How Affiliate Marketing Can Help You Earn More While Working Less

Hi! I’m Karon Thackston of MarketingWords.com. Jessica and I have known each other for probably 10 years or more. We originally met through a mutual acquaintance in the Amazon space.

I think Jess is just a delightful person! Kind and smart, compassionate and knowledgeable. It’s my privilege to step in and take over her business this week while she is busy tending to Cliff after his bone marrow transplant.

Jess and I have a lot in common including our love of earning affiliate commissions.

In this post, I’ll teach you:

• The benefits of affiliate marketing that most people don’t realize
• How you can earn you more with affiliate marketing than with other types of income
• How easy it is to get started

About two decades ago, I discovered something that totally shocked and amazed me in its simplicity.

A friend of mine had a course on search engine optimization (SEO) that she was selling. She told me that, if I would send an email about her course to my list, she would pay me a percentage of every sale I made.

She was an awesome teacher, and a total pro at getting sites ranked highly. I had no problem recommending her training because I knew it was solid.

It took me about 20 to 30 minutes to write an email, schedule it, and send it. I could not work all afternoon because I kept being pulled into my inbox. Every time I looked, there were three more sales or five more sales! This went on all afternoon until, in the end, I think I had somewhere around 100 sales.

So, for a half an hour of work I made about $2,950.

Needless to say, I was hooked and have been heavy into affiliate marketing ever since.

While earning more and working less is awesome enough by itself, it’s not the only reason that I Iove affiliate marketing.

Affiliate Marketing Can Pay More Than Other Income Streams

Really? How does that work when you aren’t even the owner/creator of the product?

It’s because you aren’t the owner/creator that you have the potential to earn more.

Here’s one example.

Let’s say you create a video training course or some sort of digital download (maybe a pack of templates). Here are some typical expenses you (as the creator) might incur.

• Creation software (could be PowerPoint, Canva Pro, Camtasia, Zoom or others)
• Membership software to automatically enroll customers and send them access to the products they purchase
• Website design for your sales pages
• Copywriting for sales pages
• Website security services or software
• Merchant fees
• And others like the cost of your Virtual Assistant if you don’t do all the set up yourself

Let’s estimate the cost of the above and call it:

• $10/month for Canva Pro
• $119/month for Teachable (unless you opt for the baby plan which only gives you five products and costs an additional 5% fee)
• $25/month for web design templates/software such as Thrive Themes
• $600 for sales page copy from a pro
• $60/month for website security if you have your own site
• 3.49% + $ .49 per transaction for Paypal Business

For the sake of our example, let’s pretend that you are selling a 10-module video-based course for $49. And you make 50 sales during one month. Here’s your profit.

Sales $2,450 

-$1,354 in fixed costs (the stuff you have to pay for every month)

-$221.51 in Paypal fees

Net profit is $874.49

However, as your affiliate, I also promote the product.

So, if I also make 50 sales during a month as your affiliate, I’ll walk away with $1,225 (if I’m paid a 50% commission or $980 if a 40% commission) I get clear profit with nothing taken out and with a lot less work.

That’s right. Affiliates don’t have all of the fixed costs that product creators have. If you make hundreds of sales or thousands of sales a month – or if you create lots of products that sell every month – the quantity can offset many of the fixed costs. But if you’re starting out small, $1,575.51 is a lot to spend. You’d have to make 33 sales just to break even at the $49 price point.

Affiliate Marketing is Extremely Versatile

Even if it weren’t all about the money, the fees and the profits, there are lots of other reasons affiliate marketing is a phenomenal way to make money online.

1. No Entry Costs – There’s no charge to sign up as an affiliate and you don’t need any particular software/tools to begin.

2. Less Work – You don’t have to figure out what to create. The products/services are made by others. That is significantly less work for you.
3. Customer Support – While you may get a question or two from the audience you recommend an affiliate product to, you will not have to provide customer support about the product or service. The creator will do that.

4. Highly Diversified – There are affiliate products and services on a massive variety of topics and formats. You will most likely have more products to choose from than  you could possibly imagine.

Likewise, affiliate marketing diversification also applies to how you promote. Anything you can think of would probably work including blogging, Facebook ads, Google ads, web pages, social media, video, lives, email, podcasts, upsells. I’ve even seen affiliate marketing on TV.

Plus, the variety of products is astonishing. In addition to online courses and digital downloads, you’ll find everything from pet products and anti-aging cream to Visa cards and cook-it-yourself home meal delivery.

How to Get Started with Affiliate Marketing in 3 Easy Steps

Think about the last time you went to a great restaurant. 

You probably did one of several things (or all of them) like:

• Emailed or texted your friends to tell them where you went, what you ate, and how the service was because you thought they’d want to go there, too.
• Shared pictures of your meal, and the restaurant on social media, in groups, etc.
• Recorded a short video at the restaurant that you shared in lots of places.
• Etc.

If you’ve ever done this, you’re technically already an affiliate marketer. You just weren’t earning commissions for your efforts.

Here’s how you change that.

1. Shop around the Internet for products or services you and your audience would find helpful. Sign up for the affiliate programs (if the companies have that)

and start sharing what you found with your audience.

Do you share stuff you found on Amazon with others? Amazon has an affiliate program. (Not the highest commission rates, but still… it’s an easy place to start.)

2. Make a list of where you can share. Don’t have an email list or a blog following? That’s OK. You can start with something like YouTube (no, you don’t have to be on camera) or your own social media accounts.

Both of these put your post or videos in a public place where anyone can find them even if they do not subscribe to or follow you.

3. Scale Up  – When you’ve found one or more affiliate products that bring in steady commissions, it’s simple to scale by adding more types of media. For example, if free social posts are working, you might try running paid Facebook ads. If you are getting a good response from the review blog post you wrote, maybe you want to distribute that post to lots of places online to drive more traffic.

Ready to give affiliate marketing a shot? I’ve got just the help you need.

Because you’re one of Jessica’s peeps, I’ve created a training combo with two of my best-selling affiliate marketing courses. You’ll receive information specifically laid out to walk you through getting started and making the most from your affiliate campaigns. The bundle includes:

1. Passive Income Jumpstart – Not sure how to find affiliate products that are a perfect fit for you and your followers? I’ll show you my personal system for quickly identifying and evaluating the right ones (and what to avoid so you don’t waste time on losers).

2. Affiliate Advantage: Success Secrets for Making More Commissions – Wondering why you only make a few affiliate sales every month? Discover the strategy top affiliates use to drive more affiliate commissions on demand.

Find out all the details about each course and get this exclusive bundle at a 50% discount today. You’ll  get both courses for the one-time special price of just $49.

Whether you are starting out with affiliate marketing or you have some experience, but haven’t grown to the level you want, you’ll find a new path that leads to more income.

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About Jessica @ The Selling Family

Jessica is an experienced content creator who has been sharing her knowledge about selling online since 2012. With a passion for Amazon FBA, creating and selling low-content books, and blogging, she has helped countless individuals and businesses succeed in their own online businesses. When she’s not working, Jessica enjoys spending time with her family, playing games, and watching her favorite shows.