Guest Post: What Is Affiliate Marketing And How Can You Earn From It

What is Affiliate Marketing And How Can You Earn From It

 

You have probably heard the term “Affiliate Marketing” before and even if you haven’t, it’s just one of the ways through which you can make money from your blog or website. So many bloggers are making six figure incomes from affiliate marketing and it’s a good start to blog monetization. What does it entail? 

 

Affiliate marketing is a way of earning commission for promoting a company’s product or service. You earn a commission when people actually buy the product you marketed through your website. You include the URL of the product when talking about the product. Some companies offer affiliate programs directly to marketers while others go through an affiliate network also knows as affiliate marketplace. The customer finds a product he or she is interested in on your site, is redirected to the merchant’s site, buys and pays for the product and you receive a small commission on each sale that you make.

 

One of the biggest affiliate programs is amazon associates, you can sign up easily and start earning commission on any product that is sold on the amazon site. In Nigeria, Jumia’s affiliate program and Konga affiliate program allows you to sign up start promoting their products on your site with links and banners.  Affiliate networks are places where you discover different companies that offer affiliate programs and products in different niches. You find a program you are interested in, apply for it and when you are approved, you can start marketing their products and earning commissions. Shareasale and Webgains are just two of the other networks out there.

 

How do companies track who sells what?

They have a unique tracking id for every marketer that is within every link or banner that you put on your own site. That way, when a customer makes a purchase, they can tell that this sale came from your website and you get paid. You can even post the links on your social media, emails and newsletters or any other way you choose to promote not limited to your blog posts alone.

 

Note that not all companies have affiliate programs for their products but for those that do have you can find it at the bottom of their web page, their FAQs page, searching for them in an affiliate marketplace like ShareASale or searching for it on google “(product name) +  affiliate program“.

Here are some common terms associated with affiliate marketing from shoutmeloud.com:

• Affiliates: Publishers like you and me who are using affiliate program links to promote and make sales.
• Affiliate marketplace: There are many marketplaces like Shareasale and Webgains. These work as central databases for affiliate programs in different niches.
• Affiliate link: Special tracking link offered by your affiliate program to track the progress of your affiliate promotion.
• Affiliate ID: Similar to the affiliate link, but many affiliate programs offer a unique ID which you can add to any page of the product site.
• Payment mode: Different affiliate programs offer different methods of payment. Example: Check, wire transfer, PayPal, and others.
• Affiliate Manager/OPM: Many companies have dedicated affiliate managers to help publishers earn more by giving them optimisation tips.
• Commission percentage/amount: The amount or percentage you will be receiving in affiliate income from every sale.
• 2-tier affiliate marketing: This is a great way of making money from an affiliate program. With this method, you recommend that others join affiliate programs, and you receive a commission when a sub-affiliate makes a sale. This income is also known as a sub-affiliate commission.
• Custom coupons: Many programs allow affiliates to create custom coupons which are also used to track sales. Custom discount coupons help you to increase affiliate sales as well.

Hope you find this information helpful. Have you tried affiliate marketing? Did you make any money? Which of these programs or networks have you signed up for? Thanks for reading! Happy Blogging!