Affiliate Marketing: What it is and How to Get Started -

Unlock Revenue Potential: A Professional Guide to Affiliate Marketing

Imagine earning income constantly, from any location—even while you sleep. This powerful concept drives affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketing is a performance-based strategy where an affiliate earns a commission by promoting another person’s or company’s products. The process is straightforward: the affiliate identifies a product they genuinely like, promotes it to their audience, and earns a portion of the profit from every resulting sale. Affiliate links seamlessly track these sales from the affiliate’s platform to the seller’s website.

This highly effective model drives sales and generates significant online revenue. It offers substantial benefits to both brands and affiliate marketers, highlighting the successful shift toward less traditional marketing tactics. In fact, affiliate marketing spending in the United States reached a remarkable $9.56 billion in 2023, with projections estimating growth to $10.72 billion in 2024 and approximately $12 billion by 2025. Clearly, this expanding market presents ample opportunity for those looking to capitalize on this revenue stream.

How Affiliate Marketing Operates

Affiliate marketing successfully distributes the responsibilities of product creation and promotion across multiple parties. This leverages the unique abilities of different individuals for a far more effective marketing strategy while simultaneously providing contributors with a share of the profit. Ultimately, three distinct parties must collaborate to ensure affiliate marketing success:

The Seller and Product Creator
The Affiliate or Advertiser
The Consumer

We must delve into the complex relationship these three parties share to understand how they drive the affiliate marketing model.

The Seller and Product Creator

The seller, which could be a solo entrepreneur or a large enterprise, acts as the vendor, merchant, retailer, or product creator offering a product to the market. This product can be a tangible item, like household goods, or a service, such as makeup tutorials.

Also known as the brand, the seller does not necessarily need to be actively involved in the marketing efforts. However, the seller may also function as the advertiser, profiting from the revenue sharing associated with the program. For example, the seller could be an e-commerce merchant operating a dropshipping business who aims to reach a new audience by compensating affiliate sites to promote their goods. Similarly, a SaaS company might utilize affiliates to help sell its marketing software.

The Affiliate or Publisher

The affiliate, or publisher, can be an individual or an entire company that markets the seller’s product in an appealing way to potential consumers. In essence, the affiliate promotes the product to persuade consumers of its value or benefits and convince them to make a purchase. If the consumer buys the product, the affiliate receives a predetermined portion of the revenue generated.

Affiliates often target a highly specific audience, tailoring their marketing to that group’s interests. This practice establishes a defined niche or personal brand, which helps the affiliate attract consumers most likely to act on the promotion.

The Consumer

Naturally, the affiliate system relies on sales—and the consumer or customer drives these sales.

The affiliate markets the product or service through relevant channel(s), whether social media, a blog, or a YouTube video. If the consumer recognizes the product as valuable or beneficial, they follow the affiliate link and complete the checkout process on the merchant’s website. If the customer purchases the item, the affiliate receives a revenue share.

Crucially, the affiliate must disclose their commission to the customer. According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), an affiliate marketer must clearly and conspicuously disclose their relationship with the retailer. This allows the consumer to decide how much weight they give the endorsement. For example, a simple disclaimer like, “The products I’m going to use in this video were given to me by Company X,” provides viewers with the necessary information to make an informed decision about purchasing the affiliate product.

Categories of Affiliate Marketing

Customers often wonder whether an affiliate marketer has actually used the product they promote or if they are simply seeking income. While this may not always concern the customer, in areas like diet services or skincare products, customers often only trust affiliates who have personally tested and approved the product.

In 2009, renowned affiliate marketer Pat Flynn categorized affiliate marketing into three types—unattached, related, and involved—to help distinguish between affiliates who maintain a close relationship with the product and those who do not. We will break down each category so you can determine the best strategy for your efforts.

Unattached Affiliate Marketing

Under the unattached model, the affiliate marketer maintains no connection or experience with the product or service they promote. They lack expertise or authority within the product’s niche and cannot make claims about its use.

Typically, an unattached affiliate runs PPC (pay-per-click) marketing campaigns, embedding an affiliate link in the hope that shoppers will click it and make a purchase independently. While attractive due to its low commitment, unattached affiliate marketing generally suits those who solely want to generate income without investing in the product or the customer relationship.

Related Affiliate Marketing

Related affiliate marketing strikes a balance between the unattached and involved models. This approach applies to individuals who may not personally use the product or service but are otherwise connected to the niche audience. These affiliates often possess some influence within the niche and an established following, which allows them to offer a degree of authority.

For instance, you might promote a clothing brand you have never used, but you have built an audience through a fashion blog or YouTube channel. In this scenario, you operate as a related affiliate marketer. The primary advantage here is the affiliate’s expertise in generating traffic. However, they risk recommending a poor product or service if they have not personally tested it, potentially eroding audience trust.

Involved Affiliate Marketing

As the name suggests, involved affiliate marketing describes those who maintain a close connection to the product or service they promote. This affiliate has personally tried the product, trusts that it delivers a positive experience, and possesses the authority to make claims about its use.

Instead of relying solely on clicks, involved affiliate marketers use their personal experiences with the product in their marketing efforts, establishing themselves as reliable sources of information for customers. Although this type of marketing requires more initial effort and time to build credibility, it typically results in greater, long-term payoffs.

How Affiliate Marketers Receive Payment

Affiliate marketing offers an undeniably attractive, quick, and inexpensive method for increasing online income without the complexity of selling a product yourself. However, the exact payment structure after linking the seller to the consumer can vary.

The consumer does not always need to purchase the product for the affiliate to receive compensation. Depending on the program, the affiliate’s contribution to the seller’s sales is measured differently.

Affiliates may receive payment in several ways:

Payout Model	Description
Pay Per Sale	This is the standard model. The merchant pays the affiliate a percentage of the product’s sale price only after the consumer purchases the product as a direct result of the affiliate’s marketing efforts. The affiliate must secure an actual sale to be compensated.
Pay Per Lead	This more complex system compensates the affiliate based on lead conversion. The affiliate must successfully persuade the consumer to visit the merchant’s website and complete a desired action, such as filling out a contact form, signing up for a trial, subscribing to a newsletter, or downloading software.
Pay Per Click (PPC)	While SEO is important, it cannot sustain affiliates in a saturated market, leading some to utilize PPC. These programs incentivize the affiliate to redirect consumers from their platform to the merchant’s website. The affiliate must engage the consumer enough to drive them to the merchant’s site, and payment is based on the resulting increase in web traffic.
Pay Per Install	In this system, the affiliate receives payment each time they direct a user to the merchant’s website, and the user installs a product, usually a mobile app or software. For example, if a retailer budgets $0.10 per install and an affiliate campaign generates 1,000 installs, the retailer pays the affiliate $100.

PPC models include two common concepts: CPA (cost-per-acquisition), where the affiliate is paid each time the seller acquires a lead (an action taken after a link click, like subscribing), and EPC (earnings-per-click), which measures the average earnings per 100 clicks across all affiliates in a program.

Why Choose Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing offers several distinct advantages over traditional employment and business models:

Passive Income: Unlike conventional jobs, affiliate marketing allows you to earn money even while you sleep. By investing an initial amount of time into a campaign, you receive continuous returns as consumers purchase the product over days and weeks. Your initial work keeps earning you a steady flow of income long after you complete it.
No Customer Support: The affiliate’s job is simply to connect the seller with the consumer. Sellers must handle customer complaints and satisfaction. Consequently, you will never concern yourself with customer support or service issues once you receive your commission.
Work from Home: Affiliate marketing offers the perfect solution if you dislike commuting to an office. You can launch campaigns and receive revenue from the comfort of your own home, often without ever leaving your pajamas.
Cost-Effective: Most businesses require significant upfront startup fees and ongoing cash flow to finance products. However, you can begin affiliate marketing with a low initial cost, without the hassle of creating a product or worrying about unexpected fees.
Convenient and Flexible: Since you operate as a freelancer, you gain ultimate independence. You set your own goals, choose your working hours, select the products that genuinely interest you, and redirect your path as you see fit. This convenience allows you to diversify your portfolio or focus only on simple campaigns, freeing you from company restrictions and ill-performing teams.
Performance-Based Rewards: Unlike salaried positions, where an 80-hour work week might not increase your pay, affiliate marketing is purely based on your performance. What you put into it is what you get out of it. Honing your reviewing skills and writing compelling campaigns directly translates into greater revenue. You finally get paid for your outstanding work!

Common Affiliate Marketing Channels

Most affiliates employ shared practices to ensure their target audience remains engaged and receptive to purchasing promoted products. However, affiliates utilize several different marketing channels for their advertisements:

Influencers: An influencer is a content creator who holds significant power to impact the purchasing decisions of a large population segment. They already boast an impressive following, making it simple for them to direct consumers to the seller’s products through social media posts, blogs, and other interactions. They then receive a profit share. Instagram and TikTok are particularly popular for these campaigns, where brands partner with niche experts. Influencers must integrate elements that ensure strong brand recall and recognition alongside their own branding.
Bloggers: With the ability to rank organically in search engine queries, bloggers excel at increasing a seller’s conversions through content marketing. The blogger samples the product or service, then writes a comprehensive review that promotes the brand compellingly, driving traffic back to the seller’s site. The blogger receives compensation for their influence in spreading the word and improving the seller’s sales.
Paid Search-Focused Microsites: Developing and monetizing microsites can also generate significant affiliate sales. These sites, separate from the organization’s main site, are advertised within a partner site or on sponsored search engine listings. By offering more focused, relevant content to a specific audience, microsites achieve increased conversions due to their simple, direct call to action.
Email Lists: Despite its age, email marketing remains a viable source of affiliate income. Some affiliates leverage existing email lists to promote the seller’s products, while others utilize email newsletters that include product hyperlinks, earning a commission upon purchase. Another method involves the affiliate building an email list over time by collecting emails through various campaigns, then sending out promotions for the products they support.
Large Media Websites: These sites focus on building massive audiences to generate huge amounts of traffic at all times. They promote products to their millions of readers using banners and contextual affiliate links. This method offers superior exposure and improves conversion rates, resulting in top-tier revenue for both the seller and the affiliate. A well-known example is Amazon Associates, which dominates the affiliate network market share.

Other big-name affiliate marketing programs include AvantLink, CJ Affiliate, ClickBank, ShareASale, and FlexOffers, among others. Alternatively, you can directly contact retailers to inquire about their affiliate program or request a special coupon or discount code to share with your audience.

Tips for Successful Affiliate Marketing

Ready to try your hand at affiliate marketing? Here are our top online marketing tips to help you achieve success:

Develop a Rapport with Your Audience: Cultivate an audience with highly specific interests at the beginning of your career. This allows you to tailor your affiliate campaigns to that niche, significantly increasing your conversion likelihood. By establishing yourself as an expert in one area, you market effectively to the people most likely to buy the product.
Make It Personal: Since you have numerous products available to promote, you should actively select products and brands you genuinely believe in. Ensure your campaigns center around truly valuable products that consumers will enjoy. This approach helps you achieve an impressive conversion rate while simultaneously establishing your personal brand’s reliability. Furthermore, become proficient at email outreach, using tools like ContactOut or Voila Norbert to gather contact information and send personalized emails for guest blogging and affiliate opportunities.
Start Reviewing Products and Services: Focus on reviewing products and services that fall within your niche. Then, leverage your rapport and expert status to explain clearly why your readers would benefit from purchasing the promoted item. Almost anything sold online can be reviewed if an affiliate program exists, including physical goods, digital software, and online services. Critically, compare the product to others in the same category and ensure you generate detailed, articulate content to maximize conversions.
Use Several Sources: Do not focus solely on an email campaign. Instead, dedicate time to earning money through a blog, creating landing pages, posting on review sites, engaging your audience on social media, and exploring cross-channel promotions. Test a variety of digital marketing strategies to see which ones your audience responds to most effectively, and use that technique frequently.
Choose Campaigns with Care: No matter how skilled your online marketing is, you will earn less money promoting a bad product than a valuable one. Take the time to study the demand for a product before promoting it, and research the seller carefully before partnering with them. Your time is valuable; ensure you spend it on a profitable product and a reputable seller.
Stay Current with Trends: Given the serious competition in the affiliate marketing sphere, you must remain on top of any new trends to ensure you remain competitive. You will likely benefit from at least a few of the new marketing techniques constantly emerging. Keep up to date on all these new strategies to guarantee your conversion rates, and therefore your revenue, remain as high as possible.

The Final Word

Affiliate marketing, facilitated by reviews, blogs, social media, and other platforms, is an elegantly straightforward process and a new frontier in marketing ripe for utilization.

Follow the tips and strategies outlined in this guide, and you will effectively engage your audience, convert passive readers into active consumers, and enhance your paycheck one click at a time.

FAQs About Affiliate Marketing

What are the best affiliate marketing products?

There are endless options for affiliate marketing products. But especially if you’re looking to be a related or involved affiliate marketer, try choosing a product that is of interest to you or that you are somewhat knowledgeable about.

For example, if you’re an athlete, maybe try promoting health and wellness products such as diet and fitness services or sports equipment. Or, if you’re interested in how to make money, you can be an affiliate for loans and investment services, credit card companies or BNPL providers like Affirm or Zip.

But regardless of whether you decide to be an involved or unattached affiliate marketer, make sure to choose a niche industry with products and services that are in high demand and have monetization potential. Of course, this will also mean that these niches are highly competitive, but you need to make sure there is actually an audience for the products you’re promoting.

How much money can I make as an affiliate?

In the U.S. alone, affiliate marketing spend is projected to reach $8.2 billion in 2022, up from $5.4 billion in 2017 — which means there’s huge potential for those seeking to earn affiliate income.

Long answer short: There is no limit to how much money you can make as an affiliate marketer, but it largely depends on your niche market and how much time and effort you put into it.

For example, Ryan Robinson, a renowned affiliate marketer, reported over $19,000 in affiliate commissions in 2019, while The Wirecutter, another affiliate website, earned $10 million in revenue and later was sold to the New York Times for $30 million. But of course, this kind of success does not happen overnight.

In reality, affiliate income can range from a few hundred bucks per month to six figures per year. The more time you put into your work and the more followers you have, the more money-making potential you have.

Is affiliate marketing legal?

Yes, affiliate marketing is legal as long as the affiliate discloses their relationship with the merchant and informs their audience that they are receiving a commission of sales.

According to the FTC, an affiliate marketer must clearly and conspicuously disclose their relationship to the retailer, thus allowing the consumer to decide how much weight to give your endorsement.

A disclaimer such as “The products I’m going to use in this video were given to me by Company X” gives your viewers the information they need and allows them to make an informed decision about whether or not to buy the affiliate product.

What industries are best suited for affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing thrives in industries like health and wellness, technology, beauty, fashion, and digital products. These sectors often feature high demand and a wide range of established affiliate programs, making them ideal for marketers to find opportunities that resonate with their audience. Additionally, niche markets can be highly rewarding. With a clearly defined target audience and less competition, niche affiliates can achieve significant success by addressing specific customer needs.

What is the difference between referral and affiliate marketing?

The main difference is that affiliate marketing involves third-party brand advocates promoting products for a merchant for a flat fee, whereas referral marketing incentivizes existing customers for inviting their friends/family to purchase a brand’s product or service.

How can I effectively use affiliate links in my content?

To use affiliate links effectively:

1. Integrate links naturally into high-quality, relevant content.

1. Focus on creating value for your audience by recommending products or services that align with their interests.

1. Use a mix of text links within articles, banners, or product reviews.

1. Always disclose your affiliate relationship to maintain transparency and trust with your audience.

Additionally, tracking the performance of different links can help optimize your strategy for better results.