Affiliate Marketing is not the only way to make money through Blogs and it doesn’t suit every Blog or Blogger (why… that we will discuss later in this topic) however; there are certain reasons why it can be really profitable for few Blogs.
The Trust Factor
The prime and most effective of those reasons is that Affiliate Marketing can work best on those platforms where there is already a faith of readers is built with the publisher.
The Bloggers do have great fan following which they can utilize for Affiliate Marketing purposes. It is also possible that with such a deep and reliable relation, readers are more likely to follow the recommendations of the blogger.
Of course, this can be negative also with Affiliate Marketing; promote one wrong product and you can lose the trust of your readers forever.
The Mutual Benefit
Merchants prefer Blogs for Affiliate Marketing as they find it a nice way to promote their products in front of a bigger audience. Also, they know that they have to pay some Commission only when there is a conversion through that Blog. Although the Merchant’s Income for each individual sale goes down if they use an Affiliate Program; yet the Overall Sales Level goes way too higher because of the Network of Affiliates promoting, and hence the net income.
On the other hand, Publishers also prefer Affiliation with right Merchants because if they could find a relevant product to their niche, their earnings can go well with any Cost-Per-Click or Cost-Per-Impression Advertising Campaign.
Reconsidering the Affiliation
Perhaps the simplest definition of Affiliate Marketing is; it’s a process of making money online where a Publisher is rewarded with money for promoting a particular Product, Service or Website. In some variations, the Publisher gets paid only for referring a visitor via the Affiliate Link; say for example if the visitor completes a survey or signs up for a newsletter.
You can find a number of different forms applicable to Affiliation however; in most cases, the Publisher earns some commission whenever a visitor of his Website or Blog follows a link within the Content and takes some action on the other site where he/she landed.
Conversions and Commissions
Conversions are nothing but the sales happening through the Blog’s Affiliate Links. The Traffic is tracked (typically using Browser Cookies) in order to determine the number of sales routed through the Affiliate’s Blog.
Commissions are often a Percentage of a Net Sale Amount but can also be a Fixed Amount per Conversion.
Say for Example, if you are selling Apparels through your blogs, you might get 20-30% of the Price as Commission whereas, for Stationary Items sold via your Blog, you might earn up to 50 Rupees per conversion.
Pertinent Studies
During recent studies and surveys; it has been noticed that readers actually love to read about upcoming and trendy products in their favorite blogs. In a recent poll conducted on ProBlogger Website, readers were asked if they have done any Affiliate Marketing on Blogs and results were surprising:
- 29% of Readers did it on a regular basis
- 24% of Readers did it occasionally
- 27% have never done Affiliate Marketing on Blogs
- 6% were used to but don’t do it any more
- 14% didn’t know anything about Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate Marketing & Easy Money
While Affiliate Marketing seems to be incredibly lucrative and rewarding; it is important for you to know that it is not at all some easy money. Most of the people who try their hands on it, make not much of money as the success of Affiliate Marketing relies upon numerous factors that include:
- The Website Traffic; obviously the higher the traffic, the more the chances for Conversion.
- Searching Relevant Products; again not a difficult task but could be time consuming for Beginners.
- Identifying Quality Products; a wise selection of top quality products can boost up the Trust Factor.
- Building Trust with Readers; that part is already taken care of by the Blogger, hence the Frequent Readers.
- A Readership with a “Buying Mood”; that is one tough task although, with the experience, it can be managed.
- Interesting Content; the Blogger must be able to write good content with sales linked inserted correctly.
The Bottom Line
With Online Affiliate Marketing, there’s always some risk associated for Blogs. If your content is too PUSHY or promotes those Products and Services that come with very lower quality; you can upset your frequent readers, plus damage your reputation and brand name.
You must also keep in mind that the Concept of Affiliate Marketing doesn’t apply on each and every blog. Some of the blogs are on select topics where you can hardly find any products to promote. Then there are other blogs that attract audiences who are not with a buying mindset. Sometimes, it just doesn’t fit with the Blogger’s approach or style to connect with the readers.
