How does affiliate marketing make money and what does it mean for both the company and you with regards to earning a high income
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
Table of contents
- How best to explain affiliate marketing
- Commission marketing is great for the seller
- Are there many affiliate opportunities?
- What is the biggest affiliate company?
- The best affiliate aggregators
- How does affiliate marketing make money for a company
- How do affiliates make money?
- Can anyone be an affiliate?
- What is the best way to learn how to make money as an affiliate
- Conclusion
How best to explain affiliate marketing
The internet is full of new words and phrases that try and describe what is old into something new and exciting.
Commission selling has been part of retail since Roman times and that is what best describes Affiliate marketing. You sell something for someone else and they give you a part of the profit.
Commission marketing is great for the seller
As a company, you need to sell products and you can do that with a sales force, a big advertising budget, or with commission salespeople.
A benefit here is when paying commissions you are only paying on results so there is no wasted expenditure. There is no limit to the number of commission salespeople and the only cost is managing them. In fact, many companies now hand over the management of the affiliates to people who take this role as a business line.
Are there many affiliate opportunities?
There are endless affiliate opportunities in every product you can imagine. Not just one or two but many thousands of companies who want a cheap sales force.
I will share with you some companies further down but start by typing into Google a product (space) affiliate and see the list available to you.
Many are available but not all are acceptable.
What is the biggest affiliate company?
Amazon went to the market and made the affiliate model a mainstream product. Anyone could sell on Amazon, and still can, however, time brings change.
Amazon has now found that the direct sales model works just as well so a lot of attention has moved away from the mass marketers.
The problem is now a much-reduced commission is given meaning it is harder to make money because you need to sell a lot more products.
This model was closely followed by Walmart and others.
The next is Shopify where you are encouraged to set up a virtual shop and sell virtual goods to a virtual market. This continues to grow and gather a good following.
Finally, we move to the Chinese market and Ali Express. A drop shipping company that specializes in low-end pricing and bulk distribution.
The best affiliate aggregators
Wealthy Affiliate is my pick of the bunch and then a few examples that operate in today's market
- impact.com
- ClickBank.
- ShareASale.
- CJ Affiliate (formerly Commission Junction)
- Awin (Formerly Affiliate Window)
- Rakuten Marketing (formerly LinkShare)
First of all they all house countless offers that you can choose from and ask to be selected which is not always a given right.
How does affiliate marketing make money for a company?
How does affiliate marketing make money for a company
This is an easy answer because it is just another selling cost. The margin paid to you is added to their marketing rate and would generally be the cheapest way of selling.
Particularly because we now operate in a world market and no amount of salespeople or advertising can ever cover the population. However, any number of affiliates will do the job and get paid for results. A win for all parties.
How do affiliates make money?
In general terms, you need to flog the product to get paid. The more you sell the more you get paid. However, you can be an affiliate for more than one company and get paid several times over for the same amount of effort. That is really maximizing your returns and achieving a good income.
You may get paid a one-off amount or when the product is paid overtime a percentage of every payment. This is called recurring income and is a good way to build a working cash flow.
Can anyone be an affiliate?
Yes, in principle anyone can be an affiliate because there are no restrictions imposed on you in general terms.
However many companies will ask for proof of experience or to see a track record in successful sales activity which will eliminate many from the opportunity.
There is a cost to running an affiliate campaign so the companies only want the better candidates that will deliver results at the least cost of management.
Therefore those of you with no experience may need to take a different path to establish yourself as credible candidate for any position.
Fortunately;y those paths are available with some companies using an open book to welcome new affiliates. However, you need to be aware of what you are entering. into.
Using Amazon as an example you can be accepted with little or no experience to start selling a whole range of goods and services. However at three months if you have not delivered results you are cut off from them and not allowed to continue.
This in itself is understandable but if you have spent three months building a sales channel that has cost you money and time and is now worthless the dismissal is extremely harsh.
What is the best way to learn how to make money as an affiliate
Like anything you do in life, you need to do some initial training to establish the basics.
We go to school for many years to get a job, we take swimming lessons and music lessons to try something different.
You may even sit with Grandma for days learning to knit or spend time in the kitchen starting with the easy dishes well before you get to cook a meal.
Nothing comes without a period of learning and being a top affiliate requires a good understanding of the industry.
You can also become an affiliate on the first day and start your income earning time from day one.
The training is easy and the learning is available to anyone. With over a million current members you will be in very good company.
Wealthy Affiliates do all their sales by affiliate marketing. Therefore they teach you to achieve for them and for others.
Importantly it is free to try and then make a choice based on results.
Affiliate marketing is not for everyone. However, there are many other avenues branching from it.
Conclusion
This is the only industry you can enter with no money. No stock debtors or billing.
Importantly there are no restrictions or limits applied that will stop you.
Work from anywhere and at any time. Can it get better than that?
There is money to be made for both the company and the sales persons, and lots of it.
The world now accepts the affiliate model with online shopping so get in now and waste no more time.
