What is affiliate marketing?

"Affiliate marketing is an excellent opportunity if you truly believe in the value of the product you’re selling. Because many times, you can make money off of something you would probably recommend anyway.”— Neil Patel, Founder of Neil Patel Digital

In simple terms, affiliate marketing is sales. There's a company that has a product, there's a customer that needs the product and there's an affiliate marketer who is in the middle. When you introduce a product to a customer using a link and they buy the product; the company pays you a commission. You are then an affiliate marketer. The relationship is a win-win-win for all parties involved. The customer solves their problem, the company makes a profit and you get paid a commission for introducing the product to a customer.

So you might ask, how it is different from traditional marketing? With traditional marketing, a person would be selling their own products or services. With affiliate marketing, you are selling someone else's products or services.

Watch the video below explaining affiliate marketing for beginners.

What is the difference between an affiliate network and an affiliate program?

The difference between the two is that an affiliate program is when you register with one company/standalone program, for example, Canva.com or learnwithzar.com. It is a single company that offers affiliate marketing opportunities to marketers. 

Whereas affiliate marketing network, for instance, ClickBank.com or affiliate.co.za, houses different affiliate marketing programs with other products and niches under one roof which help you not to run around looking and registering at various affiliate marketing programs.

How do I start?

Find something you are passionate about I call this a niche.  In affiliate marketing a niche is a specialized segment of the market, it implies that you promote a narrow group of affiliate products through specific customers. Specific means those who share identical characteristics, have the exact needs, preferences, and demographics, and are ready to pay an equal price.  The specialized segment could be health, technology, fashion, design, and many more.  

You will be more successful if you are passionate about your niche.  You can't fake passion if you can't find something you are passionate about, try something else.  Most companies are running affiliate programs as they would like to have their products/services introduced to different markets by their affiliate.

Check out the 10 Best Niches for Affiliate Marketing 2022 blog by Ivanka Tabachuk.

I've picked a niche, now what?

• look at the competition
• look at what is popularly
• look at what you can promote
• look at what you know about
• look at products that are easy to promote

How to market my affiliate links?

Starting a blog or a YouTube channel is best for affiliate marketing.  Other social media platforms also work but you have to be committed to creating content at scale.

You can create a blog on your own website like we did at Learn with Zar or you can create a blog on a platform like WordPress.  Below are steps you can follow to start:

First head to Hostinger and sign up for the WordPress Starter plan. It’s just $2.99 per month and you will also get a free domain name with your hosting plan!  Next, follow the instructions to set up your Hostinger account and now you officially have your own little piece of the internet. Congrats!

From there, you need to:

• Install WordPress (your blogging platform)
• Choose and install a cheap/affordable theme
• Customize your new theme
• Write and publish your first blog post
• Stick to a regular publishing schedule

Once you have your first few posts under your belt and traffic starts to flow in, you can start thinking about how you want to make your first $1.

From selling ad space to digital/physical product offerings and affiliate marketing, there are dozens of monetization methods you can explore.

Email marketing

Email marketing works and you can offer lead magnets to grow your email list faster.  Lead magnets are a great way to grow your email list.  Offer something of value in exchange for an email address.   Lead magnets are typically a free download, course, or ebook you give away.  Have a look at some of our way to grow our email list on our website: Learn with Zar.  Lead magnets can be used to build trust and credibility with your audience.  Drive traffic to your site and opt-in forms through social media, paid ads, and other avenues.  You can also paid ads to drive traffic to your site if you have the budget or other avenues to drive traffic to your site, eg. referrals.

Affiliate marketing is not impossible to start doing!

Affiliate marketing is not impossible to start doing!  You can start with a small budget and you can start by promoting products that are already popular and you should be passionate about those products it will make promoting easier for you. 

Visit BradBrown website for 43 Affiliate Marketing Programs in South Africa (and how to make money online with them)