The dream that affiliate marketing affords is that you can make extra money on the side. For doing nearly nothing.

 

While affiliate marketing does take work, you can make good money working the system. And yes, it’s true. Affiliate marketing can make you money while you sleep.

 

But it does take effort on your part and you need to know what you’re doing.

 

 

Let’s dive in.

Affiliate marketing is a way of getting paid a commission from an online business or entity in exchange for generating sales or traffic for that business based on referrals you generate.

At its core, affiliate marketing is very simple.

Before you dive into affiliate programs, you should be strategic about planning your approach. Some people simply sign up for any and all affiliate marketing programs out there, with no strategy behind their approach. Your audience will see right through this. You see, they just won’t trust your recommendations if you appear to only be concerned about making money.

Instead, if you are strategic about what you recommend, your audience will still trust your recommendations, and you’ll actually make referral revenue from your investment in building an affiliate marketing business.

Our recently launched affiliate program can help you earn up to $1,000 by recommending our services to your audience, via sending text messages, emails or on your website.

You may be wondering who to target when selling your affiliate service. The kind of customer that usually purchases our services (listed below) include Business-to-Consumer- (B2C) type companies, which are usually located in a thriving area and often have a modern, fancy brick and mortar building. 

These kinds of companies care about their brand presence – both onsite and online. In many cases, they sell big-ticket products or services, such as jewelry, dental care, home remodeling services, financial or insurance services, food service, renovation service and any other kind of retail establishment or service provider. You can also target upscale restaurants, spas, or service providers. 

You probably walk or drive by these kinds of businesses every day – or you might even frequent them for your own needs.

Here are the primary services you can promote via our affiliate marketing program. 

If a user can’t find a company on Google, the result is very cut-and-dried: That user will NOT work with that business.

Consumers WILL, however, choose to work with companies they can find online, and that have built a digital presence that documents what services or products they sell, the consumer problems they solve and the credibility they offer.

Our search engine marketing services include Google Search ads, static banner ads, animated banner ads, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube video ads, remarketing, call track and reporting – tactics that work together to make sure consumers are finding you when they perform an internet search.

Businesses need to be found on the internet, because consumers are making their purchases there – but they’re also gathering information on social media platforms (researching businesses and looking for solutions to problems). If your business isn’t on key social media platforms, simply put: You don’t exist to today’s shoppers.

We help companies reach potential clients through strategic Facebook and Instagram ads.

If your website loads slowly, looks outdated or doesn’t read well on mobile, you’re definitely losing customers.

Think about it: A business has 1/20th of a SECOND to make a first impression and keep a potential customer on the page/website. If that first impression is a bad one, you can say goodbye to that sale!

We help build lightning-fast websites, e-commerce sites and Wordpress sites – for very affordable prices.

There are many ways you can promote your affiliate links to drive referral purchases to our Affiliate Program, as well as any affiliate marketing program you join.

Here are some ideas to get started:

The people you already know will be likely to trust your recommendation. Come up with a list of business managers and or small business owners you’re already doing business with or that you worked with in the past. Add people to the list that already know you and/or your family. Consider reaching out in person to ask people to consider your referral and purchase a product or service you’re recommending.

Yes, this method of promotion can still work today! Make a list of businesses in your area and start “knocking on doors.” When you visit a local company, ask to speak to the owner or manager, and then and ask them if they are interested in advertising online or redesigning their website.

Now’s the time to put that to good use. One way to quickly grow your email subscribers is to promote a free offer, such as a website SEO checklist or Search Engine Ad How-To Guide. In exchange for the information, people will give you their email address. Then, build a series of emails that promote our website services and use your personalized Affiliate Link to drive traffic to our site. When one of your referrals buys one of our services, you get paid!

To effectively promote our affiliate program on social media, you need to first learn which platform your audience uses most. Then, join that platform and start posting! Use your social media profiles to educate, build relationships and engage with your audience. Include your affiliate link in your profile and in posts and ads.

It’s possible to use Reddit for affiliate marketing, and the process is simple. Just open a Reddit account, find the right subcommunity to be part of, and then post articles for organic growth – or use a paid promotion strategy. For example, you could post an article about web design trends and include a link to your affiliate or your website.

A site that serves as a “home” to millions of questions, people navigate to Quora and ask any question that’s on their mind. Then, anyone can answer these questions, and give advice and guidance. When you hop on Quora, look for questions about website design, internet ads or social media, and just start offering helpful guidance. Quora won’t let you include any affiliate links, but you can link back to your website or specific blog.

Users conduct approximately 3 billion views every DAY on YouTube. So it can be a very valuable advertising tool to make money on your affiliate marketing links. Start your own YouTube channel and record videos that educate your audience about your niche and topic, and that also relate to the affiliate program in which you’re participating. To promote our social media ad service, for example, you could create a series of videos that walk a business how to set up a social media business profile. 

Your blogging efforts can really build up your credibility and authority, particularly if you focus on creating content that helps readers solve their problems. Don’t use the blogs as a sales pitch, or you’ll turn readers off. Some of the best types of content include how-to guides, tips and checklists, or best practices to follow. 

A guest blog is an article you write that is published on another site, preferably a website that relates to your affiliate program and our services: website design, social media ads, and search engine marketing. Guest blogging gives you exposure to the audience someone else has built up, and most sites will let you link back to your own website or your affiliate link.

Writing a review of our service is another way to get the word out so that people are exposed to your website and your affiliate link. While the review should obviously be positive, as you’ll want people to click the affiliate link and purchase, don’t make it a sales pitch. Be honest and genuinely helpful instead.

Review your website and be sure that it complies with search engine optimization best practices – so your chances of being found are as high as possible. Every page of your site should have a meta description, title tags, meta title, and alt tags for images. Use a keyword research tool like UberSuggest to find competitive keywords that will help each page rank for a topic, like website design, social media ads, and search engine marketing.

There are several options you can choose to do paid advertising online. Social media ads, paid search, remarketing and display advertising are some of ways to drive traffic right to your site and your affiliate link. (You can find our terms and conditions regarding online advertising here.)

 

***It’s also very important to ensure that you follow the compliance and disclosure guidelines outlined by the FTC for any affiliate marketing efforts, including but not limited to letting people know that you are getting paid a referral fee and that you will stop communicating with them if they make such a request.

Now that you have a comprehensive guide to doing affiliate marketing and a host of options from which you can build your strategy, there’s nothing to hold you back from making money on your own schedule.

Got questions? Send us a message here.