You've probably been browsing online about making money in general, perhaps for just some extra cash on the side or to really make ends meet and you've faced the word "affiliate" very often and can't exactly grasp what it is all about.
An affiliate is a person who has enrolled or is part of an associate's program where he or she would commission for referring a product or service.
As simple as that sounds, that's what it is.
So, why is it so amazing to enroll in an affiliate program?
It means that by simply talking to others about the products or services you enjoy, you'll be able to earn a commission. You don't have to promote thousands of products, but to reach out to people who really want to learn more about that product or service you're talking about. Furthermore, given today's tools we are able to reach huge audiences from the comfort of our homes using the best thing ever invented, The Internet.
Through social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.) and paid advertising (Google Ads, Facebook Ads, etc. ), you're able to reach millions of people to notice your review and earn thousands in commissions just by providing others your honest opinion of a product or service.
A quick example:
Let's say you're really into Golf and you play on a regular basis every Saturday.
You recently just bought this new set of golf clubs, Cleveland RTX -3 and have really seen the best of them. You write your own story about these clubs and make a blog post about them.
If you notice, the clubs have a link and if you click it you'll be directed to Amazon's sale page of these same clubs. Since I am part of the Amazon Associate's program, I'd get a commission should you buy from this link, the same way you would if you'd give a review about these clubs on your Golf blog.
All affiliate programs are different and have their own terms, ranging from 2% commissions all the way to 70% commissions and above.
As simple as that may seem, the possibilities are endless.
Let's say this simple blog post on the Golf clubs is read by 1,000 people who authentically love golfing and follow or are subscribed to your blog. This audience, being authentic fans of your blog, are more likely to purchase something you recommend. Let's say, for this example, 10% of them buy the clubs.
Additionally, through paid advertisement, the post reached at least 13,000 people who are interested in Golf. Given these readers most probably have not seen you or know anything about your blog, let's safely assume only 1% of them actually purchased the clubs since they are very familiar with Amazon already.
That means 100 (out of the 1,000) and 130 (out of the 13,000) actually purchased the clubs. As per Amazon's program, you'd make anywhere between 2.00% to 10.00% commission of every purchase (not only for the clubs, but for anything they bought while on Amazon after clicking your affiliate link, but for sake of this example, let's assume they only bought the clubs).
At the moment of this post, the clubs cost $199.99 meaning commissions ranging from $2.33 to $19.99 per sale.
With one single blog post you have a potential earning from $535.90 to $4,597.70.
This of course, does not happen overnight and it does take patience to build such an audience but the concept here is to understand it's potential. There are many ways to promote products online and it does not have to be exclusively through a blog or through product reviews.
We're only getting started by understanding the potential of Affiliate Programs and where they can take you.
What would you with this type of income?
What will you do when you earn your first $1,000.00 from affiliate marketing?
Leave your comments below!
Full Disclaimer: Please be aware that this post may contain affiliate links for the products and/or services I recommend and I may benefit of a commission should there be any purchase on your part at no additional cost.