Affiliate Marketing: Why is it One of the Most common Business Models for online marketers to start up with?
There are actually several reasons, but the main thing is that anyone can set up to do Affiliate Marketing, and earn some income while they plan and establish what-ever else they want to do online.
The benefits of Affiliate Marketing are so great, that a very high percentage of marketers actually continue doing it, even after their main business is in place, as an additional income stream.
Affiliate Marketing is a very cost effective and quick way to start your Online Business?
There are many forms of Affiliate Marketing, both Online and Offline.
Likewise there are many company’s and platforms you can choose to work with.
You can choose to work with:
EBay, Etsy or Amazon eCommerce stores
Niche sites with products drop-shipped, or your own Clickbank products
I.M. Products through Warrior Plus, JVZoo, C.J.com and far too many others to mention here…
Affiliate Marketing can also have its ups and downs, it’s not always a bed of roses.
But, if you are set up correctly, and know how to drive targeted traffic to your offers, you can and will succeed with this.
However, there are many good reasons to use Affiliate Marketing as your main in-road to an online business.
Here are 10 really good reasons, why you should start with this business model:
1. You Don’t Need Your Own Products:
The first reason that helps new Internet Marketers to decide to start with Affiliate Marketing
is that they don’t need their own products. Product Creation is one of the best things you can do online,
but it takes a long time, and a lot of hard work.
A lot of people are not prepared, or simply can’t afford to do this right from day 1, so, using Affiliate Marketing first is an obvious way forward.
Product creators, in almost all cases, will actually continue with Affiliate Marketing, to keep income flowing
while creating their next product, and also to have a variety of products to offer.
So, they may start out thinking affiliate marketing is a stop-gap model, but it usually becomes long term.
2. Inventories of physical products are not required:
Again pointing to the low initial capital expenditure, but also to business risk, if you are into selling
physical products and not in the digital products side of things, then you would need to have stock on-hand to sell.
As an affiliate marketer, you do not need to invest in buying product stock, or space to store your stock.
The product would normally be stocked and delivered by the original vendor, not the affiliate.
Product manufacture, stocking products, sales websites, advertising materials, and delivery of the product,
would all be managed by the vendor.
The Affiliate Marketer, only needs to find the buyers, and get them to the vendors site.
3. No Product Support:
One of the ongoing costs for product creators and original vendors, is the cost to provide product support.
A lot of the time, this is expected to be 24/7 support, due to the many time zones for marketers
online. This usually means they need to hire support personnel who live in different time zones.
As an Affiliate Marketer, you normally don’t have those costs or the time required to the provide product
support yourself. Handling customer complaints is part of that support, this too is the responsibility of the vendor.
Although there will be times that your customers will come directly to you, instead of the product vendor.
In order to keep the customer, and not loose them to the vendor, you should choose to be as helpful as you can.
Alternatively you can pass them onto the vendor, possibly with some helpful advice, so you maintain your
own credibility. Don’t think only of the moment, a long term customer is a huge asset for your business.
4. Low cost start-up:
Many people have limited funds and are scared, or simply can’t afford to invest a lot of money when they are just starting.
With Affiliate Marketing, they have a good chance to get some funds rolling in slowly, and use this cash flow to establish
their main business.
Every business requires some start up capital, but with Affiliate Marketing, it normally will be lower capital
than almost any other Business Models, particularly for online businesses.
5. Faster start-up:
Starting out as an Affiliate, is the #1 fastest way to get going with making money online.
You can do a little research, choose your niche, find some products in that niche, sign up to an affiliate program,
grab your affiliate link and start sending traffic to your link.
When you make sales, you get paid commissions.
Now, people who have done this will jump in and tell you that it is NOT that simple, and they will be right.
You need to send quality Targeted traffic, which can be one the hardest things to do at the beginning.
Or you can use all paid traffic, but you will most likely spend more than you earn initially.
But… You also need to make your offer stand out over your competitors. Online, there will always be competition.
Depending on just how competitive your niche is, you will probably need to set up and offer bonuses.
If you are in for the long haul, and aren’t we all, you need to set up capture pages, to catch your prospects onto your emailing list, so you can offer other things to them, or to have another chance at converting those who don’t buy on first visit.
All these things will take time to learn and to set up, not to mention, some initial costs.
<< Click Here: To Get Your Free Affiliate Marketing Training Video >>
6. Your Customer Base is Usually Global:
As with any online business, your market is much larger than for many offline business.
Online, you can market to the whole world, giving you much wider scope for sales.
This means a wider market for you, which can translate to more sales and larger profits, quicker.
7. You’re Open 24 x 7:
With Affiliate Marketing online, your business is open every minute of every day. It never closes, even while you are busy with work, vacations or asleep at night. Your ads and your emails are seen by someone, somewhere.
What could be better than that?
With a lot of options available and a lot of ways to earn money, Affiliate Marketing is undoubtedly the most popular and the easiest way to get started to make money online.
8. List Building:
One of the best benefits of starting out with affiliate marketing, is to build your own buyers list, from your sales.
The way to do this is to have bonuses you give-away with every sale, and set the bonuses behind a capture page.
These are the best subscribers you can have, as they have already been converted to buyers, not just subscribers for a freebie.
You then use your list to promote more offers to, and eventually, your own products.
9. Improving Your Knowledge:
While undertaking all the activity required to do Affiliate Marketing as a beginner, you are building a huge amount of knowledge.
Later you will use this knowledge to gain a better understanding of your followers, customers, what products to offer in the future, etc.
You will probably take a while to realise how valuable this knowledge is, to your business!
10. Building Relationships:
As you move forward with this, you will build relationships with the product vendors or creators.
These people will later become your partners in more lucrative joint ventures, and if you play it right, also become affiliates of your products, and help you increase sales.
As to how much money You can make with affiliate marketing, well… that actually depends on you alone.
A dedicated and hardworking affiliate would get more from this business model. Don’t be an affiliate who simply signs up and doesn’t do any work.
It takes a lot of work, and a lot of time, especially when you first start out, but it is also ever on-going.
Don’t let it completely over-take your other plans, but give it a serious go, and remember that Affiliate Marketing can always remain a good portion of your online business income, alongside what ever else you do, forever!
I have a great resource available to explain a lot of above, in much more detail. This 81-page eBook covers a lot more than one blog post, and in a lot more detail. Click Here to see what this is all about!
A good online business will always have several streams of income, NOT just one!
Please leave your comments and/or questions below!
All the Best
Pete.
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