Even if you love your job, the real dream is money for nothing, right? Here’s how you can earn a passive income through affiliate marketing.

To affiliate with someone or something is to attach or connect yourself with them/it. You affiliate yourself by being seen with someone or using something, or simply announcing your involvement. So, you may be able to work out from this definition what affiliate marketing is. If not, let us explain what it is, how it works, and how you can begin your own affiliate marketing journey.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

According to Neil Patel, “affiliate marketing can be seen as the process of spreading product creation and product marketing across different parties, where each party receives a share of the revenue according to their contribution.”

A marketer in this situation could be an individual person or a giant company. Equally, the product creator or vendor could be an independent creator or a huge conglomerate.

A common example of this form of marketing is in blogging. Bloggers will write a review of a product on their blog. They could either have a deal with the vendor, or have generated an affiliate link themselves, directing people to the product. Writing an article making this product seem attractive will bring in new customers for the vendor.

The product is made more attractive to these customers as they will be offered a discount if they purchase via the blog article. Should this occur, the blogger (marketer, in this scenario) will also get a percentage of the sale. This is how the passive income is generated for the marketer.

Affiliate links can also be created for the marketer and shared by them, following an agreement with the vendor. Subscription-based products lend themselves nicely to being marketed this way. The marketer could be using the product, within YouTube video for instance, and then include their affiliate link in the video description. This means for any subscriptions generated by this link, a share of revenue will go to the marketer.

Not all affiliates make it known to consumers that they are part of an affiliate programme. There are no real rules around this, it all comes down to the marketer’s discretion.

How to Become an Affiliate Marketer

Firstly, becoming a presence in your chosen area online is important. Reviewing and discussing products related to your brand will give you a strong platform to begin your marketing endeavours. Reviewing and then marketing products you actually use and find helpful will work better for you in the long run. Authenticity pays, and people can always sniff out insincerity.

Building up a consistent following will mean you have people to market to when you’re starting out. There are a few ways you can increase views and gain subscribers on YouTube, if you’re planning on marketing from there.

In most cases, you can head to the website of a vendor and generate an affiliate link or code from there, which you can share with your audience.

The key to generating a decent income from affiliate marketing comes from how big your audience is, and how many people you reach. Once lots of people regularly see your reviews, the amount of people clicking your links or buying the products is likely to increase. If you become an authority in your area, you may find that vendors begin to approach you asking you to review their product!

Synchedin Affiliate Programme

At Synchedin, we believe sharing is caring. Do you want to help out your fellow creators, whilst earning some easy money in the process?

All you need to do is provide your Synchedin affiliate link to your fellow content creators!

They will receive a 10% discount on their monthly or annual subscription, and you will receive a 10% revenue share. That means for every annual subscription you refer with your affiliate link, you will receive $4.99.

Check out how to get this set up in more detail here.