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Marketing your online store with affiliates is a smart and savvy way to promote your store without having to make a big up front investment.
What is an affiliate program?
An affiliate program is an automated marketing program where bloggers and webmasters place a merchant's advertisements on their own website. A merchant who starts an affiliate program recruits website owners and bloggers to be their affiliates. The website owners and bloggers then feature affiliate links and banner advertisements on their website to be viewed by their visitors.
How does an affiliate program work?
When visitors click affiliate banners and links on a website they will be redirected to the merchant's website. If a visitor makes a purchase from the merchant after clicking an affiliate link, the affiliate will receive a commission from the merchant. This is tracked by the marketing system by giving each affiliate a unique link to feature on their website.
How do affiliates make money?
Affiliates are paid a commission from a merchant each time a visitor clicks their affiliate link and makes a purchase. Commissions for physical products are usually set between 3% and 20% and commissions for digital products can go as high as 50%.
What is a cookie period?
After an affiliate link is clicked, the affiliate can make commission for a period of time after. This is called the cookie period. For example, if a merchant's cookie period is 60 days then an affiliate can make a commission as long as a sale is made within 60 days from when a visitor clicked their unique link. Most cookie periods are 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, or 120 days but it can be whatever period of time is set by the merchant.
Can your customers join your affiliate program?
Yes! In fact, this is a really smart idea. Your customers already love your products, why not let them share an affiliate link with their Facebook friends so they can make some money (to hopefully spend in your store!) and help drive more traffic and sales to your shop! It's a win-win!
How do affiliate programs benefit bloggers?
Affiliate links can be used by any website owner but are known to regularly be used by bloggers. Bloggers use affiliate links to make money from their content. How to monetize a blog professionally is to choose affiliates in the same niche as the blog content. For example, a fashion blogger would feature affiliate links for clothing brands while an interior design blogger would feature affiliate links for furniture.
How does an affiliate program benefit a merchant?
Affiliates are a great way for a shop owner to get their name out there. The plus to affiliate marketing is that there is no up front cost and a commission is only paid when a sale is made. Merchants can recruit bloggers they desire to work with to target their ideal audience. Affiliate sales are a great way to market products in more places and make sales that otherwise wouldn't have been made.
How To Start Your Own Affiliate Program
This marketing strategy is a great way to find new customers and increase sales. I recommend using LeadDyno for creating your own affiliate program. LeadDyno integrates with most popular e-commerce platforms including Shopify, Big Commerce, Squarespace, Woo Commerce, and Wordpress.
The best part? You can start a free trial to test out the program and start working with affiliates right away.