In this post I will talk about why affiliate marketing is the best way to start making money online.
This post is ideal for people who already know that they should be making money online, but who haven’t gotten to it yet.
In this post about the 5 Online Business Models I rated the most popular online business models from 1 to 10, from non-beginner-friendly to very beginner-friendly.
The affiliate marketing business model was the clear winner of that.
But first…
What is affiliate marketing?
In a nutshell, when you’re an affiliate marketer, you promote other companies’ products and services.
Let’s take the affiliate, or referral, program from Target as an example.
When you sign up to be an affiliate of Target, you’ll get a unique-to-you link from them.
When you know that, for example, a friend of yours could really benefit from product X that they can buy on their website, you give your unique link to your friend.
They then click on your link, are redirected to Target’s site (and because it’s a unique-to-you link, Target knows your friend landed on their site because of you) and purchase that product on their website.
You then get a commission off of the total purchase price.
In Target’s case, and at the time of writing, this is 8%.
So, let’s say the total purchase price turned out to be $30, you’d get a commission from Target of $2.4.
This, in a nutshell, is affiliate marketing.
“All of that…for just $2.4?”
Well, yes, in this case.
But this commission structure isn’t a golden rule in affiliate marketing. This is actually rare.
There are tons of affiliate programs out there that give you 20, 30, 50 & sometimes even up to 100% of the purchase price!
And, we were just talking about one single purchase here.
What if you had 10/month? 20? 50? 100? 1000?!
Then, even at $2.4 commission, this kind of money can make a significant impact in your month-to-month life.
The benefits of affiliate marketing
There’s a reason why I think affiliate marketing is the best way for virtually anybody to start making money online.
You don’t have to create a product
This is already done for you!
Creating a product usually, and hopefully, comes after having done extensive market research. Something that costs a lot of time and a lot of money.
Then, there’s also the cost of actually creating the product, and refining it based on customer feedback.
You don’t have to do any of that.
No customer support
Because you didn’t create the product, and you don’t take care of the billing, you don’t have to spend time and other resources on customer support.
Low barrier to entry
Essentially, you can get started in affiliate marketing by just having 3 things:
- A product to promote
- Someone to promote it to
- A means of communication
Since you’re reading this, I’m gonna go ahead and assume that you have an internet connection.
This means that you can look for an affiliate program, and most either approve you within a few business days, or you’re approved automatically.
Then, you can probably think of someone who would be a good fit for that product/service.
And then you use one of your messaging apps to send your link to them.
And there you go, you just affiliate marketed!
It can be as simple as that.
If you just want to make some extra pocket money, then this simple setup is fine.
But, if you want to significantly supplement your income with affiliate income, there are a few more things to keep in mind.
At the end of this post, there'll be a resource going to how you can get started with affiliate marketing TODAY.
The drawbacks of affiliate marketing
If you want to be really serious about affiliate marketing and start making some significant affiliate income, the only drawback that I can think of is that you need to have an audience to promote your affiliate offer to.
But, while this can be a hurdle, it is definitely not an insurmountable one.
Look around on this blog for posts on how to build an audience, both for free and paid, or have a look at this free training on how to start with affiliate marketing.
Are you going to get started with affiliate marketing? Why, or why not? Leave it in the comments!
Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links, which means that I may receive a commission if you make a purchase using one of these links, such as from the Amazon Associates program.
