Step 4 is about monetization. How does all the work you put into your affiliate business generate income?
As an affiliate of one or more company’s affiliate programs, you should have your own unique affiliate URLs to the company’s website where customers can buy products. When a customer goes to the website to purchase something using your affiliate URL, the purchase is credited to you, and you receive the affiliate commission from the sale. Ultimately, you want people to use your affiliate links to buy the products, so you get paid. Your affiliate links are the most critical URLs in your affiliate business since they are the key to making money.
For example, if I am an affiliate for Nike and someone wants to buy Nike shoes, I can have this person use my affiliate URL to go to the online Nike shoe store. When the purchase is made, the website will know the person went to the online store from my affiliate URL, and I will get paid the affiliate commission for the sale. This is the same process for all online affiliate programs.
The question becomes how to get customers to use your affiliate link to purchase products.
First, if you post content on social media, you can include your affiliate URLs as links in some of the posts. This usually makes sense if your post has content about the product. You don’t want to write a post or make a video about butterflies and have a link to buy Nike shoes. It makes no sense because people looking at the post are interested in butterflies, not shoes. The content of your post should be about Nike shoes so it makes sense to have your Nike affiliate link somewhere in the content. Those interested in the shoes can click on it and go to the online Nike shoe store.
Another place to put your affiliate links is in your follow-up emails to the people on your email list. I first introduced the concept of building an email list in Part 3 if you haven’t read that yet. The email list is helpful because you can follow up with prospects weekly or daily with more information about products, tips, ideas, strategies, and any other content that would be helpful and useful to readers. Within some of the emails can be your affiliate links to products. Those interested can click the link in the email to check out the products and potentially buy.
For example, I get emails from Roku a few times a week. I have used a Roku device for my TV for many years and have been getting emails since I bought my first device. Well, I recently broke the device and needed a new one. I got an email from Roku that week with a 40% discount offer on any Roku device I wanted. It was simply good timing for Roku to send me the email. In the email, there was a link to go to the Roku website to buy any device at a 40% discount. I clicked the link, which took me to Roku’s main website. I selected a device, and the website applied the discount. I then purchased the device. This is a perfect example of how emails can be used to send prospects and customers product offers periodically, and some will buy.
Another place to put your affiliate links is on your blog or website. I have a link on my blog with products for which I am an affiliate. Anyone on my blog can access this and check out different products.
As you can start to see, the affiliate links can be placed anywhere you are creating and posting content. The important part is to make the links available and not necessarily put links in every nook and cranny of your content. Overdoing it might make it look like you only care about making money. You want to build a relationship with customers without making them think you are doing it to put your links all over the place. Consider it from your perspective when buying a product and follow a system that makes sense.
So, there you have it: four parts to starting your affiliate business. It takes time to get started and figure out a strategy, but once you get going, it is fun to post content and help people. Over time, some will begin following you, consuming your content, and getting to know and like you. Eventually, some of them will join your email list and buy products!