Make Money Selling Other People’s Products

Affiliate Marketing is Selling Other People’s Products and Pocketing the Commission.

If you have started a blog or Facebook Page and are looking at ways to monetise it, affiliate marketing is a great strategy to use.

In fact, you can even use your very own Facebook Page to promote products that you love.  Generally affiliate marketing is selling other people’s products, and gaining a commission on the sale. The best thing about it is you don’t need stock, a shop or be posting items out to people or even to deal with customers – they do it all for you – you just take the profit.  You do this through a ‘middle man’ called an Affiliate Marketing Company. There are many of them in Australia and overseas (I’m going to list them below).

The best thing about affiliate marketing is that you can do it in your spare time, and do as much or as little as you like! But the more you put into it – the more you will get out of it!

But – and there are always butttts – affiliate marketing can be hard work at the start. It takes time to build up and is certainly no ‘get rich quick’ scheme. If you haven’t used ‘links’ or embedded any code – it can be tricky to use at first. But if you have time on your hands, and spend a lot of time online, it can be very lucrative!  And really, once you have done it once, it is really easy from there!

Ideas on What Should I Sell

You need to find products you like that are a good fit with your Facebook Page or blog, products that you love.  Trust me when I say, you can’t promote products you don’t believe in.  People see straight through it.  Think of products that you have bought online in the past, those are the products that you should be promoting.

You could sell anything – but here are some hints:

Fashion: Shoes, Clothing, Accessories, Jewellery, Makeup and Skincare, Perfume
Cooking: Cookware, Appliances, Aprons
Technology, Mobile Phones, Lap Tops, Chargers, Monitors, Speakers, Cameras

But the list is endless really.  If there is a product you really love – just try Googling the brand, followed by ‘affiliate program’ which will send you to the right place!

But wait – this is easier…..

An alternative (and much easier) route is to join up to some affiliate programs – and then go through their list of advertisers to see what will be a good fit for you.  Once you have been approved (and many have instant approval which is fabulous!), you grab the code for the banner, text link, coupon code or data feed and paste it into your Facebook Page or blog.  Most of the platforms have great ‘how to’ videos for beginners.  One of the harder aspects of affiliate marketing is that every platform is a bit different – so navigating your way around can get tricky.

Then it is just a matter of cutting and pasting the code (which is just cut and paste – they do it for you)!

Why do it?

If you aren’t crafty or arty, and don’t want the responsibilities of sourcing, making, packing and sending products, then this is perfect.  Plus you can choose a variety of products to sell and you don’t have to be loyal to a single brand.  Of course there is the money too – but as I mentioned earlier – it depends how much time you spend on it as to what income you will make!

Pitfalls

When you are just starting out, don’t get discouraged if some advertisers or even affiliate companies ‘knock back’ your application.  Some of the larger advertisers are very finicky about who they work with.  Just move on and keep building up your page or blog.  If you are desperate to work with them, give the affiliate company (not the advertiser) a call and plead your case.  Sometimes it just takes time.  Move on and just promote the companies that want to work with you! Remember though, the affiliate company is there to help you – so use their help!  If you get stuck or are not sure what to do, ring them, message them, email them – tell them the problems.

I have no hesitation in telling large companies that their affiliate programs are hard to use – because if they want me to sell their product, I want it to be easy.  Do the same.

TIP:  Never ever pay money to sign up to an affiliate marketing company!

Finding Things That Sell

Next of all is finding products that you like, that your audience will actually buy.  See what is popular and talked about on your blog or Facebook Page, see what is trending in the industry.  Remember though, usually the percentage of money you make on products (depending on the product) is anywhere from 1% – 40%.  So selling a $5 item may well not be worth it unless your audience buys a lot of them.  But then again, they may baulk at purchasing a $600 item.  So take this into account.

And what makes up to 40% you might ask?  Well believe it or not – sex toys are probably one of the most lucrative things to sell because of the high commissions! Shhhhhhhh

Finding An Affiliate Platform to Use

Next is to find an affiliate marketing company that sells the product.  Most independent websites won’t do affiliates – it is just too hard, that’s why they use these companies.  But there are some great affiliate companies (both in Australia and overseas) that make it easy for you.  If the shop or item you love is on sale – they can do banners, data feeds, promotions – almost anything you need.

Now not all affiliate companies are created equally.  There are a lot out there that are really difficult to navigate (some makes you want to tear your hair out!).  So I’ve listed my favourites here.

Commission Factory

This is definitely the best and easiest affiliate marketing company there is in Australia.  It isn’t the biggest – but it is so easy to use that I have forgone commission in exchange for ease of use.  It is really easy to sign up and they have a great range of advertisers including:  When companies approach me to sell their products on a commission basis, I always refer them to Commission Factory.

• The Adult Shop
• Etsy
• The Somewhere Co
• Priceline Pharmacy
• Camera House
• Shaver Shop

Amazon Affiliates

Amazon is the biggest of the big. They are very easy to sign up to and you can promote just about any product on the Amazon website – and get a cut. The only downfall with Amazon is that the commissions are generally very, very small.

Clix Galore

This is a great place for beginners to start.  Clix Galore is world-wide but has many thousand Australian companies listed to promote.  They are less fussy with people who are novices joining their programs and their links and banners are pretty easy to install. Most of the companies listed are up-and-coming small businesses trying to get their name out there.

Some of their advertisers include:

Share a Sale

Share a Sale is US based – but has loads of advertisers that are not only Australia based, but based all around the world and will post to anywhere in the world! Their website is very easy to use and has loads of information for beginners.

Some of their advertisers include:

• Modcloth

Where to Now?

So decide if you want to set up your own Facebook Page and start a shop – which costs you nothing!  In fact, apart from your usual internet costs, the great thing about this little business is that there is no start up costs at all!

Remember, you get as much out of it as you put into it…… Go forth and sell sell sell!