Photo by Samson Katt
Affiliate marketing is becoming more and more prevalent as e-commerce continues to grow. This current marketing trend is used to create an audience, drive sales, and generate online revenue. The question remains, how hard is it to create an audience using affiliate marketing?
Creating an Affiliate Marketing Program
According to Forbes magazine, affiliate marketing is relatively easy to set up. But are affiliate programs worth it? The answer to that is yes. With minimal start-up costs, integrating an affiliate marketing program with your online business is well worth it. Affiliate marketing programs not only build a networking community, but it helps to increase traffic and creates passive income.
Minimum Costs
One of the best things about affiliate marketing is that there is little to no start-up costs since it is based on commission. The first thing you should do is find an affiliate platform and sign-up to partner with them. You may already have a company you have connected with. In that case, you can partner directly with them. The great thing with affiliate marketing is that you do not have to partner with just one company, you can have multiple affiliate partners which will help increase your passive income. However, make sure not to overdo it as most people do not like to have tons of ads pushed in their face, so be selective in choosing your affiliate partners. Once you have chosen the company or companies you want to work with and the partnership is agreed on, you can begin advertising your affiliate links on your social media sites, newsletters, mass emails, or websites.
Networking
Start with connections that have already been made. Which connections would align best with your company? It is important not to choose just any business. Make sure the company or companies you chose are of interest to you. It is also important that you to know about the products and services these companies offer. This can be an indicator of whether or not your companies will work well together. This is because companies that have similar goals, objectives, and similar target audiences tend to make better affiliate marketing partners.
Increasing Traffic
Once you have chosen the company or companies you would like to partner with, watch for an increase in traffic. Promoting products for other companies can expand the reach you have and as such bring in a new audience to your site. Just remember it takes more than affiliate marketing to keep the new visitors returning. Once you reach this audience you want to convert traffic to sales. This can be done by choosing a niche and gaining the audience’s trust by presenting yourself as an authority figure in a particular area, your niche. Once you do this, people will look to you and your insight about certain products. Once you have your audience’s trust, it is time to call to action. Neal Taparia suggests using calls to action on your site that are easy to spot such as “buy now” buttons. Other ways you can call to action are through highlighted links, graphics, tables, or images of the product.
Keeping Your Audience
Now that you have your audience, what are you going to do to ensure that they return to your site. On top of being an authority on the products you are promoting, it is important to show authority through content. However, make sure your content is not just promoting products but is quality content. It needs to be informational, relevant, and consistent. Returning visitors look for new content on a regular basis. If they cannot rely on you to be consistent, they will look for the information somewhere else.
Bottom line, affiliate marketing is the way to go if you want to increase traffic and online revenue. In fact, it can be very profitable and even earn you passive income as you sleep. However, like all things, it is important to measure your success by keeping track of the progress you are making. If you notice a drop in visitors, reevaluate and see what you can do to pull them back in. Taking courses can help you master affiliate marketing.
