Whatever “how to” question you seek to answer online, whenever it falls into the realm of “affiliate marketing” Google suggests you also consider:
I love the concretization in the third question there! You don’t want to just “become an affiliate marketer” but get successful at that.
Many a time have I talked about affiliate marketing on this blog – both as a method of marketing your product, and as a way to make money online. Regardless of the way you use it, affiliate marketing leads to (i) freedom and (ii) financial well-being… but only in one case: if/when you are successful. Otherwise, affiliate marketing can drain you financially and emotionally. I have seen the latter happen way too often not to mention it here.
To my pleasant surprise, the legendary Seth Godin himself answered the question at stake in his yesterday’s blog post – in his already-traditional eloquent form. Taking about “a job without a boss” he emphasized:
…finding a well-paying job without a boss used to be a lot easier than it is now. The race to the bottom is fierce, and the only way to avoid it is to create projects, innovate on strategy and build something worth seeking out.
There you have it! The recipe to being successful in affiliate marketing is also in (a) creating and (b) innovating, and doing so (c) by building “something worth seeking out.”
A few years ago, when dissecting the characteristics of affiliates who are valued most dearly by advertisers, I talked about innovation as well, and you may see a few examples of affiliate innovation here.
As you innovate, it is integral to keep your audience in mind and help them in a way that will have them come back to you, referring their friends and family, their neighbors and their dentist to you.
Look at Ebates (a rebates website acquired by Rakuten for $1 Billion) and at The Wirecutter (a content resource bought by The New York Times), and at Stylinity (a community that helps brands leverage the clout of influencers to reach shoppers). What do they all have in common? Three things: (i) they innovate to create “something worth seeking out,” (ii) they use affiliate marketing to monetize what they do, and (iii) they are successful at it!
Take heed of Godin’s advice (and Rockefeller’s too), and as you innovate, keep your audience in focus.