Starting Affiliate Marketing for Beginners by Ben Givon

First and foremost, affiliate marketing by definition, represents the process of earning money passively from commissions coming from marketing a certain brand’s product or service. Being both a salesman and a marketer, the affiliate benefits from selling the merchants products and services for a certain commission fee. The affiliate person searches for a product they believe in and later promotes them to a niche audience; in turn, money is made every time they make a sale, thus the passive nature of this type of income.

These sales are being tracked through affiliate links, moving from one site to another. Simply put, an affiliate is responsible for marketing a product or service by sharing the said content with their website, blog or social media audience. A person clicking through dedicated track-links completes a purchase or converts into a lead, thus earning a commission from the merchant. This performance-based venture can transform into a business that brings up to the mark monthly income, if utilized correctly.

Types of Affiliate

A hundreds of various kinds of affiliate marketing exists; some are more common and widespread than others. These are some of the more popular types of affiliate marketing:

• Webmaster/site owner: The type of marketers who are website owners or plan on building sites as affiliate marketers. Advertisers are able to contact them and use their websites for product or service promotion. Sites that attract massive amounts of traffic can redirect clients to the merchant by using widgets, banners or other link types. This works as a prime choice if the website covers a topic connected to the publisher’s product or service.
• SEO or PPC Affiliates: This category requires PPC skills in order to drive customers to the advertiser’s site via SEO, social media advertising and AdWords.
• Content Sites: Blogs, portals, websites are among the trending sites used in affiliate marketing. Site owners write reviews about advertiser’s service or products to persuade their visitors to pay for the listed service. If any purchases are made via the said site, the owner receives a commission linked to the affiliate program.
• Newsletters or Emails: The publisher produces databases of user emails which they use in order to send newsletters, special offers and other materials regarding merchant’s services or products. If you decide on using email for these purposes, be sure to be CAN-SPAM compliant.
• Coupon Sites: The popularity of these websites in affiliate marketing came due to the prominent features of online shopping. A large number of people are looking to receive coupons from marketers and they are later transformed into customers who will ultimately buy the merchant’s goods.
• Social Media: People that have a strong social media presence, also called influencers can refer their followers to the advertiser’s site and earn commission as the middle person in these transactions.
• Review Websites: Sites dedicated to reviewing different types of products and brands, mostly niche based. Visitors of these websites can also be converted into customers for the merchant.
• Incentivized Traffic: This is the case where the merchant offers a form of incentives like digital currency or cashback when visitors complete the needed actions. The clients can in turn make purchases and buy products using the said incentives.
• Shopping Services: This type of affiliate marketing implies the sites offering services that boost the overall online purchase for particular brands like aggregators, metasearch engines sites, review portals, price comparison sites etc.

Types of Commission

The type of product or service and the company determine the paid commissions, with a minimum being at least 5% for each sale. Some companies though pay commissions up to 40% per sale, while other marketing affiliate programs provide a flat rate instead of a percentage rate. It is a frequent occurrence that they pay out one-off commissions, based on acquired leads and or purchases. Nonetheless, some affiliates offer recurring commissions, a form of a fixed income, earning the affiliate commission on a regular basis.

Click-Attribution

• Cookies: If we want to understand the types of tracking that determine the amount of money you earn, it’s of utmost importance to understand the science behind cookies. They are used to track a user’s website behavior or the clicks on affiliate links. Consequently, using track links allows cookies to determine the source referred to the visit, crediting you for a purchase made on the website.
• Cookies duration: A lifespan of cookies determines how long a click or purchase can be ascribed to a website visit, deriving from your website or content. We will use Amazon as an example; their cookies last up to 24 hours, which means that if a visit was generated from your website, it has 24h to purchase, or the sale won’t be attributed to you.
• Click Attributions: It is important to focus on the two commonly used attribution models; last and first click.

a) Last click — the said attribution model is the most commonly used, guaranteeing a 100% credit for a sale/conversion if your website was the last one the customer has visited, before converting to the site of your affiliate partner.

b) First click — the said attribution model prizes the affiliates when a user clicks on your affiliate link and makes a visit to the affiliate partner’s website for the first time, later converting into a sale. This is the moment the lifespan of a cookie becomes important the longer the duration, the higher the chance of a bigger payout.

How to Promote Services and Products

After you join an affiliate program, a set of assets is introduced to you in order to begin straight away. The said materials cover links, banners, eBooks and widgets. With the help of the affiliate link, you can use these materials to promote the product or service in emails, social media and articles.

• Links: Links are available in 13 categories; SEO, Trials, Blog, Link Academy and more. Clicking on a particular code shares the content with your followers.
• Banners: When writing a blog post, you have a choice of 18 banners you can use and incorporate them into your content area or on the sidebar.
• eBooks: These books are available in 5 categories. You can promote, make conversions and earn commissions.
• Widget: Last but not least, this section has 6 widgets split into 2 categories.

Summary

Implementing the leading strategies in affiliate marketing will allow you to create a decent amount of passive income. Make sure to understand the specification of your audience and try to identify which products can seem interesting for them; after narrowing the basics down, be sure to choose an affiliate program that suits your needs and gives you favorable advantages.