Affiliate Marketing (1 of 4): What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a popular way to make passive income with minimal start-up costs.
There is no need to create a product or service, hold any stock, or pay for expensive advertising (if you don’t want to). All you need is a good internet connection, patience and a strong work ethic with a willingness to learn.
Affiliate marketing is conducted completely remotely, with no fixed schedule, making it a good side hustle for those who want to travel or build a secondary income stream alongside their main job.
So, what exactly is affiliate marketing and how can you get started?
Affiliate marketers make money by promoting a product for a brand and making a commission from the sales of the products purchased from their referrals.
For example — If you advertise electronical products on your website or social media, you could partner up with an electronics company and refer users to buy said products from that company. You make a % of the sales.
Affiliate marketers get paid in different ways: per sale, per lead and some per click, however the vast majority are paid per sale and that is what we will be focusing on in this chapter.
There are many reasons to become an affiliate marketer: low startup costs, high ROI, flexibility, low risk, easy to start, deep well of products to choose from and it can generate passive income.
William J. Tobin, the world’s first ever internet marketer gave birth to the term ‘affiliate marketing’ all the way back in 1989. Tobin sold flowers online and generated millions in revenue with thousands of affiliate partners.
However, it wasn’t until 1996 that Amazon (you may have heard of them) entered the market and gave the term global recognition.
Fast forward to today and over 80% of the world’s advertisers use affiliate marketing, 16% of ALL e-commerce sales come from affiliates and Amazon has 43% of the market share.
The most common types of affiliate marketing channels are blogging, email lists and influencers.
In part 2 I will cover the specifics of getting started as an affiliate marketer.
