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  Ever wondered how you can make money while asleep or simply attending to other life concerns? Then you are about to be enlightened on a sure means of earning passive income. Affiliate marketing has become a viable way of earning while helping businesses grow.
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This is a kind of marketing that does not require huge financial investments. It only requires that you stay committed to the business which you are marketing and earn as the business earns. Big Commerce defines affiliate marketing as “the process by which an affiliate earns a commission for marketing another person’s or company’s products”. The affiliate, therefore, is the person that picks interest in a particular product/service, promotes it and earns from it. Influencers, social media personalities and just anyone with the knowledge of how this works can jump on this to earn extra cash while helping grow a business. This article covers how affiliate marketing works, how the affiliate marketers get paid and types of affiliate marketing channels. In the affiliate marketing loop, there are basically three parties involved: the seller/product manufacturer, the affiliate/advertiser and the consumer. The first category covers the creators of the product or service in question. These are typically the owners of the brand. The affiliates are also regarded as advertisers, as the promotion and publicity of the brand are commissioned to them. The affiliate can be an individual or a company that handles such projects. Oftentimes, affiliates have specific niches they are interested in and can convince consumers to patronise. This means they have a particular audience they can easily market to. Finally, the role of the consumers is quite obvious. They are the reason the first two categories of people are in business. They are the ones the affiliates market to. You might be asking right now, how exactly do affiliate marketers earn? Here’s how.

  • Pay per sale

This is the most common payment method for affiliate marketers. It implies that the seller/product manufacturer gets to pay the affiliate a percentage of the sales and investments made, based on the initial contract. Pay per sale method also implies that the affiliate marketer does not get paid until the business earns.

  • Pay per click

As the name suggests, this method is used for websites. Here, the affiliates get paid to redirect their audience to that of the merchant. Basically, it is applied when a business is working at increasing its website traffic and general online presence. In turn, the affiliate earns per redirection.
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  • Pay per lead

This method is similar to that of pay per click. Here, the affiliates are paid based on the number of lead conversions they drive through their adverts and promotions. Unlike pay per click that is somewhat exclusive to websites, pay per lead cuts across platforms of communication. It assesses the number of email list conversions, website visits, purchases, social media followership, and general interaction with the business.

Affiliate Marketing Channels

This refers to various ways products and services are promoted – the affiliates that are used and their platforms.

  • Influencers

This stands as the most common type of affiliate marketing channel. Influencers are individuals that are already famous for different fields – social media, music and film industry, etc. These people also have a pool of followers and audiences they can easily influence. When contacted by a merchant, they will work at converting their audience to customers for the merchant involved.

  • Bloggers

These are also outstanding individuals. They could also fall into the category of influencers; however, their niche is more specific. These people write news stories, gist, gossip and articles of a variety of topics. A blogger can post reviews on a particular product/service and convince their readers to patronize it.

  • Email lists

Email lists are also very effective in affiliate marketing. Affiliates can promote businesses via their email lists. This channel works well for lead conversions, as the affiliates embed the product/service they are promoting in the emails they send to their loyal subscribers. They tend to redirect them to the business platforms. To be a successful affiliate marketer, you must, first, create a niche-specific audience to whom you can market. Choose a niche you are passionate about so you can promote it from the standpoint of genuine conviction and not just a means to earn. Also, try as much as possible to keep up with industry trends and smartly explore the available affiliate marketing channels. Featured Image Source: Curvearro
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This article was first published on 30th August 2021

chidiogo-akaelu

Chidiogo Shalom Akaelu holds a degree in English and Literary Studies, from the University of Nigeria. She is a freelance writer, editor and founder of Loana Press, a budding online publishing outlet.

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