Affiliate marketing is an excellent way of generating income, presenting a two-fold advantage for businesses and affiliates: for brands, it means achieving a broader audience through trusted endorsements and making more sales, while for affiliates, it’s an excellent way to earn commissions on those sales.
Keep reading this guide to learn about online affiliate marketing, the best affiliate marketing websites, how to do affiliate marketing, and how to make money online with it.
What Is Affiliate Marketing and How Does It Work?
The affiliate marketing process starts with an affiliate network, a so-called middleman between influencers (bloggers, marketers, content writers, SEO specialists, etc.) and different brands’ affiliate programs. Within an affiliate network, influencers find and promote products or services from other companies in exchange for a commission on sales, clicks, free-trial users, downloads for an app, or leads made through unique affiliate links. Affiliate networks facilitate these partnerships, making it easier for influencers and brands to collaborate and track their marketing efforts.
How does affiliate marketing work? Here is a detailed step-by-step explanation of how affiliate network marketing works:
- An affiliate chooses a website (Website X) whose products and services they want to promote.
- Shows an ad or a link for the selected business on their blog, social network, ad, or website.
- A customer clicks the link and, if interested, purchases something on Website X.
- The affiliate network fixes that transaction.
- Once Website X confirms the purchase, the affiliate receives money for a successful conversion.
What Are the Types of Affiliate Marketing?
After understanding “What’s affiliate marketing?” we may swiftly jump to the next section of our review, which delves into three types of affiliate marketing: unattached, related, and involved affiliate marketing. Now, let’s delve deeper into each of these marketing types.
Unattached Affiliate Marketing
Unattached affiliate marketing is when affiliates promote products or services without directly connecting to a specific brand or company, like when you have little in common with the product you advertise and the customer. This type of affiliate marketing frequently involves PPC (pay-per-click) ad campaigns with aff links in the hope people will click on them and buy a product or service.
Affiliate marketing needs trust and time to set up, but unattached affiliate marketing is for those who want to earn money quickly and skip building trust.
Related Affiliate Marketing
Related affiliate marketing is a strategy frequently used by influencers or affiliate marketing companies. It involves advertising the products and services they do not use or try personally but are related to their niche. Having an auditory base, in this case, is a must, be it your TikTok followers, YouTube channel subscribers, or blog readers. Compared to unrelated affiliate marketing, this requires the affiliate marketer to have a reputation and trust among their auditory, making them a reliable and trustworthy source of recommending products or services.
Although this type of affiliate marketing could generate much more income than the unrelated one, there is one disadvantage – you may risk advertising a poor-quality product or service, which, in turn, may erode the trust of your audience. If the trust is lost, it would be difficult or almost impossible for you to build a successful affiliate marketing business.
Involved Affiliate Marketing
It’s one of the most transparent types of marketing, where affiliate marketers advertise and recommend only those products and services that have tried themselves. Affiliates use their influence to promote useful products to their followers rather than paying to get clicks on a banner advertisement. Although gaining the audience’s trust takes time, it’s crucial for affiliate marketers aiming to build a long-lasting business.
Affiliate Marketing: Pros and Cons
According to Statista, affiliate marketing revenue had an estimated growth of over 8 billion U.S. dollars by 2022, up from 5.4 billion recorded in 2017, making it one of the top marketing strategies for many online businesses. While it provides advantages for businesses and affiliates, it’s important to consider the strengths and weaknesses that come with it.
| Strengths | Weaknesses |
| Effective business model where companies pay affiliates only once a conversion is made | Becoming a good affiliate marketer requires a lot of work and investment |
| Free for affiliates to join the affiliate program | Not a quick scheme to gain good and stable revenue for affiliates |
| If a website for affiliate marketing has a wide auditory, it can immediately make money with an established affiliate product or service, requiring no additional investment | Requires an affiliate to test different marketing channels to see what works best to connect with their auditory |
| Successful affiliate marketing websites offer businesses a cost-effective way to raise their profits | There is no monthly salary. Instead, affiliates’ income is determined by the commissions earned upon successful conversions |
| You, as an affiliate, should follow all the rules the company sets for its affiliate program | |
| In case you promote a poor product or service to your audience within an affiliate marketing course, you risk losing trust |
Examples of Affiliate Marketing Programs
Would you like to know about the giant companies that participate in affiliate marketing? Here are the top three affiliate marketing examples:
Amazon
Amazon’s affiliate marketing program (Amazon Associates) is one of the most extensive affiliate marketing programs in the globe, which helps content creators, marketers, publishers, and bloggers monetize their traffic through successful affiliate marketing. They sign up to have Amazon products or services shared on their websites or apps and, in return, get paid a commission for the sales their websites for affiliate marketing generate.
Amazon has strict requirements for affiliates:
- Their sites should not contain replicated content
- The content should be fresh and available to the public, as well as suit Amazon’s standard requirements
Approval requires a detailed Amazon staff review and once confirmed, the commission is paid approximately 60 days after the end of the month in which it was earned. Affiliates can earn up to 10% in associate commissions from qualifying purchases and programs on the Amazon Associates marketing program.
Shopify
Shopify affiliate program offers influencers, content creators, review sites, and course educators an excellent opportunity to earn a commission through their referral program.
To join the Shopify affiliate program, you must apply for it and wait for approval. Once approved (the process takes 3-5 business days), affiliates get a unique affiliate link to share with their audience. They earn commissions from each new Shopify merchant referral.
There are 2 plans of referral commissions: store and POS Pro plan referrals. The affiliate’s referral commission for a store plan depends on the merchant’s location and ranges between $25 to $150. POS Pro plan referrals have a different payout amount – $500, with the following merchant locations supported:
eBay
eBay affiliate marketing program, or eBay Partner Network (ePN), was designed to promote their products through affiliate marketers who earn money by driving traffic and prompting sales across the platform. They pay from 1% up to 4% commissions (from $100-$550) to affiliates who send traffic to their site that results in a sale.
When do affiliates get paid?
- When a purchase is made by the customer within 1 day (or 24h period) after clicking your affiliate link
- When an end user makes a bid on an auction within 24h period after clicking your affiliate link and wins it within 10 days
- When the “Best Offer” submitted is accepted within 24h period upon clicking your affiliate link
As an affiliate, consider that there are specific items when eBay Inc. earns low or no revenue; thus, it will pay you low or no commission (on items sold by charities or special promo deals).
Is It Difficult to Start Affiliate Marketing?
If you want to start an affiliate marketing business, here is a short guide to read to understand how it works.
Step 1: Choose Your Platform
Selecting a platform is the first step in growing your affiliate marketing audience. You can choose between the following marketing ideas: niche review sites, digital content, events, workshops, etc.
Step 2: Determine Your Niche
Choose a niche you know and are passionate about, as it will be easier to recommend to the public, building trust among your auditory. If, for example, you have a nutrition blog, your niche is health and dietary wellness. Write informative and helpful content, apply SEO strategies to attract your target audience, and conduct website analytics to understand your auditory.
Step 3: Opt for Relevant Products to Promote
It’s clear that to generate commissions on affiliate marketing, you need to promote products that would be interesting for your auditory. If you do it wrong, you risk your business’s success, credibility, and audience loss.
Step 4: Select an Affiliate Program
When choosing affiliate programs, ensure they match your audience’s requirements and needs. Ask if your audience will like the product. Look for the products that fit the platform you promote (Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, blog, etc.). By doing so, you will have higher chances for successful leads.
Summary
So, is affiliate marketing legit? Yes! Digital affiliate marketing is an excellent and legal way to earn income without a significant upfront investment. Although it takes time to prepare the background for it and build trust and reputation among your audience, choosing the right affiliate network and refining your strategy can create a well-working system that will provide you with passive income for years.