What does affiliate marketing mean? How can I get started? What should I expect from my journey?

In one of our recent articles (https://portfolio-hub.co.uk/blog/13/the-best-passive-income-ideas-to-make-more-money) we discussed affiliate marketing briefly. As affiliate marketing is such a large topic I thought having a blog post just for this topic would be a good idea.

Today I'll aim to explore exactly what affiliate marketing is, how it works and how you can start your own affiliate business.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a form of performance-based marketing where businesses pay affiliates to promote their products or services. The affiliate receives a commission for every sale they generate. Throughout this article, we’ll be using the term “affiliate marketer” as an umbrella term for anyone who promotes another company's product or service via any channel.

It doesn't matter whether you're promoting other companies' products and services on your own website, through social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest or YouTube, or even by becoming a brand ambassador or influencer. As long as you have a blog or some type of content that drives traffic to someone else's site

How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

As mentioned in the previous section, some affiliate marketers use websites, social media or any other form of traffic based content to fuel their affiliate marketing business. The most important thing that is required is the traffic generated.

If you are trying to promote a new product then you will need to share the product or service with potential customers. This could be anything from a video review to a full blown sales page. Once you've created your content, you'll want to share it with others. This is why having a platform that can generate traffic is crucial to the success of an affiliate marketing campaign.

Once you've shared your content with people, you'll want them to click on links within your content so that they can purchase your product or sign up to receive more information about it. If you've done everything correctly, when they buy the product or service , you'll earn a small commission. You'll may also earn commissions if they decide to refer friends to your site.

The UK affiliate market

According to Statista the affiliate marketing industry spend in the UK was worth a whopping £627 million in 2020 which was up from £569 million the year before that (2019) and £471 million the year before that (2018). This market is continuously growing and shows no signs of slowing down.

 This fast growth is fuelled by how easy it is to get started in this industry although an important caveat to note is that although it may be easy to get started, it is not easy to gain profitability. Promoting affiliate products is something that takes time to grow and get right simply because of the nature of having to grow an audience of viewers to actually promote the product to.

In theory, if you already have a large viewership or a large amount of traffic to some content service, you should be able to implement affiliate marketing easier than someone starting from scratch.

The Best Affiliate Platforms Available

Here are some of the leading affiliate websites offering a wide range of options for getting involved in an affiliate marketing program in the UK:

1. Commission Junction

The first on our list is Commission Junction. They offer both paid and free affiliate programs. Their main focus is on selling advertising space but they do offer several different types of affiliate programs including those focused on ecommerce, mobile apps, digital games, and more.

2. LinkShare

LinkShare offers two types of affiliate programs. One is called the Link Share Referral Program and the other is the Link Share Revenue Sharing Program. Both allow you to earn money by referring visitors to their sites. You can choose between getting paid per referral or receiving a percentage of each sale made through your referrals.

3. ShareASale

ShareASale is one of the oldest affiliate networks in existence today. It was founded way back in 1996 and they now operate in 19 countries worldwide. They have a wide range of products available to promote including software, books, electronics, toys, clothing and much more.

4. ClickBank

ClickBank is another well-known affiliate network that we cover here at Top 10 Free Courses for 2020. They have a good reputation for paying their affiliates fairly. There are many tools available to help you get started with making money with ClickBank.

5. CJ Affiliate

CJ Affiliate is yet another popular affiliate network. Unlike other networks, CJ Affiliate don’t offer just one type of program. Instead, they provide three different types of affiliate programs. These include the standard affiliate program, the performance affiliate program, and the publisher partner program. The latter allows publishers to work directly with advertisers without going through an affiliate intermediary. CJ Affiliate also provides tracking tools that make it easy to monitor your results and find out how to improve conversion rates.

6. Amazon Associates

Amazon Associates is one of the largest affiliate networks offered by Amazon that lets website owners place affiliate links throughout their websites. When a visitor clicks on these links and purchases a product from Amazon, the owner of this website will be compensated. This is how most online retailers like Amazon make money. For example in our blog we have began using Amazon Associates affiliate marketing program to help monetise our site so we can keep bringing more content.

Here we have shared a book listed on amazon which can teach you the basics of affiliate marketing. If you use the link below and were to purchase the book, there would be no extra charge to you as the customer, however Amazon would reward us (Portfolio Hub) with a little bit of the profits.

Click here to explore the book 'From Nothing'

Mediums for Affiliate Marketing

If you are interested in getting started with affiliate marketing, as mentioned you will need a platform which can generate traffic. The one recommendation I would give to someone getting started in this field, is to create topics on what you're passionate about. Affiliate marketing can take a long time to get right before seeing results, so the last thing you want is to be stuck doing something you don't enjoy

1. Blogs

Blogs are great places to start creating content. Not only does it provide a great platform for sharing content, but you can also build relationships along the way. One thing I have personally found along my admittedly short blogging journey, is that I am able to share the topics I enjoy while educating myself more and more each day. 

Blogs are a very popular choice for creating content for affiliate marketing as you can easily spread relevant and useful affiliate links throughout your site such as the book included within the previous section.

2. YouTube

YouTube has become a really powerful tool for people looking to grow their businesses. With over 1 billion users per month, YouTube offers some amazing opportunities for marketers. You can upload videos onto your channel and then begin promoting them with affiliate links often in the description of the videos.

You can easily see examples of this on YouTube. Look for any product review page and I can assure that a vast majority that are reviewing a product will include an affiliate link to said product within the description of the video.

3. Twitter

Twitter, or really any other social media platform can also provide great ways to build your affiliate marketing business. Twitter provides a great way to grow a community of like-minded people who may find the products your promoting interesting or useful. Or even better... use your twitter in conjunction with your blog or YouTube channel to help grow them too.

Just like I am with my twitter 

https://twitter.com/Portfolio_Hub_

Shameless plug... I know... forgive me 😁

4. Email Newsletters

This is one of the most effective ways to promote products and services online. It’s easy to set up, cheap to run, and it’s proven to generate results. The key is to find out what works best for your audience. A good examples of email newsletters that focus on email as their main form of content creation is Morning Brew who run a daily newsletter showcasing important news in the financial and wider world.

Summary

Affiliate marketing is a great way to make money online by providing value to others through your expertise. There are many different mediums available for affiliates to choose from including blogs, websites, podcasts, YouTube channels, and much more. By using these mediums effectively, you can not only reach new audiences but you can also teach your current followers valuable information they might not have known otherwise.

I hope you enjoyed reading this article. Please feel free to leave comments below and let me know how you plan to get involved in affiliate marketing. Also, if you want to read more about affiliate marketing and making money online, then subscribe to our blog through your browser (currently incompatible with Safari).

Thanks for Reading 😊

FAQ

What is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing involves you promoting products and services to your followers or website visitors. If a visitor clicks on one of your links or uses a code you share before they make a purchase, you receive a commission. This can be a certain percentage of the sale or a fixed fee.

Source: (householdmoneysaving.com)

Is affiliate marketing legal in UK?

Yes. In the United Kingdom, affiliate marketing is perfectly legal. However, there are regulations that must be followed when running an affiliate program. These regulations are outlined in the Consumer Protection Regulations 2008.

Source: (affiliatemedium.org)