How Publishers can Leverage Affiliate Marketing

how-publishers-can-leverage-affiliate-marketing

Digital Publishers are in a unique position to leverage affiliate marketing to their advantage. As the internet has evolved, publishers have shifted from simply hosting content on their own websites and social media platforms to leveraging other publisher's content on their own platforms. In this post we'll explore how publishers can utilize affiliate marketing by leveraging other people's work while maintaining control over their brand, traffic sources and monetization methods.

Contents:

  • What is affiliate marketing?
  • How does affiliate marketing work?
  • Why do publishers join affiliate marketing networks?
  • Choosing the right affiliate marketing network for publishers
  • Testing the waters of affiliate marketing
  • Conclusion

What is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a way for publishers to monetize their content by earning commissions from the products they promote. Affiliate marketers can place ads on publishers' websites, emails or blogs to appeal to specific customers that might be interested in the service or product advertised. Affiliates use a code to track sales and so when customers click and purchase from that ad, the publisher gets a paid commission for that specific transaction when the sale is completed.

Affiliate marketing allows publishers to earn money from the products they promote. By promoting high-quality products you feel comfortable recommending to your own audience, you’ll be able to build trust with them (and potential customers). This trust can lead to brand loyalty and eventually new sales over time as people become familiar with your site as an authority in its niche or industry. For this reason it's important to ensure that publishers research and find a good partner that will promote and recommend products that are of high quality and might be of interest to their customers.

How does affiliate marketing work?

It’s called “affiliate marketing'' because the affiliate—you, the publisher—is referring leads or people to another business in order to earn commissions. The other business is known as the advertiser or merchant/brand/retailer etc. You post links on your website, social media accounts and YouTube videos that direct readers toward an offer from the brand in exchange for sharing in commission.

The concept of affiliate marketing is nothing new. It’s been around since the beginning of ecommerce and continues to be one of the most popular ways to earn money online.

There are two main ways affiliate marketing works: The first is by driving traffic to a particular website, where the advertiser will pay you for every visitor that clicks through your link and purchases something from their store. The second way is by placing links in your content that directs readers toward an offer from the brand in exchange for sharing in commission.

The difference between these two methods is that in the first case, you’re not creating any content yourself and simply sharing other people’s offers on your social channels. The second method involves creating original content around a brand’s offer, which can be more time-consuming but also more profitable since there are no limits to how many people see the content.

Types of affiliate marketing

  • Affiliate marketing networks: These are the best way to get started with affiliate marketing and these networks will help you find products that you can promote. There are many different types of affiliate networks. Some will only allow you to promote a single type of product, while others have a wider range of products available for promotion.

  • Commercial blog posts: If you have an existing blog and want to use it as a means for promoting your own products or those from others, then this is a great option for you!

  • Promotional video: This method uses online videos as its primary vehicle for getting across its message about new promotions being offered by affiliates who sell these types of things online through their platforms such as Youtube. This form has been growing steadily over recent years because viewers not only engage more readily with them in comparison to plain text-based descriptions but also enjoy watching them too!

Why do publishers join affiliate marketing networks?

So far we have seen that affiliate marketing is a great way to diversify and monetize your content with analytics and reporting tools. It provides publishers with an opportunity to find companies that are a good match for their website audience. Affiliate networks handle payment process on behalf of publishers through the use of tracking systems like Spiny.ai which tracks clicks and conversions. These systems can also provide analytics and reports so publishers can see how well this is working for their business.

The affiliate marketing model is great for publishers because it provides an additional revenue stream, with little effort. The low cost and effort that comes with affiliate marketing it’s appealing to publishers, so much so that 94% of them introduced it to their marketing strategy.

Choosing the right affiliate marketing network for publishers

You need to make sure that you choose a company that has everything you need and will be able to help you grow your business quickly and easily. Here are some of the things to consider when choosing your network marketing:

  • Good Reputation: Look for networks with a good reputation in the industry, as this will ensure that their products are trustworthy and efficient.
  • High Payout Rates: Choose affiliate networks with high payout rates so that as much of your earnings can go towards paying off your expenses. If a network offers 40% commissions on every sale made through their platform, then it would be worth joining them.
  • Convenient System Access: Look for affiliate networks where all dashboards are accessible from one place rather than having separate logins for each aspect of our business (affiliates). This way there won't be unnecessary login credentials to keep track of, just so you can have access to all your data.

Testing the waters of affiliate marketing

If you're interested in affiliate marketing, here are some things to try:

  • Different affiliate programs. Some are better than others, and you'll want to find the ones that offer the best value for your audience. Some offer better commission rates than other. Some have more flexible payout options such as PayPay instead of a check.
  • Different kinds of content. For example, if you're selling an e-book on cooking healthy meals, write an article with the same title and link it to your landing page where readers can see the article related to the book and have easy access to purchase it afterwards. You can also do roundups of different recipes; provide a bit more context than just posting a recipe link and writing up a quick intro paragraph explaining why they should read this roundup (or whatever kind of post it is).
  • Different content formats. Don't just stick with blog posts. Try video, audio, infographics and more!
  • Different ways of promoting your content. Do some guest blogging, submit your articles to social bookmarking sites, join a forum related to your niche and post there once in a while.
  • Different ways to bring traffic and conversions to your site. Don't just rely on organic search traffic (SEO), try out other things such as pay-per-click campaigns, social media advertising and more! If you do these things consistently over time, your blog will grow and so will your business. In the long run, it's worth it to take the time to write high-quality content rather than just throwing out something quick that doesn't provide any value to readers.

Conclusion

As you can see, affiliate marketing is a great way to monetize your website. The main challenge is correctly choosing products to promote and finding the right way to reach your audience. However, once you have figured out what works for you, it will be easy for you to make money with this method!

Speak with us today for more advice and information on how you can leverage affiliate marketing and other revenue streams to grow your business.

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