It’s actually pretty funny, but kids today are so accustomed to doing things online that it’s just about impossible for them to imagine life without the internet. Not only does the web provide us with the ability to play games, manage our bank accounts, do research, take classes and so much more, it gives us the ability to earn a living.
One of the things I enjoy the most about making my living online is that it takes minimal effort to see serious results. Only recently did I start sharing more detailed info about my affiliate marketing business, and today I want to share a list of 4 ways to earn online affiliate income.
4 Ways to Earn Online Affiliate Income
Here you can find a snippet of information on the following ways to earn online affiliate income: regular commissions, recurring revenue, 2 tier earnings, and trial offers.
#1 Regular Commissions
The best way to earn regular commissions is by promoting the absolute best products. If you want to make money online by pitching something that someone else created, pitch something worthwhile. If I wouldn’t use something myself or recommend it to my own family, it’s not worth worrying about because I know I won’t make any affiliate income from it.
#2 Recurring Revenue
Recurring revenue is great because it means that you’re receiving money on a regular basis, almost like a regular paycheck! Recurring revenue can be earned through things like subscriptions to websites (yours or someone else’s) or by regularly selling e-books that you wrote. Recurring revenue can be earned through regular commissions made by promoting products that others have created (see #1 above!) and a variety of other methods. Be sure to stay tuned for more detailed info on recurring revenue, which will be released in my new report how to earn income from the Internet!
#3 Two Tier Earnings
Two Tier affiliate programs are online affiliate income programs which pay you in two ways. That’s right, you can earn commissions on two levels (2 tiers, get it?) Not only will you earn commission on your own sales, you’ll earn a percentage of every sale made by new affiliates that you refer to the company through your unique affiliate links. In simpler terms, you can earn money because of other people who are also making commissions.
#4 Trial Offer
Trial offers are another good way to earn online affiliate income because they’re so incredibly common that most people are willing to give them a try. Trial offers are nothing new—they’ve been around for decades. You probably already know the drill, but you can offer a product for little or no money upfront with a charge later on. A lot of websites offer trial subscriptions which can be cancelled within a certain period of time, but a charge will be applied should someone decide to keep their subscription active (hellooo, recurring revenue!) If you have an iPhone, you may have noticed that a lot of apps available for download are “lite” versions which don’t offer all of the advanced features of the “full” version. You can get them for free or for next to nothing, but if you want to enjoy all the benefits you’ve got to purchase the real deal.
Learn What Works Best for Your Online Business
I’ve come to realize that earning online affiliate income is almost like solving a puzzle. It’s important to mix things up and see what works best for you and your online business, but once you figure out how to jiggle all the pieces around and push them together properly, it’s possible to make a whole lot of money!
Take Action. Get Results.
Great advices, Scott.
Although this days the market is kind of saturate in my opinion, and all those products that you would recommend to all your friends already have tons of competition in organic traffic. (this might not be a problem if you buy traffic, via adsense, facebook ads etc).
Also, earning money trough affiliate isn’t all that hard, the hardest part is to find something that is selling and you can vouch for.
Oh, by the way those trial software, where do you have to go to promote them? Do you have to go to each product in part to signup for an affiliate account?
Some markets certainly are saturated. The ones that are too overly saturated can be nearly impossible to crack into in any big way.
But I agree, once you can find some products that are possible to rank for decent keywords AND you have faith in and match your niche, there is not much to it besides a little bit of effort.
As for trial software I am sure there are some ways to do BOTH, but I was talking specifically about signing up as a affiliate for a specific product that has recurring revenues that you whould promote were and however you felt like promoting it. Something like “Unique Article Wizard”
It’s also about getting enough traffic to your website. You can’t sell enough affiliate products without traffic. So, it’s important to get enough traffic to your site. Any ideas on how you can improve traffic to your site?
Hey Steve,
Im new to affiliate marketing, what resources would you reccommend for a beginner?
Well,
That is a simple question that is a little diffiicult to answer in short form. There are a lot of things to learn, some of which is best done just by “doing”
First off is picking your niche: I am having a very long and detailed post about this topic monday. that should hopefully clear up some of that mess.
For niche and keyword analysis I would recommend Market Samurai. there is a free 30 day trial too, but it is a tad expensive at first…so make sure you are going to use it enough to be worthwhile before you buy it.
Outside of that you can find specific product ideas by reseach on clickbank (info products) commission Junction, google associates and amazon associates (real products)
Like Alex says above in his comment, there can be a problem with getting into over saturated markets and avoiding this is one really important thing when starting out.
Outside of getting into an overly saturated market, most of AM is trial and error to see what works and what doesn’t.
I just erased a couple of paragraphs….I will go into this more tomorrow. I think I will go into some depth with some affiliate marketing links on my sunday that may help clarify things more than a quickee post response
These are all great ways to make money.
I won’t recommend anything I haven’t tried or at least have a high degree of trust in the person who introduced the idea to me. It’s awfully critical to keep your reputation in-tact and not take a change at ruining it for a few sales of a bum product.
In some ways it seems like a good deal of fun trying to find a profitable niche. When we hit one, I can just imagine the level of excitement that brings. On the other hand, using the right tools to do the research can save a ton of time and keep us from heading down the wrong path.
Jimi,
I do agree. the very best products to market are the ones you KNOW are good. For one thing I do believe that a reputation is worth far more than any individual sale. For another thing if the product really is quality, it should do a fair job of marketing itself. You just need to give it the final “push”
Hi Steve, thank for sharing this affiliate income tips. Well affiliate market is so over-saturated and as you mentioned to make money in this niche you really need a best product and I would maybe add also a great credible persona brand.
If you are well known in the industry, people will be more willing to buy from you because they know this products will work since you as an industry expert are recommending them.
It certainly can be over saturated. I do think there are still many niches that can be had with dedicated effort. But if you try a niche like “wieght loss” without narrowing it down A LOT further, it would be impossible to crack and even ppc/ads would likely be expensive enough to make it hard to churn a profit.
Two tier income is great if you can build not only a whole lot of affiliates under you…but affiliates who know how to be productive as well. Writing a ‘how to’ guide for specific niches, like dating, health, diets, etc – it’s a great way to build up 2 tiers.
I actually sort of view 2nd teir stuff as an added bene. I never like to COUNT on anyone doing work for my profit. If it happens it is nice, but no worries if it doesn’t that way
Hi Steve:
Amotivating post o make money as an affiliate. I can use it to empower myself.
Thank you.
Keep up the good work
fran A
Hi Steve,
I’m picking up so much great affiliate info here on a daily basis; thanks for sharing your affiliate breakdown.
Right now I’m earning money through regular commissions. I might branch out down the road however.
Recurring seems to be the name of the game. Any consistent income stream works for me 🙂
Thanks again and have a powerful day!
RB
Steve, I am really revamping my affiliate marketing tactics after being a regular reader of your site. You give out so much information in your posts which I think is remarkable.
Thanks again for the refreshment in affiliate marketing. Later on man!
Well, Todays sunday post is a rehash type. (likely nothing you haven’t seen honestly) and I do another in depth AM post monday, so should have some good AM stuff for you if you do decide to revamp a bit.
I’m only an affiliate for a few products Steve, and they are all things I’m using and like. As you said, a good test for promoting something is would you use it yourself, or recommend it to your family? The problem with this is that it’s expensive to properly research affiliate products if you have to buy it first.
John
YUP,
That is certiainly the most important test of anything your affiliate market or endore, that you use it or in the case of “training” type stuff you might already know, that you would feel comfortable recommending it to a relative.
Some people do get a little looser with endorsements, but PARTICULARLY with doing it on a blog you want to make sure you are discerning.
The other issue with promoting on a blog though is that your market is not nearly as targeted. IE you may be offering a great program to people who already have it…or have already decided they do not want it. You can still make some sales with traffic, but don’t expect huge amounts, unless the blog is very targeted.
Hi Steve
The reason we are all listening to you about affiliate marketing is because you are doing it and doing it successfully. So much fluff out there and it is so refreshing to come to your blog and get such valuable and relevant information.
I am taking it all in and when I do start selling as an affiliate I should be well grounded in the basics and more of affiliate marketing.
Thanks Steve for such an informative post. Much appreciated.
Thanks Patricia,
You are certainly setting up a site that will be great for affiliate marketing lavender items, when and if you find some good ones.
Hey Steve!
Great post here. I liked what you were talking about on the two-tier part especially. As you know, I’m a mega fan of network marketing, and one of the reasons why I love it is that you can promote awesome products while creating infinite leverage.
Affiliate programs are becoming more and more grey as time goes on. They’re blurring the line with mlm in a lot of ways, even though they are primarily still only an online deal.
Steve,
I’m really waiting for the time when I start making money doing affiliate marketing. I have read so much information about this already, with a good portion of it on your site, and I think reading any more will not make any difference to me until I really put it into practice by getting something out the door. Wish me luck (er, smart output) 🙂
Cheers,
Mark
You said:
“regularly selling e-books” was an example of Recurring commissions, but by your own definition it is not. It is a series of one-time (regular) sales. Not recurring.
In fact, I don’t see these 4 as parallel.
Another issue, you might consider using a different word than “regular” to describe ordinary commissions, such as standard commissions or one-time commissions, because “regular” can mean “recurring”, as in : “I receive regular payments or royalty payments from tv commercials I acted in”.
Cheers!
Great post Steve!
I’m actually thinking about implementing some products from Amazon affiliate program into my website, and see how it goes.
Just need to do some more research first 🙂
Hi Steven,
you are definitely right saying that “earning online affiliate income is almost like solving a puzzle.”
I am in the online casino affiliate business for a few years now and must say if I would have an opportunity to start it from the beginning, I would choose a different niche to promote as the casino affiliate business is still not properly regulated in some jurisdictions.
Regards. Robert
Robert,
I hear ya there. I have been a poker player for years, and once even considered the same niche. I decided against it because of the difficulty.
But I have signed up for my share of personal rakeback, etc.
I would think the online poker industry would be really “hard-hit” after full-tilt and the other got shutdown by the government. I know I lost some faith (and I hadn’t even played for a few months and didn’t lose money)
It must be a tough gig. I wish the government would let people gamble and just police it for cheating.
Anyways…way off topic rant there. 🙂
Thanks for the comment,
S