Perhaps you’ve seen them, those people who are early birds; drive to the office through a total gridlock with other half-asleep commuters, work hard all the day waiting until the sweet release at five o’clock. Those people’s formula of success based mainly on rising early and working hard. Perhaps you’re one of them. It sounds terrible, right?

But what are you need to do instead to success in making money online at any time, from anywhere — even while you sleep?

The short answer is Affiliate Marketing.

‘Affiliate Marketing’ is a great way to make money online for people who seek to derive an income from their internet use.

Though there are no successful get-rich-quick schemes, a lot of people have obtained success in doing online marketing as an affiliate. So, learning how to work as a successful affiliate marketer can open a new door for you to make money and determine whether a career in this lucrative field might be right for you.

Let’s dig deeper into the practical steps…

What is Affiliate Marketing? and How Does It Work?

Affiliate marketing is the processes of earning a commission by promoting someone else’s product or service by using what is called “An Affiliate Link” that you can get from the company provides this product/service. When someone clicks on that link and then go ahead and buy; they’ll be redirected to the advertiser’s website to complete the transaction, so you can earn a commission for that.

The way that it works is through “An Affiliate Program”. The affiliate program is basically a program that most companies have in order to manage the process and give people the ability to join for free, promote their product and earn commissions. So, when you join an affiliate program you’ll get what is called an affiliate link that will allow the company to track and see which sales were produced by you, who clicked on your link and went ahead and purchased so they can track that and make sure that you get paid for promoting the product.

The Four Pillars of Affiliate Marketing

What Are the Benefits of Being an Affiliate Marketer?

• Absolute Freedom

Being an affiliate marketer means having absolute freedom to build your own online presence. It’s an excellent way to earn money while at home. You become an independent promoter of a selected product/service or range of products from a chosen niche. Simply you create your own way of working, your own way to reach customers, as well as where your job gets done.

• Low-Cost & High-Profit

There are virtually no production costs needed for affiliate marketing. Products are already developed and proven by other merchants, and all you have to do is find prospects customers as much as you can to purchase the product. Besides that, affiliate programs are usually free to join. There are no start-up costs and there is also a myriad of products and services you can choose from to promote. You can find affiliate programs for every product under the sun and definitely, there is a product or a set of products or service out there that is relevant to your website.

By adding an ad in any kind of the forms (e.g. banners or text links, etc.) over your website with an affiliate link that attracts the attention of visitors and leads them to click on it; hence the moment a visitor to your website redirected to the advertiser’s website and complete a purchase, the affiliate software track it and makes a note in its database. So, the higher the volume of referrals, the greater is the expected profit for the affiliate. That’s it the whole process!

• Multiple Income Streams

Affiliate marketing enables you to build multiple campaigns on several affiliate websites and landing pages to promote your affiliate links. So, you can abandon the badly performing campaigns and optimize the successful ones.
Plus, you don’t need to stick to just one affiliate marketing program. Select a few different products from a chosen niche and market them or test various niches to make sure which one is the best.

• Minimal Risk Involved

As an affiliate, you don’t need to managing customer service related issues, there is no sales experience necessary and no inventory, order processing or product shipping worries. Merchants already provide customer service support so you don’t need to bother about that.

How Do Affiliate Marketers Get Paid After Linking the Seller to the Buyer?

Affiliate programs attract publishers with their diversity. The most primary affiliate marketing programs fall under two main categories: Pay Per Click (PPC) and Pay Per Performance (PPP). In general, there are various reward types as follows:

• Pay Per Click (PPC)

The main purpose of this method is to redirect consumers from the affiliate’s platform to the merchant’s website. The affiliate is paid based on the increase in web traffic even if the visitor you redirected doesn’t purchase from the merchant’s website. The typical fees for PPC affiliate marketing are very small, usually not exceeding a dollar for every click.

• Pay Per Performance (PPP)

It’s the most popular type among merchants and the most lucrative type for affiliates. In this type, the merchant pays you only when your redirection translates into real action as the visitor you have redirected actually purchases something from the merchant’s website. Commissions in pay per performance (PPP) affiliate marketing may range between 15% and 20% of the product sales.

• Pay Per Sale (PPS)

The merchant pays a certain fee whenever the visitor you redirected purchases something from the merchant’s website. Some merchants would opt to pay a fixed fee but, in general, it’s higher than in PPC affiliate program.

• Pay Per Lead (PPL)

This type is based on the conversion of leads. It’s a bit complex system, usually used by finance and insurance companies. You get paid whenever the visitor you redirected to the merchant’s website to complete a specific action (e.g. filling out a contact or application form, subscribing to a newsletter, signing up for a trial of a product, or downloading something).

How Do Affiliate Marketers Get Paid After Linking the Seller to the Buyer?

What Are the Common Types of Affiliate Marketers?

There are so many different types of affiliates/publishers. Here are some of them:

• Webmasters: They’re people who building sites or people who own a website in various niches.
• Influencers: They’re individuals who have the power to impact the purchasing decisions of a large segment of the customers (e.g beauty gurus).
• Bloggers: They’re people who run general or niche bloggers about a particular topic.
• Email Lists Owners: They have a one or more email list used to promote the seller’s products so they can email blast a newsletter or solo email to their database.
• Facebook/Twitter Page Owners: People with a base of followers so they can post about the company they are affiliating with.
• Also, there are some pretty popular affiliate marketing channels such as review sites, loyalty portals, incentive models, and coupon portals.

Wrapping Up

Using affiliate marketing to make money online can look like a dream come true. This may seem like a get-rich-quick scheme, but actually, nothing comes easy. Yet you can build a solid source of side income or even a main one. Remember, hard work with dedication is the key to success.