There’s no question that starting a business is tough. From market research to the financial risk and the marketing strategies needed to drive traffic and earn revenue, it’s an endeavor that’s not for the faint of heart.
Internet-based businesses can take many forms, ranging from selling unique products and services to distributing existing products as an online retailer. But there’s another way to run a potentially lucrative business online. It doesn’t involve much overhead, or the hassle of stocking and shipping products. In fact, after a minimal upfront investment, this particular type of business can generate passive income with very little effort to the business owner.
Welcome to the world of affiliate marketing, a simpler path to self-employment. What is affiliate marketing, you ask? Affiliate marketing is about promoting another company’s product or service on your site, and earning commission from the resulting sales. There’s no downside for the consumer, who can still get products at a good price online—but when they make a purchase through an affiliate link, you get a cut of that sale.
Still not clear on how to start affiliate marketing? You’ve come to the right place. We’ve got the skinny on launching an affiliate website, earning affiliate marketing passive income, the link between affiliate marketing programs and native advertising, and much more.
How much money can you make with Affiliate Marketing?
The affiliate marketing industry is hotter than ever, with our research showing it could reach $15.7 billion by 2024. Affiliate marketing as a source of revenueis on the rise as well; nearly half of survey respondents (49%) say their company’s affiliate marketing channel grew between 2020 and 2022.
Have you ever wondered how to become an affiliate marketer, or been interested in learning more about this kind of business? The first thing you’ll discover when you look into the value of affiliate marketing is its huge potential for success.
How much do affiliate marketers make? Shopify research shows that, among affiliate marketers, an affiliate marketing salary (also known as commissions) can vary from $70.99 for a business-related program to $6 per sale in lower-cost categories like books, media, and clothing. Some commissions were as high as $289.06 per sale.
As with any website, it takes time and energy to create the kind of high-quality content that will drive traffic to affiliate links. So where do you begin?
Start with niche selection. Are you going to offer recipes and related cooking or baking products? Product deals and coupons from across the web? Product reviews and recommendations? Once you decide what kind of content you’re going to feature, you can start compiling it to create value for your visitors.
Here are a few questions to keep in mind:
- Is my niche hyper-targeted? The narrower and more specific you make your content topic, the easier it will be for consumers to know what to expect from your site. This will also help to differentiate you from competitors online.
- Is there demand for my site? This is another important consideration when choosing a vertical. In other words, if you build it, will they come?
- Is there enough content to work with? Because affiliate marketing requires traffic, and content is what will drive traffic to your site, you’ll want to make sure you pick a niche with the potential for expansion.
Once you’ve selected your niche, it’s time to decide on your platform. Will your affiliate business be a website? YouTube Channel? Blog? Since creating original content for your platform, or populating it with content from around the web, is the key to attracting and retaining visitors, you’ll need to consider which platform is the best fit for your vision.
It’s also smart to implement SEO strategies and search engine optimization best practices that can further help drive traffic, like including relevant keywords in your content and making your site mobile-friendly.
Once you’ve done all of that, you’re ready to join an affiliate program. This is one of the best ways to make a passive income. There are many tools and techniques you can use to promote your affiliate links, including email marketing, social media engagement, and native advertising, to generate income both in the short term and over time.
It’s important to note that, because native advertising can be customized to blend in with your site environment, it doesn’t detract from the user experience. What it does do is allow you to promote affiliate links on your site, and also drive traffic to your affiliate blog from other sites across the web. So if your blog offers financial tips and wealth management information to millennials, for example, native ads can provide valuable products and services while also generating revenue from clicks.
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Affiliate Marketing Average Income
Earnings can vary from one affiliate marketer to the next depending on factors like the type of product and the cost of the sale, but because there’s so little effort involved in maintaining this revenue stream once you’re up and running, you’ll find this approach to entrepreneurship can deliver an impressive return on investment.
Recent studies show that the average affiliate marketing income annually of a US-based affiliate marketer is $72,969. Some affiliate marketers even achieve six-figure incomes from passive programs, with salaries as high as $111,500 per year. What’s more, affiliate marketing earnings can significantly increase over time. With some effort and persistence, you’ll find there’s potential for remarkable success.
Affiliate Marketing Blog Income
As we’ve mentioned, affiliate blogging is one of the most popular ways to leverage the principals of affiliate marketing and create an online business with legs. So what differentiates a blog from other affiliate platforms? For a blog to be effective, it needs to provide content that’s updated on a regular basis, and that can help you build an audience of loyal visitors.
One of the benefits of this approach is that blog platforms offer easy-to-use templates that allow you to design and build your blog without the need for in-depth web development expertise. With a design in place, you can start populating your blog with both content and affiliate links that turn your new site into a revenue-generator while also providing visitors with useful or entertaining content.
As you build up your blog, it’s crucial to drive organic traffic through SEO and email marketing, along with paid traffic through promotions, sponsored content, and native ads elsewhere online. The goal is to promote affiliate products, an effort that serves both your needs and those of your affiliate partners.
E-commerce marketing, along with programmatic advertising, can help you increase traffic to your site, and therefore also your affiliate links. Some blogs, like PCMag, make upwards of $10,000 per month from affiliate links alone.
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Affiliate Marketing Passive Income
As much potential as there is for growth and success in this space, achieving affiliate marketing passive income isn’t just about sharing a link and expecting clicks. The effort you put into building your content will deliver a return on investment if you continue to enhance your site and create a desirable online destination. Once you get into a rhythm, affiliate blog maintenance will become significantly easier, and you should notice that you continue to increase that passive income over time.
Of course, selecting the best affiliate programs is a big part of that success. Here are a few tips to keep in mind:
- Find the right fit. Many affiliate programs work with specific types of blogs, or have a particular area of expertise, so look for options within your own industry.
- Reputation is everything. Choose an affiliate program that has a good reputation, and do your homework to make sure their partners are successful and happy with what they have to offer.
- Pick a pro. Since you’re putting your potential income in the hands of a partner, you should always make sure they have a long history in the space and a deep knowledge of affiliate marketing—like Taboola.
5 Tips to Increase Your Affiliate Income
Ready to start earning money through affiliate marketing? We’ve got five more tips to keep in mind, whether you’re preparing to launch a new blog or site or will be adding affiliate links to an existing one. Follow these vital guidelines to increase your chances of affiliate marketing success and achieve the reliable source of passive income you’ve been looking for.
1. Choose the right products
Remember when we mentioned the process of selecting a content niche? Once you have that, stay in your lane. Avoid the temptation to be an affiliate for absolutely everything, and focus on promoting the products and services you—and your audience—value most. Spreading your content too thin will only dilute its value, whereas keeping a laser-focus on your particular area of expertise will reliably drive affiliate link clinks.
2. Provide useful information
Today’s consumers shy away from the hard sell, preferring instead to find useful information that they can pursue at their leisure. That’s one of the advantages of affiliate links: they can blend seamlessly into site content, and use the power of context to deliver the right message at the right time to the right audience. Your e-commerce business will thank you for adopting this strategic approach.
3. Optimize your content
In order to ensure people can find your site or blog content online, don’t overlook the importance of optimization. SEO strategies like including relevant keywords, linking to both internal and external site pages, tagging images, and more can increase traffic from search engines. If your affiliate marketing shows up in those searches too, it’s more likely you’ll earn a commission on your affiliate links, thus generating a greater ROI (return on investment).
4. Use video for promotion
Whether your site includes product reviews, how-to guides, or some other form of useful information, incorporating video content can be an effective way to generate and maintain interest. Consider using video as one of your affiliate marketing promotion methods, since this form of content is known for being engaging and appealing to consumers. Spend some time exploring email marketing as well, as it’s a great way to maintain contact with your site users and remind them to check out your new posts. You can even include some of your video content in the email newsletter itself.
5. Experience to boost conversions
While prioritizing site traffic is crucial, so is boosting your conversion rate—and the two don’t always go hand in hand. As you work on driving more site traffic, experiment with your headlines and calls to action to increase the odds that your visitors will click.
Conversion rate optimization can take many forms, but tools like Taboola’s Headline Analyzer and AI-powered technology designed to boost conversions from native ads, can make all the difference when your objective is to keep that income stream flowing.
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With Taboola services, making passive monthly income is as easy and straightforward as can be. Once you’ve set up your campaigns and tested which strategies work best, you can sit back and let them generate revenue while you focus on creating content. Thanks to the cutting-edge technology built into affiliate programs with Taboola’s Native Ads, you can establish a real and loyal audience and keep site visitors coming back, thus boosting conversions while enhancing your website performance.
Interested in seeing higher returns from your affiliate links? Connect with us, and let’s talk!