The American Dream of the twenty-first century bears little resemblance to that of the 1950s. Gone are the white picket fences, neighborhood barbecues, and goal of working for one employer for a lifetime.
Blame Millennials. Blame technology. Blame Tim Ferris’s 4-Hour Work Week.
Whatever the seed for this change, one thing’s for sure. Today’s individuals want radically different lives than their working-class predecessors.
That’s why earning money online through the gig economy or affiliate marketing proves bigger than ever before.
We want to call the shots, pursuing lifestyles rich with experiences, rather than things. We want to recede into the global fabric, digital nomads traveling the world and earning money unapologetically.
Fortunately, there’s more money to be made on the internet today than ever before. Read on for a breakdown of how to start affiliate marketing and why it represents your best route to the new American Dream, financial freedom.
Table of Contents
What Is Affiliate Marketing?
At this point, you may be wondering, “What is affiliate marketing?” No doubt, you’ve seen the term before. After all, it gets thrown around on the internet like nobody’s business.
But understanding how you can make money, and we’re talking loads of money, from this term is quite another thing. Let’s start with a rundown of the basics before we dive into the nitty-gritty of how to rake in the dough.
When companies turn to individual bloggers or small company blogs (e.g. “affiliates”) to get the word out about their goods and services, this is known as affiliate marketing.
What do affiliates get in return? They receive a commission, usually in the form of a pre-determined percentage of the revenues, from each sale. Companies track commissions using affiliate links.
How Much Money Is There in Affiliate Marketing?
Let’s take a look at a few stats that’ll get your attention. Right now, affiliate marketing represents a $5 billion a year industry.
And it’s only going to keep growing. By 2020, affiliate marketing is expected to balloon to $6.8 billion.
This reflects important trends in affiliate marketing. First, bigger-name players are starting to get involved in the industry. We’re talking about companies such as LifeHacker and Gawker Media.
What’s more, as access to the internet continues to increase globally, the number of buyers will go up exponentially. There are also more products to sell because affiliate marketing now has a tried-and-true reputation.
And as technologies continue to evolve, those involved in affiliate marketing will enjoy even better ways to track their digital marketing efforts. That means increased ROI and greater success for everybody involved.
How to Start Affiliate Marketing
What’s the best thing about affiliate marketing? You have very little initial overhead apart from purchasing a domain and setting up your blog or website.
And if you’ve already got that set up? Then, you can get started without paying anything.
When it comes to affiliate marketing for beginners, start by picking the right affiliate marketing program to work with. Find out more about the top affiliate programs out there.
Once you’ve chosen a company to work with, browse their products to see what you’d like to promote. Then, start blogging or vlogging (if you’re a YouTuber).
Few business models let you craft an entrepreneurial presence as easily and affordably. Learn more about how to make money without paying an initial investment.
A Case Study in Success: The Points Guy
At this point, you know a whole lot more about affiliate marketing. But you may still be questioning whether or not any of this works in the real world. After all, is there really that much money to be made online through affiliate marketing?
Have you ever heard of The Points Guy blog? Founded by Brian Kelly, he’s probably more obsessed with collecting credit card points than just anybody on the planet.
All told, he has more than 30 credit cards to his name, and he knows points programs inside and out. As a result, he’s practically circumnavigated the globe on free travel bought with points.
Well, that’s how his blog started anyway. Today, Kelly’s site sees 2.5 million monthly unique views, and he’s got a devoted following of fans. He’s monetized his website via affiliates such as hotels, airlines, and credit card companies.
He gets paid between $50 and $400 per credit card that his readers opt in for after reading one of his blogs and clicking on a link.( I’ll let you do the math on what he earns per month.)
Today, the actual website is owned by Bankrate, a public American company. That’s just one more indicator that Kelly has reached wealthy digital nomad status with ONE well-executed blog.
Central to Kelly’s success has been his ability to bring in lots of well-qualified leads through organic and paid traffic via Google search and Google ads. If you can master this skill, you’ll make plenty of money with affiliate marketing.
Find out more about making money with Google affiliate marketing.
A Gaming Affiliate Case Study: Cardplayer
Among the amazing opportunities available with affiliate marketing is online gaming. To be successful, gaming companies need to draw on a steady stream of new customers. That’s why they turn heavily to affiliate marketing.
Although there’s plenty of competition when it comes to being an affiliate in this industry, you also stand to make BIG money. Why? Because a massive number of people all over the world love to play blackjack and poker online.
One such affiliate, Cardplayer, started as a print magazine with a readership 30,000 strong. Today, the site receives more than half a million visitors every month. Just converting one-tenth of this traffic means serious wealth.
How did they grow their audience and their wealth in the process? By crafting excellent content. What’s more, they don’t haphazardly include banners, buttons, and links to affiliate websites.
Instead, each one gets a lengthy description on a landing page. Customers not only find these landing pages relevant and useful, but they know exactly which gambling site is right for them after reading the content.
Interested in learning more about gaming opportunities? Read on for our list of the top 10 gaming affiliate marketing programs.
An Amazon Affiliate Marketing Case Study: Consumer Search
Many people test the waters of affiliate marketing with Amazon’s affiliate marketing program. As a result, there’s plenty of competition. This makes finding the right niche and unique approach crucial to success.
Consumer Search represents an excellent example of this. They wanted to create a site that analyzes and organizes Amazon reviews.
Because they bring in revenue through affiliate marketing, they don’t have to charge a subscription rate for this service. As a result, they’re able to offer these reviews to their readership for free.
What’s Consumer Search’s unique approach? They provide consumers with high-quality products by focusing on reviews that fall within the middle. That means they ignore products that fall exclusively within the one or five-star range.
The reasoning? Consumer Search feels that the reviews in the middle prove more honest with meatier descriptions and more details. This has allowed them to automate much of their business model so that they can focus on marketing.
How successful has this model been for Consumer Search? The New York Times recently purchased the site from its founder for a whopping $33 million.
YouTube Affiliate Marketing
YouTube is the largest online platform for videos and the second largest search engine on the web.
It hosts everything from online courses to web series and music videos. And unlike other video platforms out there, YouTube videos get indexed within minutes, which means a faster route to earnings.
Rapid indexing also proves crucial when you want to leverage a hot trend or latest breaking news. But the benefits of YouTube as an affiliate marketing tool don’t end there.
Google also gives YouTube preference in searches. And it’s a great way to capitalize on the fact that people love watching videos.
Like blogging, you’ve got plenty of options with vlogging. You can focus on the blatant promotion of products through detailed video reviews. “Open the box” presentations are a successful variant of this.
Or, you can focus on one topic and then promote products indirectly related to it or your viewers’ other interests. For example, Bill Day hosts a popular series of “Real or Fake” YouTube videos on Billschannel.
Day explores online claims of Bigfoot sightings, megalodon sightings, and weird photos and stories. At the beginning of each video, he includes a quick shout out to a video game that interests his viewership before the debunking begins.
The games bear no relevancy to the stories covered. But they prove popular to his core audience, making this an indirect yet successful approach to affiliate marketing through YouTube.
Time to Start Earning Big
Affiliate marketing lets people earn income from virtually anywhere and represents an efficient, streamlined way for companies to grow their share of the market. No wonder the industry is exploding by leaps and bounds!
The most successful affiliate marketers promote the best products, and they do so honestly and thoroughly. Why? Because they understand the importance of cultivating a loyal readership.
Whether you choose to market products through a blog or a YouTube channel, now’s the time to get in on a piece of the affiliate marketing action. Find out more about how I got started on the journey to financial freedom and how you can, too.
