Is there a demand for affiliate marketers?

Is there a demand for affiliate marketers?

Affiliate marketing has been around for a long time now and is becoming more and more well known so you may be wondering ‘is there still a demand for affiliate marketers?’

The simple answer to this is yes. If you are considering starting your own affiliate marketing company or have decided that you would like to try to make some extra money by becoming an affiliate marketer then you are in luck as affiliate marketers are still in high demand. In fact I would go as far as to say that affiliate marketers are more in demand now than they ever were before.

Over the years affiliate marketing has become an excellent way for business owners to promote their goods and services. Affiliate marketing has evolved and become much more sophisticated than it was in the early days of the internet and it has become a fantastic source of sales for many businesses both big and small.

Many businesses like affiliate marketing because it is a very cost effective way of promoting their products and encouraging sales because affiliate marketers earn commissions based on their sales. This means that if no sales are made then it costs the company nothing if sales are made then the company pays out a percentage of the sale to the marketer.

Let us take Amazon.com as an example. Amazon is a very well known company that is trusted and used by people all over the world. They have a massive customer base. Amazon has a very popular affiliate marketing scheme and almost anybody can sign up to it. The Amazon affiliate scheme has a very low commission payout when compared to other companies. Amazon will payout 4% of any sale made through an affiliate marketer’s links. This commission does rise to 6% if the marketer makes a certain number of sales each month. Although the commission percentage is low there are some affiliate marketers who are making $1000’s every month because selling Amazon products is extremely easy when compare to other companies. Amazon sells a whole host of items that the marketers can promote and Amazon is a trusted site by many so it is possible to make money from this.

There are thousands of other companies that use affiliate marketing to promote their products and they do it because affiliate marketing works. Not only does it work it can be changed and adapted to entice specific customers. Some people write product reviews and place an affiliate link within the review. Some people create eZines and have affiliate banners and links within the eZine. Some marketers use emails or post links on forums and message boards. The methods used do depend on the product and the target audience and affiliate marketing can be customized to suit the purpose.

The competition out there is really quite tough at times as there are so many affiliate marketers out there trying to make money. When the iPad 2 was launched there were so many reviews and articles and emails and so on about the iPad 2 and 99% of the top viewed ones contained affiliate links. If you are just staring out in the affiliate marketing area please don’t expect to be able to market effectively items like the iPad 2 and make a fortune because the competition is far too stiff and many of the top marketers have had years to learn the tricks of the trade. But do not let the fact that it is very hard for a newbie to make loads of money from the expensive items like the iPad. It is easier to begin with a niche item. Maybe market an item like a book. You will earn less money per sale but once you refine your technique you will be able to make more sales as books do not cost a lot of money compared to high-end electronics.

In conclusion affiliate marketers are still in demand and will probably be for a long time but there is a lot of competition out there. The world of affiliate marketing is full of big sharks and little fish. When starting out try being a little shark in a small group of little fish then when you develop your skills try branching out and taking on the bigger fish and bigger sharks. (I hope you like the analogy).