Affiliate Marketing – A Simpler Path to Building Passive Income

Affiliate marketing is an online business model where you earn income through a commission by promoting other people’s products or services.

You start by joining an affiliate network and searching there for products or services in your niche. Choose something your audience could use, or you’d love to use yourself.

Through your content, you promote this vendor’s product and receive a commission on sales by telling your audience about it.

There is no upper limit to how much you can earn using this business model. It depends on how much work you want to put into it. Affiliate marketing commissions are high and, as many products are digital, there is no overhead such as warehousing and shipping.

For example, you might promote an eBook priced at $37. If you have a 50% commission, just selling 20 will get you $370. As you can see, there is great earning potential. You have to create a great deal of content and build your audience, but much of the process can be outsourced or automated. This allows you to multiply the amount you can earn with little extra effort.

In "The Complete Courier Guide" we had affiliate links for everything a courier would need from web hosting to email service providers. Everything a start-up courier business would need had an affiliate link. This meant our potential for earning passive income increases with each book that's sold.

You really need to know your audience’s tastes, values, and behaviours well so you can choose things they would love and purchase, or your hard work won't generate a return on investment.

Your niche should be an area you’re passionate about  and/or you know a lot about. Your passion is contagious and inspire your audience to check out the offerings you’re promoting. When you know a lot about a topic, your knowledge helps make a difference. 

 When combined with your passion, your knowledge will ensure your marketing is authentic. In turn this will build strong relationships with members of your audience.

Monitoring helps you to understand what’s working and what’s not. For example, you might find that one particular blog post converts at a higher rate than the others. This post may be longer and more in-depth. This tells you that your audience responds best to long-form content, and all you have to do is produce more of the content they love.

Once you get your first affiliate marketing campaign up and running, it’s time to launch your next. You can create multiple streams of income using this business model and earn a passive income.