You can make passive income with affiliate marketing, and NO, it’s not the multi-level pyramid marketing scheme you’re thinking of.
You can become rich in just a few short weeks. All you have to do is recruit your friends and family and…
Remember that? Yeah, I do too.
So, when I was researching how to make money online, I passed right over people talking about affiliate marketing. It was just too spammy sounding, and I was not going to get my family and friends involved in some get rich quick scheme.
I don’t remember how much time went by or what finally convinced me to look at affiliate marketing, but at this point, I’m really glad I did.
Believe it or not, affiliate marketing is a legit way to make money from home…in your pajamas on the couch if you so choose.
In fact, it is one of the best forms of mostly passive income.
Since I needed convincing, I’m guessing you do too.
So, let’s break this bad boy down and figure out how to make passive income with affiliate marketing.
No pyramids, MLM terminology, or spam included.
This post may contain affiliate links. This means I could earn a commission if you purchase through my links, however, there is no cost to you. Rest assured, I only promote products that I use or think are great. Thanks for reading!!
How to Make Passive Income with Affiliate Marketing
What Exactly is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a marketing model where you promote other people’s products or services and earn a commission for each sale or action that’s generated through your unique affiliate link. It’s a win-win situation for both the affiliate and the merchant, as the affiliate earns a commission for each sale they refer while the merchant gets exposure and sales they might not have otherwise received.
Sounds good enough. Let’s continue.
What Exactly is Passive Income?
Since we’re defining affiliate marketing, let’s define passive income so we know exactly what we’re striving for.
Passive income is income that’s earned with little to no effort on your part once the initial work has been done. It’s a great way to earn money without having to trade your time for money constantly.
With affiliate marketing, you can create a source of passive income by promoting other people’s products or services (through social media, a blog, etc…) and earning a commission on each sale.
Why do you really want to do affiliate marketing?
The reasons are many:
- Low overhead costs: Affiliate marketing requires little to no investment in overhead costs, making it an affordable way to start generating passive income.
- Flexible schedule: You can work on your affiliate marketing business whenever you want (like the above-mentioned couch, or while you are sipping a pina colada on a lawn chair, your choice), giving you the flexibility to work around your schedule.
- No product creation required: With affiliate marketing, you don’t have to create your own products or services, which saves you time, money, and countless headaches.
- High earning potential: Depending on the affiliate program you choose, you can earn a significant amount of money through affiliate marketing, making it a big payday source of passive income.
How Affiliate Marketing Works
As we figured out before, affiliate marketing is a type of marketing where you promote other people’s products or services and earn a commission for each sale or action that’s generated through your unique affiliate link. As an affiliate marketer, your role is to promote the product or service to your audience and convince them to make a purchase or take a specific action.
The process of affiliate marketing is relatively simple. Here’s how it goes:
- You sign up for an affiliate program and receive a unique affiliate link.
- You promote the product or service using your affiliate link. You usually promote through social media, email marketing, blog content, etc…
- Your audience clicks on your affiliate link and makes a purchase or takes a specific action, such as signing up for a newsletter.
- You earn a commission for each sale or action that’s generated through your affiliate link.
Different Types of Affiliate Programs
Believe it or not, there are several different types of affiliate programs you can join:
- Pay-Per-Sale (PPS) Programs: This type of program pays you a commission for each sale that’s generated through your affiliate link.
- Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Programs: This type of program pays you a commission for each click that’s generated through your affiliate link.
- Pay-Per-Lead (PPL) Programs: This type of program pays you a commission for each lead or action that’s generated through your affiliate link, such as signing up for a newsletter.
- Two-Tier Programs: This type of program allows you to earn a commission not only on your own sales but also on the sales of affiliates you refer to the program.
Eeny Meeny Miny Moe – Choosing the Right Affiliate Products or Services
Choosing the right affiliate products or services to promote can make your affiliate marketing life easier, and we all want that.
You want to pick products or services that align with your niche and appeal to your target audience. You also want to pick things that you use or would use, in my opinion, although that’s not necessary.
Where to Find Affiliate Products and Services
There are two main places to look for affiliate products or services to promote:
Affiliate networks: You can join affiliate networks such as Amazon Associates, ClickBank, and ShareASale to find a wide range of products and services to promote.
Direct partnerships: You can Google just about any company or product out there and find info about their affiliate program and how to join.
Don’t Just Choose Any Ol’ Product
When choosing affiliate products or services to promote, think about:
- Relevance: The product or service should be relevant to your niche and audience.
- Quality: The product or service should be of high quality and provide value to your audience.
- Commission rate: Look for products or services that offer a reasonable commission rate. The higher the better, as always.
- Affiliate support: Choose affiliate programs that offer support, such as marketing materials or customer support.
- Reputation: Choose products or services from reputable companies with a good track record.
A Side Note
A little side note, if you find a niche that you like and several products that you think are great that are actually physical products, you can think about expanding into actually selling them. You could sell similar products or find ways to find the products at a lower cost and then resell them at a higher price on eBay or Amazon.
Check out my posts Unleash Your Inner Mogul: Start and eBay Side Hustle and Get Your Piece of the Space Rocket Pie: How to Start and Amazon FBA Business With Little Money.
Creating a Content Strategy
What on earth do I need a content strategy for you ask?
Well, not so much a full-blown strategy, but you will want to think about what kind of information you’re going to put out into the world to draw attention to the products you’re promoting.
Your content should be high-quality and provide value to your audience, while also promoting your affiliate products or services. Some effective ways that people have used:
Product reviews: Writing honest and informative reviews of products or services.
Tutorials or how-to guides: Providing step-by-step guides or tutorials related to your niche.
Comparison posts: Comparing and contrasting different products or services to help your audience make informed decisions.
Promoting to Build. That. Audience.
Now that you’ve got the basics down of what you’re going to do, you need people to actually see your links.
You need an audience.
Here are a few ways to go about it:
- Social media marketing: Using platforms such as Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc… to promote your content and engage with your audience.
(I use Tailwind to manage all of this.) - Search engine optimization (SEO) with content marketing: Writing valuable and relevant content on your blog or website and then optimizing it for Google to increase visibility and traffic.
(I use Bluehost for my website, but you can also check out my post Believe the Hype: How to Start a Blog and Make Money to learn more about getting it up and running for SEO) - Email marketing: Building an email list and sending regular newsletters or promotions to your subscribers.
(I use ConvertKit for this.) - Paid advertising: Paid advertising involves paying for ads on platforms such as Google, Facebook, or Instagram to promote your affiliate products or services.
Resources to Check Out:
If all of this seems too overwhelming without an exact blueprint to follow, I whole-heartedly recommend Michelle’s Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing Course and the 90 Minute Affiliate Challenge. I personally did both of these and found them extremely helpful. They aren’t super long or wordy either, which I appreciate.
Get an automated email sequence started with ConvertKit.
You will also need to start marketing social media. I use Tailwind to manage everything.
If you want a website (not 100% necessary, but I always recommend having one), I use Bluehost.
Disclosing Affiliate Links
One last note, you want to make sure you keep your affiliate marketing biz on the up and up.
To do that, you need to make sure you disclose which links are affiliate links. It’s a legal requirement in many countries, and its also just the right thing to do.
You can easily add a disclaimer at the beginning of your blog post or video, or by using a disclosure tool provided by the affiliate network.
How to Make Passive Income with Affiliate Marketing
See, no MLM pyramids involved.
I know that all of this can sound like it’s a scam, but I assure you that it isn’t.
Almost every company out there has an affiliate marketing program. It helps online entrepreneurs like us, and it helps the companies get their products out there – and it doesn’t cost the buyers anything extra to buy through your links.
It really is a win circle.
The best thing about all of this is that it is a wonderful passive income stream. Once you write the blog article or get a social media post out there with your link in it, that link can generate income indefinitely.
Don’t get me wrong, there is work involved. There are no free lunches here.
I have worked harder on my affiliate marketing efforts than I ever did at my day job.
But, here’s the thing – I actually want to.
I want to work on affiliate marketing and making money online in general because it’s for me, not some gray-haired man in a suit sitting in the C-suite.
That’s the beauty of affiliate marketing. Anyone with an internet connection and a little gumption can start it.
So…get to startin’.
(Check out my post Get off the 9 to 5 Hamster Wheel: Passive Online Side Hustles From Home for my other favorite ways to make money online.)
