So what is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing, in a nutshell, is the process of earning a commission from the sales in which your referrals provide. Using your social media platforms and site to promote products which others may purchase and if they do so via your link, you will get a fraction of the money back.  Interested? Keep reading to find out how easy it is to get started with affiliate marketing.

Where do I start with affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a way for brands to make sales via your promotion and as a reward for helping them make the sale, you earn a commission which is a percentage of the money back. Some brands run their own affiliate programmes in house, however, most do it through a 3rd party. If you’re looking for a specific retailer you’d like to promote then simply do a Google Search to find out who runs their programme and then request to join. In the UK Awin, Trade Doubler and Rakuten are where you can locate some of the more established brands.

I’ve applied, now what?

It usually takes around 24-72 hours to be approved to join the site and for some affiliate networks you are required to pay a small fee, but you do get this back in your first payout. However, the approval stage from the brand site can take significantly longer. During this time it can be useful to explore the other retailers on-site, figure out how everything works (as it can be a bit of a minefield at first) and add your details such as payment details to ensure everything runs smoothly.

I’ve been approved, how do I make money?

So once you’ve been approved to the retailer you would like to promote products, you need to decide where to promote them. If you’ve got a large blog following, it may be worth creating posts on your blog such as wishlists and recommendations or if you’re a social media influencer using your platforms to share items can also be effective, such as payday treats or outfits for the summer months. Once you’ve chosen your items and where you’d like to share these, the fun begins. Using a link builder on the affiliate site you can then create a link to your item; all you need to do is input the link you want to promote and the site will turn it into a tracking link. Once someone makes a purchase via that link you should see it pending in your account.

How do I get people to click through my link?

In order to be successful, you need to create content which people will be interested in reading. Once you have the readers, it’s about turning those readers into sales. As sales mean commission. Creating content around regularly searched items can be a great place to start, we recommend starting with a review of a regularly searched product. For example hair straighteners, by reviewing these on your site sharing the pros of the item will help consumers to decide whether to buy them or not. If they decide to purchase, then hopefully they will click through and make the purchase straight away.

However, if they click through your link and don’t buy straight away, what happens next?

An introduction to cookies

Sadly, we aren’t referring to the food type. BUT internet cookies can be useful when it comes to affiliate marketing and here’s how. Once you click through a link, this creates a piece of data which is then stored on your computer. This provides sites with the information that you’ve visited their site and where you came from. Some affiliates allow you to keep the percentage of the purchase as long as the buyer clicks through the link and then purchases it at some point, usually within 14-30 days.

We hope you’ve enjoyed learning some of the basics of affiliate marketing. Not got the time to set up and grow your Affiliate Programme? Why not take a look at our Affiliate Management Services?