AJULU

You are an Affiliate Marketer.

And even if you don’t agree with what you read.

It doesn’t change the fact that you are.

You see, at one point or the other. You have talked about a product or service be it online or offline.

And someone made a purchase decision because of that.

The latest Marvel movie

The latest Samsung or iPhone.

That Restaurant that you have come to love.

The only difference between you and people that tag themselves Affiliate Marketers is the earnings.

They get paid to do what you have been doing for free for years now.

Everyone has a fairly good understanding of the word Marketing Before we proceed, let’s check the dictionary for the meaning of the words Affiliate.

The first meaning of the word Affiliate in the Oxford Dictionary is ” officially attach or connect (a subsidiary group or a person) to an organization.”

That means if you connect someone or a group of people to an organization, you are an Affiliate.

There have been a lot of conversations about Affiliate marketing recently and the summary of it is that there are a lot of information gaps when it comes to understanding Affiliate marketing.

The purpose of this guide is to give an overview of the psychology behind Affiliate Marketing.

I will be mostly making use of the Expertnaire Affiliate platform as a case study, but would still give a broad overview of the market.

Market Problems and Solutions.

Businesses always have limited reach when it comes to selling their products and services.

They are various ways to market their products online and offline.

And one of the effective ways is to get people who have sizeable online and offline audiences to market their products in exchange for a commission.

Making use of Affiliates to sell is cost-effective.

There are no upfront costs and affiliates only get paid if they drive sales.

According to Torchbankz, Affiliate Marketing is a $12 Billion Dollar Industry.

Over 80% of online marketers and publishers make use of Affiliate Marketing and Affiliate marketing efforts bring in between 15 and 30% totally sales for brands.

The sales percentage for some industries is way higher than that, especially in the online education space.

 

Major Problems Affiliate Marketers Face.

I have seen a lot of complaints from people who are getting started with building a career in affiliate marketing.

Especially those whose first contact with Affiliate Marketing is the fast-growing Expertnaire platform.

All complaints can be grouped into three major categories:

a) Ability to drive sales

b) Disparity in Results and perceived unrealistic earnings being shared by top affiliates.

c) Price and Nature of digital products associated with Affiliate Marketing.

I am going to break down these problems and give a solution to them all.

 

a) Ability to drive sales: the number of sales that you drive is directly tied to your ability to generate leads.

Leads are simply people who are most likely to buy whatever product or services that you are buying.

A Car Wash sign placed near mechanic workshops would drive more demand for the business than one placed on a random street.

The reason why some affiliates are finding it hard to sell is that they have failed to position themselves in a place where they can easily drive sales.

And the origin of this problem is the belief that Affiliate marketing comes with a plug and play system.

Like every other business or endeavour, achieving success with affiliate marketing takes work.

Yes it has a low barrier to entry as all you need is a mobile phone and internet connection, but never make the mistake of thinking that it is very easy to make money with Affiliate marketing.

You need to out in work to see results.

First, you need to choose a channel, be it an Email Newsletter, Social Media channel, blog etc

Then commit to creating content consistently on that channel.

The kind of products that you intend to sell would determine the kind of content that you create.

For example, there are a lot of people that would love to school in a foreign country.

If you discover a product that helps people do that, you can start creating content that people who want to school abroad would need.

Content like schools that has special programs for foreign students, the best way to apply for a student visa, scholarship programs for students etc.

When you create in-depth content around things like this, you would attract an audience of people who are more likely to buy whatever product or service is related to travelling abroad.

Not everyone is your customer, even if you are selling eternal life there are people that would never patronize you.

Other ways to find Leads are :

i) Answer questions and create content on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Quora to build authority. Jason Lemkin has more than 3,000 answers and 45 million views on Quora.

ii) Use Tools to finds Leads and pitch to them especially if you are selling services. I use Hunter.io to find the email addresses of people. Tools can be used to create content too. I use Hemmingway App for my blog posts. Other Affiliate tools.

 

b) Disparity in Results/Perceived unrealistic earnings being shared by top affiliates: before you get into Affiliate Marketing, you need to ask one question.

Why am I going into this?

Do you want to become an affiliate marketer because you recognize it as a way to build a sustainable income machine for yourself?

Or you are going into it because you believe that it can help you become a millionaire overnight?

It is easy to get motivated by the testimonies of successful affiliate marketers, but don’t think you would achieve what they have overnight.

It took them months of hard work to get there.

Is it possible to start making money within a few days and weeks?

The answer is Yes

Is it possible to start cashing out millions in your first week?

The answer is No

Unless you are fortunate enough to get someone who already has a sizable audience primed for the product that you are selling that can help you market using your affiliate link.

Apart from that, the number of leads that you can drive would always determine the number of returns that you get.

One thing that you also need to understand is that top affiliates run ads heavily.

Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Youtube are great places to get traffic.

Yes, you can get started and drive sales with organic traffic, but you need to run ads to scale.

It takes time and effort to nurture leads, so don’t expect it to happen overnight.

Only 35% of Affiliate marketers make $20,000 and above yearly.

And an even smaller percentage make $100,000 and above yearly.

On Affiliate platforms, around 80% of sales come from 20% of Affiliates, I run an affiliate program for my course so I can confirm this to be true.

So when next you see an Affiliate Marketer post huge earnings, don’t call him/her a liar.

Find out how long they have been in the business and what gave them the edge they have in the market.

You would always find out that it takes time, consistent improvement when it comes to knowing how to drive leads and most importantly hard work.

The major thing that earnings being posted by top affiliates can do for you is a firm reassurance that if you put in the work, you would also start getting similar results with time.

 

c) Price and Nature of Digital products associated with Affiliate Marketing: there is one thing that you need to understand.

Price is a filter.

It is easy for you to jump into something because you feel that you can do it.

But when a price is put on it, you do more thinking before taking action.

There are pdfs, blog posts, social media posts and even free courses that you have saved to read for months even years now.

You are yet to get back to them. You are more likely to value something when you pay for it.

Also, the person that took time to create that thing deserves to capture some monetary value from it.

If you think about it, most digital products are underpriced when compared to the impact that they give the buyer.

People have gone on to build an income base that runs into millions with strategies they learnt from courses worth less than $100.

Even if you are told to pay $100 for something that would help you earn just $500, it is the right investment to make.

Also, understand that the purpose of courses is to give you a roadmap.

You can get the best strategies but see no results because you are not putting in the required work.

The job of mentors is to give you a map that leads to the treasure and not carry you on their back every step of the way.

Also, there is also that wrong perception from people that online courses have to be voluminous.

The simpler and more straightforward the content is, the better for you.

One of the most powerful guides I have ever read is just three pages long.

The fact that you pay $100 or $200 for a course doesn’t mean that it should be 1000 pages long.

Quality is greater than quantity.

One of the books that have impacted me the most is Sell Your Brain by Ronald Nzimora.

I read it in one sitting over a space of three to four hours.

 

Understanding The Expertnaire Affiliate Program

Expertnaire has been operational since 2018.

It hosts digital products that can be sold by registered affiliates on the platform.

If you have an online audience or want to build one around a particular niche.

Expertnaire is a great place to find high-quality digital products.

It costs #10,000($20) to become a registered affiliate on the platform.

If you are a beginner who wants to also learn how to drive leads, the 72IG course by Toyin Omotosho would teach you all that you need to know.

Products listed on Expertnaire goes through a rigorous vetting process, so you can be sure to market them without any fear.

Like every other affiliate platform, you need to put in the work to make money through Expertnaire.

Digital education platforms like Skillshare and Udemy also have affiliate programs for people who want to market courses hosted on the platforms.

Ali Abdaal made over $100,000 last year as a Skillshare Affiliate.

There have been a lot of statements made about Expertnaire by people who don’t understand how it works

a) Most Affiliates only sell the course that teaches how to become an affiliate marketer:

The key to selling is selling what has the most demand.

Also once the skill has been learnt, their students can use it to sell any other products or push their personal brands.

There are people that have gone on to secure high paying jobs with local and foreign brands by leveraging what they learned from their Affiliate marketing mentors.

b) It takes time to make money with Affiliate Marketing:

Like I said earlier, it takes time to make money with anything. If you can study a course in school for four years when there are little chances of getting a job.

You can invest months into learning Affiliate Marketing. The chances of making money are way higher with Affiliate marketing.

Don’t listen to anyone who tells you that it is easy to make money with affiliate marketing.

They are just trying to make money off you. It takes work.

 

Conclusion

Affiliate marketing offers you immense opportunities to earn online.

The most important thing for you to do is to have the right mentality regarding it.

It is not a get rich quick business. You have to put in the work.

If you have any questions about Affiliate Marketing, you can ask them below.

You can also follow me on Twitter: Ajulu

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