It must be said that affiliate marketing is one of the most viable ways to make money online.
The problem with affiliate marketing though is that people think it’s supposed to be easy because all you do is place a link somewhere and then make money, right?
Not quite.
In fact, affiliate marketing is no different than selling your own products and so that is the approach that you need to take with it. But before we get too deep into that let’s make sure we understand what affiliate marketing is.
What Is Affiliate Marketing and How Does It Work?
There is no better marketing than word-of-mouth marketing. It really can’t be beaten.
However, you can’t control it. You can’t tell people to start talking about your products. They have to really feel compelled to like them enough to talk about them.
Or you can give them a different incentive.
In this case, money.
Affiliate marketing is when you pay someone else a commission when they promote your product and a person makes a purchase.
In essence, they become your salesperson.
It’s an effective way to scale your business, especially in the online space.
It works out great for individuals as well because they don’t need to create a product or handle customer service.
They just need to get people to click on a link and visit a site.
Okay, that’s not completely true but that’s how most people treat affiliate marketing.
They believe that as long as they can get people to click a link then they’ll be good, but that isn’t how great affiliate marketers work.
So how do you get good at affiliate marketing?
You need to understand who you are talking to and the customer cycle phase they are in.
The Sales Cycle
Let’s say you and I are talking and I offer you a 6-month supply of the best silk diapers for kids around.
The problem is that you don’t have kids.
What are the chances you’d buy the diapers?
Pretty much nil and for good reason. You don’t have a need for them so talking to you would be pretty pointless.
However, what if you found that you or your partner are pregnant?
Then there would be a level of interest and the level of interest would be dictated on how close we are to the child’s birth.
If there are 7 months to go then you might not feel you need to buy anything yet and you’ll want to do some research.
If you’re taking the baby home and have absolutely no diapers at all, but know you want silk ones then the sale becomes a lot easier.
That is why affiliate marketing can be so difficult to comprehend for people. Just because someone clicks on a link doesn’t mean they are ready for what’s on the other end.
It also means that a lot of people that want to implement affiliate marketing in their business don’t write the right content to bring people in that are closer to buying.
Great affiliate marketers understand the people they are trying to attract, what part of the sales cycle they are in, and what content will convince them to not only click the affiliate link, but make a purchase at the end.
Can You Make Money With Affiliate Marketing?
Yes.
In fact, with the right audience, right product, and right sales funnel you can make a LOT of money with affiliate marketing.
But again, you have to treat it almost as if it were your own product.
We currently make over 5 figures a year with affiliate marketing. It’s not a big part of our business because we focus on selling our own products, but we make money by recommending other people’s products that are great complements to what we do.
For example, when it comes to hosting your blog, we recommend Siteground due to the great customer service. If you click that link and purchase a Siteground hosting plan then we will make a little bit of money.
We also recommend books that we think you should read if you want to improve your business. These books links back to Amazon and if you purchase then we make a little bit of money.
You’re basically getting paid to do word-of-mouth marketing but just because you say something, that doesn’t mean you’ll make a sale.
So what do you do?
How to Make Money With Affiliate Marketing
Remember, affiliate marketing isn’t much different than selling your own products. So how do you sell your own products?
It’s a question that we continued to ask ourselves over the years because the more people that we help, the more of a framework we know we needed to develop that worked for everybody.
So we came up with the Pocket Business Framework.
The Hero is your audience. It’s the one person that you’re talking to and trying to show them they should follow you.
So to get really good at affiliate marketing you simply have to follow the steps in the Pocket Business Framework. It’s important you keep in mind though the sales cycle and where the person is on their journey.
If you continue to attract the wrong person then it won’t matter how well you do everything else.
I can’t anyone interested in learning how to make money online, but if they don’t want to put in the work then it’s a waste of my time.
However, if I talk to someone who really wants to leave their job and live a happier life, then they are more willing to pay attention to me.
If I can continue to provide them with value by helping them overcome some problems then they’ll trust me more.
When I tell them about a product that I use daily to help me grow my business then they are much more likelier to purchase it.
Now, does this require a long sales funnel where you write a million blog posts and emails? It depends.
If you want to learn how to change your own oil today and you know it’s possible then I just have to make sure that the sales page to my Change Your Own Oil at Home course has the necessary information that you need.
However, if you don’t even know that changing your own oil is possible then I have to educate you on that stuff first.
To make money with affiliate marketing you need to understand who you are talking to and where they are at in their journey.
Have you ever wondered why there are a million and one review sites like The Wirecutter?
Besides the fact affiliate marketing pays it’s also that when people are looking for a review of something they are close to the end of the buying cycle and ready to purchase.
So if you can convince them at this camera lens is the best lens for what they want to do then they’ll buy it. However, you’re not going to look for a review on a camera lens if you don’t have a camera or you’re happy with your phone taking pictures.
Sure you might be interested in lenses and cameras for fun, but that’s not enough to make a purchase. There is no need.
The better you know your Hero, the more money that you will make with your affiliate marketing.