Work from Home – Affiliate Marketing
This is the third post in this series Work from Home and here we take a look at Affiliate Marketing.
If you have not read the first two posts in this series you can catch them here:
An affiliate program is pretty much a “no-risk” partnership that allows you to promote another company (or persons) product or services on your website and you earn a commission or a percentage of the sale.
I personally think it is a great way to get started online. It is simple and easy in most cases for you to get started and work from home.
When you sign up as an affiliate for a company you are assigned a special id and URL containing your id. That URL tracks your customers and the sales you generate for your partner company. So every time someone you refer to a product or service makes a purchase you get paid commission.
You can see some examples here on my blog. At the bottom of my side bar you will see some books. These books are connected to my Amazon affiliate link. My PS at the bottom of my post here has my affiliate link to a lead generation source.
If you click on my Recommended Resources page you will see some more products I recommend. They are all affiliate products that I like and that I use. You will see many of these products are in banner form. The neat thing here is the code for the banners is provided by the company I am an affiliate with so it is a two minute job to put it in here. If I can do that anyone can as I am not a technical person.
You really can work from home and build a business just selling affiliate products like this.
I believe we all should be building a residual income. An income that continues to be paid to us month after month long after the original sale was made. So when you are looking at which affiliate offers to promote choose at least some with an ongoing revenue stream.
Clearly if someone buys a book or a training course it is a one off sale. However if they buy a subscription with a monthly fee then it is ongoing and you will also be paid every month – cool eh? So look for things like this to sell where you will get paid an ongoing income.
There are also two tier affiliate programs where as well as earning a commission off the sales you make you earn on the sales of anyone you recommend to the affiliate program.
The other great thing is that in most cases you do not have to build sales pages, capture pages or specific websites as it is all done for you. Nor do you have to collect the money, package the product, deliver the product, ship the product.
I think Affiliate Marketing is a great choice for anyone getting started on the internet and wanting to work from home.
Please leave a comment below. Do you do affiliate marketing? Do you have any questions? And if you found this post of value please share with your friends.
In my next part to this Work from Home series I will be discussing Network Marketing.
All the best
Sue Price
P.S. If You Don’t Have a Step-By-Step Blueprint For Generating More Leads, Check This Out (Unless You Already Have Too Many)
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Sanora says
Greetings I am so delighted I found your website, I really found you by accident,
while I was researching on Aol for something else, Regardless I am here now and would just like to say
thank you for a tremendous post and a all round
exciting blog (I also love the theme/design), I dont have time to look over it
all at the minute but I have saved it and also added
your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to
read a lot more, Please do keep up the great b.
Sue says
Thanks for your feedback Sanora and I am glad you found me, even if by accident. 🙂
Sue
Jens P. Berget says
Hi Sue,
Like you, I believe affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to earn money online. But, when I started out online I thought I’d just add a few banners to my blog and that was it. It took a lot more work to start earning money in affiliate marketing, and I had to start “explaining the benefits” of the products by using videos and several long blog posts (and emails to my list) in order to start earning money. But, once I started doing inbound marketing, things started to change 🙂
Sue says
Hi Jens
Thanks for sharing your experience with affiliate marketing. I think we all think it will be easier than it is to get started. I know I did 🙂
Like you say it takes a lot more work than putting up banners.
Thanks of finding me. I appreciate it.
Sue
Dr Robin Rushlo says
Yes it is for some that is starting but remember people buy you. You are your own best product and there is a waiting list for that product. The best way is to learn to brand yourself. You sell yourself. Once you learn that you can sell anything.
Sue says
Hi Dr Robin
I agree branding yourself is very important and something we all need to learn.
Thanks for commenting.
Sue
Adrienne says
Hi Sue,
I’m enjoying this series and affiliate marketing is something I believe everyone is doing anyway, they just aren’t being paid for it.
It’s like telling your friends about a great movie you saw or a book you read and they want to go out and see or get it themselves. If you were an affiliate for those products you would actually get paid for that recommendation.
We definitely would prefer helping our friends out much more then just someone we don’t know so this is a fabulous way of showing our appreciation.
Great job on the post and explanation. I’ll look forward to the next part. It’s one of my favorites. 🙂
~Adrienne
Sue says
Hi Adrienne
I am glad you are enjoying this series.
You make such a good point that it is something people do naturally. I would love to be paid for all the movie recommendations I have made 🙂
Yes the next one is going to be one of my favorites too.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Sue
Steve says
Sue very good overview on this. Affiliate marketing is great in conjunction with my network marketing company. I have found it’s hard to make lot’s of residual income unless you sell some type of membership offer or something that requires monthly payments but it is nice to see those clickbank checks in the mail.
Steve
Sue says
Hi Steve
I agree the combination of network and affiliate marketing makes sense. I have always believed in multiple streams of income.
Yes we do need to find some membership deals to make residual income with Affiliate marketing. Although sometimes when we are starting out the launches that can provide a cash flow boost are nice.
Have a great weekend Steve
Sue
Leslie Denning says
This is a great post for us affiliate marketers who are looking for all kinds of ways to bring in the cash flow. I love having money post to my checking account or Paypal from my affiliate accounts. Yes, I probably am making about 2 cents an hour at this point, but as I get them up and running automatically the work is a lot less and the rewards are getting higher. Thanks for this information.
All the best,
Leslie
Sue says
Hi Leslie
I laugh at your 2 cents an hour. It is like that when we start. The people who come online and do it right away are few and far between. Most people earning good money tell their sad stories of difficult beginnings. They just persevered like we are doing.
Have a nice break next week Leslie
Sue
Barbara Charles says
Affiliate marketing is a great stream of income. I have found it difficult to get into and there are a number of great products that I use. However, it takes a bit of work to get people to pay attention and see the value of the product 🙂 Thanks for promoting affiliate marketing and explaining to others how great it is for a 2nd income. Good job.
Sue says
Hi Barbara
Thanks for your comment.
I think affiliate marketing does take time but so does leaning to market online. To me it just makes sense to have more than one income stream.
Hope you had a nice weekend
Sue
Nicky says
I am enjoying this series too Sue and I must admit I wish I had been able to read something like this when I first got started as I would have found it very useful.
I agree that promoting an affiliate product with a sales funnel already created is a good thing, especially when the affiliate product actually teaches you how to market it – it’s a win/win as far as I am concerned and that’s why it works so well for so many people!
Looking forward to the next one!
Nicky
Sue says
Hi Nicky
Thanks for your feedback on the series. I was inspired to write it as I like you wished I had read some of these things when I was starting out online.
It seems to work well for a lot of people having some affiliate products in with their main business. Having said that I have met some people who just do affiliate marketing and make a good income from it.
Take care
Sue
Martin Cooney says
Good tips, Sue, though I’d also suggest that to get that revenue stream there needs to be a good abundance of incoming traffic, otherwise there’s no-one to click those links 🙂
So it’s still just as important to pick the right niche (for you), be passionate about that niche and write top quality content that will attract the traffic that will click though on your affiliates. Great passive revenue stream, agreed.
Sue says
Hi Martin
Thanks for your comment and oh yes of course we need the traffic 🙂
Such an essential one and needs to be included. I guess that really applies to whatever we do online – traffic is needed.
Have a great day
Sue
Martin Cooney says
I mentioned it because you’d actually be surprised by the number of new bloggers / affiliate marketers that think once they start a blog that the traffic somehow instantly materialises …. somehow.
Always good to point out that traffic is the prime source and it needs to be planned for, using multiple strategies … well, every strategy you can possibly think of 🙂
Sue Price says
Hi Martin
I was not that naive when I started blogging but definitely when my husband and I had our first company website built. I had no idea!
I would never open a retail shop and expect pole to find me without doing some advertising and marketing. I was about to say no one would but I know it happens offline too. 🙂
Are you really a geek?
Sue
Martin Cooney says
You’d be surprised what some people fail to think about when it comes to business, Sue.
I’m 53 years young and been in the Online IT space since Bulletin Boards so 25 or 30 years. VP of Technical Support for Webcentral for 9 years, IT Director of a Debit Card company, Freelancing IT Consultant, GM for an Online Marketing firm up here on the Sunshine Coast and currently the Project Director of a new platform that is centred on, initially, Facebook Content Marketing for franchises and retail outlets that want to manage 10-1500+ FB Pages, from a single interface.
So yeah, I think that counts me as a Geek 🙂
But I have a real passion for relationships so maybe a weird Geek.
Sue Price says
Hi Martin
Wow you are also on the Sunshine Coast! Me too, I am in Noosa and I see you live at Buderim. I just found you on fb.
That experience qualifies you as a Geek 🙂 Good you like people too 🙂
I am a CPA originally and therefore have experienced some people in business that had not thought about things like paying tax.
Nice to meet someone who lives not too far away.
Sue
Sylviane Nuccio says
Hey Sue,
I first wanted to let you know that you’ve been nominated for Sisterhood of World’s Blog Award! As per the rule I’m letting you know.
I really enjoy affiliate marketing because as you mention in your post it’s a no risk partnership and if you don’t mind writing it’s easy money you can make, granted that you know how to focus on your target market.
Thanks for explaining how all this works, Sue, as many new folks come in the online world each day and have no idea, still.
Sue says
Hi Sylviane
Thanks so much for nominating me – hey and congratulations to you. A very cool idea and new to me.
I agree that new folks probably do not know how affiliate marketing works. I know it took me a while to get my head around it.
I feel like I have only really put my toe in the water so far with it.
Have a wonderful rest of your week.
Sue
Atelier.net says
To be an affiliate marketer as a source of income for living is not an easy task to do for there are several skills you must develop to be successful on this idea but the most productive you can rely on based on my experience.
Sue Price says
I agree with you that there are many skills that need to be developed.
Sue
Donna Merrill says
Hi Sue,
Affiliate marketing is a piece of the puzzle I use on my business. I always believe that you cannot put your eggs in one basket. So, that being said, I have my blog, my affiliates, and direct marketing sales. Phew….
Sometimes it is difficult to handle all at once, but using affiliate marketing supplements my ppc adds.
Thanks for explaining how important this is,
Donna
Sue says
Hi Donna
I am like you the same mix for my income creation. My husband and I have had a couple of big learning experiences where we had all our eggs in one basket and lost everything. Oh yes we did it twice!! So no more.
I agree that it is difficult to handle it all at once but it is difficult to handle losing your entire livelihood when one falls over and it is all you have. Believe me that is not good 🙂
Have a great day Donna
Sue
farouk says
thank you for the tips Sue
can you recommend some affiliate marketing blogs that have more information?
Sue Price says
Hi Farouk
I intend to cover some options in my next couple of posts so stay tuned for those.
I cannot think of any blogs that are affiliate marketing specific right now. Adrienne Smith from http://adriennesmith.net/ covers affiliate products from time to time. So does Kimberly Castleberry http://just-ask-kim.com/blog/ and Rob Fore covers affiliate products quite frequently http://blog.robfore.com/
Rob has a good read in his last post.
Hope that helps.
Sue