. They have influence, which makes them a trusted source for recommending products, even if they’ve never used it before.

The problem with related affiliate marketing is, do you want to promote something you’ve never tried before? It could be the worst product or service ever and you wouldn’t even know. It only takes one bad recommendation to lose the trust of your audience. If you don’t have trust and transparency, it’ll be hard to build a sustainable affiliate marketing business. 

Involved Affiliate Marketing

This type of marketing establishes a deeper connection between the affiliate and the product or service they’re promoting. They have used or use the product and are confident that their positive experiences can be shared by others. Their experiences are the advertisements, and they serve as trusted sources of information. On the other hand, because they’re providing recommendations, their reputation may be compromised with any problems arising from the offering.

Pros and cons of affiliate marketing

Pros

Easy to execute

Your side of the equation simply involves handling the digital marketing side of building and selling a product. You don’t have to worry about the harder tasks, like developing, supporting, or fulfilling the offer.

Low risk

Since there’s no cost to join affiliate programs, you can start making money with an established affiliate product or service without any upfront investment. Affiliate marketing also can generate relatively passive income through commission—the ideal money-making scenario. Though initially you’ll have to invest time creating traffic sources, your affiliate links can continue to deliver a steady paycheck.

Easy to scale

Successful affiliate marketing offers the potential to significantly scale your earnings without hiring extra help. You can introduce new products to your current audience and build campaigns for additional products while your existing work continues to generate revenue in the background.

Before you get too excited, know that great affiliate marketing is built on trust. While seemingly there is an endless number of products or services to promote, it’s best to only highlight those you personally use or would recommend. Even when a product interests you or fits within an existing hobby, becoming a great marketer for that product takes a lot of work.

Cons

Affiliate marketing also has a few disadvantages compared to other platforms. Before jumping in, let’s look at a few challenges you’ll face on your journey to success.

Requires patience

Affiliate marketing is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It requires time and patience to grow an audience and gain influence. 

You’ll want to test different channels to see which connect best with your audience. Research the most relevant and credible products to promote. And spend time blogging, publishing free content on social media, hosting virtual events, and doing other lead-generating activities. 

Commission-based

There’s no boss handing you a weekly paycheck as an affiliate marketer. Affiliate programs work on a commission basis, whether you’re paid by lead, click, or sale. 

Companies use a temporary browser cookie to track peoples’ actions from your content. When a desired action is taken by someone, you receive the payout. 

No control over program

Affiliates must obey the rules set by a company for their program. You need to follow their guidelines for what you say and how you present their product or service. Competitors must follow the same recommendations, so you have to get creative to differentiate yourself from the crowd.

How Do Affiliate Marketers Get Paid?