Can You Make Money from Affiliate Marketing?

How Affiliate Marketing Works (in theory)

I always recommend to my clients using the 3-legged stool approach to earning income, and sometimes making money from affiliate marketing is one of the legs of the stool. I'm a big believer in having at least 3 types of income in your online business. Sometimes we call this “multiple streams of income.” Here's what to know about affiliate marketing.

1. It can save you time. If you want to sell services or products online, you've got to have something to sell. So you either design your own offers, or you promote other people's offers. Or, like me, you do a combination of both. There are a few things to know about promoting other people's products.
   • The offers need to be a good match for your followers, not something completely out of the blue.
   • The offers you decide to promote need to be good, solid, useful products.
   • Since you are earning an affiliate commission on each sale, make sure you are working with someone who pays out their commissions regularly, and without you having to chase them down.
2. You have to be reasonable about the amount of money you expect to make. Depending on the size of your list and on your social following, you'll make small amounts of money when you promote (most likely) or large amounts if you've got a larger following. Don't sneeze at small amounts – they can add up over time. And if you've got a subscriber list that's small right now, it's pretty common to make small amounts of money. Nothing wrong with that, it can grow over time. 

E-mail swipe files will save you time

Right now my colleague David Perdew over at NAMS is offering a file of the actual emails he currently uses to generate affiliate income. These emails are useful, because they give you a template or draft that you can change to meet your own situation. That means no original copywriting has to be done, starting from a blank piece of paper. It cuts down your time and gives you access to emails that have actually earned him money, so they are proven to be useful. (This is my own affiliate link.)

David has used these exact same emails to earn about a million dollars in sales over the years. You and I more than likely won't do that, because we don't have the list size that David has. But I'm happy to earn a few hundred dollars here and there. I personally want to make money from affiliate marketing, and I see an increase every year in that income stream. I will definitely keep promoting things from other people that are good, solid, useful things and that my followers are interested in. You can do that, too, and get a head start with David's email templates. Here's my own affiliate link for his offer. This set of email templates (his swipe files) are not expensive, so you aren't putting much at risk. 

What to do once you have the e-mail swipe files

If you grab these here's what you do with them.

• Go through and see which ones are for offers you can promote to your followers – things that would be useful to them. Or, use a set of the email templates to promote a product that you already know about from someone else.
• Apply to be an affiliate for the offers you want to promote.
• Use a cloaked link for your affiliate link (never use a bare affiliate link) – use Pretty Link or Bit.Ly. (As an example, my affiliate link from David for this offer was a long, confusing mashup of letters and numbers with my affiliate ID embedded in that string of characters. I used Pretty Link to create  https://confidentmarketer.com/emailswipes for this offer. It's easy to remember and helps me see how well people like the offer.)
• Send out your emails (use the email templates you get from David and change them to meet your situation), making sure to use your own affiliate link in the emails.
• Prepare to make each offer 3 to 4 times to your list and to your social followers, too.
• Keep track and see how much money you make from each. You'll have good successes and you'll have some bombs, too. Just keep at it. 

David's offer is time limited. So check it out now, and promise yourself to create new income from affiliate marketing in the next 30 days.

Tip: You could use some of these email templates to make email offers of your own products, too!

I like quick income boosts, and this is a solid one if you are willing to take it out and use it. If you want to find out more about the basics of affiliate marketing, you can watch my YouTube video. 

First, though, go take a look at David's email swipe files. It could be just the help you need to get started or, if you are already making affiliate income, to streamline and increase your success.