If you are an aspiring blogger or online entrepreneur, you are probably curious as to what
affiliate marketing is! Actually you should be curious! Right now, there’s a number of
entrepreneurs who are making lots of money with affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketing is one of the easiest and fastest ways to earn passive income as well as begin monetizing your blog.
In today’s post, I will be showing you a few things you should know before starting affiliate marketing…
Make sure you remember these important factors when you start affiliate marketing or monetizing your blog with affiliate links.
Contents
- What is Affiliate Marketing?
- What is an affiliate link and how do they work?
- Selecting the right Affiliate Program
- Selecting the right affiliate products
- Possessing the right legal pages
- Disclose your links properly
- Adding no follow tag to affiliate links
- Pros and Cons of Affiliate Marketing
8.1. Pros of Affiliate Marketing
8.2. Cons of Affiliate Marketing
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate Marketing is a form of marketing where an affiliate marketer earns a commision for selling the products of a brand. In order to sell the products of the brand, the affiliate has to be approved by the brand.
Affiliate Marketing is based on revenue sharing. This means the affiliate receives a commission through the affiliate program created by the brand. This is a result of the customer making a successful purchase through using the affiliate link of the affiliate.
For example- Let’s say a product is priced at $10 and the company pays 20% commission for each sale. When the customer buys from the link of the affiliate. The affiliate receives $2.
The awesome part is, there is no extra cost to the customer!
I know exactly what you would like to ask?
What is an affiliate link and how do they work?
Affiliate links are unique links which contain specific detailed identifiers/trackers in the form of randomized series of numbers and letters, other means of identification in addition to your username.
There is a unique affiliate link given to every affiliate marketer in order for the brand to identify which affiliate marketer directed the customer to purchase their product. This way the brand knows exactly to pay the commission.
And this is how affiliate links work-
Image of Infographic
You should have a better idea about how affiliate links work now.
Selecting the right affiliate programs
If you want to succeed at affiliate marketing you have to choose the programs that can be trusted and are right for you.
Yes, there are programs out there that are shady affiliate programs. So beware!
Be sure to find reputable affiliate programs and be sure to check:
- The niche of the program
- The commission rate
- Payment methods
- Limitations- as far as if the program is limited to specific countries
Here’s a list of 7affiliate programs thatI’m a part of & recommend to others as well.
Choosing the right affiliate products
Once you’ve chosen the right affiliate programs that you feel comfortable with, it’s now time to choose the right affiliate products.
When selecting the affiliate products to promote, there are a few things
you need to think about:
- Select products with a proven record
- Select evergreen products
- Do not choose products based only on price
- Always check the product sales page
- Look for high commission products
- Look for products of a hungry niche
- Promote products that you would use yourself
If you choose the right product you’re gonna do well.
Having the right legal pages
Disclaimer- The information provided below is for informational or educational purposes only according to my best knowledge. It does not contain any legal form of advice. Please consult a lawyer before taking any legal action.
It’s obvious that this relationship where someone shares their opinion about a product that leads to the reader purchasing that product or anything using a link is based on a foundation of trust. Yes indeed, I am saying affiliate marketing is based on trust. The best way to build that trust is with the blog legal pages.
These legal pages are:
- The Privacy Policy- The privacy policy is legally required by various privacy laws across the world, allowing the opportunity to build trust amongst you and your audience.
- Disclosure Statement- The disclosure statement is a page that outlines the relationship the brands you work with to your audience. It can also be included in the privacy policy.
Despite the way your affiliate marketing company is set up, it is always a good idea to have the correct and complete legal pages in order.
Reveal your links properly
As an affiliate marketer or someone sponsoring post, it is very important that you clearly reveal your relationship with the merchants to your audience.
So, make sure that you have a disclosure statement on every post or page that you are promoting a product or brand. Even if the product was given to you for free, you still have to let your readers know that it was supplied by the brand. The statement has to be clear and conspicuous and it cannot be hidden in the middle of the post or page.
The best place to add that you are promoting a product is directly above every post or page.
Adding nofollow tag to your affiliate links
Nofollow tag- basically lets the search engine know that the page linking out is not endorsing the page it is linking to.
Example –
<a href=”https://domainname.com” rel=”nofollow” >link text</a>
According to Google, All affiliate or paid links should be nofollowed in order to prevent search engine penalties.
You can use a plugin like Pretty links to nofollow your links automatically or you can add the rel=”nofollow” tag to your links manually using the code editor while editing your post.
Pros & Cons of affiliate marketing
Like everything else, affiliate marketing also has it’s advantages as well as it’s disadvantages.
Pros of affiliate marketing
- Multiple options of income
- Free to and easy get started
- Make money while you sleep
- No financial risk
- Don’t have to store the products
- Don’t have to create the product
Cons of affiliate marketing
- Too many links to keep track of
- Dependent on merchants
- Have to build a reputation to be trusted
- High level of competition
Be sure to dot all I’s and cross all your T’s before you start as an affiliate marketer to avoid getting into any problems. Especially, because it is definitely one of the best ways to monetize your blog and make money online.
Also read: How to start with affiliate marketing
