Overview
Newcomers to internet marketing often find themselves hit with “information overload.” When we buy any particular course to learn a new skill, we find that, contrary to the promises on flashy sales pages advertising “one-click riches” or “3-step success,” there’s a learning curve and consistent work required, no matter which business model you pick.
That said, affiliate marketing takes away part of the load; you don’t have to create a training course of your own. You don’t need to provide customer service, handle sales tax, process purchase transactions, or grant refunds. Your job is to attract potential customers (your traffic), present the offer, and, if you persuade the visitor to buy, collect a commission after the sale.
There’s still plenty to learn as an affiliate marketer. Will you rely solely on email marketing to present your offers? How will you acquire the email addresses of your target audience? Do you plan to rely on traffic from social media, or do you have a budget for pay-per-click ads? I mention these considerations (among others) not to discourage anyone, but to prepare newbie marketers. There are many courses promising to teach the various aspects of affiliate marketing, and I’ll write about how to select the good ones in a different post.
For now, let’s consider two very broad categories of the affiliate model: physical products and digital products. Many, many opportunities exist for both. Physical product affiliates can sell on behalf of behemoths like Amazon, or tiny, special interest sellers with product lines as narrow as special herb blends for foodies and chefs.
Physical Products
The most successful physical-product affiliates present themselves as product-area experts, especially for relatively expensive items. It’s not enough to slap up a website advertising, say, office chairs. Rather, presenting the ergonomic features, prices, durability, and service reputations of the manufacturers shows the kind of knowledge and interest that builds audience trust in the affiliate’s information.
People researching the relative merits of various products just before purchase will bounce right off a page that has nothing but pictures and “buy now” buttons. But if you can help them make a decision, it’s only natural that they click your link and take the next step to finalizing the purchase. Presenting that quality of information requires that you either come into the market with expertise, be willing to learn as you earn, or outsource your information..
Some items, like office furniture, can be sold all the time—they’re called “evergreen” products. Others are seasonal (like plastic sleds) or specialized for certain holidays (for example, Halloween costumes). Some relatively high-price items (such as office chairs) call for the expert information I described above, while others (say, a werewolf costume for Halloween) are casual purchases and may be used only once. Such items are purchased if they appear adequate for the purpose, are readily available, and if the price is right.
Digital Products
Many of the factors apply to digital product affiliates, who typically represent sellers of information delivered as eBooks, videos, software, audio files, and eCourse newsletters. The most popular info-products for affiliates address topics included in the broad areas of health, wealth, and relationships. For example, the health market includes niches like diet, fitness, and longevity. The wealth info market includes products about money making, money saving, investing, insurance, and many other subtopics. Interested in relationships? You can sell as an affiliate representing dating products, marriage courses, parenting and so on.
The affiliate commission percentage for digital products tends (think eBooks, video courses, and membership sites) to be higher than those for physical products. Why? Because with digital info-products, there’s little cost in duplicating the product after initial creation, no shipping costs, no (or very little) storage costs, and so on. Info-product opportunities can be found in marketplaces like Clickbank, where the platform owner’s job is to facilitate the transactions between product sellers (say, a diet book author) and affiliates.
Some markets have physical and digital product opportunities. Consider an info-product about yoga, for example. On the one hand, you earn commissions for helping to sell a video course or an e-book. On the other hand, and at the same time, you can earn a commission for selling yoga mats, yoga bricks, music CD’s for yoga, physical yoga books, and so on.
Keep these factors in mind when you consider whether affiliate marketing is the business model for you, and whether physical products, digital products (or both!) offer the best opportunity.
