Many people often ask themselves and others: How can I make money online? I often asked that question myself. It is a known fact that the internet offers possibilities that can generate rags to riches stories over night. Just think of all the online-made billionaires.
However, to achieve something like that, you must really be able to come up with a brilliant idea. Well, my lucky star is not so high in the sky – yet… Nonetheless, there are other ways for you to generate an income online, and affiliate marketing is one of the best things you can do to achieve that.
So, what is affiliate marketing? Let’s say you have a website, a blog for instance. Regardless of the niche you are addressing in your posts, someone else will have a product that your niche requires. If you choose to promote that person’s or business’ product or service, so that your targeted audience buys it, you will be financially rewarded. In other words, whenever someone follows a link on your website to another one and buys something you will earn a commission – a percentage from the selling price of the product that your referral bought. Such products can be either physical (a perfume or a weight loss supplement, for instance) or digital (some kind of software, an eBook, etc.)
Personally, I prefer promoting digital products or services, because, in comparison to physical products, commissions tend to be higher. However, you must adapt your affiliate marketing efforts to the niche you are addressing. Why? Well, think about it – let’s say that you own a travel blog. It wouldn’t make any sense to promote some kind of cosmetic product or photo editor. The people who visit your site do that, because they are interested in tourism and places where they can spend their vacations. As a following, none of them will ever buy a face cream or a new software release. On the other hand, if you are promoting a hotel in Barcelona, a guest house in Vienna and an airline that offers cheap flights to the Bahamas, you have every chance to earn quite a decent amount of money. I’ve done this for quite some time now and it works just fine, because there are literally thousands of hotels around the globe that offer affiliate programs. In addition to that, you can refer people to take surveys or sign up for something. This is another type of affiliate marketing that works just fine. You won’t earn as much as you would if you were to apply the above-mentioned example, but it is money that you receive, so it counts.
Why does affiliate marketing work so well? You just have to think about advertising. Businesses prefer this type of marketing as an efficient way to promote their products and/or services, because they will have to pay for advertising only when there is a sale. Furthermore, publishers (website owners) like affiliate marketing, because they can choose to promote products that are relevant for their targeted audiences. Earnings from affiliate sales can generate higher revenues than any pay-per-click/impression advertising program out there. To sum up, affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to make money online. I can’t promise you that it will make you rich, but I can assure you that it can help you make more money than you could earn as a 9 to 5 employee – well, as long as you’re not the CEO of a billion Dollar corporation, that is.
