An affiliate advertises a product or service of someone else and is paid for it based on results obtained. It almost always involves advertising via the internet (such as via a website).

After Adsense, this is the most common way to make money with your website.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing involves getting paid to promote someone else’s product or service. There are always 3 parties:

The advertiser (or a company that wants to sell its product or service).

how much you can make

There is often a fourth party: the affiliate network (an intermediary between the advertiser and the affiliate).

The advantage of being an affiliate in 2021

The biggest advantage of being an affiliate is that you don’t have to invest time, effort, and money to invent and make a product. You can make money by promoting a product that already exists. With affiliate marketing, you can earn money 100% online.

Affiliate Marketing Platform How To Make Money? - Affiliate Marketing Platform How To Make Money

You do not have to leave the house, you do not have to be stuck in a traffic jam, you do not have to carry out assignments from an employer, etc.

You are completely location independent, and you can do the work whenever you want.

Affiliate marketing platform – how to make money?

Your earnings continue day and night, 24/7/365, including when you’re sleeping, on vacation, or spending time with your sports or family.

Furthermore, you don’t need much to get started, a laptop or computer with an internet connection is sufficient.

Why is affiliate marketing the best way for you to earn (additional) income?

  • Complete independence
  • Suitable for beginners
  • No technical knowledge required
  • No more boss
  • Never be stuck in traffic again
  • Work wherever you want
  • Work whenever you want
  • Complete freedom
  • Earn money even when you are not working (also called passive income)

How does it work?

Affiliate marketing platform – how to make money, actually?

Suppose you want to earn money as an affiliate. In that case, you must first register as an affiliate (sometimes also called a ‘partner’ or ‘publisher’) with the affiliate program or the affiliate network. 

Affiliate Marketing Platform How To Make Money? - Affiliate Marketing Platform How To Make Money

The term affiliate program refers to the method that makes it possible to promote a particular product for a company as an affiliate; think of the promotional material and the required tracking technique (the software that ensures that your visitors’ earnings actually reach you).

After registering, you choose a product or website page to promote and place the corresponding text link or banner on your website. Each time a visitor then buys the advertised product via your link (or performs another valuable action), you earn a certain amount.

How does affiliate marketing work?

Affiliate marketing has 3 parties:

  • The affiliate (the one is doing the promotion).
  • The company (who provide the products and services).
  • The affiliate network (which provides the affiliate program and the technology behind it). They connect the company and the affiliate.

Companies can register with an affiliate network. They do this because they would like to have their products promoted without having to pay in advance. They don’t pay until an affiliate has made a sale for them.

The affiliate network ensures that the affiliate receives a unique (personal) link so that both parties can see that the sale is coming from the affiliate. And so the commission can be paid to the affiliate.

Because of the so-called “cookies” on websites, some unique links remain valid for a year. So you build up a lot of unique clicks. This means that you earn money from a sale even a year after a visitor clicks on your unique link.

Growing passive income

A passive income is an income that continues to work for you. You do not deduct hours for an income. But you provide an automatic system that generates income without significant time that you can pay out monthly.

The most famous example of this is retiring. A large amount of money is in the bank, and you receive interest on this. However, retiring is no longer as attractive as it used to be. And in the first instance, you need a large sum of money.

No risks

If you want to earn money with affiliate marketing, you do not need start-up capital for this. You also don’t have to make major investments. That is precisely what makes affiliate marketing so attractive. And yet, not everyone succeeds in making money with this. I will tell you later in this blog why…

Affiliate Marketing Platform How To Make Money? - Affiliate Marketing Platform How To Make Money

Earning money day and night

When you start making money with affiliate marketing, this works as a passive income. The internet works as an automatic system with which you can build a passive income.

You post information on the internet, and it remains there day and night. An unlimited number of visitors will click on your unique affiliate link without you having to do anything at that time. You will then see commissions coming in that you can transfer directly to your bank account. 

Your income will be monthly by applying affiliate marketing to websites or social media with a large reach. And as your visitor numbers increase, your income will also grow.

Affiliate programs vs. affiliate networks

An affiliate program (also called an ‘affiliate program’) is an individual company’s system through which affiliates can promote their products. Some companies have their own affiliate program. Still, most companies outsource the management of their affiliate program to a network.

An affiliate network is really nothing more than a collection of affiliate programs. You will find the affiliate programs of hundreds of different companies. The advantage of affiliate networks is that they offer you the opportunity to advertise many different products, websites, and services clearly. There is always something you can promote that matches your website’s topic and the interests of your visitors. The affiliate network takes care of the promotional material, contacts all advertisers, and pays out all your earnings in one go.

Sign up for affiliate networks

Many advertisers are only affiliated with one affiliate network. By joining many networks, the choice of things to promote is the widest. 

As indicated earlier, some companies do not outsource their affiliate program to an affiliate network but keep it under their own management. You can usually find such affiliate programs by looking at such a company’s homepage at the bottom of the page for a link that says ‘Affiliates,’ ‘Affiliate program,’ ‘Partner program,’ or ‘Webmasters.’

What do you get paid for leads and sales?

The reward system differs per affiliate program, but you usually receive a fee (‘commission’) per lead or sale as an affiliate. Leads are actions by visitors where visitors do not buy anything, but which are of value to the advertiser. Examples are newsletter registrations, competition entries, or requests for quotations. 

How To Make Money From A Blog?

A sale counts when the visitor you sent to the advertiser’s website actually buys something there. Sometimes as an affiliate, you can also be reimbursed per click on an ad or each time you show the ad (or per view), but that is quite rare nowadays.

Of course, you will earn more the more valuable the lead of sale is to the advertiser. For example, allowing a visitor to participate in the free competition is usually not worth more than one dollar, but concluding an energy contract can safely bring $50.00.

Affiliate marketing without a website.

Affiliate Marketing Platform How To Make Money?

Having a website is not necessary to make money with affiliate marketing (although that makes it much easier). You can use other online media: e-mail files, Facebook pages with many likes, and Twitter accounts with many followers. You can also process affiliate links in advertisements that you purchase on other sites, on Facebook, or from search engines (this is called ‘keyword marketing’). It’s about having a way to promote a product to other people.

Is Affiliate Marketing a Scam, MLM, or Pyramid System?

None of these. You do not have to buy products or services, and you do not have to recruit people.

All you do is promote a product.

Affiliate marketing platform – how to make money? Conclusion

Making money with affiliate marketing, one of the best ways to make money remotely.

More and more people who just can’t live with the 9-5 start with affiliate marketing and have become incredibly rich with this. They quit their permanent job, work where and when they want, and have more time and money than ever before. You do not have a product or service yourself and therefore do not have to do any transport, storage, or service. You simply promote someone else’s product or service. When visitors buy something via your unique affiliate link, you receive money.

Last Updated on June 29, 2020

Author

Elizabeth is a Senior Content Manager at Scaleo. Currently enjoying the life in Prague and sharing professional affiliate marketing tips. She's been in the online marketing business since 2006 and gladly shares all her insights and ideas on this blog.