What Is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a type of marketing that allows you to earn a commission promoting products from others. They can be from companies or bloggers.
For example, I have affiliates that promote my Knowmada Reinvention training and at the same time I am an affiliate of hosting companies, domain, blogging tools and those same bloggers on many occasions.

 The base is simple. As a blogger you will have built your own tribe, which follows and supports you with each new content you launch. Your readers trust you, so if they see you promoting a product they will be interested in it.
If someone decides and buys it, you will earn a commission on the sale.

 Simple truth?
You test a product or service that you like and that you detect that fits your audience.
You promote that product or service through your blog with email marketing, articles, social media posts.
You earn a commission for every purchase made from your affiliate link.
You will see that, in reality, it is not so easy.



A Win-Win Strategy

The company (or blogger) that created the product will be happy because it has managed to attract a new customer without making any effort in marketing (the only "effort" has been to pay you the sales commission).
The client will also be satisfied because you have recommended it to him and he will cover a need or a desire that he had. You have saved him time and possible problems by choosing the wrong provider.
And you are also happy because you will charge a commission for that sale.
As you can see, affiliate marketing is a "triple win" proposal that suits everyone: you as a blogger, the company and the customer.
If you want to be a blogger, learn to create your blog and get going.

Affiliate Marketing Advantages and Disadvantages


Advantages


 •  Whenever we talk about affiliate marketing, we all think about commission money, but there are many other advantages associated:

 •  You don't have to spend time creating products.

 •  You do not have to support customers , as this is done by the company that markets that product.

 •  Affiliate marketing enables the company to grow at zero risk with an external sales force.Sparkly!

 •  In general, an affiliate system is much more efficient than advertising since only successes are rewarded.

 •  The click on an ad has no value, what really counts is that the customer makes the purchase. It is results marketing, not a traditional branding or promotion theme.

Disadvantages


 All that glitters is not gold and, in affiliate marketing, it is not gold for several reasons:

 •  The customers you get for your affiliates are not your customers. You cannot send them purchase emails again, make them buy something else, and create a lasting relationship through the product sold.

 •  The number of promotions as an affiliate that you can do per year is limited, since you cantire your audience if you become a "vendemotos".

 •  It's not enough to put an affiliate link anywhere and you're done. You have to work almost as much as if you were promoting your own product .

 •  As I said before, it is useless for people to click if they do not buy later. You have to push the purchase and that is always more difficult than asking someone to click on an Adsense banner and that's it.

The 7 Principles Of Affiliate Marketing


1. Relevance

It is very important that you recommend products that are relevant to your audience.
If you have a blog about how to start a business and promote a product such as a diet or an online war game, you will not arouse any interest in your audience.

 The risk is double if you do not segment your offers: you will not sell anything and you will also lose readers. It is a double lose for you.
The relevance of the products you promote is essential to me. I would never promote products that have nothing to do with the needs of my audience.


2. Credibility

I personally, as an affiliate, only recommend the products I use. But not just once, but the ones that I use in the daily operations of my blog.
In fact, I only usually recommend suppliers or products that I have used for months, years in many cases.

 For example, when recommending a plugin to attract subscribers, I recommend Thrive Leadsbecause it is the one we currently use in Lifestyle Al Cuadrado and the one that gives us better results.
But in turn I also recommend SumoMe because it is a very good free option for those who are just starting out.

 Why do I give two options?
For what I was telling you before relevance. Although Thrive Leads is an amazing plugin, not all my audience can buy it . There are different needs.
The same thing happened to me with the WordPress SEO plugin. I started with All in One SEO pack but now I prefer Yoast SEO . Both solutions are valid, but according to my current criteria, one is superior to the other.

 Since the market is changing, my recommendations also have to be. The offer must always be adapted. But what I can't do is promote products that I don't know about. This is not adding value and helping, but trying to cheat to win some eurillos.
My reputation is the most valuable asset I have and I don't want to jeopardize it for a commission of a few euros. It wouldn't make sense to me.

3. Your Own Experience

To close sales when working with affiliate marketing, you should never tell anyone to buy product "X" or service "Y" because it is recommended by you.
What is the value of this? If you have not tried the product / service yourself, how do you know if it is really the bargain you present?

 It is best if you focus on presenting how you are using this product yourself  and what is the value for your own business. Working with explanatory video tutorials is much more educational and efficient at the affiliate marketing level.

 Don't be afraid to identify the limits of a product or a service and say very clearly who the product you promote is and who it is NOT for. This helps the person to identify if that product is going to be able to help them.

4. Not Everything That Glitters Is Gold

Forget about animated banners, flash or intrusive pop-ups to promote affiliate marketing products.
In my case (and believe me I'm not the only blogger in this situation) deep links work best, those that appear naturally in a blog post.

 Also, don't use plugins that automatically transform keywords into affiliate links.
Remember, Relevance is key. Nobody better than a human being to optimize the natural inclusion of an affiliate link in a post. The effort pays off, and if you do, you'll see the conversion results skyrocket.
Do not go overboard with the number of links that you incorporate into your post. A link above, some in the middle and one at the end are more than enough.

 Also, in this way, you will preserve your readers from possible annoyance, since too many links show a certain lack of consideration. It would seem that you don't want to develop a long-term relationship but rather sell short. And you'll also save yourself serious trouble with Google, who doesn't like blogs full of advertising and / or affiliate links at all.


5. Conflict Of Interest

Doctors, when they give scientific talks at the congresses in which they participate, have the obligation to reveal possible conflicts of interest. For example, the one that works with a pharmaceutical laboratory to launch a new drug that is related to the exposed subject.

 Do the same. Reveal your conflicts of interest, be transparent and honest.
In addition, in Spain, it is mandatory that if you are promoting an affiliated product or advertising paid for a product, you notify it. For the sake of your readers and your own, don't skip the norm.


6. Take Your Time

You can try to close a sale after the arrival of a new visitor. Or you can also give him free content for a couple of weeks and present your offer when you have already developed a relationship of trust with the reader.
Use an autoresponder system , you will not regret having patience before wanting to close a sale.


7. Create A Mailing List

Although the autoresponder is wonderful because it works alone and without complaining, it won't do you any good if you only have 100 subscribers.
You need at least 1,000. And if you have 1,000 and want to multiply your income, you will need 10,000.