What is Affiliate Marketing?

By definition, affiliate marketing is a referral arrangement in which an online retailer (advertiser) pays you a commission when users purchase their product from your referral link.

Unlike other ad types which pays based on clicks or views, affiliate marketing works on a CPA (cost-per-acquisition), or CPL (cost-per-lead) basis. In other words, you only earn a commission when someone takes an action (i.e buys the product or signup for a free trial).

Because there is less risk for the advertiser, affiliate programs pay out much higher commissions to publishers compared to Google AdSense or other types of ads.

Affiliate marketing requires a more hands-on approach. You have to find a product or service that you believe will be helpful to your users. After that you have to strategically add it in your blog posts and other areas of your site, so users can purchase the product using your referral link.

How Does Affiliate Marketing / Tracking Work?

First, you have to find a company or product that you want to promote. You need to select a product or service that you believe will be relevant to your blog’s topic and useful for your audience. The product or company you choose will be called a ‘Merchant’.

Next, you have to partner up with the company by joining their partner program. This makes you their ‘Affiliate’. Some companies also use the terms associates, partners, etc.

Once you have joined their partner program (also called Affiliate Program), you will get a unique affiliate ID. You will need to use this affiliate ID in all affiliate links that you add in your website to promote the product.

You can promote the product by adding an in-depth product reviews, recommend it in your articles, display banner ads, sending an email newsletter, and more. All traffic you send to the merchant website with your unique ID will be tracked.

Once a user makes a purchase, you will earn a commission. Your payment is issued once your earnings reach a particular threshold typically 45 – 60 days.

How to Get Started with Affiliate Marketing

First, you need to make sure that you are using the right blogging platform, and you are allowed to run affiliate marketing campaigns on your website.

For example, if you are using WordPress.com, then there are some restrictions regarding the products and services you can link to. For more details see our comparison of WordPress.com vs WordPress.org.

On the other hand if you are on self-hosted WordPress.org website, then you can add any affiliate link you want and efficiently manage your affiliate campaigns.

If you haven’t created a website already, then you can get started right away. Simply follow the instructions in our step by step guide on how to start a blog, and you’ll be up and running in less than 30 minutes.

Next, you need to let your users know how you make money from your website by adding a disclosure page. See WP Beginner’s disclosure page and feel free to use it as a template.

You will also need to add a privacy policy and terms of service page to your blog.

These are amongst the must have pages for every WordPress blog. They not only save you from legal issues in the future, but they also help you build trust with your audience.

We’ll cover promoting products on Amazon, creating SEO-optimized content that ranks well on Google, email list promotion strategies, how to choose the best affiliate program for you, and give you a step-by-step guide to the whole process, so you’ll be earning affiliate commissions in no time.

Download Our Affiliate Marketing Guide!

Successful Affiliate Promotion Strategies

After you know what products to promote and what not, it is important to adapt aright set of strategies for your blog or page. The important question here is what to put in the page that will help you to grow as an affiliate. Below are few successful affiliate promotion strategies:

• Create a Resource Page: To start with, develop a resource page where you can put your affiliate content. This page showcases your presence as an affiliate marketer.

• Review Products: Reviewing products can generate a tremendous amount of sales. If your audience has trust in you then reviewing products can convert your visitors into customers.

• Make Tutorials: Tutorials are basically a step by step guide to accomplish something. Tutorials are very popular among audience these days. It can help you make a good name for yourself apart from earning good money.

• Comparison:Posts relating to the comparison of two identical products can help boost visitors on the page. Clear all the doubts that a visitor must be having and give them an in-depth analysis of the differences.

• Collect E-mails: Collect e-mails of the visitors and use them to pass your affiliate content. This will timely draw their attention and you will not have to wait till the time visitors come to your blog and then see the content.