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Although he's known as a pro on his allotment, Account Director Matt Kerr is just as expert on the world of Affiliate Marketing. Here he talks us through the seven easiest steps to start earning a passive income.
We all love the idea of generating extra cash on the side, and affiliate marketing is a great way to achieve this. It’s a model of business where you take out as much as you put in and has brought plenty of people real-life success.
Affiliate marketing is where you promote other people’s products, or drive traffic to their website and get paid a commission on transactions. Put simply: you promote things that you would like and use in your everyday life, tell people about it and then receive a piece of the profit pie. This could be on a blog, on social media, or on video platforms like YouTube. The difference between affiliates and influencers is that influencers are paid up front to advertise a product, whereas affiliate marketers get paid if people use their links.
Sometimes it's referred to as passive income, and it could be your answer to - in the words of Johnny Marr - ‘Easy Money’. To get you started on the road to becoming an affiliate marketer, we’ve compiled seven useful tips that will help you learn most of the things you’ll need to know.
1. Do Something You Have A Passion For
It's far easier to sell a lifestyle if you already live it, so you should think about becoming an affiliate associated with something that you already do, it’s guaranteed to make you a lot more believable. This way it should not only be easy, it will become fun because you’ll ultimately be paid for something that you already love doing and are passionate about.
2. Invest In Yourself
Whether it's words, pictures, or video these could all ultimately become your route to market, therefore you should strive to produce the best content you can. That may mean investing in equipment like an up-to-date phone for high quality photos or a laptop for editing. You should see this as a business investment, one that you would recoup the cost of later once you are successful. In any career you always need the best tools for the job to give the best performance.
3. Know Your Audience
It’s important to make sure that the content you produce reaches the right people. You need to make sure that you understand the type of content your audience wants to see. Not only that, you should also know where and how they want to consume it. Understanding your audience will help you produce the right content that not only appeals to them but also engages them.
4. Share Your Content
Let's not be shy about it: the more people that see your content, the more chances you have of gaining commission. However, choose the channels that are right for you. Don't overstretch yourself across multiple channels if it's too hard for you to manage. Concentrate on the ones you get the most enjoyment from participating in and put yourself out there.
5. Have Plenty Of Patience
Some affiliate programmes take time to build and reap rewards. Always have this in mind when you're producing your content and also where you're posting your content. There may not be (and doesn't always need to be) an immediate response to your content. Producing content that can be interesting for a long period of time helps it to be continuously timeless and relevant.
6. Understand The Data
As an affiliate you may be drawn solely by a commission rate. However, if a merchant has a low conversion rate on their website this will impact your sales. It's better to understand your customer's journey through your merchant’s website before you start. Identify any possible stumbling blocks instead of learning the hard way later. If you have a great experience, you know other people will too. This becomes an important decision as the product may be great, but if the experience is bad there will only be one outcome.
7. Always Be Yourself
According to Good Is The New Cool, 85% of millennials have a more positive image of a product or company when it is authentic, always remember that. There are lots of benefits to affiliate marketing, so don't be afraid to admit that you're part of it. Be genuine and promote a positive image of yourself. This will help bring authenticity and build more trust with your audience. If they trust you, they’re more likely to buy from you.
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