Want to Sell Online with a Limited Budget? Consider Affiliate Marketing!
Want to sell products online without the cost or responsibility of warehousing or shipping? Are you great at spotting a trend and want to get a piece of the action? Do clients or customers always ask you where you got a certain product? Have expert knowledge and want to make some money while blogging about it? If so, affiliate marketing may be the answer!
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is the process of advertising a product on a website that directs a customer to another site to make a purchase. Successful bloggers and influencers use affiliate marketing as one of the main ways to make an income.
What Can an Affiliate Site Look Like?
I created two different types of sites so you can see affiliate marketing in action. The first, Caffeine Free World, advertises via targeted social media groups. The second, Top 20 Ways, is a blog site with articles helpful to finding great deals online.
What is the Process?
You, as the website owner or blogger, set up an account with one or more affiliate programs online. There are several good ones out there (see below for a list). Get familiar with a few to see what companies and products are aligned with each then choose one or two that best fit your needs.
Once you are signed up with an affiliate marketing site, you then will need to apply to each company separately. For a better acceptance rate, be sure to fill out all of your account information and include a detailed paragraph explaining why you would be a good affiliate partner.
If you are accepted, you may then use that company’s links to display on your website. Usually you can choose a text link (to attach to a button, image, or set of words on your site) or HTML code to embed in your site (which will display an image or banner with a link).
When a customer clicks on the link to the product, they will be sent to that company’s site to complete the purchase. Once the item is purchased and shipped, you receive a commission. You will not have to store or ship anything.
Common Beginner Mistakes
Once people realize the potential that affiliate marketing can do, they tend to go overboard. Start small and don’t overwhelm your customers. A few, well-placed, cohesive items will do much better than a huge amount of miscellaneous products.
Be careful to not sound like your site is too commercial or pushy in any way. Your goal is to make your customer’s life easier. For example, a carpet cleaner may often be asked what products can be used to spot clean in the future. This is a great opportunity to sell a small spot cleaning set through Amazon that he actually uses and likes. You want to make sure that your customers feel as if they have been let in on a tried and true method, and not simply up-sold.
Popular Affiliate Marketing Sites
One of the most popular sites is Amazon Affiliate Marketing, and for good reason. Customers will find almost anything here. What I love about the Amazon Affiliate program is that once a customer clicks your link to get to Amazon, you will also get a commission on anything else they happen to buy during that particular shopping trip.
These are also some great sites that I have personally used: CJ Affiliates, FlexOffers, and Rakuten.
What about Print-on-Demand and Dropshipping?
Print-on-Demand might be a better choice for you if you have customized products (for example, a blanket with your logo or t-shirt with a custom image).
Unlike affiliate marketing, dropshipping allows you to set your own profit percentage. Learn more about the pros and cons of dropshipping here.
How to Get Started
The keys to a successful affiliate business are:
a professional website that both intrigues the viewer and invokes trust
error-free onsite SEO so your site can crawled by Google and other search engines
an appropriate amount of off-page SEO including quality backlinks and local citations
frequent blogs and content marketing
targeted use of appropriate social media platforms including organic and paid advertising
email marketing
networking and partnering
Need Help?
Want to find out if your idea may work? Your idea will stay confidential until you are ready to release it to the world.
5-star Google-rated Charlotte’s Web Design, LLC is a sole proprietor web design and digital marketing firm specializing in custom, professional websites, SEO, branding, logo design, digital marketing, content writing, and graphic design with over 35 years of technology experience currently working with over a hundred small businesses. Please contact me for a free consultation.
