3 different ways to make money in affiliate marketing: When it comes to making money with affiliate marketing, a lot of people think it’s all about signing up for other people’s products and getting paid when someone buys the product through your affiliate links.
Well, that’s just one way of making money with affiliate marketing but honestly, that’s not the only way.
You can make money with affiliate marketing as an affiliate marketer (publisher), merchant (product creator), or as affiliate network owner. These three paths are all amazing ways of making money with affiliate marketing. Don’t just limit yourself to only one path, you can try all three paths if you have the potential.
In the rest of the article, I’ll give you more info on what you need to make money from these three paths.
With that being said, let’s dive in!
Making Money As An Affiliate Marketer Promoting Other People’s Products
This path is one of the most popular paths that most people take when trying to make money from affiliate marketing.
But one thing I realize is that most people who attempt to make money with affiliate marketing with this path fail.
Why?
Well, that’s because a lot of people think it’s an easy and quick way of making money online.
And also a majority of people don’t know what it actually takes to make money with this path and they end up following the wrong strategy.
The fact is that if you don’t know what it actually takes to make money promoting other people’s products or services as an affiliate.
Well, guess what?
You won’t be able to really explore the potential for affiliate marketing models that might work better with your niche audience.
Making money with affiliate marketing as an affiliate is not only about picking an affiliate program.
And spending tons of time spamming your audience with your affiliate link.
However…
The key component is to understand your niche and your audience’s needs and problems.
And then, you want to pick an affiliate offer that’s relevant to your niche and your audience’s interest.
Not just any kind of product but rather products that are of high quality and will help solve your audience’s problems or pains.
To put it simply – to make money as an affiliate of other people’s products or services…
Your job as an affiliate is to match products that are relevant to your niche and meet the needs of your audience.
I mean know what your audiences want, are interested in, and are more likely to buy it, and then provide them with exactly that.
Now, as you have that in place you want to start producing helpful content around your niche and your product.
Figure out what questions, phrases or terms people are asking that are related to your niche and your affiliate product.
Then start producing content around those phrases.
Then within the content, you can send them to the affiliate product that you think will further help your audience.
NOTE: The goal every single time is to take a content approach first.
If you take that approach first, making affiliate sales become much easier.
Let me break that down for you.
For example, let’s assume you have a website about weight loss, here you can sign up with an affiliate program that offers weight loss products.
Then, as you’ve signed up with the program all you have to do is to start writing informational content around your niche and your affiliate offer on your site.
Then, within your content, you can place a link on your affiliate website that leads to that product sales page.
And anytime someone purchases the product through your link, you get paid a commission.
- PS. I have another post where I go more into detail on how to make money with affiliate marketing as an affiliate.
Making Money As An Affiliate Merchant Or Advertiser
This is also another great way of making money with affiliate marketing.
By the way, who is a merchant? A Merchant also known as a vendor is someone who creates a product or service for other people to promote for a commission.
Why would a merchant pay you for promoting his or her product for them if there isn’t money in it?
Obviously, there’s great money you can make from being a merchant rather than an affiliate.
But most people don’t know that, that’s why you see a ton of affiliate marketers out there than merchants.
People often think that affiliate marketing is all about promoting other people’s products for a commission.
Well, that’s not true.
That said…
Becoming an affiliate marketing merchant who creates products or services for others to promote can be very profitable.
The thing is, you can’t create a product for other people to promote without you getting some profits or results in return.
That said…
One of the best ways right now to make significant income from affiliate marketing as a merchant is to use the (cost-per-sale) affiliate program model.
Here you only pay the affiliate, when they successfully sell your product.
This will enable you to measure the return on your investment in a quantifiable way.
With this method, your return can be a whole lot higher.
So, how to become an affiliate merchant?
Well, first and foremost, in order to become a merchant, you need to have very good knowledge about your niche.
If you don’t have good knowledge about your niche, chances are that you won’t be able to create the kind of product that people are desperately searching for.
In short – if you don’t have knowledge about your niche, you won’t be able to create a quality product.
You need knowledge and experience to create something valuable that the market is in need of.
Does it cost to be an affiliate marketing merchant?
Well, setting up an affiliate program does cost a lot of money to get your program off the ground.
And also, it does cost a lot of time and effort, you’ll have to be taking care of things like customer service, refunds, etc to maintain your program.
However, there’s money in being an affiliate merchant. You just have to be willing to put in the necessary requirements.
Making Money As Affiliate Network Owner
Affiliate networks act as an intermediate between affiliate marketers and affiliate merchants.
If you have technical knowledge and money to invest, why not set up your own affiliate network?
You can make a good income simply by creating your own affiliate network and then hosting other people’s programs for them.
But do remember, you have to hire people to maintain the network for you in terms of customer service.
You’ll also have to hire an affiliate marketing manager who will manage the account.
Also, you’ll have to set up tools to track the affiliates and reports to help optimize programs.
All that is going to cost you money, but it’s worth it as long as your advertisers (merchants) are making money, you’ll also make money from their enrollments too.
You’ll get to charge advertisers (merchants) a % transaction fee for every sale they generate.
You can also set up a model where you get them to pay monthly recurring income for hosting their program on your network.
What You Need To Get To Make Money From These Three ( 3 ) Paths
Whether you are an affiliate, merchant, or network owner, there are literally three important things you need to make this process more successful.
Here Are The Three Things You Need To Make The Whole Process Successful:
1). High Volume, Relevant, And Quality Traffic
Online web traffic is extremely important, it’s the lifeblood of any online business.
As an affiliate marketer, you need a high level of eyeballs on your affiliate offer to generate a decent commission.
As a merchant, you also need high traffic as well, so that you can generate leads and sales.
As a network owner, the more traffic your members get, the higher the chances of them making money and you can keep charging them enrollment fees.
So, how are you doing to get this traffic? Well, it’s going to come from somewhere else.
And this is the hardest part of affiliate marketing.
A lot of people spend most of their time trying to generate traffic for affiliate marketing in a way that just doesn’t work.
And for some, they focus on generating traffic that’s not relevant to their niche and product.
Hence.
The key component to success in affiliate marketing is to drive traffic from well-known traffic sources that are high-quality and targeted.
- So, to help you out with that, I have another post where I share with you how to drive traffic to your affiliate website.
2). High In-Demand Niches
A niche plays an important role in whether you’ll make money or not.
It doesn’t matter how much traffic you’re generating on your offer if what you’re selling isn’t appealing or interesting to a large group of people.
Well, it’ll be tough for you to see any success whether you’re an affiliate, merchant, or even network owner.
That said, you have to start with the market demand first to make sure whether it’s worth your time and effort.
Don’t just target any niche you come across. You want to choose wisely.
How to know if a niche is in high demand?
One of the best ways to identify if a niche is hot or in high demand is to figure out what other people are talking about the niche.
And then run your own research to see if it’s something that’s long-lasting or it’s just a trending or seasonal kind of topic.
If it’s a seasonal topic it may fade away, it may generate traffic for a short time and then fade out.
You want to be very careful with that.
But if it’s something that’s in high demand, it will be relevant year after year and will generate you consistent traffic.
E.g, finance, health, and relationship, these three niches are called evergreen niches and they’re profitable in the long haul.
- To help you out have another post where I share with you some of the profitable niches in affiliate marketing.
3). Matching Demographics
Now, I believe you know, you can’t make money online without traffic or market demand, right?
But now, what if you have a high level of traffic, a high in-demand niche, and products or services?
But the people you’re targeting aren’t buying your offer?
Well, this is because the demographics of the traffic don’t match the niche and the product you’re promoting.
For better results, the demographic of your traffic has to match your niche and product.
– I mean you need targeted traffic, not all traffic is equal.
Regardless of whether you’re an affiliate, merchant, or network owner, once you have match traffic plus niche demand plus interested buyers you’ll see an increase in your affiliate income significantly.
Also matching demographic, will help you know the age and gender of your ideal customers and also their income level.
That way, when you’re planning on what offer to promote on your website, you’ll know when the product is too expensive for your demographic.
Or whether you should add some high-price products for your demographic.
To put it simply – knowing your demographic will help you know your audience what or in need of, and what’s going to yield better results.
How Much Money Can You Make Out Of The Three Paths
There is no limit to how much you can earn from affiliate marketing as an affiliate, merchant, or even an affiliate network owner.
As an affiliate marketer, how much you can earn will depend on your niche, your product, the amount of targeted traffic you generate on your product, and the amount of work you put into building your business.
Making money off of affiliate marketing takes time, you need to manage your expectations.
You won’t earn significant income right off you start your affiliate business, but don’t let that put you down.
But with hard work, effort, consistency, time, and the right marketing strategy and knowledge, you’ll reach your desired goal.
That said…
If you’re just starting out as a complete beginner, you should expect to earn little or nothing until you have established yourself in your niche.
Most top affiliate marketers are earning anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000 per month.
There are some who are earning way more than $300,000 per month from affiliate marketing.
An example of this is Adam Enfroy, this guy earns a lot of money from his affiliate business.
How much can you earn as an affiliate merchant?
You can become an affiliate marketing merchant and earn anywhere between $60,000 – $120,000 per month or more, depending on the popularity of your product or service and the number of affiliates that are promoting your product.
How much can you earn as an affiliate network owner?
Well, how much you can earn as a network owner will depend on the number of members that enrolled on your network and how much you’re charging them per month for hosting their program on your network. Roughly, you can earn anywhere between $8,000 to $100,000 or more per month.
That’s It, Folks!
You don’t have to depend on one path of making money online with affiliate marketing, the above-mentioned are all wonderful ways to profit from affiliate marketing.
Now, it’s up to you to put those strategies into action and explore the world of affiliate marketing.
There you have it folks on (3) three different paths to make money with affiliate marketing. I hope you enjoy it.
