When I learned affiliate marketing and started learning how to make money with affiliate marketing, it rocked my world!
I just started going down the affiliate marketing rabbit hole in the last year or so, but it’s been super-exciting to say the least.
On top of what’s happened this year, I believe this year is going to be an incredible year for affiliate marketing and affiliate commissions.
I hate to use the word easy, but if there’s an easy way to make money online, it has to be by getting involved with affiliate marketing.
Yes, there is a learning curve and some patience involved, but once you start getting traffic to your content, it’s completely passive.
If you’re thinking about getting in on that game, it’s still early and you can still carve out a HUGE piece of the pie for yourself.
If you’ve searched for it, you probably kind of understand what it is or maybe you just heard the term affiliate marketing and got curious.
So what is affiliate marketing?
How does it work?
How can you make money?
Keep scrolling and I’ll answer all these questions and more and show you how I had my first $1,000 per month
(and why I expect many more to follow).
What is Affiliate Marketing?
First things first.
You’ve got to understand what affiliate marketing is.
Simply put, it’s when you are a promoter or “affiliate” of any product or brand.
You can be an affiliate marketer for Target, Wal-mart, Amazon, or a slew of other companies.
Unlike our favorite revenue stream (network marketing), there are no monthly fees, minimum orders, or sign-up fees.
However, you should be familiar with the products you’re promoting.
How do you Make Money with Affiliate Marketing?
Once you sign up as an affiliate for the company or product you want to promote, you are able to get affiliate links that are unique to you.
These links are what you will embed into your online content.
It could be social media content, online ads, blog posts, your small business website, or your YouTube content.
And if you’re wondering… yes- people do look at the description of YouTube videos and actually click on links in it.
(Who knew, right? I know I didn’t when I started this journey)
When a person clicks on one of your online links and purchases a product, that click and purchase is tracked back to you and you receive affiliate commissions.
It’s that simple.
For example, some of my content links out to Amazon because I’m an affiliate for them.
When people land there, they automatically go into Amazon mode and I get to leverage the trust, reputation, and recommendations of Amazon for myself.
Want to see a real life example?
Let’s suppose you were reading this article and it was about my experience with an Amazon gift card and I linked to an Amazon gift card (like this).
If you were to purchase that gift card I’d get a commission.
The problem with companies like Amazon and some of the big box stores is that the commission is very low.
Very low commission is… well…
No bueno.
When I say low, I’m talking 1-3% of the total sale.
In the case above, it’s a $25.00 gift card so my commission would be .25 – .75 cents.
WHOAH… Big money, right?
Well, stick with me and I’ll show you how to make enough money to actually excite you!
How to Increase Affiliate Marketing Commissions
Let’s first stick with Amazon.
Since it’s a percentage of the sale (even though it’s a tiny percentage) you can increase your income and commissions by doing 2 things:
1. Leverage the Scalability of the Internet
2. Promote Higher Priced Products
#1) Leverage the Scalability of the Internet
The first thing you can do is remember that affiliate marketing is web-based, especially if you want it to be passive.
You’re building content online through a blog, podcast, social media profile, YouTube channel, or any other option you choose.
Just the nature of online content means that if you get good at reaching people organically, you can literally reach thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of people.
And it’s completely passive and working for you forever.
So imagine an affiliate link only makes you $1.00 per sale but over time your content attracts more and more people and you get to where you’re making 100 sales a month.
That’s $100 per month in passive income just for creating some content and promoting a product online.
Get 10 pieces of content out there like that and you’re at $1,000 a month in passive income, even if you never get out of bed!
Imagine making money everyday while you sleep!
#2)Promote Higher Priced Products
The second thing you have to do to make more money is to be strategic about what you promote.
I do product reviews on my YouTube channel.
These reviews are on products I already bought.
I don’t buy products just to do affiliate marketing reviews on them.
However, if I buy a product that would be good for a review… I try to do one.
So what makes a good product for an Amazon review?
Well, since it’s a percentage of the sale, for me it makes sense to focus on higher priced products.
For example, I was having trouble with snakes and the snake tong tool I bought to capture that slithery creature was in a good price range, something like $40.
Plus, catching a snake is very visual, which is perfect for a video.
So I made a video of me catching a snake and within the video I promoted the snake tong tool (see below).
Every time I sell one of those through a link I get about $1.17
I know that doesn’t seem like much but as it scales out and the video views grow, you can make a hefty little profit.
Think about it like this.
If you had 10 videos that each pulled in 1-sale a day and your commission was $1.17 per sale… you’d make $11.70 per day or $362.70 per month just on amazon affiliate commissions.
Keep in mind that this is all passive income.
You can wait for your boss to give you a pay raise of $362+ per month or you can go create content and create your own pay raise!
You made the video once and it pays you every month.
If you want to give yourself another pay raise, just keep pumping out the online content.
You could also focus on even higher priced (or medium-tier) products.
I consider mid-tier price range anything from $100-$500.
For example, I have a video showing how to make a fire pit using a fire pit ring I got off Amazon.
The fire pit ring runs about $150 and 3% of that is about $4.50.
If that video (see below) takes off and I sell 1 per day I’m looking at about $135 a month off that one video alone.
Consider having 10 affiliate marketing videos or pieces of content promoting mid-tier price points like that.
You could be earning $1,350 per month once those videos get some traction.
It won’t happen overnight but this isn’t a lottery.
You don’t have to get lucky, you just have to do the work.
Plus, nobody says you have to stop at 10.
There is literally no limit to how much you can make if you’ve got a good strategic plan and a good work ethic.
Now we’re to the one of the most fun parts (and more financially rewarding) of affiliate marketing… high ticket sales!
High Ticket Affiliate Sales (Clickbank)
If you want to take your earnings to the next level then it’s time to start thinking about high ticket sales.
With this strategy, you can still be part of Amazon, but you want to also sign up to promote high ticket items with larger commissions.
One of the most popular websites for doing this is clickbank.
There are others out there too but clickbanks one of the oldest and most well known.
So what is clickbank?
Clickbank is a buffet of products you can promote.
If you have your own digital product to sell and you want to scale your efforts, you would sign up with clickbank and let other people be affiliates of your product.
Basically, you would split the profit with them in order to secure them as a promoter.
But that’s down the line. That’s not how you’re going to use it when you start off.
As a beginner, you would focus on promoting.
You’d sign up with clickbank and then choose products you want to promote.
You can see how much any product is, how much it pays in commission, check out the landing page, and see all the visits and sales you generate.
The difference with clickbank and Amazon is that the sellers are competing with each other and want you (as an affiliate) to choose their product to promote.
In addition, many of their products are digital products which cost very little to get to the customer and can be automated to happen instantaneously.
Because of the profit margins, they often offer much higher commission percentages.
Instead of 1-3% like Amazon, they often offer 40%, 50%, 60%, or even 70% of each sale you make.
On top of that, many of the products are more expensive.
The idea is to be strategic here as well.
Find a product that will resonate with your audience or that you know you can create great online content around.
Then start promoting that product like a beast!
For example, in the video below I walk you through the first week I made $1,000 off affiliate sales.
Trust me, I didn’t do it by making hundreds of $3-$5.00 sales.
I did it by making 2 (that’s right… just 2) high ticket sales in which my commission was almost $500 per sale!
That’s how to make money with affiliate marketing!
(and it’s the perfect strategy for beginners).
BONUS: How to Make Money
(Recurring Revenue)
This last section is a bonus section.
It’s a bit more complicated than the other affiliate marketing strategies but in the long run it’s absolutely the most leveraged.
This affiliate strategy can create the most consistent (and significant) income in the long run.
To make recurring revenue with affiliate marketing, you need to promote products that are either consumable (thus bringing in repeat orders) or SaaS (Software as a service).
Let’s start with software as a service.
One product I promote and believe in, was created for bloggers and website owners.
It allows bloggers and website owners to leave GoDaddy because they suck and replace them with BigScoots.
When I switched from GoDaddy to BigScoots my page speed jumped significantly.
This jump caused my rankings to jump significantly, which caused my traffic to jump significantly.
So I am quite comfortable promoting them.
Their most popular package is $35 per month and they pay 90% commission.
As of this writing, I just started promoting them so I haven’t made any sales yet but I think the commission is recurring.
Since it’s a service, clients will use them every month and I should get paid commission every month.
That’s the Saas affiliate model (software as a service).
It’s pretty similar to the other affiliate marketing concepts I mentioned except you’re promoting something that is a recurring sale.
The same can be done with software like clickfunnels.
Lets suppose you promote a few software as a service (SaaS) affiliate products and your average commission is $25… but it’s recurring.
What if over 10 years online you sell 1,000 memberships and 50% of them stick with the software (the number might actually be more than 50% if the software is good).
50% of 1,000 is 500, so you have 500 customers that earn you $25 per month each in recurring revenue.
That would be $12,500 per month in recurring revenue!….
(500 x $25 = $12,500)
Tony Robbins says most people overestimate what they can do in a year and underestimate what they can do in a decade.
Imagine the number was even higher!
Yes, 10 years is a long time, but it may not take you 10 years and even if it did, that’s passive affiliate income!
I truly believe that we’re barely scratching the surface of the type of income that can be produced online by anybody with just a laptop and an internet connection.
Okay, now let’s keep it moving…
Benefits of Consumables Products
Lastly, (and my favorite) is promoting consumable health and wellness products.
There’s a chance this strategy will rub you the wrong way, but I urge you to put down your preconceived notions when I tell you what it is and just consider it without any bias.
Consider it based solely on the merit of the idea and strategy as I explain it.
The idea is this….
Promoting consumable products from a direct sales company.
Okay, before you click away, let’s unpack it a little and see why I recommend it.
First, direct sales companies often pour their money into research and development since they don’t have traditional marketing costs.
That means their products (if it’s a good, reputable company) are often top-notch, top-shelf products.
Most Americans DO NOT eat right, nor do they get the nutrition their bodies need.
So by finding and promoting products you love from a company you believe in, you can help people with their health and make some money at the same time.
There are some Pros and Cons of this strategy so I’m going to be transparent and list them below, starting with the cons.
Cons:
– There’s usually a small sign up fee to become a “distributor” or “brand partner” or some other similar name.
– You usually have to order a little product every month to qualify for commissions (which is why it’s important to stick with 1 comany offering products you plan to use anyway).
-There’s a stigma associated with this industry (it’s fading quickly, but right now it still exists).
Pros:
– These companies typically offer a much higher commission than Amazon (20-60% and sometimes higher).
– If customers like the product, they re-order(recurring commission) and you get a commission every time your customers order.
– The model is designed to scale, meaning you are able to also recruit other distributors or affiliates. As your organization grows you can qualify for commissions on all of the customers and all of the distributors in your entire organization.
– Building a large customer base and organization inside this industry pays better than most industries including sports franchises.
The fact of the matter is, 50 years ago this model was in it’s infancy.
Very few people made any real money and the compensation plans were very difficult to be successful with.
To be honest, to make $100,000 a year you used to have to be an exceptional salesperson and leader.
But now, competition has forced the industry to change.
Compensation plans have evolved and $100,000 a year earners aren’t even considered special or exceptional anymore.
The new definition of massive success in this industry is seven figures.
If you’re not making $1,000,000 per year, you’re just a little guy with a hobby.
That’s where I’m at right now, I haven’t yet hit 7 figures but God willing I will get there in the next few years.
Interestingly, more and more people are leveraging the internet to build massive teams and the industry has started to see million dollar per month earners emerge!
In the next few decades I believe 8-figures will be the new bar that defines excellence or success within this industry.
Why is this so exciting?
It’s NOT the high incomes.
I mean, yes, those incomes are exciting but it’s what’s under the hood that’s more exciting.
Over the last few decades, people didn’t change.
I don’t believe there were simply no leaders with the capacity to earn a million a month 50 years ago and somehow the world is full of higher caliber people now.
No, that’s not what happened.
So what was it?
What changed?
Two Key Things:
1. Compensation plans became more profitable and more lucrative.
2. The leveraged business model could be combined with the leverage of the online world.
These two things are why people are creating massive fortunes now inside of this industry.
It’s also why everyone should be involved.
Can everyone earn a million dollars a month?
No.
But with the right online content marketing strategy and some time, I believe everyone can get to $100,000 per year or more.
The best part is that network marketing can be built right along side your affiliate marketing business.
You can even use the same content marketing strategies you do with affiliate marketing.
The only difference is you have to pay to play.
However, keep this in mind…
Though there is a very small financial risk, the financial rewards if you succeed are far, far greater than what a normal affiliate marketing business could provide you.
Plus it spreads your risk over a few different strategies.
It would be much better to be making $5,000 per month from affiliate marketing and $5,000 per month from network marketing than to be making $10,000 from one and $0 from the other.
That’s because if one goes away overnight, you still have the other income stream.
Combining network marketing and affiliate marketing is one of the strongest positions you can take online.
If you start making $150 or so per month with your affiliate marketing content, you can fund your network marketing business indefinitely.
That takes off the pressure because you have as long as it takes to make it work!
Lastly, the network marketing monthly cost actually gets you some products and since it’s considered a home business you will likely at least break even by writing business expenses on your taxes. .
So just pick some products you like and you’ll be taking care of your health at the same time.
We’re building our network marketing business at the same time as our affiliate marketing business and we’re loving it!
I don’t know the time frame before we hit the top ranks in our company but since it’s not a financial burden, I’m just enjoying the ride.
Our other entrepreneurial efforts can float it and pay for it as long as necessary because it’s not expensive.
Plus, I love the products and would use them anyway.
This was a long article so let’s review…
Best Ways to Make Money with Affiliate Marketing
- Leverage the Internet
- Promote Higher Priced Products on Amazon
- Learn High Ticket Affiliate Sales (Here’s a free training on that)
- Promote Products with Recurring Revenue
- Consider Network Marketing as a viable option (Here’s a free training on that)
If you’d like work with us directly, you can check out what we’re doing and apply to work with us here.
Last but certainly not least, (in fact, it’s the most important thing on this page)…. If you don’t currently know what will happen to your soul when you die, click on over and learn how you can receive eternal salvation.
God Bless,
Jason & Daniele
