Affiliate marketing: what it is, how it works and the different types of affiliation

Affiliate marketing is a method to earn online through the promotion of tracked links. This type of marketing is convenient for both companies and people, as both benefit from it. Companies, in fact, increase promotion skills in niches and within communities, while people become micro-influencers and earn online.

The method by which all this takes place is very simple: if a user buys a product thanks to the click made by a traced link, those who shared the link get a percentage that varies according to the type of product or platform.

Affiliate marketing, therefore, creates great opportunities, but to make the most of it you need to know it well. So let’s see how it works and what are the main types of affiliation.

Affiliate marketing features

Affiliate marketing is a revenue method that allows you to monetize your online influence by sharing tracked links. There is a special software that allows you to see what is purchased thanks to the promotion and sharing of a hyperlink and how many conversions take place.

Affiliate marketing, therefore, is a useful method to create passive annuities, that is, revenue streams without the need for your direct intervention. This tool allows you to earn online in a systematic and structured way, so much so that it can become a profession, or a way to round up your salary.

For this reason, affiliate marketing is a tool widely used by those who work online as bloggers or influencers, as well as being a good online marketing strategy for companies that want to increase sales on the web.

Affiliate marketing: how does it work?

At the base of affiliate marketing there is a very simple mechanism: the more you advertise to a company and its products, increase their sales, the higher your personal gain. For this reason, companies are always looking for people who can recommend their products to the reference communities. When each other’s expectations are met, there is an advantage for both sides.  

As already mentioned, to start doing affiliate marketing you need to sign up for a specific program that a company makes available to manage rules, percentages, and profit margins, as well as to track the links you need to understand how much and how you earned. Once you’ve registered and created affiliate links, you can decide whether to share them on social media or send them to Chats and WhatsApp groups. You can also share them on your blog or websites or by email marketing through the newsletter.

Typically, the percentages of earnings for each sector are different, but these are relative numbers. If, in fact, you find your reference niche that allows you to conclude a very high number of conversions, your profit margins will grow accordingly. However, there are particularly profitable niches that allow you to monetize more than others, such as beauty, fitness, or online trading.

To choose the industry where you can start doing affiliate marketing, always evaluate the number of searches per month and the cost per click for each keyword. Profitable chances, in fact, increase if a query has few searches per month but a high cost per click.

Different types of affiliates

To monetize with affiliate marketing, you have several tools to choose from that you can advertise a product or service with. Sharing an affiliate link on social media is the easiest and most immediate way to start your strategy. Just generate the affiliate link and share it online to make someone, by clicking, decide to buy a good or subscribe to a certain online service.

Another method widely used to do affiliate marketing is email marketing and using the newsletter. In this case you can focus on different strategies, sharing links within a newsletter with generic advice, or creating a real sales letter to convince your list to buy a certain asset or subscribe to a service.

Links can also be shared within private or public chats on WhatsApp or Telegram. In this case, you need to consider making everything easier thanks to marketing automation, using bots that simplify the conversion process.

You can do affiliate marketing even without having a personal blog. However, many prefer to create their own personal site because thanks to it they build their own brand identity.

If you just share links on a social profile you remain, in most cases, a simple industry enthusiast who wants to round up your salary. With a good personal branding strategy, however, you are able to build your own following and retain users. Trust in sales processes is paramount, and a personal blog allows you to create a name for yourself, and nur ting an audience that you can reach anywhere. With a personal website and a good SEO strategy, you also position you on search engines, gaining more visibility and consequently more earnings and conversions.

Key Word: authenticity

Affiliate marketing may seem like a simple strategy to implement, but it actually hides so many pitfalls. In fact, it is not a tool to earn so much and immediately, on the contrary, time, experience, patience and a good content marketing project are required.

Also, always keep in mind that at the base of the affiliation there must be passion and interest in what you promote. Only in this way does the perceived added value also manifest by users who recognize the benefit behind your affiliate marketing strategy.

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