Affiliate marketing refers to earning a commission by selling other people’s or company’s products and services. It is done in various ways like including affiliate links in your blog post, running paid advertisement campaigns, including links in videos, and much more.
The question here is ‘Is Affiliate Marketing legit?’
Everything has its positive and negative factors and so does affiliate marketing. There may be good affiliate campaigns going on while fraud campaigns may also run aside.
If done correctly, affiliate marketing becomes legit and lets you earn huge revenue. Lots of bloggers, content creators, and digital marketers earn huge commissions through affiliate marketing campaigns. This marketing is legal, and practiced all over the world!
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How does affiliate marketing work?
We have published a detailed guide for beginners wanting to begin an affiliate marketing career and here is the summary of it.
The process of affiliate marketing can be defined in four steps.
First, find products through affiliate programs as per your niche
Make sure you are joining trusted affiliate marketing programs like Amazon, Clickbank, CJ affiliate, and more.
EXPLORE 10 HIGHEST PAYING AFFILIATE PROGRAMS
Get the affiliate links
Promote the acquired affiliate links in your blog or any other platform
You can promote affiliate links in blogs, video contents, websites with landing pages, or advertising platforms.
Get traffic to your affiliate link via the blog
Getting traffic to your blog, video content or ad campaign is vital for generating conversions and earning commissions through affiliate marketing. You can use Q/A sites and forums to increase traffic to your website however, don’t use direct affiliate links on those platforms which will result in a lifetime ban.
Create chances of conversion
Chances of conversion are always less if you are trying to sell products directly so, prepare helpful and valuable content to lure customers. Also, don’t forget to write content and promote products as per your niche and target audience. You can write reviews, case studies, and detailed information about the product you are going to sell as an affiliate
Earn commission after your audience purchases product or service through your affiliate link.
If your viewers or audiences purchase products or services from your affiliate links, you get a commission. The commission rate depends upon the affiliate program types, niches, and other factors.
There are various affiliate programs available out there on the internet. You need to just research programs as per your content niche and apply for them.
ALSO EXPLORE OUR YOUTUBE AFFILIATE MARKETING GUIDE
Is Affiliate Marketing a real business?
Affiliate Marketing happens online and the marketers are just people like us. There are chances for mishandling of the affiliate marketing platform.
Also, when there are humans involved, there is a higher chance of fraudulent activities. So, it is better to understand the bright and dark sides of affiliate marketing campaigns.
Let’s discuss good and bad affiliate marketing campaigns.
Good affiliate marketing campaign
A proper and fair affiliate marketing means earning a commission by promoting products or services from legit and well-known brands such as Amazon, CJ Affiliate, Clickbank, and so on. You can sit in a room and run ads on various platforms including social media, Google, and make impressive revenue out of it. Besides, you can join a digital marketing agency to publish your offers directly to Google.
You can promote gadgets, books, cosmetics, travel destinations, or anything that you are comfortable working with. Affiliate marketing generates ample revenue if you master it with consistency and strong enthusiasm. It all depends upon your creativity, skill, and decision-making capability.
For instance, you can join the Clickbank affiliate network and promote various products related to e-business, e-marketing, games, languages, self-help, health and fitness, and much more. With that, you can earn commissions as high as 90 percent along with chances for recurring commissions.
Clickbank has featured over 4000 marketplace products and paid $4.2 billion in commissions. This is impressive, isn’t it?
Likewise, there are lots of other legit affiliate marketing programs where you can earn significant revenue and grow your online business.
Substandard affiliate marketing campaign
People find lots of ways to earn money online fast and they are the ones making affiliate marketing businesses less legit. Quality affiliate marketing programs like Clickbank, and CJ Affiliate are trusted across the globe however, other low-quality programs feature unwanted offers.
You can find pop-ups, irrelevant flashy banner advertisements, automatic new windows opening in unprotected browsers, unnecessary ads, and more. Get-rich-quick schemes, pay-to-join programs, fake products, and services are examples of affiliate marketing scams. Such activities come under ad fraud, clickbait, or link cloaking.
Sometimes offers looking fraud may be good ones because people customize affiliate links to make them more appealing and clickable. So, it all depends upon you to find out if the affiliate campaign you interacted with is qualitative.
Look for these three common affiliate scams!
- Affiliate marketing programs that ask for initial payment to join
- Using a famous brand’s name to promote fake products or services
- Get-rich-fast schemes that lure you with maximum payout with minimum effort
Which affiliate marketing program to choose from?
The affiliate marketing industry provides options for both good and substandard programs. That’s why it’s all up to you whether you prefer to build a profitable and trusted online business or make deceptive use of an affiliate marketing program to trick people.
Just you need to make the right choice!
Conclusion
Affiliate Marketing is a legit and trusted business across the globe as lots of well-known companies are working on it. However, it doesn’t mean there aren’t scammers trying to trick people and easily steal their hard-earned money.
Affiliate Marketing is one of the real online business models and people are earning huge revenue with it. If you are a blogger, content creator, or digital marketer, you must not miss the affiliate marketing opportunity otherwise you will be losing lots of revenue.
Always make sure you are joining trusted, legit affiliate programs and promoting high-quality products to meet the people’s demand.
Your affiliate marketing journey becomes successful and sustainable only if you try to promote trusted products and solve the problems of your audience.
