What Is Affiliate Marketing?

I’ve been asked by lots of people – “What is affiliate marketing?”

If you’re new to the world of internet marketing then at some stage you are going to come across this term, so let me explain.

When you become an affiliate marketer you sell other peoples’ products and services to the people you have on your email list. And….you get paid a commission for every successful sale you make.

Becoming an affiliate marketer is often the very first thing that people do when setting up their own online business.

Although by far the best model for making a good income online is to develop and sell your own products becoming an affiliate marketer is a good place to start your online.

reating and marketing your own products takes time and effort. So, when people need to find a way to quickly learn how to earn an income online they often turn to promoting other people’s products and services.

Affiliate Marketing – Who Benefits?

The good thing about affiliate marketing is that is has good all round benefits for you, the developer of the product you are selling, and of course for your customer.

How does this work?

• Well, first of all, you benefit from a successful sale as an affiliate because you earn a commission from the sales you make and receive much needed income.
• The creator/developer of the product also wins because they will take a percentage of the sale, and at the same time they will also usually add people to their email list as a result of the traffic you generate for them when promoting their product.
• And last, but not least, you are helping people on your list, your customers, to have their needs met. Of course, not everyone on your list will buy every affiliate product you promote, but some will buy some of the products you promote to them, which usually means a you have satisfied customer.

Where To Find Products To Promote

Finding products to promote is as simple as signing up to become an affiliate on one, or more of several well known, and trustworthy forums.

For example:

• JvZoo (jvzoo.com)
• Clickbank (clickbank.com)
• Commission Junction (cj.com)

What Help Do I Get From The Product Creator?

When you are dealing with reputable digital product creator it will be in their best interest to help you to promote their product want to help you.

So, the good one will usually provide you with things like:

A Complete Sales Funnel

A sales funnel will typically include a selection of:

• free blog posts or articles

• maybe a free report

• perhaps a follow up paid report

• and then, other increasingly ‘high ticket’ (expensive) items to promote

A Sales Page

The sales page is a page that is entirely dedicated to selling the product.

That means that there will be no external links, no distracting content or images.

It will be just one ‘sales script’ purely designed to promote the product and make it sound highly desirable.

This will be interspersed with ‘Buy Now’ buttons and the writing will be highly persuasive.

A Free Report

A free report is often the very first, or front end of the product creator’s sales funnel.

The idea is in exchange for giving you their email address, people will be given access to a free report that relates to a problem or area of interest to your customer.

After signing up and getting their free report there will be some “upsell pages” which promote other offers.

A Video Sales Letter

This can literally be a pre-recorded sales video prepared by the product creator, or they will provide you with a written script so you can record your own version of the video sales letter.

A video sales letter is just another proven way to engage the visitor to your sales page to get them to buy.

Squeeze Page and Email Swipes

These form additional elements of the sales funnel and will usually be supplied when you act as an affiliate for the product creator.

Email swipes are simply ready made marketing messages,

A squeeze page is the landing page you send people to as a part of your promotion, and it is where they opt in to become subscribers to your email list, usually to get the free report, or other offer you are making.

The Flip Side Of Affiliate Marketing

The other side of affiliate marketing is of course where you create your own digital products and then seek to attract partners who will act as affiliates to promote your product.

Doing things this way can have a dramatic impact on your online business.

Not only will you promote your own digital products, you potentially could have a number of excellent internet marketers helping you to make excellent profits and heaps of new subscribers to your email list.

In this short video, internet marketing guru Neil Patel explains how you can leverage affiliate marketing

Summary – What Is Affiliate Marketing?

Hopefully this short blog post will have given you a much better idea about what affiliate marketing is and how it can benefit you, a digital product creator, and of course, your email list subscribers.