Affiliate marketing: a complete guide for beginners
Want to get into affiliate marketing?
Because of its earning potential, it's a model that keeps gaining visibility. On social media, content promises you can make a living from affiliate marketing alone and shares tricks for doing it.
But is that really possible?
The quick answer is yes. But it's not that simple. So keep reading this article to understand:
- What affiliate marketing is
- How affiliate marketing works in practice
- Where to sell as an affiliate
- How to become an affiliate
- How much affiliates earn in commission
What is affiliate marketing
It's a digital marketing strategy that started in the '90s. Amazon pioneered the model, which, in short, aims to increase the visibility of an online business, whether it's an e-commerce store, a learning platform, and so on.
In this business model, the company relies on a larger number of promoters or salespeople who do this work in exchange for a commission on sales made through their tracking links.
There are usually criteria used to accept or reject new affiliates. But in general, they tend to be people with some influence to drive sales.
They can be experts in a given field, digital product creators, media buyers, or even “regular” people who want to sell to friends and family.
How affiliate marketing works in practice
Over the years, it has become one of the most popular and profitable methods for online businesses.
After all, it lets you have a whole team of fully engaged salespeople.
For it to work, in short, you need a business that works with affiliates, a platform that supports this kind of mechanism, and people who want to become affiliates.
Where to sell as an affiliate
Today, you can make this kind of sale with both digital products and marketplaces. Some of the most popular places to become an affiliate are sites like:
And these are just a few examples to show the range of options.
What all these sites have in common is that you need to sign up, and then you can generate links with your tracking ID. When someone clicks that link and makes a purchase, the affiliate earns a commission.
How much do affiliates earn in commission
Want to know how much you'll get for each sale?
Unfortunately, there's no single right answer to that question. The commission will vary depending on the sale price and the percentage offered.
For digital products, the amount is set by the creator. So it's the expert who decides whether they want affiliates selling the product and how much they want to pay. There are cases where the commission is 50% of the price and others where it's 10% or 5%.
Some creators can also choose the “level” of affiliates they want. In this case, the more sales you make, the more “perks” you get.
For marketplaces, the amount is set by each store. On Amazon, for example, the commission is up to 15%, and on Mercado Livre it's up to 16%.
How to become an affiliate
The tip from Cademí's experts, Brazil's first Member Hub, is to treat this activity like any other online business. That's why the first step should be choosing your niche.
What exactly do you want to sell as an affiliate?
Look for products you know about or are interested in, or that interest your audience. If you have an Instagram account with home tips, you'll probably sell more through a link to a home appliance deal than to a woodworking course, for example.
In short, you can sell absolutely anything. But the best-selling niches are:
- Health;
- Finance;
- Technology;
Once you know what you want to sell, the next step is to find out where to sign up. In this article, we listed several sites where you can become an affiliate.
Then all you have to do is start selling. That means creating content, whether on Instagram, a blog, YouTube, TikTok, and so on, about the products you've chosen. Because that's the foundation of affiliate marketing.
Besides content, some affiliates also invest in Google Ads to reach more potential conversions.
