There is tons of content online about affiliate marketing and how easy it is to make money. But what is it, and can it become a source of passive income? Affiliate marketing is a simple source of passive income; however, you need to build and maintain an audience to succeed at affiliate marketing.
What is affiliate marketing? Affiliate marketing is when a creator markets someone else’s products and receives a commission when a consumer purchases the product. Essentially, you are selling someone else’s product.
Don’t confuse affiliate marketing with sponsorship—they are very different. Sponsorship is when a company pays the creator up front to create advertising for display on the creator’s platform. The company may have final review authority over the advertisement.
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A creator creates the content for affiliate marketing, all on their own. Most affiliate marketing is through a link that takes the consumer to a website, Amazon, or a lead page. It depends on how expensive the product the creator is trying to sell. If they are marketing a $600 online course, the consumer probably wants to read and engage more than buying a $10 book.
How do you get started with affiliate marketing? When you read or watch content online about affiliate marketing, they list it as a passive income source. And yes, it is. However, building an audience is anything but passive—and you will need a rather large audience.
Everything about affiliate marketing leads back to creating a sales funnel. One of the best books I have read about creating a sales funnel is actually about being a real estate agent. The book is titled “Sold.” Once you understand the concept of a sales funnel, you can start tailoring content to lead the consumer to purchase.
Briefly, the idea of a sales funnel is to convert a stranger, to an audience member, to a consumer. All these take time to achieve, and the conversion rate decreases as people travel down the funnel. Let’s say 1% of your audience will buy something from your links.
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At 1%, which is pretty standard, you will need a nice-sized audience to make a living via affiliate marketing. As I wrote yesterday in “Review Books for Passive Income” and earlier in “Create an eBook Series for Passive Income,” I use a three-pronged approach to make money from my writing.
I use google ads on my blog, Kindle sales and page reads (via Kindle Unlimited members), and affiliate marketing to bring in cash passively. The process is starting to work rather nicely, especially after only being at it for eight months. I can see the power I will wield in 2-3 years.
What products do I market via affiliate links? I mainly review books and serve an affiliate link for those interested in buying the book. I also use Grammarly every day, so I have become an affiliate for them. It is best to link to products that you use and trust.
When building an audience that knows, likes, and trusts you, ensure you uphold their trust in your highest regard. Do not sell to the bottom dollar. Once you burn someone with a cheap product or service, they will not trust you, and they may leave your audience.
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Remember, the book “Superfans” tells us that we only need 1,000 superfans to make a great source of passive income. Everything I do for my writing career is with the complete understanding that it is a passive income stream. I am not trying to be the next Steven King.
I have a weekly magazine called “Financial Independence Magazine” with about 30-35 weekly viewers. My goal is to keep publishing this magazine until the end of time. Over this time, my audience will grow. I’ll keep adding affiliate links to my reviews and other products that I regularly use, like my Kindle Oasis and my favorite Chromebook.
These are products that I use every day, along with software products such as Grammarly and Pixlr (for building book covers and stock photos). My dream is to make a nice passive income stream from writing.
I also envision being on the beach with the lightest Chromebook available, making money from my beach chair. I built my entire writing career on this vision of the future. My small audience knows that this is my goal, so showing them what products I am using may assist them.
Start building your audience? Don’t get ahead of yourself yet—you’ll need to build your audience first. I recommend doing whatever your medium is every day for at least a year. The grind for passive income is real and the reason why most people never start.
For example, if you are writing a blog, publish something every day. If you are doing YouTube videos, post a short video every day. If you review books, read books every day, and publish reviews every 2-3 days.
When building an audience, the best way to build trust is to have a ton of content. You’ll also speed along the process of becoming better at your medium as well. They say it takes 10,000 hours to become a master at whatever you are trying to do, so you may as well put the hours in early.
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I published the first edition of Financial Independence Magazine on January 7, 2021. I just released the latest magazine, which is Financial Independence Magazine #35, on August 7th, 2021. You do the math. Each magazine has ten articles, so that is 350 articles in eight months. Plus, I have been creating side content along the way.
I have become a lot better at designing article cover art and book cover art, along with writing better as well. Now, I am starting to see more people come to my blog, buy through my affiliate links, and pick up copies of my books. My plan is coming to fruition, but I still have to keep on the grind.
Is affiliate marketing an effective source of passive income? Yes, it is part of creating an automated business. With 550 blog posts, 58 book reviews, and 155 books published, I could sit back and advertise these products for the next five years. All it takes is for one to hit it big.
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But, where’s the fun in that? What if I have 2,000 blog posts, 200 book reviews, and 1,000 books published? I have no end goal because I do not plan on stopping. That is the kind of dedication it will take to become a successful blogger, YouTuber, or music person. Your affiliate sales depend on how well you can do at your primary medium.
Conclusion. Affiliate marketing is the real deal, but you need to build and maintain an audience. You need people who know, like, and trust you, and you need to keep their trust by only recommending products you know, like, and trust.
The passive income grind is real, and everyone should be aware that you will need to commit to passive income 200%. You’ll have to become a passive income hero by night. You need to learn the process and become very good at it. We do not need to become perfectionists, but we need to get content out to our audience at an incredible speed. The book “The Practice” helped me ship my creative work on time.
That’s it for me, on the subject of affiliate marketing. I love affiliate marketing because you can pass along products, courses, and books that have helped you on your journey. Many people want to get out of their 9-5 earned income jobs but need to find a way out. You can create value by sharing your story—with affiliate links. Adding value is what entrepreneurs do best!
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Disclosure: I am not a financial advisor or money manager, and any knowledge is given as guidance and not direct actionable investment advice. I am an Amazon Affiliate. Please research any investment vehicles that are being considered. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
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