What is an Affiliate Marketing Program

So, you wake up at the crack of dawn! Now that things are slowly getting back to some normality due to the decline of COVID, you drive to the office, and you are at a standstill of a traffic jam for who knows how long. Those of you who live in Los Angeles can relate to that commute on the 405. You arrive at the office already stressed out, sit down with your coffee, and read mind-numbing emails one after another. Being in an office can be a soul destroyer day after day, just waiting for the bell to ring at 5 o’clock. Is this what you want? No, I didn’t think so. Then may I suggest the question you can ask to solve this problem is, “What is an affiliate marketing program(s)?

What if I told you that you didn’t have to face any of that scenario ever again? Making an income is possible from anywhere, any time, even around the clock. After all, when you are asleep, people in other parts of the world are waking up, socializing, and shopping online. COVID has had an influential impact on the way people purchase products and services now, and I want to show you how to tap into that influence.

How are we going to do that? A little something called affiliate marketing.

The Affiliate Partnership

To further understand an affiliate partnership, let’s consider you as the marketer who has a website that lists product recommendations within a blog. Your readers want to purchase the product or service you suggest, and they can do so by clicking on the affiliate link located within your article. An affiliate link is a specific URL that contains your unique affiliate information to record traffic to an advertiser’s website and keep track of your sales.

Affiliate marketing is an excellent way to monetize a blog. Why? Because you don’t have to sell products or services. If you already have the traffic coming to your blog, you can feature products and services you would personally recommend. If you don’t have the traffic coming to your blog and need help, feel free to contact me at Madison@MarmaladeMonopoly.com or click the “See the Formula” button below.

Why Not Recommend Anything & Everything?

To make money with the affiliate business model, it is wise to believe in the product or services you are promoting or recommending. There are sites out there that will sell anything, but that is not wise. The fact is, you will only make a commission when your reader purchases a product from you and doesn’t return the product. So promoting inferior products is not in your best interest. Your website will get a bad reputation in the long run, and your readers won’t come back. Now, you see why it is a bad idea to have anything and everything on your site?

There are various affiliate programs out there, spanning from online courses to website builders to marketing and business affiliates. Here, we will explore the different types of affiliate programs where you can make money.

But first — what precisely is an affiliate program?

What is an Affiliate Marketing Programs?

Simply put, an affiliate program is an agreement in which a business pays you (the affiliate) a commission for either sending traffic or sales their way or both.

The traffic can come from various avenues through your blog (which is one of the best free ways to get traffic) or social media. You, as the affiliate, will get a unique URL, called an affiliate link, where traffic and sales can be tracked, usually via cookies.

What the Heck is a Cookie?

You will see the term “cookie” very often, like in “cookie length” or “cookie life,” which defines the amount of time the user’s online activity will be tracked. There are some recent changes to the way cookies operate which I will be covering in the coming days.

But to make things simplistic, let’s say your cookie has a 60-day time limit, which is really good. Your referral must purchase within 60 days of clicking your affiliate link for you to earn a commission. After 60 days, the referral can’t be tracked.

Wow, A Lot to Know…Is There Training or Certification?

You might think learning the right methods and strategies to succeed in affiliate marketing is like searching for the elusive unicorn! But it doesn’t have to be, and I know exactly where that unicorn lives. You can visit the beautiful unicorn anytime for FREE by clicking HERE.

There are some training courses and seminars that result in certifications; however, recognizing that training is mostly due to the reputation of the individual or company heading up the program. Affiliate marketing is typically not taught in college and is only “mentioned” in passing to marketing majors.

Affiliate marketing training usually happens by trial and error in real life by immersing yourself in the topic by so-called experts, online forums, weblogs, podcasts, video training, and niche websites. Many of these places are plagued by scam artists. You must be very cautious where you spend your money to get an affiliate education.

Why Does Affiliate Marketing Sometimes Get A Bad Rap?

Since the popularity of affiliate marketing has become more apparent, there has been little regulation over affiliate activity. Scam artists have used spam, false advertising, adware, and other deceitful ways to drive traffic to sponsors. Most affiliate programs have stipulations to ban spam, but unfortunately, this method continues to be a problem.

Types of Affiliate Programs

The way I like to categorize the types of affiliate programs is the method used to determine how they compensate their affiliate partner (you).

• Pay-per-click. You will see this term relating to Google Adsense. This is where the affiliate or you (also termed the publisher) will receive money each time a visitor clicks an ad on your site. This means you would place a Google AdSense ad on your site, and each time it is clicked, you make money.
• Pay-per-lead. This strategy pays you for sign-ups. You will earn compensation every time a user is funneled from your site to another site and signs up for a program.
• Pay-per-sale. This is a fairly straightforward concept. You will get paid a pre-determined percentage for every sale.
• Pay-per-action. This program type will pay you for each specific action completed by the user.
• Pay-per-call.  Don’t get this one confused with Pay-per-click. You won’t see this style of marketing used very often, but it is still out there. You would advertise the number on your site, and whenever someone calls this number, you will get compensated.
• Pay-per-post. This is popular amongst bloggers. This is an offer that is requested of you by a company. A company will contact you (most popular are bloggers and social media influencers) asking you to write about their product or service or simply just a photo post in exchange for payment.
• Pay-per-review. A company will pay its affiliates for posting bogus reviews on Amazon, IMDB, TripAdvisor, and so many more sites. These businesses aren’t always on the up and up because many of the reviews are fake; however, be aware that legitimate companies exist to pay for your honest review.

So Where Should You Go From Here?

Great, now you know a little more about what is an affiliate marketing programs and how they operate. But if you are still confused, don’t worry, you are not alone.

Please feel free to contact me at Madison@MarmaladeMonopoly.com and we can discuss which type of affiliate is best for your business. I’d be glad to share how I run my business and what tools I use. A marketer has to have the best tools to be successful. Also, a good secretary is essential as you can see my hard-working secretary, oops I mean seCATary, Troy in this photograph. I am able to show you how to get started with these tools for free and you absolutely do not need a credit card to check it out.

There is a lot of information out there, and it can be overwhelming to know which road to take. If you would like to learn more about marketing contact me here, or you can click HERE to find out more.