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If there is anything to learn from the 1% in society, it is that wealth creation comes from having diversified streams of income. People like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk have perfected having multiple successful businesses and investments that work for them.
In order to diversify income streams, many people began to turn to affiliate marketing on social media. But how much can you make with affiliate marketing? Well, the average annual earnings one can make from affiliate marketing is $65,800, but on either end of the market, one can make $2000 or earn $1 million yearly.
This post is aimed at dissecting the world of affiliate marketing and reviewing how lucrative it can be in 2021.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Wikipedia defines affiliate marketing as a performance-based marketing strategy where businesses reward marketers that promote their venture.
When an affiliate marketer includes links to products on their blogs or social media accounts, brands get exposed to a wider audience. If the site audience further decides to click on the affiliate link and perform a call to action, the affiliate marketer gets paid a specified amount for that referral.
The more exposure or sales are generated via the affiliate link, the more the affiliate marketer earns. So there is no fixed amount to how much you can make with affiliate marketing but there are steps that one can take to avoid earning on the low end of the income spectrum.
Irrespective of the social media platform in view, these sites have specific guidelines that govern affiliate marketing. Social media platforms such as Pinterest, blogsites, and Instagram make it easy to have affiliate links in content posted, while platforms such as Facebook and Youtube have strict guidelines.
Most social media sites rely on traffic retention, so for an affiliate marketer to truly seal the deal with brands, the content uploaded must be creative enough to persuade followers to follow through on the links.
Why is Affiliate Marketing Profitable?
The revenue generated by affiliate marketing in 2020 was $6.8 billion, with room for improvement. Statistics show that more brands, 81% to be exact, have increased their affiliate marketing budget and utilize it as a part of their marketing strategies.
Affiliate marketing is profitable because it apportions the marketing responsibility across parties. The affiliate marketing model operates with an affiliate who promotes a product they may or may not have used before. Although digital advertisers have realized that it is easier for an individual to promote a product they have positive experiences with than a product that they rarely use.
The affiliate marketing model involves three parties. These parties are; the seller (brand), affiliate marketer, and consumer.
The seller creates the product that the affiliate marketer promotes and, based on the promotional skills of the affiliate marketer, the consumer purchases the product.
Affiliate marketing is profitable because consumers tend to carry out market research before purchasing a product, with 85% of online buyers admitting to conduct product research before purchasing.
How Much Can You Earn with Affiliate Marketing in 2021?
The affiliate marketing space has become quite large, involving various niches and affiliate programs, making it difficult, but not impossible, to say how much you can earn with affiliate marketing. However, there are factors to be considered before one can determine the average price point you stand to make with affiliate marketing like;
- Niche: it is always beneficial to pick a popular niche with proven results, but it is even better to stay in a niche that you are passionate about.
- Keyword research: to generate enough traffic and maximize user interest, you should research to have the accurate lingo that your target audience uses.
- Find a product to promote: a new product enters the market almost every day so finding a product to promote should not be challenging. The challenge comes in finding a ‘useful’ product to promote. The product you choose to promote has to be something that piques your audience’s interest.
- Create engaging content: remember that with affiliate marketing, it is essential to persuade followers with relevant content so that they would want to click on the affiliate link and carry out a call-to-action. If the content is engaging enough, the link clicks will be evidence of it.
Various individuals have developed their affiliate marketing strategies to the point that if they decided to leave it as their only source of income, they would be safe. Examples of such people are;
- Pat Flynn: Flynn has been an affiliate marketer since 2008 and makes over $10,000 a month through affiliate marketing. While he does have multiple streams of income; he stated that 80% of his income comes from affiliate marketing.
- Fun with Louis: this YouTube star earns $40,000 per year through affiliate marketing on YouTube alone.
How to Maximize Affiliate Marketing?
The world of affiliate marketing can be a lucrative one if you are willing to put in the time and effort required to build an audience strong enough that values what you say. It is essential to keep in mind that affiliate marketing works because of the faith, trust, and rapport followers have with the affiliate marketer.
To enable you to make the most out of your affiliate marketing experience, here are some tips:
- Engage your audience: sites with large social media followings can find it hard to interact with their audience, but engagement either through DM’s stories or by responding to a comment can help build rapport with your desired audience.
- Personal products are best: we mentioned above that it is essential to promote products borne out of personal experience rather than just a random product. It is easy for an audience to spot a product pitch over a personal product experience.
- Multiple sources: to make the most money as an affiliate marketer, we advise that you utilize cross-channel promotions. If you have an active social media presence, use that along with email lists. The more people are clicking on your affiliate links, the better for you.
- Be selective with affiliate programs: there are thousands of affiliate programs available, but not all are beneficial. Just because an affiliate program offers high rewards does not mean it is the right one for you. When selecting a program to partner with, you should ensure that it is with a brand that delivers products in the quality promised and one that sticks to its rewards system.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, if you are committed to putting in the hard work and patience required for affiliate marketing, the days of multiple income streams aren’t too far away.
There is truly no limit to how much money you can make with affiliate marketing once hard work is involved., it is a segment that has even created millionaires, and you can be the next one. Knowing how challenging it can be to monitor all the website processes as an affiliate marketer, the Youzan group which is a global eCommerce facilitator created AllValue.
AllValue is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) tool that can organize all your eCommerce needs, from site creation to product delivery and all the services that fall in-between. AllValue trusts its offering and is going as far as offering a 15-day free trial along with a 90-day trial period of their website/app creation services. The key to the success of your eCommerce brand is only a click away. Visit AllValue today to sign up for your AllValue experience!