Affiliate marketing is one kind of partnership
I am writing this from experience to be very honest. I know a few serious hubbers who love writing and been earning from HubPages. After a few discussions and exchanged emails, I finally realized that a huge portion of their monthly income comes from HubPages affiliate programs. I was definitely stunned and puzzled and therefore I tested out myself. Trust me that earning money from affiliate programs is harder than just writing online articles. Let me emphasize that it is not impossible but you would need a lot of patience and also it would take you quite sometime to see your earnings clocking in. So how does affiliate marketing works and how you can make money from it?

What is affiliate marketing?
In short, affiliate marketing is close to being a real time sales person. For those working in the sales line, you would probably know that you will earn a certain amount of commission whenever you close a sale. The same principle works in affiliate marketing but with a twist. In affiliate marketing, you don't need to
  • Go out to the field and find potential customers
  • You can have zero knowledge of the product but yet able to sell the item
  • Once you have 'publish' or 'recommend' the item, any sales done there will be yours forever unless stated otherwise
Basically, affiliate marketing is selling one or more products online. Affiliate members like you and me will earn a fix commission for every sale done on the item. A few famous affiliate marketing companies are like eBay, Amazon and ClickBank.





How can I start earning money like what others does with affiliate marketing?
Often, we assume affiliate marketing is easy and simply by writing an article, we might be able to earn a lot of money through it. Little did we know that affiliate marketing is bigger and more complicated than what most of us thought of. I did try affiliate marketing for sometime and I got to be honest with you that I have no flair in that. I thought I did and I was wrong. It wasted close to one month and I started thinking what was really wrong. Want to know more? Continue reading, tiger!

Know your product or don't even think of joining affiliate marketing
The most important thing about affiliate marketing is knowing your product. I always like to imagine myself doing sales. For example, you are an insurance agent and you are meeting up with a prospect. If you do not know your product, how can you actually explain in detail on it to your customers and clients? Sames goes with affiliate marketing. Anyone can succeed in affiliate marketing if they take the hardship to learn and understand what the product can offer. Being said that, you are not only going to be able to close the sale, you will be able to beat your competitors as well.

Let's try a different approach!
This is what I love about working from home and affiliate marketing. When it comes to affiliate marketing, many opt to explain on that one specific product and trying to close the sale with it. Can you imagine how many people are actually using this tactic? This is one of the oldest tactic for affiliate marketing (for God's sake)! One of the best approach I ever experienced with affiliate marketing is simply by:

  1. Write about any topic that you which for and DO NOT specify on the affiliate marketing
  2. Upon reaching the middle of the article, start to focus and be specific (giving examples) why you would recommend such product(s)
  3. Towards the ending, provide one or two affiliate link for the link and remember not to flood the entire post with links


Understanding the consumer's point of view
In order to be a great affiliate marketer, always stand in the shoes of your clients. Ask yourself a few questions such as:
  • What type of article will convince me of buying that online?
  • What is needed to get me buy that item?
  • Do I really need the product or I can live without it?
If I am about to buy a product online, I am definitely going to ask myself these questions. So, as for you who are going to sell the product, you got to understand what your clients and readers are thinking. This is why I suggest going with a different approach. For a future buyer who is reading your article, they have already in mind to buy the product and all you need is to convince them to buy the product(s) through your affiliate link!

I know you are reading this article so deeply that you wish I would continue. Yes I will continue in the next edition! I hope with this article, you will learn at least a little on what affiliate marketing is all about and the 4 ways you can earn money with it.

Meantime, here is something about me:
I am an avid blogger and close to a full time online writer. I been writing for many years and The Big Fat Reality is one of my upcoming blogs. I am also sharing all my tips and guides on blogging in this blog and my latest writing is How Do We Maximize Earning On Blog?