Wake up before dawn. Half-sleep, drag yourself to the office through total gridlock. Once there, slough trough one mind-numbing task after another while you desperately count down to 5 o’clock.

If you have had enough of that, the cheap mantra, “earn cash while you sleep” repeated by sketchy income gurus probably sounds luring. Instead of falling for get-rich-quick schemes, there’s a better way.

Affiliate marketing has become a popular way of generating considerable online revenue. Although it requires a bit of an effort, it’s a tried and tested performance-based business that allows you to earn a living from your home.

What Is Affiliate Marketing?

It’s a marketing strategy where an affiliate marketer earns money via revenue-sharing. The affiliate sends visitors to a publisher’s website.

If the prospect makes a certain qualified-action on the publisher website, the affiliate gets paid a fixed commission. That qualified-action could be just visiting the publisher’s website or making a purchase on it. It all depends on the deal you’ve got going.

Benefits:

Low-Cost Opportunity.

It allows you to go into business without investing a significant amount of your savings. You don’t need to have huge capital on hand, unlike with other business ventures.

At first, all it takes is an internet connection and a power source. Having a website or a blog wouldn’t hurt, but many have become successful affiliates through social media. A combo of the two works best.

There are no serious upkeep costs to consider. There are no overheads, aside from your site’s subscription fee for hosting. Your earning will more than cover it, leaving you with pure profit.

No Expertise Needed

You don’t have to be a seasoned marketing expert to succeed. The nature of the business allows you to test out various approaches. It allows you to learn along the way by trying out different paid or organic campaigns.

There are many ways you can run and manage your program. After you start off, try to identify which way works best for you. When you establish that, repeat the pattern for best results.

For example, if you are a blogger, you can write optimized content to get more visitors. That way, you have better chances of getting in touch with the right crowd.

Billion-Dollar Business

Affiliate marketing is quite far-reaching. It encompasses various other industries and niches. In such an environment, you are able to easily find partners and products you believe in.

So, having that in mind, don’t be tempted to go for the most popular niches, such as health and romance, just because of the high commissions. Although they have great potential in theory, you won’t be able to make the most of such a niche if you can’t pour your heart into it.

Instead, try finding a niche that you actually like and know about. For example, if you are true poker aficionado, you might be better off becoming a casino affiliate marketer than partnering up with a baby product program.

Independence

You decide where you’ll work and when you’ll work. Your office is wherever you can hook your laptop to the internet. Whether it will be in a picturesque French village or on an island in the Bahamas, it’s up to you.

But, more importantly, you’ll be the one in charge. As a freelancer, you set the rules. There are no company relations to worry about, no dress code, no weekly reports, etc. You are also free to set a flexible working schedule.

Second Source of Income

You don’t have to quit your job to get started. It can be a side gig. Once you see how much money you can make over time, you can go full-time if you want to.

How much work you’ll have to put into it depends on various factors. If you do things right, you can turn it into a source of passive income.

No Customer Service

Keeping customers and taking care of customer service related issues can get very difficult. Luckily, that won’t be your concern.

All you have to worry about is your commission. If your visitors have any post-sale inquiries, you can direct them to the publisher’s customer service.

However, if you’d like to boost your SEO, you might want to create generated content under your reviews. In that case, it’s best to reply to product-related questions that appear on your blog or website. Still, customer service is entirely your call.

Disadvantages:

A Few Bad Eggs

Not every partner you run into will be a good one. They may go out of business or decide not to pay you correctly for your work. You can’t control how your partner runs their enterprise. But, you can minimize the risks of partnering up with an unfair business by choosing a reputable affiliate business network platform.

No Control Over Commissions

Likely, you’ll have no say when it comes to product pricing. The company is the one that sets commission rates, leaving you with no control over them.

For example, some programs pay a certain percentage based on how much you sell. That percentage is non-negotiable. If you are sending a company more and more customers, you won’t be rewarded with a higher commission rate.

Conclusion

Just like with any other business venture, you’ll have to apply yourself to reap the benefits. Before you give it your time and effort, make sure to study the field. Get familiar with the fine details of any offer you receive, and you’ll be off to a good start.

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Jessie Connor

Jessie Connor is a passionate writer and researcher from Brisbane, contributor at several business and lifestyle blogs, hooked on yoga and healthy living. She loves to spend her free time travelling, reading and of course – shopping!

Latest posts by Jessie Connor (see all)

• Golden Rules for Being a More Successful Businesswoman - September 9, 2019
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