One of the most flexible ways of earning money as a blogger is through affiliate marketing. There are many affiliate networks out there and some have higher entry requirements than others.
I believe that when you start a blog there is no reason why you can’t start the foundation of earning through your efforts. As you grow your blog, define your niche and find your feet you can learn about affiliate marketing as you go.
What is affiliate marketing?
In a nutshell, affiliate marketing is when you get paid for promoting or referring sales for a product/service. So for example, have you ever read about how much someone loves a face mask and you click through to look for that face mask and then buy it? If the link was an affiliate link then the person who referred you will get a small amount. The key point is that you, as the buyer, are not paying anything extra. The company is basically paying for the promotion they got through the writer’s blog.
If the writer hadn’t used an affiliate link you ‘d still pay the same price and probably go back to buy again and perhaps even recommend it others. What affiliate marketing does, when done right, is it allows the smaller publishers to get their fair share of the pie.
*Affiliate links. If you sign up I may receive a small commission.
Everything that is done on the internet makes money for someone somewhere and affiliate marketing is a way for the start up blogger to make some money for their efforts.
Affiliate networks take the hustle out of having to deal with individual advertisers and they act as the middlemen connecting the writer (content creator/blogger/youtuber) with the advertisers. They will collect the money from the advertisers and make sure you get paid.
How do they know that you referred someone?
When you sign up to an affiliate network you will get a unique tracking reference number that will show you vital statistics like how many clicks and sales etc.