Situation 1:
Get up early.
Drive to work, it’s bumper to bumper; the streets are flooded with other half-sleeping commuters.
Sit at your work desk, reply to annoying emails and attend endless meetings until 5 o’clock.
Next day, repeat.
Does it sound boring?
Situation 2:
Wake up in the early morning or maybe a bit late.
You have a choice to glue yourself to bed or wake yourself up.
Open your eyes, check your phone.
Your phone screen shows you have 5 unread emails that say:
“Hey, you just recommended a deal! You have received a commission of S$100.”
In a matter of 5 minutes, you made S$500.
Sounds great? Yes, it’s everyone’s dream.
What if you could make money anytime, anywhere (even while sleeping) instead of dealing with boredom and sleepy rat races every day?
That is the concept of affiliate marketing.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is when you promote the products or services of other companies, and someone buys goods through your affiliate link, you get a commission.
As an affiliate, you are kind of the company’s salesperson. You help make the sale, and the company will reward you. But your job is much simpler.
Speaking of affiliate marketing, the top popular affiliate programs in the world are Amazon associates (Amazon affiliate marketing), ClickBank affiliate marketplace, Fiverr affiliate and many more.
Read Top 15 Affiliate Programs You Can Find In Singapore.
The best thing about affiliate marketing is that you can do it on a large scale.
A typical salesperson only sells the products of one company.
As an affiliate marketer, you can promote the products or services of many different companies and earn commissions from all the companies.
How does Affiliate Marketing Work?
The merchants provide each affiliate with a unique link so that they can track who is responsible for the sale. Here is a quick look:
1. After affiliates join the merchant program, they will get a unique tracking code to promote the company’s products.
2. The affiliate includes the link in his blog content and/or through his email marketing campaign, and invites readers to click the link to learn more.
3. When a potential buyer clicks on the link to visit the affiliate’s partner’s website, a cookie identifying the affiliate will be placed on his computer.
Cookies can ensure that the company pay referral sales to affiliates, even if the sales transaction occurs days or even weeks later. Click here to read more about website cookies.
4. Whenever the buyer uses that affiliate link to complete the sales process, the sales will be auto-credited to that affiliate account.
5. Affiliates can track their report (clicks) and sales anytime on their affiliate account portal.
6. Merchants/companies pay the commission to affiliates at the end of each payment period.
The affiliate process flow is pretty straightforward. Once you understand the process, it’s very simple. No matter what kind of products or services you want to promote, and regardless of your status/level as an affiliate marketer, the process is the same.
How Much Commission You Can Earn in Affiliate Marketing?
The simple answer is that there is no limit. It depends on your niche and the effort you put in.
The most successful affiliate marketers can earn 6 to 7 numbers every month.
For example, in December 2020, one of our affiliate partners earned more than S$10k in affiliate commissions. Another affiliate marketer earned over S$8,000 in affiliate income from us in Jan 2021. And this amount is exclusive of other commissions he earned from other companies.
Remember, these people have done an excellent job of building their own website/blog to promote affiliate products and services. It took them years of hard work to reach this level.
Advice from our successful affiliate partners: You need to manage your expectations. You won’t make big money right away, but don’t be discouraged by it.
The success of others tells you that as long as you work hard, invest time and master the right knowledge, you too can reach these levels.
How Can Beginners Get Started With Affiliate Marketing?
1. Start reviewing products in your niche
Frankly speaking, if you start blogging today, you will face a lot of competition.
In order to increase the chances of success, take tiny steps when working towards your goal.
Choose a topic of a specific category.
For example, the topic of “web hosting” is a huge category. Instead of blogging about web hosting, try more specific things, such as shared hosting, VPS, server, website design & development etc.
If you want to become a good content creator, choose the content you are interested in.
Many affiliate sites died due to a lack of consistency. So, at least, if you are passionate about a topic, you will find it easier to press on when things get tough.
If you are not an expert in this field, don’t worry. Recording what you have learned can bring a lot of content and attract people who are interested in your progress.
2. Find affiliate programs to join
When starting out, it is important to find a good affiliate program. Some affiliate programs are better than others, so be sure to do your research.
Whether you work directly with merchants or through the network, you must apply, get approved, and provide certain information in order to be paid.
The basic things you need to provide:
- Your contact information
- Your bank account or PayPal email
Here are the top 5 high-paying affiliate programs in Singapore:
Find out more about other affiliate programs.
After joining an affiliate program, the merchant will provide you with an affiliate link.
Whenever you post an affiliate product, you will use this affiliate trackable link.
Normally, the affiliate link look like this:
Usually, you will also get some marketing product skills and useful assets (usually found in the welcome guide or website).
3. Start promoting the affiliate product/service of your choice
If you want your affiliate site to be successful, you need to create high-quality content so that your affiliate links suit you naturally.
Don’t blindly pick products from Amazon bestsellers. Work harder to ensure that your content solves the issues faced by your visitors.
But how? If you want to write a review or write a blog related to the product or service you promote, it’s recommended to actually buy the product/service and test it.
For example, the Exabytes affiliate program offers the affiliates to test the hosting service for free. This enables the affiliates to illustrate their experience to the readers: how fast the hosting is, are the plans worth the price paid for?
Check out Exabytes Affiliate Program
Use the different techniques discussed in this post that make sense to your blog and audience.
Yes, this is an excellent way to distinguish yourself from other bloggers who represent the same product.
Here are some examples of bonuses you can offer:
- A step-by-step checklist
- A quick start guide
- A video overview or demo
- Supplementary or discount services
4. Generate customers and earn a certain percentage
The last step is to acquire customers, make sales, and earn passive income.
This means that you need to figure out how to attract website traffic. Of course, this is not always easy.
But after a long period of sustained effort, you will gradually build up your audience and start to get sales.
The Bottom Line
Your dream of earning a passive income and making money while you sleep is not a silly fantasy.
This is a fully achievable reality.
Of course, this is not as easy as hitting a magic button or throwing money on Facebook ads or Google ads to promote your website, but as long as you have a little knowledge and perseverance, you can do it, or even turn it into an online business.
Once you have gained considerable followers, affiliate marketing will be one of the best business models for making money.
The best news is that it is easy to use. In this post, all the steps to start an affiliate marketing business are explained.
Just identify the one big thing that everyone in the audience needs to achieve.
**More tips: In this digital era and amid the pandemic, every business is encouraged to move online and create an online presence.** Start from there.
Provide content that offers useful knowledge and guidance that can help and educate your readers, and be careful not to sell hard.
Be frank, honest and transparent. Cultivate reader trust.
Finally, be patient.
All your efforts will be paid back with that sweet “Ka-Ching!” of the affiliate commission into your bank account.
Join The Exabytes Affiliate Program
If your audience wants to start an online business, migrate their hosting, server or digital marketing solutions to improve their online presence and business revenue, we recommend that you apply for the Exabytes Affiliate Program.
You do not need to pay any fees to join the program.
Just signup for an affiliate account! You will have a friendly and helpful full-time account manager to guide you through.
