What Is Affiliate Marketing (The 3 Elements of Affiliate Success)

Key Takeaways

When it comes to being an entrepreneur or owning your own business, there's perhaps no more appealing dream than that of passive income. No matter how much you love what you do or how much value you get out of working on your business, I could think of very few people that would turn down the opportunity to make a little extra cash. Especially if this cash could be generated without the need to create any additional products, services, or offers, and could be generated around the clock, even while you sleep. And that, my friend, is the draw of affiliate marketing and the focus of today's episode. Hello and welcome. My name is Adam Hheart and you're watching the Modern Marketing Show where we take different marketing tactics, tools, tips, and strategies and break them down into bite-sized actionable clips that you can use to immediately take your business to the next level. So, what exactly is affiliate marketing? Well, affiliate marketing is actually a really simple concept that involves someone other than you creating something and then paying you a commission to sell it to someone else. That's it. But let's dive in a little deeper. It all starts with a producer. The producer is the person who creates the product or service. This is also what makes affiliate marketing so appealing in that you don't actually need to create a product or service of your own. Most often when people think about starting a new project or business, they first need to create some form of product or service to sell, but not so with affiliate marketing. The producer has already done much of the hard work for you. Next comes the marketer. This would be you. The marketer's job is to, wait for it, market, and to sell the product to the end consumer. When you do this, the producer will pay you a commission. And depending on the type of product or service you're selling, the commissions can range from a few percent, which are typical for big e-commerce stores, all the way up to 50% and beyond, which is what many information marketers pay. The more you sell, the more you make. And once your marketing system is set up, it'll often continue to run with very little additional time, energy, or effort. The last person involved in this transaction is the consumer. This is the person who ultimately ends up buying whatever it is that you're selling. And this completes the cycle. Affiliate marketing is all around you and happens every day. Gyms, lawyers, online education, and giant stores like Amazon are paying others to do their marketing for them and splitting the profits. I use affiliate marketing as an integral part of my business's monetization strategy and even sell some of my online trainings with affiliate partners who receive a commission every time someone enrolls using their unique signup link. The affiliate marketing industry is huge and is only getting bigger as it's anticipated to grow to over $6.8 billion over the next 5 years. The best way to get started is really just to dive right in. For most internet marketers, affiliate marketing is where they got their start. Many affiliate marketing companies do, however, have an application process as it's important that their businesses aren't promoted using spammy, negative, or questionable sites or methods. This is why it's important to set yourself up for success by portraying yourself as a professional with as many of the following brand assets as possible, including a website, active social media channels, professional head shot, testimonials, an email list, and a track record of affiliate success. If you don't have any of these yet, though, don't worry. There are still some smaller affiliate partners who will be happy to let you try selling their stuff. The other way to fasttrack your way to a higher-end affiliate is to simply purchase their product, apply it, and get results, and then tell the business that you want to share their amazing product with the world. Not only will this give the business a little ego boost, but more importantly, it'll demonstrate your familiarity and understanding of their product, which will be beneficial in helping you promote and sell it. So, thanks so much for watching. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe to the channel. Give it a thumbs up. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for a future video, be sure to leave them in the comment section below. If you'd like more content like this, then head over to adamheart.com and sign up for the Modern Marketing newsletter because this is where I share my best tips, tricks, and strategies that I don't share anywhere else. Take care for now and I'll catch you next time on the Modern Marketing Show.