Last month in Part 1 we looked at how many of us have already acted as Affiliate Marketers although unknowingly and without being paid for it. We also looked at how Affiliate Marketing as a profession enables the affiliate to earn a commission for marketing another person’s or company’s products. The affiliate simply searches for a product they enjoy, then promotes that product and earns a piece of the profit from each sale they make.
This month in Part 2 we consider How Do Affiliate Marketers Get Paid?
Depending on the affiliate program, the consumer doesn’t always need to buy a product for the affiliate to receive a commission, and some programmes even pay affiliates more than the consumer paid for their product/service in the interest of repeat sales, so the seller will determine how the affiliate gets paid from a number of ways:
1. Pay per sale.
This is the standard affiliate marketing structure. In this program, the seller pays the affiliate a percentage of the sale price of the product after the consumer purchases the product as a result of the affiliate’s marketing strategies. In other words, the affiliate must actually get the buyer/investor to buy/invest in the product before they are compensated.
2. Pay per lead.
A more complex system, pay per lead affiliate programs compensates the affiliate based on the conversion of leads. The affiliate must persuade the consumer to visit the seller’s website and complete the desired action — whether it’s filling out a contact form, signing up for a trial of a product, subscribing to a newsletter, or downloading software or files.
3. Pay per click.
This program focuses on incentivizing the affiliate to redirect consumers from their marketing platform to the seller’s website. This means the affiliate must engage the consumer to the extent that they will move from the affiliate’s site to the seller’s site. The affiliate is paid based on the increase in web traffic on the seller’s site.
Why Be an Affiliate Marketer?
So, what are the reasons to become an affiliate marketer?
Coming from a rural area there’s an interesting saying here; “A farmer’s work is a good one, it carries on when he sleeps”
There is effort for a farmer in preparing the ground, and outlay in buying the right seed, but once the seed is in the ground, it grows and develops without the farmer, even while he sleeps. In other words, there is a start up effort, but the growth is passive 24/7 thereafter until the harvest.
Likewise with Affiliate Marketing, there is a start up effort, but thereafter growth is passive with the automated system working 24/7 for you. In fact our experience with people from around the world accessing our system is most of our growth/sales have occurred while we’ve been sleeping.
Ruth & Stephen’s Dad harvesting potatoes
In summary, these are some of the key reasons why we recommend the Affiliate model:
1. Passive income.
While any “regular” job requires you to be at work to make money, affiliate marketing offers you the ability to make money while you sleep. By investing an initial amount of time and money into a campaign, you will see continuous returns on that investment as consumers purchase the product over the following days and weeks. You receive money for your work long after you’ve finished it. Even when you’re not in front of your computer, your marketing skills will be earning you a steady flow of income.
2. No customer support outlay.
Individual sellers and companies offering products or services have to deal with their consumers and ensure they are satisfied with what they have purchased. In the UK, we have the Competition & Marketing Authority to regulate this, and you’ll have a similar body in your country.
However, thanks to the affiliate marketing structure, you’ll never have to be directly concerned with customer support or customer satisfaction. The entire job of the affiliate marketer is to link the seller with the consumer. The seller then deals with any consumer queries, support questions or returns after you receive your commission from the sale.
3. Choose where you work from.
If you’re someone who sees commuting to the office as tiring unproductive time and cost, then affiliate marketing is the perfect solution. You’ll be able to launch campaigns and receive revenue from the products that sellers create while working from anywhere that has Wi-Fi; the comfort of your own home, your local coffee shop, or a coffee shop the other side of the world.
4. Cost-effective.
Most businesses require huge startup fees as well as a cash flow to finance the products being sold, so many people never get started. However, affiliate marketing can be done at a low cost, meaning you can get started quickly and without the hassle of starting a traditional bricks and mortar business. This is a cost effective and relatively straightforward way to get started in the online world.
5. Convenient and flexible.
Since you’re essentially becoming a freelancer, you get ultimate independence in setting your own goals, redirecting your path when you feel so inclined, choosing the products that interest you, and even determining your own hours. This convenience means you can diversify your portfolio if you like or focus solely on simple and straightforward campaigns. You’ll also be free from traditional company restrictions and regulations as well as ill-performing teams.
6. Performance-Based rewards.
With other jobs, you could work an 80-hour week and still earn the same salary. Affiliate marketing is purely based on your performance. You’ll get from it what you put into it. Honing your reviewing skills and writing engaging campaigns will translate to direct improvements in your revenue. Even if a campaign fails, you take that as feedback and optimise your next campaign for better results. You’ll finally get paid for the outstanding work you do!
Are you interested in learning the skills to develop as an Affiliate Marketer?
Then we invite you to explore the same programme we used to get started from scratch.
Please click this link and Enter Your Details to Get FREE Access to the “System for Selling Online”
So imagine you’re in town with a friend one lunch time and you notice a ‘buy one get one free’ offer at Zest Cafe. You take advantage of the offer then head home. Later that afternoon you’re chatting with another friend who’s looking for somewhere to dine and so you share with them about the buy on get one free offer at Zest.
Your friend thanks you for letting them know and head’s off to Zest with their partner to take advantage of the offer.
You’re happy because you’ve helped a friend, your friend’s happy because they’ve saved 50% on a meal and Zest cafe are happy because your referral resulted in a new customer and income for them.
Does this sound a familiar story to you?
Maybe you’ve even shared about such offers with your friends?
If so, you’ve effectively been acting as an affiliate marketer, albeit in a voluntary sense. So if you can do it in a voluntary sense, when not get paid for it?
If you’re interested, read on…
Affiliate marketing is an increasingly popular option to generate significant online revenue.
The option provides benefits to both brands who engage the affiliate marketers and affiliate marketers themselves, In fact:
• 81% of brands and 84% of publishers leverage the power of affiliate marketing, a statistic that will continue to increase as affiliate marketing spending increases every year in the United States.
• There is a 10.1% increase in affiliate marketing spending in the United States each year, meaning that by 2020, that number will reach $6.8 billion.
• In 2018, content marketing costs were gauged to be 62% of traditional marketing schemes while simultaneously generating three times the leads of traditional methods. In fact, 16% of all orders made online can be attributed to the impact of affiliate marketing.
• In March of 2017, Amazon’s affiliate structure changed, offering rates of 1-10% of product revenue for creators, providing the opportunity for affiliates to dramatically increase their passive income based on the vertical they’re selling on.
• The affiliate marketing of Jason Stone, otherwise known as Millionaire Mentor, was responsible for as much as $7 million in retailer sales just in the months of June and July in 2017.
So, What Is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is the process by which an affiliate earns a commission for marketing another person’s or company’s products or services. The affiliate simply searches for a product they enjoy, then promotes that product and earns a piece of the profit from each sale they make. The sales are tracked via affiliate links from one website to another.
l How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?
Because affiliate marketing works by spreading the responsibilities of product marketing and creation across parties, it manages to leverage the abilities of a variety of individuals for a more effective marketing strategy while providing contributors with a share of the profit. To make this work, three different parties must be involved:
. The Brand / Seller and product creators.
. The affiliate or advertiser.
. The consumer.
Let’s look at these three relationships in more detail below:
1. The Brand / Seller and product creators.
The seller (like Zest Cafe in our leading example), whether a solo entrepreneur or large enterprise, is a vendor, merchant, product creator, or retailer with a product to market. The product can be a physical object, like household goods, or a service like internet provision.
Also known as the brand, the seller does not need to be actively involved in the marketing, but they may also be the advertiser and profit from the revenue sharing associated with affiliate marketing.
For example, the seller could be an e-commerce merchant that started a drop-shipping business and wants to reach a new audience by paying affiliate websites to promote their products.
2. The affiliate or publisher.
Also known as a publisher, the affiliate can be either an individual or a company that markets the seller’s product in an engaging way to potential consumers. In other words, the affiliate promotes the product to the right consumers to enable a purchase to take place. If the consumer does make a purchase, the affiliate receives a portion of the revenue made.
Affiliates often have a very specific audience to whom they market, generally adhering to that audience’s interests. This creates a defined niche or personal brand that helps the affiliate attract consumers who will be most likely to act on the promotion.
3. The consumer.
Whether the consumer knows it or not, they (and their purchases) are the drivers of affiliate marketing. Affiliates share these products with them on social media, blogs, and websites.
When consumers buy the product, the seller and the affiliate share the profits. Sometimes the affiliate will choose to be upfront with the consumer by disclosing that they are receiving commission for the sales they make. Other times the consumer may be completely oblivious to the affiliate marketing infrastructure behind their purchase.
Either way, they will rarely pay more for the product purchased through affiliate marketing; the affiliate’s share of the profit is included in the retail price. The consumer will complete the purchase process and receive the product as normal, unaffected by the affiliate marketing system in which they are a significant part.
So we hope that gives you a taste of what affiliate marketing is and how it works. In our next blog, What is Affiliate Marketing Part 2, we’ll share how Affiliate Marketers can get paid.
Success. What does that word mean to you, and has it’s meaning ever changed for you?
Today I’m joined by a special guest as we consider the secret to success in both our personal and business life:
We believe success in any aspect of our lives is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we responds to what happens to us.
No one makes us have a ‘bad day’, we choose whether we have a bad day or not, we choose how we learn from and respond to our circumstances to become a better version of ourselves.
And remember, this isn’t just about ‘us’ or ‘self’, when Sir Roger Bannister achieved what was thought humanly impossible he opened a world of possibility for others too.
In summary, we can’t control what happens to us, so don’t waste energy on trying to control the uncontrollable. Instead focus your energy on what will give you a positive ROI for you, and in doing so, you’ll not only achieve success for yourself, but open a world of possibilities for others too.
As the UK officially enters recession today, other data sources reveal how COVID-19 has redefined global consumption patterns, patterns which are here to stay.
People are living differently, buying differently and, in many ways, thinking differently. The habits formed now will endure beyond this crisis.
In this short video, I share some of these trends from the latest Accenture Consumer Research Report which reveals the profound impact of COVID-19 on consumer goods. The pandemic has accelerated long-term trends, forcing companies to rapidly adapt as demand for certain products and services outstrips supply.
Of particular interest is the 160% increase in eCommerce during the pandemic, with 52% of new online buyers stating they will continue to favour eCommerce over traditional purchases even after the pandemic is over.
As businesses move forward, they must consider how to better understand consumers based not on gut feel only, but on what the hard facts are telling us:
You can see a summary of the key trends from the report below:
You can access the full report here.
In this time of dramatic change, people, businesses and institutions have an opportunity to reset and renew. It’s time to seize this opportunity to reinvent your business and begin to outmaneuver uncertainty.
If you haven’t already signed up for our free workshops that show how you can create and launch recession proof income streams from scratch, then we invite you to do so by clicking here.
Your thoughts lead to your feelings, your feelings become your actions and your actions become your results.
In other words…our words become actions, which eventually become your destiny.
It’s interesting how successful people are intentional about the words they speak, to themselves and to others.
The fact is, regardless of how you may define success, your words (those that you say to yourself as well as those you say out loud to other people) will help turn that vision into your reality.
Now there are many articles written on what successful people do say and don’t do, but today I’d like to share with you 6 things that successful people don’t say and don’t do…
1. “That’s impossible”
Interestingly, unsuccessful people are always pointing out what is not possible. To them the glass is always half empty, they live in a world of impossibilities; they have a can’t-do attitude, so they say: “I can’t” or “that can’t be done” or “that’s impossible.”
Not only are these words self-limiting, others perceive them as pessimistic, non-constructive, even defeatist.
Achievers know there are countless roadblocks on the road to success — barriers that may stall or stump, but never stop them.
They either remove the barrier, or figure out a way to go over, under, or around it.
So successful people say: “I have a choice,” “Here are our options,” or, “Let’s imagine all the possibilities.”
2. “I can do it all myself”
Successful people know the importance of getting a good team around them to triangulate, orientate and see through different eyes. They also recognise that if they’re the smartest person in their team they’re in trouble.
3. “It’s not fair.”
Everyone knows that life isn’t fair. Saying it’s not fair suggests that you think life is supposed to be fair and shows you don’t really have a handle on how things work.
Successful people are successful because when the odds are against them they choose to persevere despite things being unfair, rather than complaining and giving up.
4. “I’ll give it a try.”
The phrase sounds tentative and suggests you lack confidence in your ability to execute the task.
Take full ownership of your capabilities.
If you’re asked to do something, either commit to doing it or offer an alternative, but don’t say that you’ll ‘give it try’ because it sounds like you won’t try all that hard.
5. “I already know that”
This phrase is a sign of pure defensiveness — it means you’ve stopped seeking to learn and grow and have become more interested in being perceived as all knowing.
It’s one thing to speak knowledgeably about a topic and add insight; but there’s always more to learn and even if you “know it” are you using your knowledge, are you implementing it?
Remember to admit you’ve learned something new is simply to admit you’re wiser today than you were yesterday.
6. “Hey! Let me tell you what I’ve just heard about John…”
Successful will warn you about dangerous behaviours, but they don’t gossip, and they avoid words of judgment, insult and negativity.
If they can’t say something good about someone they don’t say anything
The bottom line:
Think about the things you say to yourself and to others that you need to stop saying. Then stop saying them!
Eliminating these words or phrases from your vocabulary will pay dividends.
The problem is they have a tendency to sneak up on us, so we’re going to have to speak to ourselves until we’ve solidified the habit of not saying them.
Here’s to your success!
Ruth
Here at Digi Life Enabled we’re committed to supporting online business start ups to be sustainable, competitive and grow. If you’re interested in how you can be successful in business online, check out these success stories to find out more: https://digilifeenabled.com/start/stories
COVID-19 has massively accelerated the growth of e-commerce, according to an Adobe Digital Economy Index (DEI) report released today.
Adobe’s DEI is a global economic measure for the 21st century that more
quickly, comprehensively, and internationally measures the increasing buying power of digital consumers — with greater detail than any other data source available. You can download the full report here.
Highlighting that total online spending in May hit $82.5 billion, up 77% year-over-year, the report states: “It would’ve taken between 4 and 6 years to get to the levels that we saw in May if the growth continued at the same levels it was at for the past few years.”
Report highlights:
E-commerce: jumped $52 billion
Memorial Day sales: jumped 75% from $2 billion last year to $3.5 billion this year
Mobile’s share of e-commerce: grew from January but not much, up just 10%
BOPIS: buy online, pick up in-store grew 195% in May
Travel: flight bookings tripled from early April to late May
Higher rates of e-commerce and BOPIS (buy online, pick up in-store) may be the new abnormal, Adobe data indicates.
“We are seeing signs that online purchasing trends formed during the pandemic may see permanent adoption,” Taylor Schreiner, Director, Adobe Digital Insights, said in a statement. “While BOPIS was a niche delivery option pre-pandemic, it is fast becoming the delivery method of choice as consumers become more familiar with the ease, convenience and experience.”
Adobe’s DEI analyzes over one trillion online transactions across 100 million product SKUs, the company says.
What people are buying is changing too, perhaps returning more to relatively normal consumption patterns. Electronics and apparel purchases were up 11% and 12%, respectively: we’re working at home, but we haven’t bought new clothes in a while. Pricing is changing though: grocery prices were up 4% in May compared to 2019.
The data is telling us that COVID-19 has simply accelerated the trend of growth in the digital economy that has already been happening for many years. I share more in this short video below:
So if you’re serious about your business, you need to listen to what the data is telling you and be agile enough to act/respond accordingly.
Many people see the advantage of an online business but fail to get started because they simply don’t know where to start, or have a fear of failure. That’s exactly the position we were in which held us back for so long until we found the right education and support network to help us get started from scratch. If you’re ready to explore proven steps with a support network that you can take right now to take advantage of the growth in the digital economy, then Click Here to learn more.
It’s interesting to look at the root of where our words come from, it gives us an understanding of what was originally intended by the use of the word.
Take the word ‘Wealth’ for example. Now, in 2020 most people associate wealth with bank balance. However, that’s a corruption of the original intent, because it’s origins are linked to our ‘well-being’ and ‘health’ not money.
Whilst having more in your bank balance can of course lead to more health and well-being through wise choices and a life of integrity, we believe true wealth is not just about your bank balance. In fact, some of the richest people we’ve ever met never even had a bank account to their name.
Where is your treasure?
We also believe where your treasure is, there your heart will be also and that in turn will impact your thoughts, behaviours and well-being. So a question we all need to ask ourselves is; where and what is our treasure?
Gratitude is Gold
We’ve found an attitude of gratitude is a form of treasure that supports well-being. Yes, gratitude really is GOLD.
Studies show that greater health and happiness is measurable in those who practice gratitude over those who focus on negative aspects, even to the extent that there is a change in the brain’s neuroplasticity, just do a google search to see. But how do we develop an attitude of gratitude especially in times of crisis?
3 Steps to GOLD
So there are some simple steps we can all take to develop an attitude of gratitude that contributes to our wealth. Please watch the short video below to learn three steps you can take right now toward an attitude of gratitude that can help you in your business, family and personal life:
An immunological study by University of California (Walker, M. 2017) was performed on two groups of people. With the consent of the participants, the two groups were given a dose of rhinovirus (the common cold). 50% of those in Group A went on to develop the common cold, whilst only 18% of those in Group B went on to develop the cold.
What was the immune boosting property given to Group B that enabled them to stave off the virus by such a statistically significant value?
Based on a large volume of requests for self-care related topics in this current pandemic, this week I share what that immune boosting property was, and the best thing of all is you don’t have to cue in a Pharmacy for it or even spend a single penny, it is freely available to each one of us for no cost at all.
Please click on the video below to watch
For further help with matters of personal or business resilience at this time, we’d love to hear from you at info@digilifeenabled.com.
For Ruth’s blog post on this theme, please Click Here
Reference
Walker, M. (2017) Why We Sleep. Penguin. Sleep Loss & The Immune System, p181-183
This week we focus on resilience-enhancing behaviours that support Personal & Business Resilience in Times of Crisis. We wanted to share these particularly in light of the pandemic Covid-19 Coronavirus. These are evidence-based activities that can benefit everyone physically, mentally and spiritually, and are principles we have found beneficial in our own lives.
Click on the video below to watch
The first of these is practicing gratitude. This can take the form, of setting aside time (a few minutes is enough) each day to reflect on a few things for which we’re thankful. And some research suggests that if we include in our lists social activities or something about relationships, the benefit is even greater. Our family tries to do this together every night before bedtime: each of us names three things we’re grateful for that happened in the past 24 hours. It shifts the focus from negative to positive and helps create perspective.
The second resilience-enhancing activity is engaging in daily physical exercise. You might first think of running or swimming, strenuous exercise, which is great but not always feasible. Walking, going up and down the stairs, lifting weights, and just moving about rather than sitting at our desks for hours on end also contribute to a healthier body, mind, and spirit. We would caution against intensive exercise at this time (you know what intense is for you) as this can lead to a reduced immunity.
Thirdly, and equally important, is eating a healthy diet. It’s not always easy to eat right in times of crisis especially if we’re eating ‘on the go’ but if we plan our meals in advance we can choose and prepare nutritious foods, rather than default to quick fix sugary foods in the moment. It does our bodies tremendous good to eat the rainbow foods (foods of different colours) every day, so plan for a rainbow meal each day.
Fourthly, one of the best boosts to our immunity is free, its an activity called sleep. Now exercise and diet can help with the promotion and onset of this, but it’s important you make specific time for quality sleep as a lack of sleep will reduce your immunity. Now we have young kids and are often up in the night with them so understand we can’t always get that perfect night, however put a schedule in place for you and your family to ensure you give yourselves the best opportunity for collective sleep. Just as you set a guard and boundaries around your cash, set a guard and some boundaries around your sleep – the reality is, it’s more valuable.
Another very useful way to build resilience is to develop competence (the skills you need to do your job) and confidence (the knowledge that you can do it). At Digi Life Enabled, we’re committed to providing educational programmes and mentoring to enable you to develop confidence and competence in online digital skills.
If you haven’t already, then check out some of our free video series to get you started by clicking here, or if you have started, and you’d like some 1-2-1 tutorials, then drop us a line at info@digilifeenabled.com to arrange a free call with us.
In conclusion, one of the best-documented ways to enhance our resilience is to build and use social support. This means finding people in your personal and professional life whom you can talk to about what’s important to you (emotional support) and whom you can ask for help when you need it (instrumental support). We can do this through Skype, Facebook or other social media outlets, or good old phone, written, or in-person contact. Again, it’s been our pleasure to work through a number of work-life issues with our members and we want to reiterate drop us a line at info@digilifeenabled.com if you’d like to schedule a call with us at this time of crisis.
We also want to encourage our members to watch out for vulnerable members of their own communities. The elderly are some of the most vulnerable at this time, many are alone, and many don’t have ‘social media’ accounts to keep abreast of the latest developments or purchase things online. So think what you can do to check in and monitor those individuals at this time, as many will feel the isolation even more at this time.
Finally friends, we wish health and prosperity in the weeks ahead to you and those dear to you.
This week we caught up with Phil & Pauline Sanderson who hold a number of world records in the Mountaineering world including:
• The World’s longest climb – The Dead Sea (lowest point) to Everest (highest point)
• The 1st British married couple to summit Everest – Only 2 couples have ever done this
• And the the world record for…well I explain more in the video below…
There are so many parallels between planing and executing an expedition to starting an online business. I would suggest the most important parallel is ‘mindset’, and both Phil & Pauline admit the key success factor for them has always been taking control of the conversation that happens in their head.
They both experience doubt, they both experience ‘imposter syndrome’ (I’m not good enough to be here) and they both feel like giving up when things go wrong. Have you ever felt like that?
So why don’t they give up where others have?
Because of the conversation they have in their heads. They take control of the negative thoughts they hear.
What we also love about Phil & Pauline is how they have used their achievements to help a number of charities including:
SOS Childrens Villages ( The world’s largest orphan charity)
And Practical Action – a charity using technological solutions to help tackle poverty around the world.
And probably the most important take away message from Phil & Pauline is, no matter what journey you are on, TAKE TIME TO ENJOY THE JOURNEY!
Stephen