Looking for more ways to add different income streams to your business?
Or maybe you’re looking to add an affiliate program to your business so you can have others sell your products and services?
Affiliate marketing can be one of the easiest ways to grow a business because of the following:
- You can quickly increase revenue without having to create anything
- You can quickly scale your business by letting other affiliates sell your products and services.
- If done correctly, you can expect passive income
What is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is when you find other products and services to sell. When you sell them you earn a percentage of the sale back. This is called a commission. Just like salespeople get a commission on the phone when they sell things, you can get paid by promoting other people’s products and services.
The Pros To Affiliate Marketing
There are many pros and extra bonuses to affiliate marketing and why someone would want to choose to sell other products and services. Here are a few of my favorite perks to affiliate marketing:
- It’s one of the quickest ways to earn a living online. You don’t have to worry about creating a product and then selling it. You can find products that are already selling and simply show it to other people.
- You might not want to create an existing product. This could be software, informational products, or services. For example, right now I don’t want to create my own email service provider like ActiveCampaign, ConvertKit, or Clickfunnels. It’ll take too much time and that’s not my focus. So instead of creating something similar, simply use and promote other products.
The Cons To Affiliate Marketing
Let’s start off with that handy list of cons first:
- You don’t earn 100% commission
- You end up building someone else’s list and business more than yours if done wrong
- You can spend a lot of time on trying to sell the wrong products
- You can work a lot for a little bit back in return if not done properly
- You might put in a ton of work to only get paid once.
- It can be extremely costly to do affiliate marketing and you might not see a return if you don’t know what you’re doing
While earning a commission by selling things without creating them is great, I’ll be completely honest…
It’s not my favorite method of growing a business UNLESS it’s recurring revenue or high ticket. Let me explain.
Let’s say you find a product for $50 that gives you 50% commission. That means you get $25 bucks. While this is great, you only get a percentage of the sale. You spend all this time creating content and trying to sell this thing, hoping to make a quick buck. What also happens if you’re not doing it correctly, you are making money on the front end, but you’re building someone else’s business. If you do it wrong, you’re building a list of buyers for the other person’s business, not yours. This is why capturing data up front is so important. Then you can promote to the list of people who are entering in their contact information.
Personally, I LOVE getting 100% of the sale, which is why I focus on service-based work and done-for-you services.
However,
If it’s recurring commissions, meaning it bills on a regular and consistent basis, I’m all in. Affiliate marketing is absolutely amazing when you can do the work once, and get paid multiple times on end.
This is why I love Clickfunnels. Clickfunnels is a marketing platform that puts your membership sites, order forms, landing pages, sales pages, CRM, email service provider, and more all in one. I use it every day for my clients, students, and my own personal business. It also gives you the ability to create your own affiliate programs for your own products.
I can sell this thing once, and get paid monthly as long as the people who sign up for it continue to use it. It’s an amazing thing.
Now let’s talk about high ticket affiliate marketing.
Some people sell their programs at high prices. Anywhere from $2,000-$10,000 or more. They also offer higher commissions. I am more willing to focus on selling higher ticket affiliate programs than lower simply because it’s going to be higher quality and will make me more money in the end.
How can I start affiliate marketing?
- Learn and master the art of selling
- Find products that are already selling well
- Find affiliate programs that offer a wide variety of products to sell
- Create bonuses and extras for those who buy the products you’re promoting
- Buy products and create trainings showing how to use them effectively
Before you can even start thinking about how to start affiliate marketing, you need to learn how to sell first. Learn how to sell and sell it well.
Start by finding a list of products that are already selling very well that you can sell. Also, to save you a ton of time and headache, please find products that bill monthly. Do yourself a favor and play smart 🙂
I’ve already mentioned a few, but here is a list of my favorite recurring platforms
Email Service Providers
All-in-one Online Sales Platforms
Blogging
How do I personally use affiliate marketing in my business?
Every single person I come in contact with regarding my services, I try to sell them on my 6 income streams:
- Affiliate marketing
- Done-for-you services
- Consulting
- Coaching
- Programs or courses
- Passive income
So if I have a client, for example, I am going to sell them on done-for-you, affiliate passive income, and consulting. This then allows me to get paid more, and sell more. I will then have them sign up for marketing software like Clickfunnels for their entire sales system, ConvertKit for email marketing, and Bluehost for their website and hosting. See how I’m making more by offering different solutions?
What are my favorite affiliate products to sell?
I’ve already named them, but the products mentioned above are my favorite because they bill every month.
How do I create my own affiliate program to sell my products or services?
Once again, the best program I’ve found is Clickfunnels. This is hands down my best friend when it comes to selling stuff online.
Let me know in the comments how this article helped you!
