Ask Melvin Ng

Affiliate marketing means referring business to others by getting prospect to visit their sites. If the prospects buy products from the merchant, the merchant will usually pay you a commission for the sales referred by you.

Most affiliate merchants will pay around 40%-75% for digital products and 5%-30% for physical products. Most affiliate programs are free to join and will provide you with an affiliate link and a tracking device (cookie).

When you insert links like this within your writings, you can lead prospects to affiliate websites and the merchant will do all the rest. You don’t even need to service the customer because it is all handled by the merchant’s customer support.

There is a higher chance of making money using affiliate links when the target market you are marketing to is closely related to the product the merchant you are selling.

Here is an example of writing and using affiliate links:

“Sales and Marketing is getting more and more competitive. According to Mike Dillard of Magnetic Sponsoring, you can learn from him about better marketing techniques on how to attract customers to your doorstep instead of hunting them down like a hunter.”

You don’t always need to hard sell affiliate products. If you position yourself as an expert and talk to others all about a topic that educates them and gives them useful information, they will naturally click on the links in the recommended resources page and sign up for any affiliate programs you recommend.

They will listen to what you have to say because they trust your advice. It is just like doctors. When we go and see doctors, they will recommend medicine from pharmacies. Normally people take the doctor’s advice and buy whatever they recommend without thinking twice. (At a worst case scenario, they will just go and look for some other doctor for a second opinion).

You can also place ads at the end of the page (or after the title page).

By placing an ad strategically, you can maximize the chances of someone clicking on an affiliate link (out of curiosity or to check out on related products).