Almost everyone who was interested in the issue of additional earnings, one way or another, came across a proposal to receive income through some kind of mediation. On almost every website or blog you can find an invitation to purchase a particular product or service. How does all this work, what are affiliate programs for making money, and what income can they bring? Let's talk about this in more detail.
Terminology
Those who have never encountered such a phenomenon may think that affiliate programs are a complete fraud, making money on this is unrealistic. This is not entirely true. To make it easier to understand what an affiliate program is, imagine a regular thrift store:
- You, as the owner, bring a certain thing and set a price for it.
- The store - the seller - is committed to make every effort to sell your product.
- If successful, you will pay the store a commission fee (10-30%), and take the rest of the amount yourself.
Thus, an affiliate program is an agreement between two entities: the seller and the owner of the product. One of them undertakes to sell the product (service), and the other promises, if successful, to pay him a partnership fee, usually expressed as a percentage of each sale.
Types of affiliate programs
So, what is an affiliate program, more or less clear. Now let's talk about what they are. Depending on what the payment is charged for, there are several types of affiliate programs:
1. Transitions by advertising link. In this case, some popular site offers you posting your link on your blog, YouTube channel, newsletter, and so on. For each click on this link, you will be rewarded with a few kopecks (or cents). Upon reaching the minimum agreed amount, money can be withdrawn to your electronic wallet. It is believed that the best affiliate programs of this kind are Yandex.Direct and Google AdSens, but these monsters do not work with everyone, there are certain requirements, however, that are quite feasible.
2. Pay for impressions. This type of affiliate program is very similar to the previous one, however, in this case, payment is not for clicking on the link, but for the fact of viewing. The disadvantage of this collaboration is the very low pay, usually per thousand views. On the other hand, this is the simplest affiliate program, reviews about it are most often positive. However, you need to keep in mind: in order to earn in this way, you definitely need your own site, otherwise there will simply be nowhere to place ads.
3. Payment for the actions taken. In this case, you will receive a commission only if the person who clicked on the link you posted completed a task:
- downloads some kind of program;
- fill out a questionnaire;
- register on the site;
- watch a video and more.
It’s easy to make money in such affiliate programs, because most often they do not require material costs from the client, and therefore it is quite simple to persuade him to perform the necessary action.
4. Interest from direct sales. This is the most profitable form of earnings for those who have studied well what an affiliate program is. The fact is that deductions in this case are not measured in cents and cents, but in tens, hundreds, and sometimes thousands of rubles or dollars. It all depends on the cost of the affiliate product, that is, what exactly you sold. This can be a training course, a tour, a paid consultation with a doctor or lawyer, any product - from a needle to a car.
Betting programs
Not so long ago on the Internet there was such a form of earnings as a betting affiliate program, ideal for those who can not sell anything, but enjoys one or more sports. Bookmakers, if anyone does not know, are organizations that offer to bet on a particular sporting event: a team win or lose, score and so on. To make money in such a program, you need to attract new participants by posting your affiliate link on various sports forums, social networks or comments. In fact, this is a mixed type of affiliate program in which payment can be made both for clicking on the link itself or for the action performed - a bet made or a replenishment of a game account.
How to make money on an affiliate program
It may seem that such work can only be done by those who have their own website. However, it is not. Of course, if you have a well-developed resource with high attendance, things will go much faster, but you can completely do without it. In order to use affiliate programs to earn money, just have a computer with Internet access. This is done very simply:
- choose the affiliate program you like and go through the standard registration;
- find advertising materials that you need for work in your account - it can be just a link (it is called a referral), banners of different types and sizes, or even a whole affiliate single-page website;
- Place advertising materials on as many third-party resources as possible - sites, forums, groups in social networks;
- Waiting for links and sales.
The fact is that a special code is always built into advertising materials that identifies you as a partner, so those who come by your “tag” will be assigned to you.
Immersion depth
To increase profits from affiliate programs, you need to choose those in which the income depends not only on you, but also on those whom you have already invited.
Depending on how many payment steps it has, an affiliate program can be:
- single-level - here the income depends only on you: the more they invited / sold, the more they earned;
- two-level - in this case you will receive income not only from your efforts, but also from the activity of those whom you invited;
- multi-level - it looks like a kind of pyramid, on top of which you are located and get the largest contributions; followed by those invited by you - from their earnings you also receive a percentage, although much less; the next step is people who were invited, in turn, by your partners / referrals - from this activity you additionally receive a certain amount, and so on;
- Networking is an even more extensive program, which, in addition to levels, presupposes the presence of certain qualification levels; for example, they invited 100 referrals of the first level - and your personal percentage increased from ten to fifteen.
Choose the affiliate program correctly
Well, what is an affiliate program and how it works is clear. Now let's talk about how to choose the one that will bring the greatest income from the huge variety of offers.
There are several rules for this:
- If you have your own website, then the affiliate program should correspond to its theme. Well, you must admit that it’s stupid to sell baseball bats on a floristic or culinary blog site.
- Use only high-quality advertising materials - a crookedly “slapy” banner is unlikely to attract a potential buyer.
- Be sure of the quality of the proposed product - it is difficult to convince a person to buy a training course if you do not know what it is good at.
- It should be convenient for you to work in your affiliate office - the ability to track the number of clicks on your links, the number of sales completed and the status of your affiliate account are very helpful in your work.
- The referral link should “remember” you for at least 3–6 months. A person makes a purchase decision not immediately, but most often returns to the things that interest him after a while, so the service should “remember” that it was you who invited the client.
- Do not work with partners offering a reward of less than 10-15%, this does not make sense.
- Pay attention to the minimum amount payable - it should be zero or, in any case, not exceed 1-2 dollars. Also make sure that payments are made on demand and in a way convenient for you.
How much can I get
It seems to some that if an affiliate program works on the site, money will flow like a river. In fact, this is not so at all. As you already understood, affiliate programs can be different, but on average interest deductions can be from 5 to 30% of the sale amount. Sometimes, however, commissions can reach 70–80%, but this is very rare. Only a few info-businessmen can boast of such generosity. Thus, depending on what exactly you are paid for and your activity, you can earn from a couple of rubles to several hundred dollars a month.
Where can I find an affiliate program?
To choose a good affiliate program, it is quite convenient to use the so-called aggregator - a network of affiliate programs. These are special sites that bring together a large number of advertisers - online services, online stores, investment and gaming projects. This is very convenient, since you can make a profit in various ways, although they pay the most for confirmed actions. A suitable affiliate program service can be easily found by carefully studying user reviews. Perhaps the most famous in the vast Runet is Glopart, but you can choose any other.
Conclusion
Now you know exactly how you can make money on affiliate programs, and you may already have decided to try it. Of course, the best affiliate programs for each are different, but still, before you begin to provide intermediary services, it is advisable to carefully study the reviews about a particular project.