Affiliate marketing in 2021: It's working and benefits!

Everyone desires a way through which they can earn money sitting at home. But, is it really possible to have such a comfortable income source? Sounds interesting, isn't it? What if I unreveal the secret of that income source to you! Not only for salaried or business people, but this article is also gonna be useful if you are a student or a homemaker who wishes to have a lucrative revenue stream being at home.

Let's have a look.

# What is Affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a process in which an affiliate(you) get commission for promoting other businesses products and services. As an affiliate, you just need to promote and sale a product. With every sale you can earn a predetermined commission. The sales you make are tracked via affiliate links you share. It not only benefits affiliates but also benefits the seller in a long run.

# How affiliate marketing actually works?

Affiliate marketing is one kind of online marketing. Businesses pay to their affiliate based on their promotion and sales performance which is tracked via affiliate links.

Basically, you can say, the 3 major parties of affiliate marketing are:

1) The seller ( business, advertisers, etc)

2) The affiliate ( The publisher or promoter )

3) The customer

# Who are the sellers?

The sellers are companies (also known as merchants and advertiser) who are willing to pay commissions to their affiliates who promote their products. These companies partner with affiliates with an aim to generate more leads and sales. Affiliate companies or the sellers pay commission to affiliates for helping them to acheive their aim. The rate of commission is predetermined and can be different for different products. Every affiliate company has their own and different commission rates. 

# Who are Affiliates?

An affiliate can be an individual or a company. An affiliate uses their skills as a promoter to refer their audience to a company's product. Mostly they promote the products and services by writing posts, making videos, banner ads and other marketing strategies. When the affiliate's audience purchases a product or avail services through affiliate link, the affiliate marketer gets commission for the same. 

# What is an affiliate link?

Whenever you sign with a company's affiliate program, you become eligible to promote and earn commissions through the sales you make. Select the product you want to promote to your audience. Obtain that product's Affiliate link. It's just acts as an unique link that contains your username or ID. You just have to share or mention this link wherever you are promoting that company's product whether it be on your website or other social media platforms. If a customer clicks or make purchases via your affiliate link, a cookie is dropped in a company's browser to make a track and subsequently based on the performance, commission is paid to you.

# On what basis payments are made to affiliates?

As an affiliate, you get paid based on your performance. Following are the 3 types of performance-based models common to affiliate marketing:

• Pay-per-click(PPC) : An affiliate gets paid for all the genuine clicks generated regardless of whether it resulted in sales or leads.

• Pay-per-lead(PPL) : In this case, An affiliate earns commission for every action that gets generated after a click. These actions may include installation of an app, online form submission, submitting a survey and free trial sign up, etc.

• Pay-per-sales(PPS) : Here, an affiliate gets paid for generating sales. For every sale generated, he gets a predetermined percent of commission. 

# Perks of being an affiliate marketer:

1) Low startup costs: 

Most of the startup requires startup fees to finance the product and services being sold. But, there is no Affiliate program fees to worry about and one can quickly start without much hassle. All yon need is to possess essential skills to promote your products, reach and retain your customers. You don't require a special advertising visuals and space to get started with it.

2) Work and earn from Home: 

If you are looking up for earning a lucrative income sitting at home you can go for an affiliate program. You’ll be able to provide services and receive revenue from the products that sellers create while working from the comfort of your own home. If you are a student, it's a great opportunity to start something new. It is something that requires less formalities, without any complexities.

3) No qualification required: 

There is no standard qualification to become an affiliate marker. However, One should have good command over language and communication. Knowing to write an engaging blog post, adding a great review or creating a promotional video for products is all a big plus because they mean you don’t have to pay for content in the beginning. Any additional marketing skill you possess will be a great advantage to you.

4) Flexible and profitable: 

Affiliate Marketing is one the flexible money generation source. Like other jobs, you don't need to always be in front of your device to deal with your audience. Affiliate marketing provides you the ability to earn while you sleep. You just have to invest some time to construct your site with effective marketing strategies. Thus, even if you’re not in front of your device, your marketing skills will be earning a steady income for you.

5) Performance-Based rewards.

In jobs, you  work every month but still earn the same salary. Affiliate marketing on the other side is purely based on your performance. "As you sow, so shall you reap". Honing your marketing skills and writing engaging campaigns will translate to direct growth in your revenue. You’ll finally get paid for your outstanding skill work you do!

Start Earning Today!

There’s no limit to what you can earn with affiliate marketing. With your efforts you can absolutely create an incredible business model sitting at home. 

You are just 5 steps away from success

All you need to do is:

1) Search and join an appropriate affiliate program.

2) Choose a particular niche to promote.

3) Obtain a unique affiliate link for each offer.

4) Share those affiliate links on your blog, social media platforms, or website.

5) Earn commission everytime a customer visits your links to make a purchase.

Now that you know how affiliate marketing works, why not test the waters? Why wait! Just go and grab this wonderful opportunity! After all, it could be your golden goose, but you’ll never know unless you try!

References:

1)https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/affiliate-marketing/

2)https://www.shopify.in/blog/affiliate-marketing

3)https://thirstyaffiliates.com/blog/how-affiliate-marketing-works