Over 80% of brands and publishers are leveraging the power of affiliate marketing in 2021.
Affiliate marketing has become a popular tactic to drive sales for brands. Brands and businesses are looking more and more to see how they can make revenue online. With the pandemic making in-person sales more difficult, online revenues have been the natural pivot that brands and marketers are taking.
If you are a business or solopreneur looking to generate revenue online, affiliate marketing is a channel you need to tap into. Confused with where to start? Not to worry, we have you covered, in this guide we cover everything a beginner affiliate marketer needs to know, including the best marketing channels to drive affiliate revenue in 2021.
Before we jump into how to build a successful affiliate marketing income, let's first make sure we understand what affiliate marketing is and how it works.
Affiliate marketing is the process in which you, an affiliate, earn a commission for helping sell a brand's product or service. You help promote the products or services of a brand and for every sale you generate, you earn a cut of the profit.
One of the big reasons that this is so appealing as an income source is that it doesn't require start-up costs, holding an inventory, or investing in product development – you can get started with a laptop and internet connection.
How affiliate marketing works infographic – Source: AvoidOnlineMarketingScams
Affiliate marketing has grown in popularity. Social media has glamorized the lifestyle of many ‘digital nomads’ who make their living from affiliate marketing. However, over the years tactics have changed and what once worked well, is no longer the best tactic moving forward.
For example, influencers were once an incredible source of affiliate marketing income. But public opinion has been slowly changing. Influencers have lost some of their credibility as they have promoted products they don't use or focused too much on promotions within their channels.
To make sure you start with success, here are three of the top affiliate marketing channels you should be using in 2021.
One of the best ways to earn an income through affiliate marketing, especially if you have an existing business, is through referral links. When you signed up for an affiliate platform, the business with whom you have signed up will generate a personalised referral link.
You can then place this link in your blog, email newsletter, share it on your social media, or place it in any other location you can think of and quickly start earning a commission.
Top Tip: When you use a referral link, place it with content that your audience will find useful. Make sure links are placed in relevant content and not sporadically around your website or social media.
A microsite is a separate ‘micro’ website that is apart from your main website. Typically microsites are used to target specific audiences or to promote a specific product or service. They differ from a website page because they will often have their own domain or subdomain.
You can use microsites to create content around a specific product for a brand and then incorporate affiliate links to help you generate a profit from your content.
Content on microsites can simply be sales copy but you can also get creative and start writing comparison content, reviews, and other types of helpful content that your audience will value.
Audiences love video content. YouTube has 2.1 billion active users. That is a huge platform that any savvy affiliate marketer would want to tap into.
Video content is easily consumable and often humorous. It also doesn't have to be difficult or time-consuming to make.
You can create simple videos showing how they can use products, going into detail about product features, comparing products, highlighting pros and cons etc. All of which can be done with a simple camera setup and some basic video editing software.
You can pin your affiliate links underneath your YouTube videos and add them to your bio.
Affiliate marketing is a great way to generate income for your business. If you already have a successful online presence and established audience, by promoting products that your audience will enjoy, you can incorporate an additional revenue stream into your business.
See inspirations here:
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