What Is Affiliate Marketing? In case you’re wondering what affiliate marketing is, it’s actually a lot like being a commission-based salesperson for a company, only that you’re basically on your own. But really, it’s not as bad as it sounds. In fact, affiliate marketing can be one of the most profitable things you can do if you do it right, and thousands of people right now are relying on affiliate marketing as their main source of income.
So, what is affiliate marketing?
As we said before, with affiliate marketing, you sell a company’s products for a commission. While it’s easy to compare this venture with a real sales job, there are distinct differences, including:
You can promote different products in different niches.
As an affiliate marketer, you don’t have to exclusively sell one product, unless if you want to. There are many affiliate marketplaces out there. Market Health and Clickbank are just two of them. If you want to get started now, sign up with those websites as an affiliate and search for products to promote from there.
Market Health offers health products exclusively while Clickbank offers information products. If you want our advice, start with what you know. If you invest in forex, for example, find a forex-related product to promote, like a Forex robot.
Almost all marketing is done online.
Although you can promote affiliate products through the traditional route of meeting prospects, most affiliate marketers promote their products through different channels online: Facebook ads, setting up a website and doing information marketing, advertising on the different advertising networks, etc.
You’re not bound to any quota
Unlike a regular sales job, you’re not weighed down by any sales quota. There won’t be any sales managers yelling at you or breathing down your neck to make a sale. It’s really up to you how much money you want to make.
If you’ve ever seen online advertisements on making money online, all of them are promoting systems that will help you market different products on the Internet.
As we said earlier, there are many ways that you can do affiliate marketing. However, in order for you to truly succeed, pick only one method, and don’t stop doing it until you’re earning money. Don’t switch from one method to another because that will only guarantee your failure.
That was the mistake I made. One day I studied how to market things on Squidoo and the next studied how to market things on Facebook. All of that hopping from one method to another only made me tired and frustrated with no consistent sales to show for it.
Now I know better and I’m learning to patiently build 100 websites in different niches, hoping to earn money from Google search information marketing. It’s not easy considering that I have a full-time job but there are two things to be learned here:
Having my own online properties or websites is crucial to long-term success
Knowing why people buy certain things is what brings sales and money to my bank account.