4 Step Guide To Effective Affiliate Marketing And The Amazon Effect
For many affiliate marketers, the dream of becoming independent with a real income producing business, can be a reality!
So, instead of not knowing what to do next, struggling with a business that is going nowhere while battling the daily traffic, what if you could be counting on a steady, reliable stream of checks deposited, right into your bank account? Can this really happen?
For many…Yes It Can. For some…It Maybe Only A Dream.
What is the difference between a Yes It Can, and Only A Dream?
ACTION!
Those who want, and those who wish will take the ACTION necessary to get it done!
ACTION… such as making a commitment, focus on the necessary tasks, getting the necessary training, understanding that nothing happens over night are the issues between Making It, and Not Making It.
Who is your favorite actor, actress, artist, athlete, TV personally? Did their success happen over night or did they put in the time, and training to get to where they are now?
Your no different. Decide what you want…take ACTION, make a commitment, focus, get the necessary training….then just do it!
For me, and my family, we made a decision to start a home based business and choose Affiliate Marketing as our means to success.
Why Affiliate Marketing? Affiliate marketing is one of the most substantial ways you can earn passive income in the digital landscape. It requires little start up expense, no inventory, and can be done part-time or full-time. Affiliate Marketing can be a great home based business or conducted anywhere with a computer.
The down side is it requires time, and a good understanding of how, and why Affiliate Marketing works.
Once you understand these requirements, the sky is the limit!
Profitable Guide To Any Niche
“Affiliate marketing is a performance-based strategy for earning commissions for generating specific results for individuals and companies such as generating leads or selling products.”
The key to the profitability of this business model hinges on the ability to effectively offer successful products, services, and brands to make money by directing the right buyers toward the right products.
There are many ways to participate in an affiliate marketing campaign, though they will all require positioning yourself well in the online, and social media environments.
Whether you are familiar with affiliate marketing or not, keep reading to learn about how you can build an affiliate marketing strategy to create passive income, generate wealth, and transform your life!
What is a Niche?
Finding a niche can be one of the most dreaded aspects of business research for most marketers.
Everybody preaches, “find your niche,” but what does that actually mean? How do you really find a niche? What even is a niche?
More On Niche
As mentioned, picking a niche can be a difficult decision. Many beginner’s in Affiliate Marketing choose a product or service that is too broad.
For example: Let’s use Running Shoes as our niche. To begin with this is TOO BROAD of a niche. Who is your target market? What do you want to accomplish with your target market?
So how do you break down a TOO BROAD niche?
Again, Google Running Shoes. Do you want to offer running shoes for men? Running shoes for women? Running shoes for track? Running shoes for cross country? Running shoes for flat feet? or…?
By defining your TOO BROAD niche, you can Google to find a more focused niche. Running shoes for flat feet is a focused niche. Now you can, if you want, narrow that down to Running shoes for flat feet for women or Running shoes for flat feet for men or Running shoes for flat feet for teens.
The narrower the better. This way you can focus your marketing efforts on a well defined target market.
Let’s Continue With Affiliate Marketing
What is Affiliate Marketing?
“Affiliate marketing is the process of earning a commission by promoting other people’s (or companies’) products. You find a product you like, promote it to others, and earn a piece of the profit for each sale that you make.”
How does Affiliate Marketing work?
Affiliate marketing offers the opportunity to earn commissions for selling other people’s products and services.
Whether you are a producer who has already manufactured products or a marketer with a natural tenacity for selling, there are affiliate campaigns which can be beneficial to you. On both sides of this relationship, there are profits to be gained.
The key to success in this area of marketing is the same as any other: knowing how to match the right products with the most qualified buyers of their target markets. These are the buyers who are already searching for the things you are selling. They are motivated and interested in what you have to offer.
Though many methods that build success with affiliate marketing will allow you to convert even the most skeptical of potential leads into prospects, and finally customers, positioning the products, and services you are selling in front of the best customers will be a constantly moving target, and means for measuring your success.
To understand affiliate marketing it is important to have a thorough understanding of the key players involved.
The Producer or Manufacture or Company
The producer refers to any individual, manufacture or company which has products or services that they would like to sell. These products could be established, and proven or totally new, and untested.
The producer is motivated to enter into the affiliate marketing relationship with the affiliate marketer because they are interested in driving traffic to their brand, and boosting profits.
An example of a manufacture with a affiliate connection. Nike is a manufacture of specific shoes. As an affiliate, you market Nike on your website or blog. Should someone purchase a Nike product based upon your recommendation, Nike will reward you with a commission check.
The Marketer
The marketer refers to any individual or company which generates specific outcomes such as leads or producing sales. The marketer applies a strategy for achieving success by converting leads into satisfied buyers for the Producer, manufacture or company.
The marketer enters into the affiliate marketing relationship with the Producer because they know how to match the right buyers with the products, and services being offered.
In the example of Nike, the affiliate marketer, you and me, agree to offer Nike products to our customers for the purpose if earning an income.
Affiliate marketing campaigns are some of the best opportunities available for earning a passive income.
The Buyer or Customer
The buyer refers to any individual which purchases a product or service made by the Producer which was marketed by the affiliate marketer. Each time a buyer makes a purchase, the marketer earns a commission according to the payment protocol as outlined by the affiliate program they are a part of.
The buyer may or may not be aware they are entering into the affiliate marketing relationship. The marketer was able to position the right offer in front of them, and they were motivated to take action such as a purchase.
The Network
It would be impossible to discuss affiliate marketing relationships without addressing the concept of the Network.
Many of the top affiliate programs such as ClickBank, Amazon act as a middle point between the producer, and marketers.
These networks utilize their size to be able to offer some of the best affiliate opportunities, rates, and offers. Not all affiliate marketing campaigns occur through the structure of a network but many of the best ones do.
Producers, Buyers, Marketers seek out the network because they want to find the most talented affiliate marketers to sell their products. They benefit from getting access to many talented people who will offer their products, and utilize their strategic digital marketing talent to boost profits.
Marketers seek out the network to leverage the versatility, and options that they receive for participating. Instead of having to seek out the best products to sell they can utilize proven winners, and models which are already extremely successful.
How to Attract the Right Buyers?
One of the most popular ways successful affiliate marketers earn a commissions is by utilizing various distribution channels for positioning the offers, or things they are marketing.
Today some of the most relevant distribution channels include:
- Social Media Pages
- Online Websites
- Blog Articles
- Email Lists
- YouTube
Affiliate marketers attract the right buyers to the affiliate campaigns they are a part of by utilizing key words, SEO, and strategies of digital marketing.
Online digital marketing strategy refers to the following areas:
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Search engine marketing (SEM)
- Content marketing
- Social Media Marketing (SMM)
- Pay-per-click advertising (PPC)
- Email marketing
The Amazon Effect
It would be impossible to discuss affiliate marketing without considering “The Amazon Effect,” or the way, one online company has completely shifted the entire digital landscape.
2018 was a busy, profitable year for Amazon.com Inc. E-retailing’s leader generated $141.92 billion in product sales in 2018, up 19.7% from $118.57 billion in 2017. Product sales in the fourth-quarter holiday period accounted for 31.5% of 2018product sales, coming in at $44.70 billion, up 8.2% from Q4 2017.
Amazon.com handily beat Wall Street estimates for profit for the first quarter of 2019— reporting $3.6 billion net income, more than twice the year-ago period.
These numbers paint the picture of a vibrant company which continues to grow while swallowing entire markets. There is every reason to believe that the Amazon Affiliate Campaign which was announced in 1994 and finally launched in 1996 has been an immensely important aspect of the current growth, and future trajectory of Amazon.
As an affiliate with Amazon, you can earn 4% of each sale if you make between 1 and 6 in a given month. If you can manage to sell 631 or more products that commission would jump up to 8%. On a per sale basis, such a commission is not small at all. By applying your best digital marketing strategy it is possible to generate tremendous profits as an Amazon affiliate.
Now it is important to note that anytime a potential buyer enters the Amazon marketplace through one of your affiliate links, you will earn commissions on any sales made within a 24 hour period. They do not have to be related in any way to the content that brought them to your website or the specific content of an online advertisement.
What this means is that you could attract prospective buyers to your blog, promote a product based upon your niche, and targeted audience, and earn a commission based on that sale or any other purchase the customer makes.
The Amazon links included within the blog earn you income, regardless of what people actually end up buying.
Though Amazon is an extremely useful affiliate marketing producer to work with, some drawbacks to working with this system could include the relatively low cost of most items sold on Amazon. Generating an 8% commission on a $50 purchase will only earn you $4.
Of course, if you are able to generate massive amounts of traffic, and already have a substantial online presence with many engaged websites or social media viewers, this model could be very attractive.
Many affiliate marketers seek to work with higher ticket offers or products because they offer commissions which can be much higher based on the initial cost of products or services sold.
At the end of the day, it is up to you to consider which products, and services are the best fit for you to market. You don’t need to limit yourself to any one type of affiliate program or campaign.
There are some clear advantages to working with such a reputable, and globally recognized brand such as Amazon.
The second part of this article will discuss:
- How Can I Start Affiliate Marketing?
- How To Become An Affiliate Marketer
- Personal Recommendation
- Conclusion
Summery
Affiliate marketing is the perfect way to earn passive income. Perhaps the best part is, you don’t have to create your own product, because someone else has already done the hard work. That’s the beauty of affiliate marketing: that you don’t have to invest the time and effort to create something to sell. You can begin making money as an affiliate as soon as you have a platform to sell products.
The question is, how will you build your affiliate marketing empire?
Click Here to the second part of this article: 4 Step Guide To Affiliate Marketing and my Recommendation.
About the Author
Bill
Bill Fletcher is a long time marketer and coach. My goal is to help anyone who is interested in building a business through a systematic approach to success. Affiliate Marketing 100 will guide you with the help of some of the best articles and coaching program available anywhere. We train you in all categories of business building and success management.
