I often find myself explaining what affiliate marketing is to other people. It’s incredible how such a profitable thing is still unknown to most.

The concept is very simple. You ask brands to collaborate, and they provide you with affiliate links. These links are tracked, and you can add them on your blog, social media, websites and more. With these links, you can promote the brand’s products or services. Then, when people click on your links and purchase something, you earn a commission. Easy, right?!

In short, you get paid for sending traffic to these brands and earn when people buy their products.

No, you don’t necessarily need a blog to earn from affiliate marketing. However, you do need an online presence.

Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook are all good places to share your affiliate links. As long as you have an audience, and you create posts that inspire the people who follow you to click on them, you’re good to go. Many content creators successfully used YouTube to earn from affiliates; simply add the links in the description! 

It doesn’t matter whether you have a website or not. You can totally make money with affiliate marketing without a blog. As always, what counts is your ability to create trust with potential buyers, and drive them to click on those links!  

One of the most common errors I see people doing is adding trying to be active on so many platforms and not being able to manage them. You’ll never generate income if you are on EVERY social media platform. And it’s going to take all your time!

Just choose one or two, put your effort into increasing your followers and engagement, and you’ll definitely see the results.

If your goal is to earn while travelling and support your adventures, then you should definitely consider affiliate marketing. It is a great way to generate passive income – in fact, passive sales work 24/7, and the only thing you have to do is post it once (either on your blog or social media page)!

Not only it is a great stream of income, but it also creates a win-win situation for you, the brands, and the potential customers. For the brand, it is a great way to increase people’s interest in their products, and it is actually cheaper for them to pay you a commission for each sale rather than paying for an advertisement.

Secondly, it’s good for your audience, too: in fact, you are most likely to review and suggest products or services to people interested in your niche, which are probably looking to buy that specific product!

Ok, everything looks great, but by now you’re probably wondering: is it really worth it?

Well, if you are reading this, you’re most likely looking for a way to earn money from the road. And you don’t need to trust me to tell you that affiliate marketing can generate a significant income: in fact, let’s talk about statistics.

At a beginner level, statistics show that the average income is about $300 per day. At an intermediate level, you can earn up to $3.000 and, if you’re a high-level affiliate, you could see an income of over $3.000 PER DAY. Of course, it’s not like you’re going to post all the affiliate links on your blog today, and you’re going to wake up tomorrow with $300 in your bank account. But, if you’re willing to put your effort in it, you must know that it is totally possible to earn lots of money from affiliate marketing. It’s also low-cost, low risk, and you only need a website or a social media page to get started!

First, you must choose your niche. This must be something you’re interested in and informed about – people will see if you don’t like what you’re talking about, and they will lose interest soon!

The second step is to choose a platform. This can be a blog, a website, or a social media platform (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube all work). If you’re unsure about what platform to choose, think about your potential audience: what is your niche? What age are the people who are interested in that topic? What platform do they use most? Choose the one your potential customers are more likely to use, and go for it!

Mind that most affiliates require you to have disclosure notice to let customers know that you’re using affiliate links on that page. Something like this will work just fine.

Finally, the third step is finding affiliate programs to join. There are two choices here: high-paying, low-volume affiliate programs (which will pay a lot of money for products sold mostly by small business owners – therefore, more difficult to sell), and low-paying, high-volume affiliate programs (which pay a lower percentage, but are more recognised brands – therefore, easier to sell).

Let’s make some examples: Amazon’s affiliate program pays up to 10% commission on almost everything sold on the platform. That’s great because so many people shop from Amazon, and it can be easily adapted to your brand. Booking.com, for example, pays a commission of up to 25% to its affiliates, making it perfect for travel bloggers/influencers! There are SO MANY brands you could partner with – just think about your niche, and find out if the brands you like have an affiliate program you could join!

Many websites like CJ offer you the possibility to create an account and subscribe to several brands’ affiliate programs all at once. It’s a great way to keep track of your earnings and requested partnerships.

So, let’s say you’ve chosen your niche, decided on which platform you want to post your affiliate links and joined some affiliate programs. How can you ever succeed and actually make money with affiliate marketing?

Well, the answer is quite simple. You need to drive traffic to your page, and to do that, you need to create great content. Randomly dropping an affiliate link of an Amazon’s best seller will bring you nowhere. Try to understand what your audience is interested about, and try to solve their issue by answering their questions. This technique is often used by some of the top influencers, and it really makes a difference. In fact, we’ve seen an increase in our blog’s visitors and engagement when we narrowed down our niche and started to write articles about what people ask – and give them an answer!

You must be able to create trust between yourself and potential buyers, that will lead them to buy the products you’re promoting and generate income.

However, remember that you MUST BE REAL. If you’re reviewing a product you hated, and you talk about how much you loved it, you’ll lose your followers’ trust. And that’s the last thing you want!

Once you know what your audience is interested about, and have started to create amazing content, you need to optimize your page. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is crucial to drive traffic to your blog/social media page. In fact, thanks to target keywords, you can rank higher in search engines and generate passive traffic. But more on that in the next blog post.

One of the most important things to do when posting affiliate links, is to include a Call To Action (CTA). This will inevitably attract your readers’ attention, and generate more sales. Buttons, boxes and bright colours all work!

Let’s be honest. Affiliate marketing will not change your life overnight. It requires time and effort, and you must put your hard work in it.

Start from small steps, and slowly move to the next, growing your audience and keeping your income increasing.

If you’re still wondering whether affiliate marketing is worth it, the answer is: it’s definitely possible to earn a considerable passive income if you’re willing to put in the work!

Have more questions? Contact us at contact@kikkasvoyage.com, or drop us a message on Instagram!