In my latest monthly income
report, you may have noticed that my
affiliate income had surpassed my direct income from the electronic products
that I sell online. I received a lot of comments, asking me to explain more
about where my affiliate income comes from and how it works.
Instead of just breaking down where
it all came from – how much this, and how much that – I decided to turn this
post into something a little bit more useful that would do more than just tell
you how much I earned. Again, I’m not here to show you the money I make online,
I’m here to show you how I make money online, and what I’ve learned
along the way.
When thinking specifically about
affiliate income, I determined that I could divide how people earn money as an
affiliate into three primary categories: Unattached, Related, and Involved.
I’m speaking in terms of how we are associated with the product or products we
may be an affiliate for.
Unattached
Affiliate Marketing
These are your basic pay-per-click
affiliate marketing campaigns where you have no presence and no
authority in the niche of the product you’re promoting. There’s no
connection between you and the end consumer, and all you’re doing is showing an
affiliate link in front of someone’s face via Google Adwords, Facebook ads or
whatever, in hopes that they’ll click on your link, buy the product, and you’ll
earn a commission.
The reason why this type of
affiliate marketing is so attractive to many is because no presence or
authority in a niche is needed! It takes time to build up a reputation and
trust with certain groups of people online, and many people are just too scared
to commit to working on a blog or website, or just don’t have the time. For
many, this is their only option.
Personally, I don’t like this
business model because to me, this is not a business model. It’s an
income generating model – yes, but a business model where I can build
relationships with the end user – no. With PPC affiliate marketing, you become
a behind the scenes middle man.
Not for me.
If you dabble in PPC affiliate
marketing and are in the positive, I applaud you and I wish you continued
success. Trust me, it’s a lot more difficult than it sounds, so props to those
of you finding success with it.
Related
Affiliate Marketing
Another form of affiliate marketing
is what I like to call related affiliate marketing. This is where you
have some sort of presence online, whether it’s through a blog, a podcast,
videos, or whatever – and you have affiliate links to products related
to your niche, but they’re for products you don’t actually use.
Back when text link ads were a big
deal, I remember seeing every single “make money online” website with a 125 x
125 pixel advertisement for text link ads. Most of these sites did not actually
use the text link ad service on their own sites. On many personal finance
blogs, you’ll see a lot of different affiliate advertisements for things like
ING, Everbank, LendingClub, and numerous other financial institutions. I doubt
that every person who places one of those links on their blog actually uses
each of those products and services.
And that’s ok.
Placing affiliate links on your site
that are related to your niche is a great strategy to earn an extra income.
Whether it’s in the sidebar in banner form, or in a text link at the bottom of
your blog post, because you have a website and some authority, people will
trust you and your decision to place the ad on your site.
I do have a few of these kinds of
links scattered throughout this site. In the sidebar, you’ll see (at the
moment) an ad for a “How to Make an iPhone App” product. Many of you know I do
have a few iPhone apps that generate an income for me each month, but I did not
use this product. I do, however, personally know the owner, which is why I
trust him and decided to place that ad there.
Related affiliate marketing is
great, but I can tell you that 95% of my affiliate marketing comes from the
last type of affiliate marketing I’d like to talk about…
Involved
Affiliate Marketing
Involved affiliate marketing is
where you’ve used a product or service, truly believe in it, and
personally recommend it to your audience. Not in a banner ad or somewhere that
says “recommended resources”, but within your content, as part of your life and
your strategy for whatever it is you’re talking about. The product almost
becomes something people “have to have”, because it’s part of the process.
It’s your involvement and
experience with the product that makes that offer so attractive.
There is, however, a level of
responsibility that you have to uphold while making these kinds of recommendations,
especially if you have a lot of authority and influence over your followers.
This is something I take very seriously – even more so now that this blog has
become so popular in such a short period of time. If it were up to me, this the
only way affiliate marketing would be done, because to me it’s the most honest
and most helpful.
This is the complete opposite of
PPC, where you’re not even seen by the consumer in order for the transaction to
take place. Instead, this is you talking directly to those who may need a
product that you’re offering, who have their ears and eyes on you. This is not
using your money in order to make money, like with PPC. It’s using your
reputation, trust and authority in order to get others to take your
recommendation, use it, and pay you something in return in the form of a
commission.
My Affiliate Income
Last month, I made $5,023.33 in
affiliate sales, and like I said, about 95% of that came from offering products
that I’ve used and put my word behind.
Most of it comes from my LEED
website. I do sell my own study guides, as you know, but I am also an affiliate
for a company who sells practice exams as well. I thought about creating
practice exams of my own, but this company is so good at what they do, (I used
them to help me pass my test back in March of 2008), that it wouldn’t be fair
to my customers if I tried to take their money by creating my own practice
exams and kept them from this wonderful resource.
So, instead of creating my own, I
have a page on my blog that recommends these exams, and within my eBooks,
I talk about how I didn’t include practice exams because the best ones are
available from this company, which I’ve personally used to help me pass. Of
course, I put an affiliate link within the eBook, which is something you can’t
do with a hardcopy book (unless you buy a domain that redirects to an affiliate
link, which you can mention in that hardcopy, but that’s a whole other blog
post).
I even go into tips for taking
practice exams within my eBook, but again – I don’t offer include them, but I
offer the affiliate link to where you can get them. Taking practice exams is
part of the process that many people feel is necessary to achieve a higher
score, and I offer my recommendation through an affiliate link to fulfill that
need.
On this blog, I’m sure you’ve seen
me personally recommend the Internet
Business Mastery Academy before, and I do that
because they helped my internet business get to that next level when I was
starting out, I’m still a member today, and I truly believe in the program.
So, to conclude, I would say that
you can choose which kind of affiliate marketing works best for you, unattached,
related, or involved, but in my experience, using your authority and
presence in a niche to recommend products that you’ve actually used that have
actually benefited you in some way is the best way to go. I think people will
feel more confortable investing in products recommended in this way because:
- They have some kind of proof that it works,
- They have a resource to go to for help; and
- They know to to blame if it doesn’t work.
Be as involved as you can with the
affiliate marketing process and you will see success with your affiliate
income.
Thanks everyone! My eBook is
finished, and it’s just waiting on a coupl
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