Have you ever been scrolling through one of your social media feeds and came across someone who recommend a product or service? Say you follow a person who provides you with valuable information on health and fitness. So as your scrolling one day, you see them talking about this awesome new protein drink they love. They provide you a link to purchase this drink on Amazon so you don’t have to go searching for it. You click on that link, head over to Amazon and purchase those drinks. That in a nutshell is affiliate marketing.
What affiliate marketing really comes down to is a person or company that promotes products or services of another company in exchange for some type of compensation. Here is a super simple way to think about it. Say your friend ask you to recommend a restaurant for the night. Your friend trust you and values your opinion. You tell the friend about a restaurant you recommend and they decide to go there. Now in turn, the restaurant provides you with money or free meals for referring this person. That’s what affiliate marketing is.
Here is how the affiliate marketer makes money. They first have to have an audience of people who trust them and respect there opinion. This can be achieved through having a blog, social media, article writing, how to videos, etc. The marketer then finds companies who have products or services they are willing to promote. They promote those products to you the customer and in turn receive a commission each time a person buys the product. The marketer makes money and the company is reaching new customers. Its a win win for everyone.
Affiliate marketing is not something that can be done overnight. It takes a lot of time to build an audience and to gain there trust. Once you have their trust though, you must maintain it and provide valuable content to them so they continue to value your opinion. This way when you are ready to promote a product they trust that you have done your part in making sure the product is worth purchasing. Building an audience to promote too takes time but is worth it. Having people who trust you and value your opinion is the greatest tool a marketer can have.
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