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Undoubtedly, it is a profitable online business model. It has been a billion-dollar industry even before 2022. The reason for it being profitable is the number of people habituated to buying goods and services online is rising. The internet revolution worldwide makes it a lucrative source of income.
Talking about its profitability, it can be rewarding and lucrative if treated in a serious manner. It requires time and effort to make it profitable.
Please do read the whole article to get a better understanding of why affiliate marketing is profitable in 2022.
Let’s get started!
What makes you bring here?
The reason behind asking this question would be doubting the ability. People do ask whether it is worth devoting time, can a newbie make money, does it work in the long run, etc.
The answer to each of these questions is precise and simple—Affiliate marketing is profitable till the time people don’t stop buying goods and services online. Currently, in 2022, this doesn’t seem to change, at least now right.
But asking is worthy since many of you wish to get into it but don’t know how and why. So we will learn all about this in detail.
Let’s get into the article!
Why affiliate marketing?
Firstly your “why” should be clear before entering into this business. Without it, there won’t be a motivation for you to sustain.
Probably you must be a newbie or are curious to know why you want to go with affiliate marketing when there are several other options already available.
The affiliate marketing industry is a billion-dollar industry, as I mentioned earlier. Now there must be some strong reason behind its success.
It is integral not only for individuals but also for businesses as well. In order to survive in this competition, businesses need to push up sales. And that’s where affiliate marketing comes into the picture.
Affiliate marketing has the potential to drive sales and generate massive revenue. It is beneficial to brands as well as affiliate marketers.
In fact, 81% of brands and 84% of publishers leverage the power of affiliate marketing. A statistic that will continue to increase as affiliate marketing spending increases every year in the United States.
Source – curvearro.com
Affiliate marketing has played a crucial role in a company achieving heights of success. Besides that, it is appealing because of its high-paying commission structure. Especially the digital products which are lucrative.
How affiliate marketing works?
The better you understand the process, the more you will get clarity as to what needs to be done.
Affiliate marketing works in the following 3 basic steps which are as follows:-
- Select a product (physical or digital) with an affiliate program
- Promote your unique affiliate link to a target audience
- You earn commissions when your audience makes a purchase
For instance, If you are interested in the “skincare” niche then you should select the products accordingly. Suppose you decided to promote acne facewash products, you can look for programs that offer these products.
After joining the particular affiliate program, you will receive a unique affiliate link for that product.
Now you can share that link in your blogs, YouTube video descriptions, social media posts, etc.
If the target audience visits and purchases through that link, you receive your prescribed commission.
Categories of products in affiliate marketing
Choosing the right kind of product is the initial step. Two categories of products are available namely,
- Physical product – It means a product in physical form which has physical existence that can be seen or touched. E.g. skincare, fashion, weight loss (or gain), etc.
- Digital product – It is a virtual product that is available on a particular marketplace like Clickbank, JVZOO, CJ, etc. and can be accessed simply by logging into that marketplace. E.g. Online courses (SEO, Facebook Ads, Dropshipping, etc.), software, online tools, website themes, plugins, and many many more such stuff.
If you are worried about which to choose from above then let me tell you, why you should prefer digital products over physical products.
Here’s why–
- Instant delivery to the customers
- High-profit margins
- Passive income opportunities
- Recurring commision possibility
What makes affiliate marketing profitable?
Here the major impact is created since it provides a higher commission. But this doesn’t mean just to get blind only by seeing the profitability. One also needs to consider whether he/she is interested and can commit time and effort.
This is the digital era so why avoid digital products?
Talking about digital products such as useful e-books, SEO and digital marketing tools & courses, etc. generally has higher commissions compared to physical products.
The reason is—creating digital products involves one-time costs and that same product can be sold to different people over and over.
So there are no recurring costs on you for creating, manufacturing, and shipping the product.
For example, let’s say a product is set to be sold for $10. So for every sale, the marketer receives $7 and the rest $3 goes to the creator of the product.
Normally a salesperson would get about 5-10% of a sale proceed whereas, here you get about 60%, 70%, or sometimes 80+%.
So, I highly recommend choosing digital products over physical products if you are just starting out.
What products to promote in affiliate marketing?
Let’s talk about what type of products you can promote in affiliate marketing.
So in order to start, you need a product to sell.
There are a plethora of options available to choose from for affiliate programs.
Such as some popular ones like ClickBank, JVZoo, Commission Junction (now CJ), Fiverr, ShareASale, and many more.
While selecting affiliate programs, always see the potential and value it adds to people’s life.
Here I would like to share a tip—Most people choose to select a product that has the most sales and higher commission. So if you do that, you will be in that competition of same people.
The result of this would be that in case you are not able to do well, all the leads would go to your competitors. And you cannot do anything since you have nothing unique to offer.
It is a wise decision if choose to stand apart from the crowd. Offer them something unique that others aren’t giving.
There is an interesting thing in affiliate marketing, or selling in general, named, “high-ticket closing“. This means charging a premium price on your product or service.
You can choose to promote high-ticket products since it involves higher price which leads to higher profits. Here you don’t need to sell more to generate profits, you just need a few sales to be able to generate more than $200, or even $1,000.
It is not necessary to promote popular affiliate programs each time. Instead, you can choose which are less popular but effective and unique.
Steps to make money with affiliate marketing
Given below are certain primary steps which cannot be avoided while doing affiliate marketing.
The primary steps involved are as follows:
Step 1: Choose a niche
Different kinds of niches are available such as products related to FMCG, skincare, technology, personal finance, wellness, making money online, and many more.
It’s totally up to you what do you prefer and in which niche you feel comfortable the most so be selective accordingly.
Step 2: Choose a product according to your niche
Selecting the right product is one of the most important steps when it comes to affiliate marketing.
Study in-depth about the product, how it will help people resolve their issues, what value it provides, etc.
Step 3: Promote
There are many ways to promote your affiliate link. Mainly, there are two ways—
Organic
- Creating social media presence – After choosing the product create your presence on social media where you will connect with your target audience.
Platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Linked In, etc. are filled with millions of users who might need the help which you can solve.
- Post relevant content – Focus on quality and not quantity. Try to communicate with the target audience by giving value. And after that, you can push your affiliate links to them.
Paid
In this method, you take the help of online advertising in order to promote your affiliate offers.
You can try Google ads, Facebook ads, Bing ads, Native ads, etc., and see what works for you.
Please note that you need some money before you can get into paid ads. Also, it requires a lot of patience and learning in order to get a good return on investment.
Skills required for affiliate marketing
Skills play a crucial role in order to sell a product in affiliate marketing. Some of the primary skills required are as follows:
- Content generation: As it is truly said that content is the king. With content you can rule this world of affiliate marketing. To generate content, you need to learn more of your niche and product.
As you keep growing you can increase the level. Content could be shared on different social media platforms where your target audience is present.
Presenting the relevant content to the relevant audience is really important.
- Problem solving and decision making: Assuming your product is a problem solver, you must have skill to pitch the idea behind it’s working.
People might have problem, which is why they need a solution which your product is solving.
At the same time, you need decision making skill since there will be hurdles waiting for you.
In order to cope up, you need to plan where you are lacking and make plan accordingly.
- Creativity: Creativity is the most essential factor in affiliate marketing. Reason why some people are on the top is because of their creativity.
Their innovative ideas, attractive content, proactive strategies, planning, etc. makes them stand apart from others.
- Communication: Communication is the medium through which you promote your products. The more you are good at it, the better is the future.
Bitter truth is it can either make you or break you.
Maintaining relation with people is really crucial to sustain in the long run. To reach at the top of affiliate marketing, you must have a strong bond with people.
Final thoughts
In conclusion, I would like to say that yes affiliate marketing is profitable provided if done under proper guidance and execution.
Hope you enjoyed and learned something from this article. If you have any other queries, feel free to put them in the comment box below.
Please share this article with friends and people who may need it.
See you in the next article.
