Why do Companies use Affiliate Marketing? Plus, its Benefits to an Affiliate Marketer!

Why do Companies use Affiliate Marketing_ Plus, its Benefits to an Affiliate Marketer!

Affiliate Marketing is an awesome online business model! Without it there would not be many genuine ways of earning money online.  But why would Companies use Affiliate Marketing, why would Amazon choose to outsource its marketing to bloggers?

In this article, we will be describing exactly what the benefits are to companies like Amazon and how it totally benefits us as affiliate marketers.  If you have still been looking for an answer to why Affiliate Marketing is a great starting point for beginners, I will also answer that too with how you can get started as well.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Before we crack on discussing why companies use affiliate marketing, let’s just clarify our understanding of how it really works.

Affiliate Marketing works by allowing people to promote products and services and receiving a commission on any sale made.  You join an affiliate program and you get access to a company’s library of products.  You write an article or record a video of that product and included in that article is a link to the company’s website and that product.

If someone visits your blog or website and like what you have put, they will follow your link to that product.  If they buy it, you earn a commission for the introduction.  It is a lot more widespread than you might think and is a great work from home model and it definitely benefits the company too.How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

In fact, Amazon started using the model and has continued to use it ever since.

Amazon Started the Ball Rolling

When Amazon first started out, it was just a small bookstore.  They didn’t have the kind of budget to go out and placeAmazon - Affiliate Marketing adverts everywhere.  That would cost money, without any guaranteed sales.  So, they introduced a referral program, where when someone who used Amazon introduced another person to buy a book from Amazon.  They would receive a percentage of the book price as a reward.

From the user of Amazon’s point of view, they could earn money by introducing friends and others to Amazon.

From Amazon’s point of view, they only spent money from a guaranteed sale. The percentage would come out of the profit, but they were saving a fortune on marketing their products and brand.

Now, when you look at Amazon and the product range, there are a couple of things that come to mind.

One, is Amazon used this model to great affect and is still using it today!

Two, The sheer opportunity out there for Affiliate Marketers or Potential Affiliate Marketers!!

Why Do Companies use Affiliate Marketing – the Key Benefits

When we start looking at the key benefits of why companies use Affiliate Marketing the biggest one is the cost of marketing is vastly reduced.  Even small companies can still benefit from getting their products promoted without having to spend money on marketing campaigns that will not necessarily work.  They will only pay for a guaranteed sale.

More and more companies have adopted this form of marketing, purely down to this reason.

The other key benefit is highly related to the first one.  If you think of the power of word of mouth and a recommendation from someone you know or trust, this is a powerful one.

But you might see an advert and not really understand what they are marketing.  The company has paid for this ad, but they are not getting a great cut through.  But what, if they started to learn a little more and want to investigate brand and/or product.

The first thing most do, is go on Google and do a search for a review or information on that product or brand.

Where do you think they end up at?  Typically, a blogger who has done the research and can provide help and advice to that searcher and provided you with a helpful website, which you found on Google.

It is a whole cycle that leads that person to potentially buying that product and both all 3 parties are happy.

  • The customer has the product they wanted, because they understood it thoroughly (thanks to the blogger)
  • The Company has made a sale
  • The Blogger (Affiliate Marketer) has helped the customer and made a commission on the sale.

The other factor for Companies, is the ease of being able to track affiliate marketing.  They allow you to sign up to an affiliate program, Amazon’s is called Amazon Associates.  You can get a unique ID that is embedded in a link.

When you share a product on Amazon, there is a digital signature in that link that says, “It was you, who introduced the buyer”.

So, all Amazon needs to do is track that link and the sale and pay you on a monthly basis.

It isn’t complicated at all, and again it is saving the company millions on advertising costs.

Let’s touch on how does this benefit an Affiliate Marketer?

Why Does This Benefit an Affiliate Marketer

Whilst affiliate marketing takes a lot of hard work to get up and running, once it is starting to earn you money it is a truly passive income.  You do not need to be there to monitor the sale, you do not need to deal with customer service if the product is faulty, etc.

All of this will be dealt with by the merchant.  You might write a thorough review on a product available on Amazon and that one article could be getting you regular sales, whilst you are working on something else.

So the benefits of this system are that you get to benefit from promoting products and getting a slice of the profits, without much hassle.

Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot of hard work involved to get to a truly passive income stream from affiliate marketing.

But as Amazon’s product range shows, you can literally choose an of your hobbies or interests and start a profitable online business.  You will be writing, and review stuff related to something you are already interested in, which is great.

You don’t have to pick something because you think it will work.  You will get bored and the opportunity will dry up.

The only way you will benefit from this model and make it work to be profitable is by picking a niche where you can truly say you are passionate about the subject matter.

It would be like me picking knitwear, I haven’t got a clue about it.  Did not enjoy it at school and I don’t think I could actually write an article about knitwear.  Why would I choose it?

I see affiliate marketers go for shiny objects like smart technology.  Smart tech is a big growing industry and more people are researching it and starting a niche website in it.  But whilst they see it as a profitable niche.  They have no idea about the tech, and it shows in their articles.

People are looking for help but are coming up against a brick wall when they reach their websites.

Yet, the affiliate marketers are wondering why they are not making any money.

Seriously, pick a niche where you could talk to someone all day about it and that is a great starting point…

Why is Affiliate Marketing a Great Starting Point for Beginners?

The main reasons I say this is because, it doesn’t involve any complicated systems.  You don’t need to be an expect in websites or coding, your can learn everything you need and regardless of your age, skill or knowledge of computers you can achieve great successes with it.

All you need is a willingness to learn and a drive to implement what you learn with clear expectations about timescales!

How Can you Get Started with Affiliate Marketing?

There are truly benefits to both the companies that choose to use Affiliate Marketing and the Affiliate Marketers Get Started with Affiliate Marketingthemselves.  All you need to ask yourself is, when are you going to get started.

If you think you have what it takes to get started with an Affiliate Marketing business, you can learn everything you need to know with a great training platform like Wealthy Affiliate.

But I would stress at this point, that this is not an easy road and it is not for everyone.  You will not start earning money straightaway from affiliate marketing and I mean it could take months to start to see a return on the time you have invested.

I know that is not what you probably want to hear.  But that is because you have probably been used to an hourly rate style pay system.  You complete an hour’s worth of work and get paid for an hour’s work.

But that is not how this works.  Having said that, you need to look at the earning potential differently.

All of the time and effort you put in at the early stages of the business will earn you money, but not straightaway.  Let’s us an example of a product review that you write for your niche website.

You will have spent time researching it, writing it and publishing it and you will have earned no money from it.

But, then a couple of months down the line it starts converting for you.  That one converting review will convert again, and again.  To a point where you are earning money on that review.

People are truly earning full-time income wages from affiliate marketing, but you need to play the waiting game.

If you are ready to start thinking like a business owner and putting in the time and effort now, then you will definitely see the results further down the line.

My advice at this point is do not play at it and get the right training and support.  There is a lot to factor in to ensure the foundations of your online business are right.  Our top recommended training program is Wealthy Affiliate.

Here is my Wealthy Affiliate Review, for you to check out and read.  But their training is the reason why Gem and I run an online business from home, and it can definitely help you out.

If you feel like you are ready to start your own affiliate marketing business, then you can always try their free starter membership.  No catch, and no credit card required.  You will gain access to 10 free lessons and 2 free websites and you can start to realise your affiliate marketing business.

Wealthy Affiliate Free Starter Membership

Thanks for checking out my guide on why do companies use affiliate marketing.  If you have any questions then please write them in the comments below.  Share your experiences or just say hello and we will get back to you as soon as we can.

All the best, John

Niche Profit Classroom Review – Does It Live Up To The Hype?

Niche Profit Classroom Review – Is Niche Profit Classroom a Scam?

Welcome to our Niche Profit Classroom Review!

Niche Profit Classroom claims to be an introductory course to get you started with affiliate marketing.  But with all the hype included in this program, I can totally understand why you might also be thinking it might be a scam. 

First off, it’s great to see that you’re doing your research before buying into any “seemingly good” product.

That is how you avoid scams and find only legitimate ways to make money online!

To be completely transparent with you, we’re not associated with Niche Profit Classroom in any form.  We’re not here to pitch or sell you anything.

Instead, we’re here to reveal to you what makes this training course so hyped up, and why I wouldn’t recommend it to you…

Read more

How to Earn Money Working from Home – Get Started Today!

How to Earn Money Working from Home – Get Started Today!

Have you been searching for ways to earn money working from home?  I bet you have found loads that are actually just jobs or ‘Get Rich Quick’ schemes that all turn out to be scams and you might be getting frustrated and getting to the point where you think it isn’t possible to earn any money working from home.

But I want to assure you there are genuine opportunities for you to earn money and it can actually be quite fun too.

The reason I say it can be fun is the fact that I will be showing you how you can start your own online business in a subject that you enjoy, with none of your own products.  Regardless of your experience or computer knowledge, you can start your own online business with Affiliate Marketing.

There are other ways to earn money working from home, but there are advantages to someone with little knowledge online to starting an affiliate marketing.  It can also mean you get to choose what you actually start your online business in.  Affiliate marketing is easy to get started, requires little money to get started and there is some awesome support and training on offer.

In this post, I will describe in detail what Affiliate Marketing is, how you can choose any niche (interest) you have and turn it into a profitable online business with Affiliate Marketing with awesome training and support too.

All you need to ensure it is successful is promise me two things:

Be prepared to invest a lot of time into your business and start thinking like an entrepreneur otherwise it often will end up in failure.

Why Most Fail at Affiliate Marketing?

The reason I say this is this is not a quick thing, you will not make money overnight or even within a couple of weeks with affiliate marketing.  There are people out there that are earning 6-figures out of an affiliate marketing business, but they all started in the same place – putting in a lot of time and effort and not getting anything in return straightaway.

So, if you are looking for a quicker way to earning money, then this is not it. 

But I would like to add that most products out there that claim to earn you quick money are scams, or you need a lot of money to invest in paid ads to make it work.

I presume, if you are here you are looking for a genuine opportunity to learn and earn online – Affiliate Marketing can offer that, but again know you will need to put the time and effort in and be realistic with the timescales.  I didn’t make anything for 6 months, if I had given up at month 5 – I would have said Affiliate Marketing didn’t work, when it was actually my expectations that were wrong.

So, if you are ready to invest in your future and earn the goals you have set, with realistic goals we can carry on with what exactly is affiliate marketing?

What Exactly is Affiliate Marketing?

The premise behind affiliate marketing is actually quite simple, it is the timescales that is the often reason why people are put off.

Affiliate Marketing is where you (an affiliate) promote a product or service and receive a commission if someone goes and buys it.

How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

It is a great way for companies to get their products promoted without having to spend millions of dollars in a marketing campaign.  It is the model that Amazon used when it first launched as just an online book store and they still use it today.  They would give their members a percentage of the price for introducing a new buyer of their books.

Now, when you think of how large Amazon is today and the different products they have on offer in their marketplace, you can start to understand the scope that affiliate marketing allows.

That is why this business model can be fun, as you can start affiliate marketing in any interest, hobby or passion you have as there will be both a customer and an affiliate program available for you to cater for.

Let me give you an example, to make it easier for us to continue.  Let’s say your hobby is golf. I know not everyone will be interested in golf, but the premise will work whatever your interests or hobbies are.

When I go onto Amazon and just type golf, there are 300,000 products that are available in that category on which we could promote via an affiliate marketing business just on Amazon.  That doesn’t include any other affiliate programs out there.  But you notice that I will start with Amazon, as a big factor to this business working is trust.  Amazon is trusted the world over, so it is a great starting place for affiliate marketers.

Golf Category - Amazon

But when starting out with an affiliate marketing business, the biggest obstacle we need to get over is getting trusted by the search engines, this takes time but there are things we can do to help, and the first thing is when you are picking a Niche is not start too broad.  The narrow you can get, the better you have of building up traffic and trust sooner.

Picking a Niche

SO, whilst Golf is the example we are using, Golf in general is way too broad.  So the next stage would be to narrow that down.  Let’s go back to the categories and seeing how we can narrow it down to find our niche and a target audience.

Let’s look into Golf Accessories, this opens up another set of categories in Amazon.

Golf Accessories

Now, when I think about if my Uncle is a keen golfer.  He takes it very seriously and researches heavily before investing in any new item for his golf.  That is something else you need to know about your target audience, ready for your new affiliate marketing business.

SO, now I have gone into Golf GPS Units on Amazon.  There are 303 items in this niche.  That is 303 items I can research on for creating content for a niche affiliate marketing website.

That is what you need to do.  Become the Authority in Golf GPS Units.  One you have become the authority in that niche, you will be making money via affiliate marketing.  It will also allow you to expand in other categories within Golf in general.

At this stage, you will have great traffic coming to your website to understand Golf GPS Units and as you have them regularly coming to your website to find out about these devices – think about this, you will have an audience is very engaged in Golf too.  So, at that point if you started branching out into other items in the broader golf accessory category, you can start offering help and advice in other products – such as Range Finders, Scorers, Shoe bag, etc.

That is the scale and the opportunity that a well-executed affiliate marketing business can achieve.

Will you achieve this overnight, no.  Will you achieve in this a month, no.  You need to plan for the long term.

Things to Consider with Affiliate Marketing

There are a few things to consider when starting out with affiliate marketing, and the most important one is that you need to help the reader and not sell to the reader.

Imagine if we started that Golf GPS Unit niche website and all we did was include 303 reviews of the 303 devices and that was all that was on the website? Then imagine if you landed on that site, and all the reviews were “buy this it is great?” “Don’t buy this one, buy this one instead”

Now imagine, that same website with helpful guides about picking the right Golf GPS Units, what to look out for, how to care for your devices, some interesting posts about golf in general and then some well-executed reviews with helpful insightful information about the devices including pros and cons about them…

Now, which website would you rather land on before making a purchasing decision?

That is the difference between helping people and not selling, you will convert a lot more when you are helping people come to a decision then selling them.

The Customer Purchase Lifecycle

Think about the last time when you searched for something online (when it was a product) were you in a position to make a purchase? Or were you just browsing.

Now, when we are in a store we are not always looking to buy.  Where would that be any different online?

You will have people reach your website at different points along the customer purchase lifecycle.  Some will just be researching, and some will be in a buying mood.  You need to have a collection of posts, videos, etc on your website to cater for whenever they are there.  That is how you build up an authority in your niche.  Once you have this, you will start building up your trust.  Once you have the trust, they will follow your advice more easily and that is when you start converting.

Is Affiliate Marketing Hard Work?

I will be totally honest with you, it can seem like hard work at times. But it is often because we lose sight of our goals because it hasn’t reached our targets yet.  That is often because we have unrealistic timescales.

A big factor is time with any online business, the more you can put into it the more we can do to achieve our goals.

If you can put 40 hours into a business a week, you would logically say that would be more successful than someone who can only put 10 hours in right?

But there are other factors to consider, if you are new, most of those 40 hours will be spent learning how to actually do some of the basics, whilst an experienced marketer like myself could get loads done in 10 hours.

Some will only have a couple of hours a week to invest, and this will mean that their expectations and timescales should move accordingly.

I am not telling you this to put you off, I am trying to give you insight into what you can expect if you decide to choose Affiliate Marketing.  I also want to tell you this, so you can also choose non-financial goals too.

If we solely focused on the money made with affiliate marketing, in the first year I would have said it was a failure and not worth doing.

But when we start to explore, the amount of skills I have learned through starting an affiliate marketing business and learning from our recommended training platform.  You can start to see actually, the first year was awesome.

I learned:

  • How to Build Website (a service I could offer to others)
  • Keyword Research (Essential for online business)
  • Affiliate Programs (how to help others with affiliate marketing and programs)
  • Search Engine Optimisation (How to be Google Friendly)
  • Social Media Marketing
  • Writing Content (a service I could offer out as a freelancer)

Those are just a few that you could learn along this journey, and as a freelancer you could make money whilst your website is building up that authority you need.

The golden nugget for that is when you are number one in Google for a keyword.  If you can get there, with the right converting posts you will be at a point where you can say you are making money from affiliate marketing and be able to work from home.

You just need the right training for affiliate marketing.

The Right Training and Support for Affiliate Marketing – Wealthy Affiliate

If you seriously want to be successful at affiliate marketing and reach your goal of how to earn from working from home, then you need to understand the first step is to get the right training.

First off, don’t think of it as going back to school.  Think of it as an investment of time into your future business.  The most successful affiliate marketers will tell you, that if you do not keep learning and adapting to the ever-changing playing field you are destined to fail.

I know affiliate marketers who have built $100k businesses and they still log in and follow the live training every week.

Some will disagree with me, but you need a website to build an affiliate marketing business.  Imagine putting all your hard work into one social media channel and then that social media channel goes through problems, or your target audience isn’t engaging into that social media channel.  You are stuck.  Go back to the golf example, I wouldn’t search social media for Golf GPS units, I would search on Google.

Google owns 2/3 of the search traffic, that is where you need to target.

Our recommended training platform offers valuable training in affiliate marketing and it also offers WordPress web hosting all in one platform.

Wealthy Affiliate is a comprehensive training platform for affiliate marketers, regardless of your experience or your computer knowledge – in the first ten lesson, you will have built your own WordPress website in your chosen niche, you will fully understand the potential behind affiliate marketing and how to start building up your traffic to make this a reality.

All of this is included in a free starter membership, there is a premium membership but for now, the free starter membership will give you a full insight into this awesome platform that Gem, and I used to build this website and Gem’s wedding stationary business.

Whatever your niche, whatever your time allowance is – if you follow this training and invest the time you will see that it can work for you too.

I will always be honest with you, and I would recommend you read my Wealthy Affiliate review just to understand fully what is available and the successes WA has brought for many of its members.

But if you want to explore the platform for free, check out the free starter membership and go through the ten free lessons.

You will surely see that this is a platform that cares for its members, you will even get coaching from the owners Kyle & Carson and if you decide to accept my invitation you will get personal coaching from me too.

Free Starter Membership with Wealthy Affiliate

Final Word

Affiliate Marketing is a great option when you want to build an online business in something that you are actually interested in… we chose golf as an example, but that same search could be done in healthcare, gym fitness, football, computer games, making money online, cooking, toys, jewellery, cars, etc.

You name it there is a target audience within a niche, that you could build an authority website in and enjoy the rewards.  Like I said, it is a slow burner.  But if you could be in the position where in a year’s time you have an authority website in a niche that is earning you a good return, and you continue to scale that business think where you could be in ten years’ time?

Affiliate Marketing is constantly growing, and the opportunities are bigger than you think…

But you need to invest in learning everything Wealthy Affiliate has to offer, and actually putting into practice everything they teach you.

Otherwise, you will fall into the high percentage of people who failed at affiliate marketing and claim it doesn’t work.

You can earn money working from home, but you need to commit to it. Set yourself daily, weekly and monthly goals and, borrowing a term from an affiliate friend HUSTLE!  Go and get it!

Thanks for reading my post.  If you have any questions or comments about, we have talked about, then please write them in the comments below and I will definitely come back to you as soon as.

Thanks, John

Be the Boss Network Review – Is it Full of Scams or Money Making Opportunities?

Be the Boss Network Review – Is it Full of Scams or Money Making Opportunities_

Welcome to our Be The Boss Network Review!

Have you been looking into ways to make money online and come across the Be the Boss Network?  I bet you are wondering whether it is any good and worth it, but maybe also wondering if it is full of scams.

First off, it’s great to see that you are doing your research before buying into any “seemingly good” product.

That is how you avoid scams and find only legitimate ways to make money online!

To be completely transparent with you, we’re not associated with Be the Boss Network in any form.  We’re not here to pitch or sell you anything.

In this review, I will be sharing with what we found – A multitude of MLM schemes and a number of scams too. But is there any worth to it? 

Find out more in this review…

Read more

Is it Possible to Make Money with Wealthy Affiliate? Yes!

Is it Possible to Make Money with Wealthy Affiliate_ Yes!

If you have been thinking of joining Wealthy Affiliate or have recently joined and still wonder how is it possible to make money with Wealthy Affiliate?  I am here to help you answer those questions… the Main purpose of becoming a Wealthy Affiliate member is to make money and their training is top notch, but how exactly do you make money???

In this post I will share with you the ways you can earn money from following their training and from outside sources.  But also, how you can actually make money within their platform too. (Yes, you can make money within WA too!)

I have been a member since 2016 and know my way around the platform really well, and in total there are 8 different ways to make money with Wealthy Affiliate.

Like I said there are 2 main ways to earn money from Wealthy Affiliate, within the platform and from following their training. We will be focusing on the external sources of income first.

Ways to Earn Money from Wealthy Affiliate’s Training

Their training is perfect for people first stepping out of their comfort zone and looking to earn money online.  Wealthy Affiliate TrainingThe training focuses on building up an online business foundation, giving you all the tips and experience that Kyle and Carson (the owners) have built up over the years.

You will not meet a nicer couple of guys who really focus on paying-it-forward.  The training is upfront and takes you step-by-step through the process needed to make a business that is built for the long run.

Going through building a website, creating content, building up traffic and ultimately monetising that website.  You are truly in great hands with Wealthy Affiliate’s training.

Let’s get back to how you will make money from this training.

Affiliate Programs

Affiliate Marketing is the primary focus and the way many WA members are earning money from following the training.

Affiliate programs are set up by companies who pay people commissions for promoting their products and making sales.

Most retailers are utilising this method as it is a much cheaper way to promote then multi-million-dollar advertising campaigns.  Amazon, the world’s largest marketplace actually uses an affiliate program and is a common partner to many affiliate marketers across the world.

How it Works – you promote a product available on amazon via a blog, someone visits your blog and decides to buy that product, they get taken to amazon and buy the product.  You have just earned commission.

Example – You create a health and fitness blog, and join an affiliate program like Webvitamins and promote a number of their products.  You could always join Amazon too and promote relevant products on your blog.  Any time someone completes a purchase, that is how you will be making your money.

There are literally tons of affiliate programs out there in any niche, meaning you can choose any of your interests or hobbies to earn from affiliate marketing.

As a rule of thumb, it is best to diversify your earning potential.  Don’t just stick with promoting one product from one affiliate program.  You want to ensure that if one product does disappear, you will not be affected as you will just rely on the other products whilst constantly looking for new opportunities.

  • Awesome for Beginners – Affiliate Marketing is a great way to get started in the online world, it is the starting point for many online marketers who can the progress into other ways of marketing.  It is low cost and simple to implement (with the right training).
  • Low Cost – You do not need a lot of money to get started with affiliate marketing, you can even get started for free with Wealthy Affiliate. WA will provide you with a free website and some free training to get going. You will need to invest some money at some point, but that is only to realise the potential of affiliate marketing.  Affiliate programs are typically free to join too.
  • The Premise is Simple – There is a lot of time and hard work to affiliate marketing, but it is a really simple premise to get your head around.  Promote other people’s products and earn money from it.  You just need the right training to ensure it works out for you

Advertising (Google Ads, MediaVine, Monumetric, etc.)

Once you are starting to get traffic through, you can start to see your affiliate marketing campaigns starting to take off.  It also gives you another opportunity to earn money through having ads on your website.

The usual starting point is Google Ads, but when you reach a certain traffic point you can start using better higher-paying options like MediaVine and Monumetric.

But Google Ads is popular as you don’t particularly need a high level of traffic to add it to your website.

With Google Adsense, they ask you to insert a code into your website header and the ads will be displayed automatically.

The key to success with affiliate marketing and ads is to not saturate your website with ads, otherwise your affiliate campaigns might get lost in the mix.  But this doesn’t mean ads aren’t good for your website.

The fact is, not everyone will visit your website and click on your affiliate links.  They might be having second thoughts or are not ready to make a purchase yet.  You can still earn from ads being on your website.  But again, if your blog is written well and is engaging your audience, you shouldn’t have to worry about ads distracting from your affiliate promotions.

CPA Offers

Cost Per Action offers are also an opportunity to monetise your website.  Whilst they are not going to earn you a high amount, they can still be quite lucrative.  Small amounts can easily mount up and CPA offers are something that you should consider once you have traffic coming to your website built with WA.

CPA offers pay you when someone completes an action, not necessarily needing to buy something.  They just need to complete an action, such as:

  • Sign up for an email list
  • Register an account
  • Sign up for a free trial
  • Use a comparison site

They are normally easy to monetise, as they are normally free for the people to do.  But they do not pay as much as affiliate marketing opportunities typically do.

Ecommerce

There isn’t as much focus on ecommerce within WA, but you can still find member created training on ways to do it.  If you have your own product or want to consider drop shipping, the training and the tools they offer are still relevant for you.

We used a lot of the training to launch Gem’s wedding stationary business which uses a combination of our own products, affiliate marketing and drop shipping all in one.

The website you create on the WA platform is run by WordPress, so all you would need to do install a plugin like Woocommerce, which again is covered in the training available on WA to allow you to sell products directly and process the payments.

Whilst most who join WA do not have products to sell and are more interested in affiliate marketing, we still get asked questions about whether you can, and the answer is always Yes!

You can definitely make good money using ecommerce, but there are complications with it in a way that you wouldn’t find with affiliate marketing.

The main is you are dealing with the customers direct, so you need to be great at customer service for a start.  Affiliate Marketing, they deal with the seller and not you.

Ways to Earn Money Within Wealthy Affiliate itself!

There are also ways to earn money within Wealthy Affiliate, and we will share these options below.

WA Affiliate Program

WA has an awesome affiliate program, which many members like the look of if you want to promote Wealthy Affiliate itself.

Whilst it is available to members straightaway, it is honestly better to wait and promote it once you have already found some success within another niche, purely as it will help you have some proof it works before promoting it.

But having said, that it is one of the best paying affiliate programs out there and even free starter members can benefit from it.

Any member will earn a recurring payment for every new member they introduce that goes premium.  If they stay premium, you will earn money each month they stay a premium member.  There is also a recurring payment if they go annual too.

Wealthy Affiliate Referral ProgramEven free starter membership can benefit from referring new members, whilst the commission rates are lower many use it to pay for their premium membership.  They also run an incentive program for those that achieve 300 premium referrals in a calendar year.  They fly you out to Las Vegas to meet with Kyle, Carson and other Super Affiliates to learn how you can better scale your business.

Earning Cash Credits & Affiliate Credits

Inside WA there are two types of credit, you can earn.  These are called Cash Credits & Affiliate Credits.  These come from actions taken from members inside WA, once they are already members.

Wealthy Affiliate Credit System

These credits can be redeemed for real money deposited into a PayPal account, or can be used for the benefit of your website. For example, you can use these credits to request comments, buy domains, get feedback, etc.  A recent change has also meant you can use these credits to pay for your premium membership with Wealthy Affiliate.

These are not just a currency within WA, each credit is worth $0.50 and can be cashed out for real cash.

Earn from Writing Comments

One of the best features of the website tools that WA provide is the Site Comments platform.  If you are unsure of how important comments are on your website, let me tell you that they are so important to help build trust with the search engines and your audience.  But a new website doesn’t have comments, and readers can be a little unsure of a blog without any interaction.

The site comments platform allows you to use these credits you earn to get high-quality comments from Wealthy Affiliate members.  This is a great way of using your credits, but it also an opportunity to earn money from giving comments.

Wealthy Affiliate Site Comments Platform

A change last year made it that once you had given 50 comments within a 30-day period, you started earning cash credits.  You already earn credits for giving out comments, but this was another way of earning money within WA.

Earn from Creating Training

Member created training is something that is encouraged within WA, as there are all types of people with experience in different elements and sharing that experience with a well-written training is rewarded with cash credit.

The core training is built by Kyle (the co-owner of WA) and Jay does a live training video every week, but the majority of the other training has been created by members of WA.

If you are experience in social media marketing, or wordpress you can create a relevant training video that will benefit other members and earn these cash credits.

Wealthy Affiliate Training Platform

You can add video tutorials, written guides, etc. and depending on the interaction with your training will determine how many credits you can earn.

Please note – you need to have been a Premium Member for 3 months to be able to create training.

Domain Registrations

Wealthy Affiliate is also a domain registrar, much like GoDaddy is. This means that you can buy domains (websites) directly through WA. There are a lot of benefits to hosting a website on WA’s servers.  You are getting a premium hosting service included in your membership, which would normally cost about $250/month.

The cash credits come in useful as you can use these to buy your domains and renew your domains.

But you also earn whenever one of your referrals buys a domain.  You will earn 2 cash credits for this, valued at a $1.

There is not much you can do to earn this, but whenever your referrals do buy a domain, you will earn from this.  This way of earning goes along nicely with the WA Affiliate Program.

Account Setup Credits

Whenever you introduce a new member to WA, there is a step that makes sure they are a real person.  This is a stage where you add an image and create a description for your WA profile.

When they complete this step, you again earn 2 cash credits, valued at a $1.

This stage is all about making sure they are happy interacted with the platform and will definitely receive more support from us within WA.

Kyle & Carson are always looking at ways to improve the platform, and like the change with the Site Comments platform there may become other ways to earn money through WA in the future.

Making Money within the Platform vs Off the Platform

Let’s just clarify the ways you can earn from Wealthy Affiliate.

Here are the ways you can earn within WA:

  • WA Affiliate Program
  • Creating Training
  • Writing Comments
  • Domain Registration
  • Account Setup

Here are the ways you can earn from going through their training:

  • Other Affiliate Programs
  • Advertising (Google Ads, etc.)
  • CPA Offers
  • Ecommerce

What is the Best Way to Earn?

So, at this point you might be thinking which is the best way to earn online?  Which path should you be focusing on?  My advice would be to focus on Affiliate Marketing first.  Most affiliates, including us are earning most of our money from affiliate marketing.

Without traffic, you will not earn anything from ads or CPA offers.

Affiliate Marketing will help you gain the traffic to earn from these additional sources of income.

The main focus of the training at Wealthy Affiliate is on Affiliate Marketing and ads, so you are in a prime place to be able to earn well from these 2 sources in the future.

Another key point of affiliate marketing is the fact that this is an easier path to explore than other forms of marketing and are a really good source of income too.

Pro Tips to Earn with Wealthy Affiliate!

I also want to share with you 3 tips to ensure you do earn from Wealthy Affiliate:

No.1 – Avoid the Shiny Objects and Stick to the Training!  The training is set out in the perfect way to get you started on the right foot.  If you gloss over things or miss something out you will feel the pain from it.  It is so easy to try something that isn’t in the training because you think it will speed up the process, but it ends up being a waste of your time.

Follow the training to the letter!

No.2 – Choose a Niche You Actually Like: If you focus solely on earning money, you will normally find that it doesn’t end up working. Choosing a niche that you actually like will pay dividends in the long run.

If you go and choose a niche, solely because you think it is lucrative means you can end up being burned out and bored of the subject before you even make any money with it.

I have made this mistake and ran out of stuff to write about and wasn’t inclined to write anymore.  This meant I had to start again from scratch.

No.3 Patience is So Important! You have to be so patient for this to work.  Affiliate Marketing is an awesome way to earn money from something that you love, but it will not be a quick thing.

There is no other way around it, Wealthy Affiliates offers great training to achieve success with Affiliate Marketing, but do not expect it to pay back after a couple of weeks.

The concept of earning from an online business is different to a normal job.  In a normal job you complete an hour work and get paid for that hour’s work.  An entrepreneur will work for no return, but in the long run it will pay back 10x.  A single article could and does earn affiliate marketer’s money for years.  But it takes time to get to that stage.

If you would like to learn more about Wealthy Affiliate, you check out my full Wealthy Affiliate Review.

If you feel you are ready to join Wealthy Affiliate, create your free starter membership account here (no credit card required).

Free Starter Membership with Wealthy Affiliate

If you have any questions or comments, then please write them below and I will get back to you as soon as I can.  All the best, John

Yoonla Review – Scam or Can You Really Make Money?

Yoonla Review

Welcome to our Yoonla Review!

Yoonla is promoted as a mostly “done for you” way to make money online, but is it really a way to make money online or is it a scam?  In my Yoonla review, we will delve into this training platform and share all the details we found out.

First off, it’s great to see that you’re doing your research before buying into any “seemingly good” product.

That is how you avoid scams and find only legitimate ways to make money online!

I must stress at this point, I am not an affiliate of Yoonla, and my review is unbiased. I want to ensure you see both sides of Yoonla, to help you make a decision going forward.

So, Is Yoonla a Scam?

Let’s get into the details and find out…

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How Can I Do Affiliate Marketing? With Help & Support!

How Can I Do Affiliate Marketing_ With Help & Support!

A question that often comes up when people are first researching into starting affiliate marketing, is “How Can I Do Affiliate Marketing?” Many new affiliate marketers end up failing and it is down to a number of factors, including not getting the right training and support from the start.

Gem and I want to help you get started with affiliate marketing, help keep you motivated during the hard work needed to make it successful and ensure you get the best training that there is to become an authority on affiliate marketing.

Let us start by ensuring you understand what Affiliate Marketing is and how it works.  We will also share with you what to look out for to avoid scams out there that are disguised as affiliate marketing.

What is Affiliate Marketing? & How to Spot the Scams!

There are tons of programs out there that claim they are affiliate marketing, but really, they are MLM schemes designed to just keep getting you to spend more money so the owners are the ones that benefit.

Affiliate Marketing is a very simple premise – you create a blog on a chosen niche.  You sign up with an affiliate program such as Amazon and promote products in your given niche.  If someone follows your suggestion and follows your affiliate link to go to Amazon and makes a purchase, you have just earned a commission.

It doesn’t have to be any more complicated than that.  See the graphic below:

How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

If you have been checking out any other programs stating that they are offering you a ‘Done for You’ way to succeed at Affiliate Marketing, it is typically a scam and will not benefit you.

Why I say that is down to them normally employing duplicate content – which will never work out for you.

Do your research and you will definitely only find genuine products out there.

How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

SO, we know that affiliate marketing works by promoting products that include your affiliate link and if someone buys it you earn a commission.  It sounds simple, but why do many affiliate marketers fail.

That is because of one thing – a Lack of Patience.

Whenever you search the internet for ways to make money online, you will always find people stating they earned thousands overnight or a system that will earn you money on autopilot.

So, it is natural to assume that you can earn money quickly.  But they are all lies!

I know, you might be thinking that is a strong statement John!

But it is true.  Affiliate Marketing is not a quick way of earning money online, you cannot just spend 20 minutes a day on it and hope for it to earn you money straightaway.

So to go back and answer the question “Can I Do Affiliate Marketing?”:

Yes, but you need to understand you will need to invest time and effort into this business model to make it work! You cannot play at this!

Yes, but you will not be earning money from it straightaway!

Yes, but you need to follow the right strategies!

You Need to Commit to Achieving this.

I didn’t earn anything from affiliate marketing for 6-months.  I could have walked away after 5 months and thought affiliate marketing doesn’t work.

That is why there are so many people who fail at Affiliate Marketing, because they walked away after 3 months.  They kept the employee mindset, that I have worked for an hour – I should get paid for an hour’s work.

It doesn’t work like this.  That post that I earned my first commission from was a post that was 5 months old.  It had crept up the google rankings and is a post that is still earning me commission now.  That is the true meaning of affiliate marketing being a passive income.

How to Become Successful at Affiliate Marketing!

There are two things that you need to get your head around to be successful with affiliate marketing, other than the few above.

The Entrepreneur Mindset

Affiliate Marketing is a business model, it isn’t like completing surveys online and earning a few quid.  You can earn some serious money with affiliate marketing if you do it right.

The first thing is becoming an entrepreneur.  Living and breathing your business until it starts earning you money, and then scaling it so it grows, and you can start hiring writers for your business.

Understanding that you will not earn an hourly rate from this business model but understanding that this is all about the long game.

When I first started, I had a full-time job and a family to consider too.  So, my spare time was limited.  I needed to be practical in my planning and ensuring that the hour I put away into my business I spent it well.  Whether that be learning a specific element, researching a product to review or writing an article.  I needed to be productive.

That is what I mean, those are all traits of a successful entrepreneur who becomes a successful affiliate marketer!

Learning the Right Way

Something I have noticed about successful affiliate marketers is that they are constantly keeping themselves up-to-date with their niche, affiliate marketing, etc.

They are constantly learning.  I myself, regularly check out webinars in Wealthy Affiliate to see if there is something I can learn and often I can.  There may be a small detail that could help rankings or help conversions that I hadn’t considered or tried.  You need to constantly learn.

If you are just starting out with Affiliate Marketing or are struggling to get it working for you, it might be because the training or advice you have been given was incorrect.

I would like to recommend you check out our recommended training platform for Affiliate Marketing, Wealthy Affiliate.  Their training is designed for anyone, of any skill level to build an affiliate marketing business.

You will benefit from the training into exploring the right niche for you, building your own website within the platform, getting it ranked within the search engines, building traffic and writing content that converts.

This the same platform that I have used for almost 3 years now, and I would not be where I am today, without their training and help and support that comes with it.

Kyle and Carson are the co-founders and owners of Wealthy Affiliate.  They have poured so much time and effort into making this the best platform it can be, they also offer their help and advice to new affiliate marketers to ensure they get started with a business that will mean, you can start saying “I Can Do Affiliate Marketing

Let’s Get You Expert Help & Support

Another feature I love with Wealthy Affiliate, other than the training and the website tools is the community you become a part of.

Imagine being part of a community that is over 1 million users in size, where you gain access to chat with other affiliateCommunity of Like Minded Peoplemarketers who can help answer your questions at any time of the day.  You also get a personal coach, if you follow my invitation to Wealthy Affiliate that would be Me.  Anytime you feel like you need a motivation pep talk, the community and me will be there to help you.

Not sure of what niche to choose, ask me.

Not sure how you could improve your website, ask me.

That is the help and support you get within Wealthy Affiliate, and I would not have been able to say Affiliate Marketing worked with it.

Kyle and Carson are very keen that anyone who checks them out can do it without any pressure, and it is a great mentality to have.  So, here you will find a link to my Wealthy Affiliate review, so you can check out more detail.  But if you want to check them out yourselves, here is a link to get you started with a free starter membership (no credit card required). Explore the platform and see what you think.

Final Conclusion

The main reason why people fail at affiliate marketing is purely down to a lack of patience or following the wrong training.  They give up too soon, or they are not entirely sure how to get started and that is why we fully endorse Wealthy Affiliate if you are looking for a training platform that has everything you need, including expert help and support, for getting started with affiliate marketing.

Then you will be able to say, “I Can Do Affiliate Marketing!”.

Thanks for reading our post, if you have any questions or comments to add please put them below.  We will come back to you as soon as we can.  Thanks John & Gem

The Super Affiliate Network Review: Something Doesn’t Add Up?

The Super Affiliate Network Review_ Something Doesn’t Add Up_

Welcome to our Super Affiliate Network Review!

There has been quite a bit of hype around the Super Affiliate Network by Misha Wilson.  I wanted to understand if the hype was worthwhile and is this training platform any good.

First off, it’s great to see that you’re doing your own research before buying into any “seemingly good” product.

That’s how you avoid scams and find only legitimate ways of making money online!

To be completely transparent with you, we’re not associated with the Super Affiliate Network in any form.  We’re not here to pitch or sell you anything.

Instead, I’ll be sharing with you what I’ve learned from researching this platform, are they completely honest with you upfront?  Is Super Affiliate Network worth your money to get this training?

Let’s get started with a quick product overview…

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What is Digital Altitude – Is Digital Altitude a Scam? YES

What is Digital Altitude – Is Digital Altitude a Scam_ YES

Welcome to our Digital Altitude Review!

Quick Update:

As of 29 Jan 2018, Digital Altitude has officially been shut down by the FTC because it has been confirmed to be an illegal pyramid scheme.

Digital Altitude is just using digital marketing products as a disguise to lure innocent people into the system and recruit more and more people.  Not only that, members were required to pay for a series of tiered memberships that had increasing fees.

If you want more information, read the official press release by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Check out our Top Recommended Program to make Honest Money Online!

Is Digital Altitude a Pyramid Scheme?  It’s a common question being asked about Digital Altitude, so we wrote this review to get your the answers you need…

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Digital Experts Academy Review – Is Digital Experts Academy a Scam?

Welcome to our Digital Experts Academy Review!

Is Digital Experts Academy a Scam?  Is it full of training material and will make you an instant success?  We will be answering all of your questions within this Digital Experts Academy review.

Is it really worth the high price tag, or are there better alternatives out there…?

First off, I must congratulate you on doing your research, as that is the best way of avoiding scams and finding genuine ways to make money online.  I am not affiliated with Digital Experts Academy in any way, I just want to help people with my review.

Let’s crack on with the review so you can learn more about the Digital Experts Academy.

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