Affiliate marketing. What a great way to earn income online. By helping people find products and services they need, you earn a commission whenever you make a sale. Helping people find the products and services you have to offer is quite the skill, and the great thing about that skill is, it can open the door to many other options when it comes to earning income online.
And that is why I have decided to create this blog. To give you an idea of the types of opportunities that exist once you have built the fundamental skills needed to be a successful affiliate marketer.
Choosing to pursue online marketing education opens up many opportunities for you to start your own online business thanks to the fact that all business requires marketing.
When you become an effective marketer you are able to build and grow any online business, because, having the ability to generate leads and sales is the lifeblood of all business.
Let’s start by looking at affiliate marketing a little closer.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is simply selling other people’s products and or services and in return, you make a commission.
As far as affiliate marketing goes there are 3 types:
- Unattached
- Related
- Involved
1.Unattached:
This simply involves you placing PPC (pay per click) ads to potential customers you have no connection with what so ever. As an unattached affiliate marketer you have no other presence online and no authority within the niche of the product you are promoting. You just put ads in front of people using various search engines or social media, in hope that they click on your ad and decide to make a purchase so you get your commission.
This can be an attractive form of affiliate marketing due to the fact there is minimal commitment involved and less time needed to devote to your business. It takes time to build trust and a reputation with people online.
2.Related:
This involves having some online presence, perhaps as a blogger, podcasting, or creating videos. Within your online presence, you have links to products related to your niche, but not products you actually use. For example, your niche might be fitness so you may have a link to a certain brand of fitness equipment that you do not use, or, perhaps a personal trainer you’ve never trained with.
3.Involved:
This is where you are an affiliate marketer for products and or services you actually use and believe in. You do this via actual content as compared to just placing an ad. You might use a blog or a video to talk about and recommend a product you use. It’s your involvement and experience of the product that makes it attractive to others. However, for this kind of affiliate marketing, you need to gain peoples trust and become an authority within your niche. That takes time, and it definitely takes commitment.
Learning affiliate marketing via the community I chose to learn from has taught me the importance of being an involved affiliate marketer which I think is great. I have no desire whatsoever to associate with any product or service I’ve had no experience with. How can I honestly recommend something I have never used? Thanks to my online marketing training I have learned to use PPC advertising to grab people’s attention and then I use email marketing, blogging, videoing, and social media, to help people get to know me, learn from me, and hopefully gain trust in me.
I’d say if you are trained in involved affiliate marketing then you could easily choose to become an unattached or related affiliate marketer, however, I believe building some kind of trust with potential clients is golden, especially with regards to building a highly successful, long-term, affiliate marketing business.
O.K. So enough about affiliate marketing. Let’s talk more about the reason I created this blog.
Let’s talk about new doors that will be open to you once you’ve learned the fundamentals of affiliate marketing.
Network Marketing
This one took me a while to research as there are many confusing messages out there about what network marketing is. But basically what happens is that a person, let’s say, Jill, finds a product or service she really loves. She loves it so much she decides she wants to go into business marketing that product.
Jill will earn a small commission every time that product or service is purchased under her business.
Let’s say Jill is able to spend 4 hours per day working on her business. Jill introduces her product/service to Mary. Mary really loves it too so Jill “recruits” Mary to spend time marketing her product. Mary will pay Jill for the tools and training required so that she can also become successful at marketing the product/service. Mary will also earn a small commission for every sale she makes. Like Jill, Mary is able to spend 4 hours a day working the business which means that essentially, Jill now has her business being worked on for 8 hours. That’s an extra 4 hours of commission earnings for Jill.
Let’s say both Jill and Mary introduce another person each who can also work 4 hours per day. Jill now has a business running for 16 hours a day.
Essentially Jill is earning income every time she provides the tools and training to a new “recruit” as well as for a small commission she earns every time one of her products is purchased under her business name. The more people recruited under Jill’s business name, the more commission she will earn and the more time that is spent on the workings of her marketing business.
So essentially, network marketing is all about earning residual income as well as leveraging.
Learning online marketing using the same online community I learn from will give you the skills you need to start up your own network marketing organisation should you discover it is something you want to do in the future.
eCommerce
Electronic commerce is where you sell physical products over the internet with or without your own website.
In the case of not having your own website, eCommerce platforms come into play.
eCommerce platforms enable you to set up online stores without having to build your own website. Shopify is probably the most well-known eCommerce platform. Online platforms not only allow you to set up an online store to sell products, but they also allow you to organise your products, customise your storefront, track and respond to orders, and accept credit card payments.
Should you prefer to have your very own speciality website you will need a web hosting service with an integrated shopping cart feature or with eCommerce software.
Common types of eCommerce are:
Business to Business – this is where a business sells products to other businesses, for example, a business may sell cheap materials to another business enabling that business to manufacture products cheaper to, therefore, make a better profit.
Business to Consumer – this is one I’m sure you know about and have used to purchase things for yourself. Think of Amazon, Kogan, Wiggle. These are just a couple of examples of business that sell products to consumers online. As a business selling to consumers, you can actually work with vendors to have products shipped directly to customers on your behalf so that you do not need to find room for your own inventory.
Consumer to consumer – this is where consumers sell to consumers such as is the case with eBay. Many sellers on these sites are people who do not have a business but simply want to sell an item be it second hand or new.
Becoming a member of the same online education platform I use gives you the ability to access training specifically aimed at learning all you need to know about how to create your own eCommerce business should you decide you are interested in selling physical products.
Online Coaching
Do you have a particular skill or talent to help the marketplace? You may end up deciding to start your own online coaching business.
Many coaches are choosing the online option now due to the many advantages which include having the ability to:
- coach people worldwide
- provide clients with additional features such as pre-recorded education lessons
- set up an online community where clients can connect with other clients
- provide one to one video chat
- provide a members area
- automate the payment process
Having an online coaching course is also far more time-efficient for the client as they do not have to travel to and from a coaching session. This opens up the opportunity for busy people, who would not normally attend, to attend.
Remember, you need to know how to market yourself to make your online coaching business a success and I recommend opting to invest in reputable online marketing education.
Consulting Business
The most common online consulting businesses are Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Social Media. Choose to become an expert at any of these and you’ve got the makings of creating a business for yourself that will be in high demand. Many small businesses can not afford to hire a specialist full time so they hire a consultant to do the work they themselves may not be so skilled at. The small business owner knows hiring a specialist is necessary to achieve the success they desire, not to mention create the time freedom they need.
What is SEO?
SEO is all about positioning a website at the top of a search engine, like Google, through the use of keywords. Having paid ads is all well and good, but having your website appear where people are likely to see it is absolutely priceless. Approximately 40% of people click the first website appearing on a search engine page. If the website can appear on the first page of a search, there is a 91% click-through rate. What small business wouldn’t want 91% of people looking at their website!
Great online marketing education will teach SEO, so, if you find yourself enjoying the process, you may like to make a few bucks helping small business owners expose their website to more customers.
What does a Social Media Consultant do?
Again it is the small business owner who may find themselves having to hire a social media consultant to run their Facebook, Twitter or other social media accounts. They often become too busy to do it themselves, however, they can not afford to hire an agency or full-time staff member to do it for them. Instead, they hire a consultant who can help to determine the best tactics, posting schedules, and content to use, that will target the small business owners target audience. When followers increase, so too does business.
You will learn all about social media marketing if you are connected with reputable online business education, so if you love social media, this may open up yet another opportunity for you.
A couple of other options also include:
Local Marketing – This is where you go out to bricks and mortar business and earn income marketing their products/services.
Web design – You will either learn how to create your own websites during your marketing journey or, you will pay someone to do it for you. Should you decide to do it yourself, you might just discover you have a great eye for design, and, you really enjoy the process of creating a website. I know of one member within The SFM community who can create websites specific to The SFM. She charges a discounted rate for SFM members who ask her to build their websites. Now that’s a nice little side business she’s created for herself. I’ve also heard amongst the community that people can earn $350 US upwards for creating a website for a business, with the price being dependant on the complexity of it.
Final Words:
As you can see there are plenty of opportunities outside of affiliate marketing to explore and I’ve only named a few. There are many people who start out as affiliate marketers to learn the ropes and then discover a passion that sees them starting up their own business. Thanks to investing in online marketing education they are able to put what they’ve learned into play to create successful businesses that resonate with their passion.
Feel free to find out more about getting started with a reputable online education community that works in association with LinkedIn Learning and Digital Marketer