Affiliate Marketing: Beyond the Basics

Over the past two weeks I’ve answered what affiliate marketing actually is, and how to get started with affiliate marketing. So now you’re into it, and making a few passive dollars every month. Maybe you’re blogging about a specific product in your niche, or perhaps you have a mini-site landing page to talk about one particular item, chock full of keywords.

Now what?

Well, that trickle of income is a nice buffer in your PayPal account, but it isn’t really enough to sustain you, is it? Like, you aren’t going to cash in your law degree and live off the proceeds – yet.

So how can you make more money with affiliate marketing?

Repeat Customers

Let’s say you sell an e-book for $40 and make $25 from the sale. Good for you! That’s $25 in your pocket! But then perhaps you sell something like an identity theft protection tool, which requires recurring payments every month or year. Perhaps the monthly charge is $9, from which you make $4. Over the course of a year, those $4 payments will far outstrip the $25 you made with the e-book.

Diversify your products. Sell some one-off items and sell some long-term items.

Create your own product

Everyone is an expert in something, but most people don’t realize it. Sit down and make out a list of at least 50 things you love doing. Now think about which ones you know a lot about. Is it knitting? Finding bargain antiques? Selling on eBay? Write an informational product based on your knowledge. Include bonus materials like takeaway lists, templates, videos, etc. Pop your item up onto e-junkie, put a widget on your website and/or create a landing page, and sell your own item.

It’s not passive income at the beginning, while you’re creating it, but then you can sit back and just sell the item once it’s done.

Recruit your own affiliates

So now you have your product on e-junkie, a widget on your blog, and a nice shiny landing page. You’ll make a few bucks here and there no doubt, but there has to be a quicker way, right? Yes. Recruit your own affiliates! By offering the usual 25-75% of the profits, you can enlist an army of other web writers and forum junkies to pimp your product for you. They make money, you make money – everybody wins!

Learn more about affiliate marketing

There’s enough information out there about affiliate marketing to write a nice long book. In fact, one has already been written. It is the go-to resource for those interested in becoming an affiliate, becoming a super-affiliate, and recruiting affiliates. Check out Rosalind Gardner’s Super Affiliate Handbook.