If you have followed me in my journey to find a business I love you know that I have decided to focus on affiliate marketing. When I talk about it do you ever wonder, what in the heck is affiliate marketing?  Maybe you don’t but I want to help those that don’t get it.

In the last few months I have been talking to people that I know, but don’t know what I do.  When I tell them I work at home doing affiliate marketing I always, back that statement up by asking them if they know what that is.  Most of the time they say “No”.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

By definition from Websters Online Dictionary and affiliate is: “A subordinate or subsidiary associate; a person who is affiliated with another or with an organization.”  This is absolutely true an affiliate is someone who has associated with a retail company or someone selling a product.  Now affiliate marketing is marketing for that company or person.

You become an affiliate by applying to an affiliate program.  You can go to affiliate networks such as Commission Junction, Click bank or Pepper Jam Network. These networks have many companies and products that you can become affiliates for. In other words sell their products and get paid for it.  Each company and program will offer a different percentage of commission for products that are sold through your link. You can also find a company or product you want to be an affiliate for and contact them to see if they have an affiliate program. The Super Affiliate Handbook goes into great detail about this.

How do you market a product or program?

Okay, so you have picked out one product or service and are now their affiliate.  What do you do now? You can market a product or program in many, many different ways.  The key is to have someone to talk to that would be interested in what you have to offer.  A few ways you can promote a product is with a blog, a mailing (e-mail) list, forums, an e-book, all of these things and others!

How in the world do I get paid for affiliate marketing?

When you sign up for an affiliate program you are given your own unique URL or website link.  When you are promoting this product or service to your market you use that link in your blog post, Facebook message, Twitter message, etc.  For example say my niche is Barbie dolls.  I sign up for Mattel as an affiliate.  I have a link that looks like this: http://mattel.com/aid=12349.  Now that number at the end is my member identification or affiliate number.  When I am talking about Barbie dolls on my blog, the Barbie Doll Collector, I would hyper link an image and/or the word Barbie dolls to the my affiliate link: http://mattel.com/aid=12349.

So far, so good right? Now if someone clicks on that link and buys something from Mattel you will get the 4% commission on whatever they buy.  So if they buy a collectors doll for $100 you will get paid $4.

Get the idea?  Now if you have a list of moms who want to work at home or maybe want to have their own blog you can offer them a start up guide that is free and include links to GoDaddy for the domain, Hostgator for hosting, maybe Aweber for a list management system and maybe a mom mastermind forum like Mom Masterminds.

How do you make a lot of money doing this?

Great question!  You create multiple product pages or posts on your blog, reports, e-books, articles, Squidoo lenses.  Cover all of the social media sites with great content free and paid when you do, include your affiliate links.  Make sure you follow the rules on forums and other social media sites when you do this but there are so many things you can do with affiliate links!  At NAMS we talked about strategies for social marketing.  This is a great way to get yourself out there and also an opportunity to share your affiliate links.

I hope this answers the question: what is affiliate marketing. If you have any other questions let me know!  If you want to see someone who has been very successful in affiliate marketing check out this interview of Lynn Terry. This is a PDF transcript of an interview Nicole Dean did of Lynn Terry.  This was my very first introduction to Lynn and as you know I am a huge fan!

Best,

PS. If you are going to take a serious look at doing affiliate marketing as a business make sure you get the Super Affiliate Handbook by Rosalind Gardner.  She gives you a clear picture as to what it is affiliate marketing is and how to be successful!

photo credit: ElizabethHudy