What is Affiliate Marketing? Well, according to Wikipedia, “Affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based marketing in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought by the affiliate’s own marketing efforts.” Except that just makes it sound even more confusing, doesn’t it? Which is maybe why people have a hard time getting started with affiliates. So, a great post if you’re just getting started is this one, from my fave blogging genius, Darren Rowse from Copyblogger {his book, Problogger was the first blogging book I ever read, and it really helped me get my blog rocking from the very beginning – I can’t recommend it enough.} – the post is called, simply enough, What is Affiliate Marketing? He breaks things down in a simple way, to give you a basic understanding of how affiliate marketing works. What I found most interesting were the survey results that he shared – when he asked his readers about affiliate marketing:
- 29% of readers regularly do it
- 24% occasionally do it
- 27% have never done affiliate marketing on their blogs
- 6% used to do it but don’t any more
- 14% don’t know what affiliate marketing is
I shouldn’t be surprised by this, since while speaking at conferences, chatting with bloggers I know personally, and just reading comments in blogging groups, I hear so many people say things like, “affiliate marketing doesn’t work for me,” or “I don’t even really know how affiliate marketing works?” But I’m here to tell ya – it is SO worth learning about. While not everyone will make a huge amount of money right away, it is entirely possible to make a six-figure income with affiliate marketing. How do I know this? Because I’ve done it. And I know other bloggers who have too. And – I’m pretty much a one-woman show. The Mister is learning to contribute to the blog, and works with me as a partner. Other than that, I’ve run this blog on my own for the past 4 years, learning as I go. If I can do it – so can you. Pinky-promise. My goal is to help every blogger find new ways to earn money from the amazing content they’re creating – and you’d be amazed how easy it is to earn with affiliate marketing is once you figure out a way to use it consistently.
So… To get you started, I found this super fun infographic from Pepperjam, that breaks the whole affiliate marketing idea down into seriously simple terms, so you can see how it all comes together:
If you’re not familiar with this blog yet – My main blog is Sunshine and Sippy Cups, creative solutions for busy moms. The blog you’re reading right now was born when people were regularly asking me for advice on blogging, and I realized there was a big need for realistic, do-able blogging advice and tips. It is {obviously, if you look at the home page, lol} a work in progress! But if you’d like to stay updated as I turn this baby into a big ol’ resource filled with tips on blogging, online business, and balancing it all while running your household and raising a family – please take a minute to subscribe to the email updates.
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