If you’ve considered trying affiliate marketing as a way to earn an income then you’ll need to work hard and do a lot of research. Here is a simple guide how to get started in affiliate marketing.
So you have a website, it may be a blog or an-commerce site, and you’ve heard about affiliate marketing and want to know more. The obvious question you should be asking is – can I make money from affiliate marketing? The answer is, of course, yes you can; but how much you make will depend upon several factors – the most crucial of which will be how much time and effort you are willing to put into it?
Several years ago some people were fortunate enough to stumble upon the concept of affiliate marketing; with little or no competition it can’t have been very difficult to make money? Nowadays, alas, it’s a lot more of a challenge. The most lucrative sectors of the market such as insurance, mobile phones and electronics are more or less saturated with a few major players and a countless number of those who would want to be. An affiliate starting-out nowadays needs to be very smart and determined to make any impact in a competitive market.
There are, however, still opportunities for someone willing to use a little imagination to make an honest living but it’s certainly not money for old rope.
So What Is Affiliate Marketing?
In simple terms, affiliate marketing is a process where an independent website refers visitors to another e-commerce site. A commission is paid when, and if, a visitor you referred actually buys something on the site within a given period, often 30 days. Most well known retailers have affiliate schemes and the tracking of the sales process is usually handled by a third party agency or network. You don’t need any advanced technical skills to be an affiliate, nor do you need a fancy web site. Literally anyone over the age of 18 with some form of site can have a go.
How to Get Started?
First off you’ll need to join an affiliate network; it doesn’t cost any money (except Affiliate Window who ask for a £5 registration fee which is paid back when you start to make sales) and the process is relatively simple. After providing your name, address, bank details and some basic information about your site your application will be reviewed and you’ll usually be accepted onto the program within a day or two.
Once approved you simply log-in and choose which merchants you want to try and promote. In some cases you’ll be able to get started straight away and sometimes you’ll need to apply to programs individually. This doesn’t take long and is quite informal – provided you aren’t doing something dodgy you’ll be usually accepted within a day or so.
One you’ve chosen a program to promote it’s simply a case of picking up dedicated links and banners to use on your site and you are away. How you promote an individual merchant is more or less up to you; you might want to review individual products, compare prices between a collection of merchants, or, simply, place banners on your web pages where appropriate?
OK, So When does the Cash Start Rolling In?
Unless you re very talented, or very lucky, it can take a while to get going. Firstly you need to get targeted traffic to your site; random visitors from here, there and everywhere are highly unlikely to convert into sales.
It’s not so much about the numbers but more about the quality of visitors that your site attracts. For instance, someone who searches for ‘children’s furniture’ is likely to be looking around for ideas with no set idea about what they want to buy. You may pick-up an odd sale over time from these kinds of visitors but it won’t be very often.
On the other hand, if someone has searched for ‘white wooden bunk beds’ then they are likely to have done some browsing already and are more certain about what they want to buy.
Successful internet marketers or affiliates will spend time researching what people are looking for and target their sites accordingly. This is a skill you’ll develop over time and will involve a fair amount of trial and error. It could take a year or more before you earn any significant income, you would be very lucky indeed to make money straight away.
How Do I Get Paid?
When a sale does occur this will be reported almost immediately within the network reporting system. The sale then needs to be validated by the merchant and the commission cleared for payment. In most cases this will happen within a week or two. Most networks pay validated commissions on a monthly basis although most will not pay commission until they have received it themselves from the retailer. On average you’ll get paid the month after the sale occurs and this can be paid directly into your bank account. The network will raise an invoice on your behalf and either email you a digital copy or provide access through your account interface. You simply need to keep a record of the sales commission you receive each month.
The contract is usually between you and the network although some merchants (Amazon for example) have their own internal schemes so the contract is direct.
