Every day, millions of publishers benefit from a recurring cash inflow by connecting with other companies through affiliate programs. Affiliate marketing is one of the useful ways to monetize your blog, mainly when you do not sell products or services. By joining an affiliate program you can get exclusive access to new content and unique deals for your audience- all while earning more money.
There are different affiliate marketing platforms, ranging from website builders to online courses to business and marketing affiliates. Here, we are going to discuss everything about affiliate marketing, including what it is, how to start affiliate marketing, various affiliate marketing tips, and so on.
What is an affiliate program?
An affiliate program is an agreement in which a business pays another influencer or another business money for sending sales or traffic their way. This can be attained through social media, web content, or product assimilation. The affiliate attains a distinctive link from which you can track clicks mainly using cookies.
You will most of the time come across the terms “ cookie length” or “cookie life”, which just explain how long the cookie will be tracking the online activity of the users.
For instance, if a cookie has a 30-day life, your referral should purchase within 30 days of clicking your affiliate link for you to get paid- or else the lead will not be possible to track.
A B2B audience can be specifically important as they are the same consumers who are willing to spend hundreds of dollars for a product or service that will help them to earn money. How could you not make most of it?
Of course, there are different types of affiliate platforms, and you will want to make sure that you choose the one that suits your business. Let us have a look at the different types of affiliate programs.
Types of Affiliate Programs
If you are looking to promote your products or services, there are a few affiliate marketing platforms that you can consider. While choosing an affiliate program, you must keep in mind the platforms or avenues your customer spends most of the time- for example, does your customer typically read blogs, scroll Facebook, or use different search engines while researching new products or services?
Instead, is your buyer persona someone who is always looking for a better deal and would appreciate a link on a coupon site? Or do they seem to be more interested in doing lots of research before making a purchase, making your promotion efforts worthwhile on a review site?
While those are questions you must consider for yourself, let us have a look at some of the different types of affiliate programs so you can start brainstorming potential avenues for your marketing efforts:
Search affiliates- With this affiliate marketing program, you will have entrepreneurs or freelancers pay their own money to endorse your offer on search results or other online marketing platforms like Facebook Advertising. While you will want to make sure your partner is following advertising and search guidelines, this could be in your favor if your partner has an SEO background and wants to do an A/B test to check which ads help you get the most referrals and ROI for them.
Influencers/ bloggers- If there are notable social media influencers or bloggers in your industry who engage with your perfect buyer persona daily, you might consider connecting with them. For example, if you sell kitchen machines, it might be useful to reach out to bloggers or YouTube influencers who post recipes, and ask if they would feature your product as a “recommendation tool” in their next post. Preferably, this would result in your target customer looking at your website, and if they like the products or services you provide, could offer extra money for the influencer.
Coupon sites- If you are providing a new product or service that is not popular in the market, you might try to create an affiliate partnership with a coupon site for a limited time. While you do not want to lose money by giving your product at a discounted price, it could be effective at getting a few first-time buyers to check your website and become brand name advocates.
Email marketing- This is best when used in small doses. You do not want any associates sending out bulk emails to consumers who are not interested in your products and services, but with the right consideration for who is receiving the email, this could be an effective way. For example, if you sell design tools, you might reach out to marketing agencies and ask, if they are working with a certain customer on a design project, whether they might consider sending a URL from your website within an email’s body. This could help their customers leverage your tools to develop high-quality content while providing added sources of income to agencies.
Review sites- If you provide a product or service that is niche or more expensive, most of your customers’ likely need to research that topic before buying- if that is the case, it might be a great idea to research the top review websites related to your products or services and reach out to the writer who published that piece, asking whether they would be interested in offering an affiliate link to your products and services in the text.
Best Business and Marketing Affiliate Programs
HubSpot
The mission of HubSpot is to help millions of companies grow better. Comprising a Sales Hub, Marketing Hub, and Service Hub, this award-winning growth platform offers thousands of companies the tools they require to handle the customer experience- from awareness to activism.
As a HubSpot affiliate, the money that you will receive will depend on the product tier of every product your referral has bought. Keep in mind that you can earn nearly $1,000 for each product you purchased. It is not uncommon for buyers to purchase more than one product at one time. So, in reality, you could very well earn nearly $3,000 if your referral were to buy the Enterprise Growth Suite.
When you join the affiliate program of HubSpot, you attain access to a large creative inventory, including banners, demo videos, and copy examples, all meant to help you earn maximum money. Also, you can cultivate a one-on-one relation with the HubSpot affiliate team, who are dedicated to helping you achieve success.
AWeber
AWeber has been the autoresponder of choice for more than one million businesses and entrepreneurs since 1998. It is an important tool for email and newsletter campaigns. Affiliates of AWeber can earn a substantial amount of money through various channels:
Ø Their in-house program provides a 30% commission for a lifetime. Plans usually range from nearly $20 to $150 per month, so the payout can add up.
Ø Instead, you can earn nearly $300 per each account through CJ Affiliate. However, the cookie life with this option is just 45 days, rather than a year.
Sendinblue
This is an all-in-one online marketing platform that helps businesses connect with their consumers through email marketing, marketing automation, SMS, chat, and much more. This user-friendly tool is growing fast with more than 175,000 users across the world.
The affiliate program has two different streams: one for bloggers and one for agencies.
The free and affordable pricing plans make it an attractive revenue opportunity for publishers and bloggers in the email marketing area. You will get $ 100 every time you refer to a paying consumer and join a network of top affiliates like Capterra, WPBeginner, email vendor selection, CodeinWP, and much more.