What is Affiliate Marketing? (Part 2)

Last time I tried to explain affiliate marketing in basic terms. Affiliate marketing is a huge topic! Here’s more…

PPC, CPM, CPA…huh?

When we’re talking about ads and affiliate links, there are different types of ads and sometimes, getting paid depends on which type of ad your site has. You will inevitably encounter a whole host of acronyms as you delve into the world of making money online — it’s enough to drive one batty! Let’s break it down…
CPA = Cost-Per-Action (sometimes referred to as CPL = Cost-Per-Lead)
Much of what I talked about previously would fall into this category. It works like this:

• You put a CPA ad on your site. A reader clicks on it and is asked to complete some sort of action such as purchasing a product, signing up for a newsletter, providing an email address, printing a coupon or subscribing to something. You get paid when the reader completes the required action.

PPC = Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
Pay-Per-Click is different. As the name suggests, Pay-Per-Click works like this:

• Each time one of your readers clicks on a PPC ad on your site, you get paid. The amount you are paid (CPC, or, the Cost-Per-Click) largely depends on your keywords and how much advertisers are paying for those keywords.

The most popular PPC program is Google Adsense which is a cinch to set up and use. You simply sign up, walk through the setup process and paste the provided snippet of code onto your site. That’s pretty much all that’s required from you. Google will then “read” your site, match the keywords it finds in your posts with advertisers that want to target those keywords and then ads will automatically pop up on your site accordingly.
CPM = Cost-Per-Mille or Cost-Per-Impression (sometimes CPI)
The “mille” here is Latin for 1000 and “M” is the Roman numeral for the same. So, some refer to this as Cost-Per-Thousand — thousand impressions or pageviews that is. It works like this:

• You put an ad on your site and you get paid a predetermined amount for every 1000 pageviews on your site. So, for example, let’s say you are working with an ad network that pays $2 CPM. Every time their ad is shown 1000 times on your site, they pay you $2. Pretend your site gets 50,000 pageviews a month (and a particular ad shows up on every one of those pages because it’s in your sidebar). That means you will be paid $100 that month for that ad because $2 for 50 thousands (times it is “viewed”) is $100. Make sense?

When is PPC, CPM & CPA right for me?

Perhaps it’s obvious, but all of these advertising options work best for sites with high traffic since they are all dependent on lots of eyeballs seeing the ads and either clicking or completing actions. Then again, that’s the way it is with all advertising I guess.
Having said that, don’t be discouraged. My recommendation is to try all kinds and see which works best for you. All blogs are different and all bloggers have different levels of success when it comes to the types of ads they use.

What if I don’t have a lot of traffic?

Well, you have a few options:

1. Increase your traffic.
2. Use PPC, CPM and CPA ads as one of your many streams of income. Even if you don’t get a whole lot of money, a little is better than none. There’s nothing that says you can’t start advertising now, even if your traffic isn’t huge. In fact, it might be even better so you can work the kinks out of your system while your blog is still small.
3. Do some research and find the campaigns which pay the most. For example, some CPC ads pay $.05 per click while others pay $10 per click. If you capitalize on the bigger ones, you’ll obviously make more.

How do I maximize my profit from affiliate marketing?

I hate to sound like a broken record, but again, it’s all going to be unique to you and your blog. But if you’re stumped and truly aren’t sure where to start, take a look at the bigger blogs in your niche. How are they utilizing advertising? What types of ads do they use? Where are they placed on the page?
Ask around. In my experience, if you establish a good relationship with other bloggers (and especially if you are giving more than you are taking in that relationship), most are more than willing to share tips and hints about what has and has not worked for them.
As I said last time, never stop trying new things. For example, sign up with Google Adsense as I mentioned above. Then check out the Official AdSense Channel on YouTube for great tips, tutorials and info. Try other ad types as well. If you do, google “[name or type of ad] tips” or something similar and see what you can find.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

One of the easiest and most common ways to make money blogging is through affiliate marketing. What is affiliate marketing? Let me explain…
There are essentially two ways to make money online:

1. Sell your own stuff.
2. Sell or promote someone else’s stuff and get paid for doing it (like I pay a lot of you for promoting Tell Your Time).

Simple.
In this post, we’ll tackle #2. (If you want to sell your own stuff, I recommend starting with an ebook. Here’s how.) But let’s talk about affiliate marketing…

What is affiliate marketing? What is an affiliate?

This is how affiliate marketing works:

1. You have a blog or website (here are my steps to get yours up and running in 15 minutes or less).
2. You know of a product or service you can confidently recommend to your readers. You will first partner with the company that sells this product or service.
3. You will market (i.e. tell others about) this product or service for the company that offers it. In this way, you are an affiliate (sometimes referred to as an internet or affiliate marketer).
4. For example, let’s say on your blog or website, you alert your readers to the great product Company Z offers, either by writing a post about it or placing a button or banner ad somewhere on your site. You link to the product’s website in your post and/or button/banner ad. However, you don’t just use any link, you use your affiliate link which contains your special and unique ID. (We talk about how you get this link in a minute.)
5. A reader clicks on the text link (in your post) or the button/banner ad in your sidebar. They are taken to Company Z’s website and they decide to purchase that product or service.
6. Company Z can see that their new customer (i.e. your reader) was referred by YOU because that uniquely-coded link that tells them so.
7. Because Company Z is grateful to you for the referral, they reward you with a commission.

4 ways to find affiliate products or services to promote

When you’re looking for things to promote, be creative. Every product or service you use and love might very well be affiliate-worthy. Check it out. Here are some ways to find out whether or not there’s an affiliate program attached to the good stuff you talk about and use:

1. Think of a product or service you already like and go to the website of said product.  See if you can find a link (often in the footer) that says something like “Affiliates,” “Affiliate Program,” “Referral Program” or something similar. Follow the links to sign up. For example, when I decided to write my post How to Start a Blog or Website (in 15 Minutes or Less), I simply searched for the info about Bluehost’s affiliate program on their site.
2. Think of a product or service you already like and google it. For example, I’m a fan of Tiny Prints* because I think their greeting cards, birth announcements, wedding invitations & holiday greeting cards are to die for (I really do actually). So I googled “Tiny Prints affiliate program” or “Tiny Prints affiliates” or “Tiny Prints referrals” etc. If your first search doesn’t turn up anything, try again. Don’t give up too easily. Sometimes there are slight variances in word usage or terms. Follow the links to sign up.
3. Take note of the affiliate products other bloggers in your niche are using. Look at their sites. Read their posts. What’s in their sidebar? What are they linking to? If you see a product or service they talk about that jogs your memory and you can ethically promote it too, find affiliate information by the methods described above.
4. One of the best and most efficient ways to find things to promote is to join an affiliate network and browse through their available campaigns. In fact, many companies offer their affiliate program via an affiliate network, so oftentimes as you are searching for possible products to promote, you will have to join an affiliate network anyway. This will often work to your advantage since you’ll have access to a lot more products all in one fell swoop. Like this…

What is an affiliate network?

An affiliate network works like this:

1. Website Q (the affiliate network) is like a middleman. They provide a place where advertisers (i.e. companies that have products or services to sell, sometimes called “vendors”) are matched up with publishers (i.e. you, the blogger or website owner; also referred to as “affiliates”). Imagine Website Q sitting in the middle of you (the publisher/affiliate) and the company (the advertiser).
2. Advertisers strike a deal with Website Q and say “Hey, we want to sell more of Product X. We will reward any of your publishers $XX who promote Product X and it results in a sale.”
3. Website Q agrees and lists that campaign (or offer) on their website.
4. You, the publisher, join the affiliate network (Website Q) and see Product X listed among the available “Campaigns,” “Offers,” or “Marketplace” (usually you’ll find this tab at the top of the screen in the navbar). You decide Product X is a good product for you to promote and write about, so you opt to take part in that campaign. Sometimes you have to apply to be part of the specific campaign for that product, sometimes you don’t; it depends on the affiliate network and advertiser.
5. Once you are cleared to promote Product X and you understand the terms for that campaign, you look through the list of available buttons, banners, text links, etc. for that product. You choose the one that you like most and copy the code they provide for you. This code has your unique ID in it. Then you paste this code on your site wherever you’d like it to show up on your site.
6. Your readers see the banner, button or link, click on it, are taken to the Product X website, they buy it and you get paid by Website Q (who was previously paid by the advertiser of Product X).

Affiliate networks are nice for advertisers because then the advertisers don’t have to run the affiliate program themselves. Affiliate networks are nice for publishers because it’s sort of like one-stop shopping and they don’t have to hunt for individual programs. Of course, affiliate networks are nice for the affiliate networks because they are acting as middlemen and getting a piece of the profit pie.

6 important things to remember before you become an affiliate

1. Choose only products or services you can recommend without reservation. Seek out the best. Products/services you’ve used yourself are a great bet as you can speak about them with confidence and from experience.
2. Choose products or services that are relevant to your niche. If your site is about children’s books and you promote car insurance, at best you’ll look like you don’t know what you’re doing and at worst, you’ll be branded a “spammer.”
3. Once you have gotten a bad reputation as a spammer or an “out-to-make-a-quick-buck” type of blogger, it’s incredibly difficult to regain your reputation. Start out with high standards and you’ll be fine. Simply put, promoting bad stuff makes you look bad and will hurt you in the long run.
4. Look around for the best affiliate deal. My friend Carrie tipped me off to this and after searching around, I realized one of my affiliates paid almost 30% more if I went through a different network. Let me tell you, I changed out those links real fast!
5. Experiment, experiment, experiment! Experiment with different networks, ad sizes, text links vs. images, placement on your page, etc. Sometimes there are vast differences in revenue when small changes are made!
6. Always know the Terms of Service for the programs in which you are participating. It’s no fun to be kicked out of a program!

What are some affiliate networks you can join?

There are lots of affiliate networks available and most are easy peasy to join (just follow the prompts). Different affiliate networks provide different products so you’ll want to hunt around to find the one(s) that are the best fit for you.
Here are some affiliate networks I am a part of, along with a sampling of the types of products, services or campaigns they offer:

1. ShareASale

A large network offering such things like Genesis Theme for WordPress (my favorite!! and if you use Genesis, you might as well make that link in your footer an affiliate link, right?) and Tiny Prints (as mentioned above.)
Sign up for ShareASale here.

2. Logical Media

A network who works with advertisers like Coupons.com (printable coupons) and Home Depot (tutorials and newsletters).
Sign up with Logical Media here.

3. Escalate Network

Another network similar to Logical Media (good for families) offering many of the same things like Vista Print (free business card, address labels, etc.).
Sign up with Escalate Network here.

4. Panthera Network

Advertisers here include things like Entertainment Books.
Sign up with Panthera Network here.

5. Commission Junction

This is a HUGE affiliate network with a bazillion affiliate programs such as Moo Cards (super cute business cards) and Bluehost & HostGator (web hosting).
Sign up as an affiliate with Commission Junction here.

6. Amazon Associates

Who doesn’t love Amazon and the fact that you can get almost anything there? (Plus, it’s a handy place to spend all those Swagbucks gift cards!) Of course, they have much more than books like a Kindle – gonna save for this (got it and LOVE it!), Macs (be still my heart), Pirate’s Booty (we’ve been known to buy these by the case) and textbooks (stop here before the college bookstore!).
Sign up with Amazon Associates here.

7. Even more affiliate networks:

• LinkShare
• MySavings
• Buy.com
• ClickBank

How To Identify Affiliate Sites

Affiliate marketing can be quite subtle - most people using the Internet are unaware that affiliate marketing exists, yet it’s the reason behind a lot of the content on the Internet; therefore one of the first things you should learn when getting started as an affiliate is How To Identify Affiliate Sites. Once you start to spot affiliates you'll realize exactly how pervasive affiliate marketing is, and it might just give you ideas for your own affiliate business!

Affiliates In Paid Search Listings

One of the places where affiliates are most obvious is in the paid advertisements on search engines like Bing or Google.

These affiliates will be promoting their websites through these advertisements, paying for each person who clicks on their ad.
The idea with this sort of marketing is that the money they earn in affiliate commissions is enough to pay for these advertisements, with a bit left over. However, because they have to pay for you to visit their site, you'll often find that they're a little more to the point than affiliates who don't have to pay for their traffic. (You can read more about why this might be, in our overview lesson on PPC Affiliate Marketing)
Let’s take at an example from a Google search on the phrase "learn guitar”.

Look at the search results in Google: the ads along the right hand side of the page are clearly marked "Ads", otherwise known as paid advertisements.

Depending on what you search for you might see ads in this list that have been placed by merchants themselves rather than affiliates; however, in this particular example it would appear that most of these ads have been placed by affiliates.

Telltale signs that an ad has been placed by an affiliate include any mention of reviews... there's always the favored affiliate catchphrase "Don't buy anything until you've read these reviews!"

These are very obvious affiliate ads. Another favorite affiliate hook is the mention of a “scam” – for example "Guitar lesson scams".
Nobody likes to be scammed, and everyone loves a scandal, so a lot of advertisements use this "scam" hook to get people clicking. Lets’ take a look at this ad in action

(To take your own look, go to [Link no longer available])
This site appears to be a review site built to target more than just the ‘guitar lessons’ affiliate market - however, let’s take a look at just the ‘guitar lessons’ page: at the top of the page they have a summary of the reviews, where they've given a number of affiliate products ratings out of five stars with a couple of brief points. If the visitor clicks on this link they'll be taken to the merchant site through the affiliate's affiliate link. These brief reviews at the top are a good way to grab people who are just looking for products to research and don't want to spend time reading reviews.
If you look a little further down the page you'll see the "full reviews" of the products, for example “Learn & Master Guitar”.

All the links on this page are affiliate links. An affiliate link is a link that (generally) places a cookie in the visitors browser to say to merchants “This visitor, X, came from affiliate Y’s link”. This helps the website track affiliate sales, and means that if the visitor comes back to buy at a later date the affiliate will earn a commission Affiliate links don’t harm the visitor in any way - the visitor doesn't end up paying any more for the product than if they bought directly from the merchant – in fact the affiliate actually helps the visitor to find a product they were looking for.

Affiliates In Natural Search Results

Not all affiliates choose to promote their websites through paid advertisements, however. A lot of affiliates rely on traffic that comes from normal search results in the search engines.
We call these search results "organic" search results, or "natural" search listings. You'll also hear people talking about SERPs, which is short for "search engine results pages".
For those of you who are new to these terms, the difference between natural search results and paid search results is that with the natural search results your listing is free, but you have a lot less control over how and where your website appears.
The natural search listings are the sites that the search engines deem to be most relevant to the particular search term, ranked in order of relevance. The problem for webmasters is that we never really know what the search engines are thinking; all we can do is guess and try to make our websites look as relevant as possible.
This gives rise to a whole area of Internet marketing called Search Engine Optimization, which we cover in other parts of Affilorama. But for now let’s take a look at affiliate sites that seem to be doing well in the SERPs for the term "dog obedience".
It can be a little more difficult to spot affiliates in the natural search results because they tend to be a little subtler than in the paid search results. We've got a few here which look like they could either be affiliates or merchants selling their own lessons. For example below http://www.barkbusters.ca is a merchant site, but sites like http://www.dogobedienceadvice.com or http://www.dog-obedience-training-review.com could be either merchant or affiliate sites.

Reviews, free advice, and "learn the best way" are all tried and true methods affiliates employ to gain traffic, so let's have a look at the site offering “free obedience training advice”, http://dogobedienceadvice.com.

If you take a look at the front page for this site you can see that it seems to follow a fairly similar formula to the last website we looked at.- up front they have a review of their ‘Top Dog Training Guide”, and further down the page we find more reviews to other top ranked products. All links to these guides will be affiliate links.

Since this is an SEO site there must be more content here - you can see that on the left panel there is a list of articles about dog training: how to deal with jumping dogs, stopping chewing, digging and so on.

If you click on "Dealing with a whining dog" you're taken to a page with a lesson on stopping your dog from whining. And here go those recommended products again!

Let’s take a look at one more affiliate site from the natural search listings, this time from Let's find another affiliate site in the natural search listings. I'll do a search for "Pet training" in Google.

If you follow through to the first listed item you can see, down the right hand side, that they're promoting a number of pet training eBooks.

You can tell they're likely to be affiliate products because if you were to click on them you'll be taken to a completely different site; if you hover over the links you'll (sometimes) see in your status bar (at the bottom of your browser) that the link looks a little convoluted, with hop.clickbank.net in it.

That means that the product comes from ClickBank -- an affiliate network. You can also see some ads on the side that look like affiliate products too. This site doesn't seem to offer any reviews: they simply have a "recommended" column and some ads.

Lesson Summary

In this lesson you’ve learned:

A few things you can use to spot obvious affiliate sites:

• How some affiliates are making money in a few different markets
  • Deriving traffic from paid search listings.
  • From the natural search listings.
• Sites comparing and reviewing products are often affiliate sites
  • Sites promoting products or services they did not create are often affiliates
  • Catchphrases like Reviews" "ratings" "learn the truth!" "scams" etc, often indicate affiliate sites.

Making Money Online Fast And Free

Many people want to make money online and they know that other people are doing so with their own Internet business, but getting started or drumming up ideas is often the hardest part. The truth is, the only way you will earn money online is doing something you enjoy. The more passionate you are about something, the more you can make. Therefore, it is important to choose something online that you are familiar with and enjoy at the same time.

First, make a list of all the things that you enjoy or have an interest in. You should even write down those things that you have never done before. For instance, if you enjoy writing, but have never done it as a profession, then you should write it down because it is an excellent way to make money online. Make the list as long or as short as you want, just make sure everything on your list is something you are interested in, passionate about, and something that you can do online.

Secondly, look over your list and choose the one that interests you most. For instance, if writing is your most passionate word on your list, then start with this one. Spend some time searching for an Internet business and how the company or person makes money by writing online. You would be surprised how many ways you can earn money in the comfort of your own home by writing. Typically you can write when you want and work on a freelance basis by picking up a variety of clients.

The next step is actually writing for a client, which you can choose by setting up your own internet business of your own as you begin to make money and therefore, attract more clients. An Internet business is successful when you are doing something you love, because regardless of what it is, when you are passionate about anything, it is always more successful.

You should also know that people make money everyday online and if this is something that is of interest to you, setting up your own Internet business takes work, it is not something you can set up today and expect to be profitable tomorrow, but it can be done. Other people have been successful and you can as well.

Finally, the best way to make money online is by doing something you are passionate about and that you enjoy. Have you ever had a job that you hated? It was hard to get yourself motivated to get through the day and you probably missed many days of work. When you have an Internet business, you do not make money if you do not work, therefore, it must be something you enjoy since you have to get yourself motivated everyday.

How to Make Money Affiliate Marketing Without a Website

Building a website is the most common way affiliates launch themselves into the affiliate marketing world, and if you're interested in creating a long-term business you'll inevitably need to put together a website.
However, if you're still learning about web design or you're simply not interested in building a website, there are other ways to get your affiliate links out there, so this lesson will teach you Affiliate Marketing Without a Website.
Remember: the key with affiliate marketing is get your affiliate link in front of an interested audience - how you choose to do that is completely up to you! With that in mind, here are a few methods you could try:

#1: Post on blogs and forums

This is a really simple way of getting a taste for affiliate marketing - all you have to do is find a product you'd like to promote, then start posting on blogs and forums with your affiliate link in your signature.
Here's an example from our very own forum: you can see that this member has an affiliate link in their signature. He's also made himself an active and respected members of the forum.

 

Of course you should only post on blogs and forums where people would be interested in the product - you're not going to get many bites for a dog training affiliate product when you're posting on a classic car enthusiast forum.
Similarly, you’ll find that you have a lot more success if you're making useful and interesting posts and if you become a regular on the site. Once you have established yourself people will begin to respect your opinion and will be more inclined to click on your link. If you simply spam a blog or forum with useless posts you’re likely to be banned and your posts deleted.

#2: Write a viral eBook or some other "viral" product

A “viral” product is one that is designed to spread (often quickly) to a great many people - this can be a great way of getting your affiliate links out there without ever having to create a website. You can produce a short 30-page eBook or a "special report" on a particular subject, insert links to affiliate products into it, then distribute your book through whatever means you like – you could tell people that they're welcome to give it away, sell it or put it on their websites. You can kick it off yourself by selling the eBook on eBay for a small amount.

If your book is informative and useful, rather than simply laden with affiliate ads, you might find that it spreads quite well.

#3: Create a YouTube series

YouTube has taken the world by storm with one billion unique visitors per month. You can use this to your advantage. It doesn’t take much more than a webcam and some quirky or informative ideas to get a channel going. That way you can add affiliate links into your description, or over your video, and convert some of that fan base into affiliate profits.

Just pick a niche and create a video series related to that topic, with a related affiliate promotion. That way, the viewers you get will be a lot more likely to be interested in the affiliate product, as they already have some interest to be watching the video in the first place.
There are two main rules for doing this, however, that you MUST abide by:

1. The content has to be full of value for viewers. Financial gain has to be secondary to this. 
   If your video is obviously just there for you to make money from a link, you will get listed as spam, and your efforts will become useless. Producing something worthwhile is a lot more successful, and you get the attention and respect of potential customers that way.
2. Don’t be misleading! 
   If your video is unrelated to your link, or your title or description claims something that isn’t in the video, you are violating YouTube’s policies. This is also something to avoid.

Basically, video marketing on YouTube can be a risk, because affiliate links can get listed as spam, but the best way to avoid this is just to be up front, honest, and useful. Avoid spammy behaviours. Some quality content options could include:

• Honest, informative product reviews
• Instructional videos (e.g., if your niche was food and nutrition, you could do cooking demos)
• Topical discussions (e.g., tips for keeping food fresh, or interesting nutritional facts)

Just have one link in the description, and possibly one over the video if it’s extremely relevant (such as a product review video). If you want to be especially careful, note somewhere that you’re an affiliate or that the link is an affiliate link, and contact YouTube to check that you’ll be in the clear. If your videos have value for the viewer, and that stands out more than your money making efforts, this shouldn’t be a problem.
#4: Write ads or reviews for classifieds websites
You're probably already familiar with using sites like Craigslist to look for old furniture or car parts, but you can also use classifieds sites to promote affiliate products. Consider writing ads or reviews for affiliate products and posting them with your affiliate link.

Some sites you might want to try are:

• http://www.usfreeads.com
• http://epage.com
• http://craigslist.com

#5: Build a Squidoo lens

Building a Squidoo "lens" is a great way of getting started as an affiliate without needing to build your own website from scratch. A "lens" is like a 1-page mini website where you can talk about a subject you're passionate about (eg, your affiliate market and associated products!). It's hosted on the Squidoo site, and you don't need to know anything about web design to make it look fairly professional.

A Squidoo lens allows you to build a page on a topic, insert ads, reviews and other content as you please, all without having to write any HTML.
The best part, though, is that Squidoo is also part social-networking site, so simply by being on Squidoo you will begin to attract traffic interested in your topic and looking for recommendations. Squidoo is especially easy to monetize, and Squidoo lenses have tended in the past to do pretty well in the search engines.
To sign up and start creating your lens,

#6: Promote affiliate products directly through pay-per-click advertisements

We've left this method for last because, quite frankly, it's not one we recommend. This method involves creating pay-per-click campaigns through search engines like Google and Bing, and promoting the merchant website directly through your affiliate link.

So instead of using PPC to promote your own website, you send them straight to the merchant.
There are a number of downsides to this method.

1. First, with Google's AdWords in particular, there will only be one paid listing for a particular website displayed at any given time. This means that instead of competing against other advertisers for one of eight spots on the page, you're competing for just one spot. If you bid a large amount and write an attractive ad then you might see your ad displayed, otherwise you can forget it.
2. Secondly, you have no control over the quality of the merchant page. Increasingly the search engines are looking at the page you're promoting and deciding whether this offers a good experience for their users. If the merchant site has little content, or poor quality content, you could end up paying a much higher amount for your advertisements.

There are always new affiliates who see this as a fast and easy way to get started, but we really recommend that you try the other methods we've introduced first.

Lesson Summary:

In this lesson you’ve learned some ways of getting your affiliate link out in front of an audience without having to build a website, such as...

• Posting on blogs and forums
• Writing a viral eBook or some other "viral" product
• Creating a YouTube video series
• Writing ads or reviews for classifieds websites
• Building a Squidoo lens
• Promoting affiliate products directly through pay-per-click advertisements