There are many different ways you can make money from a website, but affiliate marketing has stood the test of time. Before we give our 8 reasons why we think it’s the best, what actually is affiliate marketing?
Simply put, it’s when you become ‘affiliated with’ another website that sells a product or service and then promotes (market) that product or service through your own site. There are various technical aspects to this, but whoever you affiliate with will provide all of the tools and guidance you need and there are whole networks dedicated to making these partnerships run smoothly.
So, what makes it such a good way to monetize your website?
1) It Suits Content Producers
If your website isn’t based on your own product or service, then you’re probably a content producer. And unless you sell information, it’s difficult to make revenue directly from that content. Your blog might have value in terms of helping, informing or entertaining readers, but nobody expects to pay to read it.
Affiliate marketing allows you to adopt somebody else’s product or service and earn a commission when it sells. Marketing is essentially producing content and since you’re already producing it, then the two go hand in hand.
2) It’s Not All About Traffic
Another common way to monetize a website is through displaying advertisements on the pages. The vast majority of advertising revenue is based on the amount of traffic you get, much like a newspaper can command better rates based on circulation.
Unfortunately, the average site simply does not get enough traffic to make meaningful money. Even when ads are targeted, the targeting is usually broad and the payoff low.
On the other hand, affiliate marketing is highly targeted. It’s not necessarily about how many people visit your site, but the type of people that visit and whether they are likely to purchase the product or service – which brings us to the next point …
3) You Can Match Products to your Audience
The key benefit of affiliate marketing and the reason why ‘it’s not all about traffic’ (though it obviously helps), is that you can match products to your audience.
For example, if you run a horror movie review site and community, then becoming an affiliate for a streaming horror movie service is going to be more beneficial than relying on ad revenue. Not only is your audience inherently interested in horror movies, but your own knowledge is going to benefit your marketing efforts. You might review the service or hype the movies that are available etc.
This is much more likely to make you money than getting $0.10 for every thousand views a random banner ad gets.
4) A lot of the Hard Work is Done For You
Businesses are marketing their product or service already. They know what works and will provide you with all the information, base materials and assets you need to succeed. Your job is to take this and present it to your audience; whether that be through blog posts and reviews, video content, passing on coupon codes and free trials or displaying highly targeted banner ads.
Of course, you can be creative yourself and include your own sales copy and delivery, but it’s not your responsibility to formulate their global marketing strategy and as long as you have a relevant audience, it’s not as difficult as it first looks.
5) It’s Higher Paying
Compared with ad networks that pay you based on the number of impressions or clicks an advert gets, affiliate marketing is much higher paying. You’ll typically be paid a percentage of the sale (commission), though some companies will even pay for an action, such as getting a user to sign-up for something.
If a visitor to your site clicks a banner ad, you only get a few cents regardless of whether they go on to spend thousands with the business that took out the ad.
If you’re good at producing content then you can make good money tapping into high-paying niches like payday loans and online lending services, lawyers, and dentists.
6) It Inspires New Content
Let’s face it if you run a blog or content-based site, sometimes you just run out of ideas or motivation to keep it updated. Affiliate marketing is the perfect impetus to keep on producing content (because you’ll make money), but also because having a product or service to market can help spark new ideas.
If a vendor releases a new deal or entirely new product, then you have a new review to write or unboxing video to produce.
7) There’s No Risk
Because you are promoting somebody else’s business, there’s no risk of losing money with affiliate marketing. It also costs zero money to get started.
The worst position you can be in after giving it a try is right back where you were at the beginning.
8) Scalability
Whether you have a few hundred daily visitors or hundreds of thousands, affiliate marketing is highly scalable. With large vendors, your site and performance are free to grow. With smaller vendors, you can grow together.
If you are looking to make money from your website or blog and have never given affiliate marketing a try, you’re certainly missing out. However, if you’re already making profits, let us know why you like it so much and share some tips below!
