What is affiliate marketing and how to start it?

By Sunaina Agarwal / 15 Mar, 2021

The most trending marketing phenomenon of the modern era, affiliate marketing is a performance-based marketing model where affiliates promote brands and products receiving a commission. A good source of income for the affiliates, this technique of marketing helps companies to reach out to a wider audience conveniently with definite conversions. In affiliate marketing, sales are tracked through affiliate links, so commissions are set on the right path. 

Affiliate marketing is a popular source of income for many freelancers today. If you have a website with good traffic or an Instagram account with many followers, affiliate marketing can be your next source of income. Wondering how to begin? 

Let’s understand a few things before you know how to be an affiliate marketer:

Since affiliate marketing involves different parties, it is important to understand how to choose brands you can promote. A strategy with effective results for one brand promotion can help you procure your next brand association. To make this work, three parties are involved: 

1. The seller (the company with the product or service)

2. The affiliate (that is you the advertiser for the product or service)

3. The consumers (who will be buying from you)

Once you have your profile or agenda in place, you can choose brands or companies that you wish to associate with. Well, if in case you are lucky, brands might also start choosing you to be their ambassadors. For affiliate marketing best options of agreement include:

1. Pay per selling

In a standard and regular format of affiliation, the seller or merchant pays an affixed percentage for every sale of their product. This happens after you have advertised the product and your consumers have purchased it through the link created specifically for you. Thus, the efforts of the affiliates are significant. You have to influence your audience to buy your seller's product for your commission. 

2. Pay per click 

This is a complex pattern where you as an affiliate are required to create a push strategy for your sellers. You are paid based on the increase in web traffic at your seller’s site. Your consumers need to move from your site to your seller site. While this might seem difficult, it requires efficient strategy and marketing techniques. Your persuasive marketing phenomenon can lead your consumers to your sellers’ site, increasing their traffic and eventually sales. 

3. Pay per lead

In the present times, lead generation is essential for Organizations to reach out to consumers. Pay per lead model works for affiliates when leads are converted. So, you are paid when depending on the conversion of leads. In this, an affiliate requires a strong selling strategy, a persuasive call-to-action is competent for your consumers. They will not just be visiting and increasing traffic, but also buy your client products.

Benefits of affiliate marketing:

- It is a good source of passive income. 

- You can continue your job or other activities and continue to earn from where you are.

- It is convenient and flexible.