THE FOUR (4) TYPES OF AFFILIATE OFFERS FOR AFFILIATE MARKETERS [A BEGINNERS FRIENDLY GUIDE]

OVERVIEW

Affiliate marketing as you might already know is a business model which is centered on you finding a winning product that has been created by someone else (either a small business, your favorite brand, an individual etc.) and then recommending it to people. You make a commission when they make a sale.

In this article, our main focus is the fact that not all affiliate products are the same. When it come to the commission structure, some can pay out about 50% of the same, others about 1% - 5% whilst others you do not even need a sale to start getting your commissions.

For these and many more reasons this article is relevant for you to know what the types of affiliate offers are and how you can make an informed decision on which of the types you would be focusing your time, energy and other resources on.

INTRODUCTION

To taste any form of success as an affiliate marketer, you need offers to promote. If you do not have any offers to promote, theirs is no way you are going to make any money.

This might seem a little easy and obvious but the reality is most beginner affiliate marketers struggle with this idea. They get excited about finding a business model that would require almost pennies to start up and sometimes are already looking at ways they would be driving traffic but lose focus on the fundamental value proposition of this whole affiliate marketing.

Like all businesses, you need an offer your customer’s value or they won’t reach out to their pockets and give you their money. Finding great offers that help them solve their problems is how you deliver value as an affiliate marketer.

It is therefore a bit shocking that affiliate marketers especially beginners just walk through an affiliate marketplace, pick the first or enticing offer they see which looks good and run with it.

To succeed as an affiliate marketer, I need you to take this article really seriously. Finding offers that can help your audience is an ongoing process. You are therefore to spend time every week trying to better understand the needs of your customers and then look for appropriate offers that would help them meet those needs.

The good news is that this isn’t as difficult as it seems to be. It only takes time, consistency and an open mind as much as you need to know what you are looking for.

THE TYPES OF AFFILIATE OFFERS

The question right now is “what type of affiliate offers are out there?”

And the simple answer is many. There are a lot of offers out there and they come in different forms and at different price ranges. This is as a result of differences in niches.

In general, there are 4 most common types of affiliate offers and they are

• Digital Courses

• Physical products

• CPA Offers

• High Ticket Offers

Kindly note that the first three are very much beginner friendly. Very easy to find and also easy to promote.

Now let’s dive into a little in-depth review of these offers.

1. Digital Courses

Sometimes I imagine how people in other ages like the agrarian and other ages that had philosophers and mighty men would feel if they had the opportunity for once to live in this our information age.

This is because there is absolutely free information on every single topic imaginable in this internet era. When you look at the amount of content online, its mouth staggering. You cannot be idealess unless you decide not to find one. The fact you are reading this now is a typical example of our quest to find more and more ideas.

But unfortunately, this amount of information has also brought up a problem.

“What information do I need and when do I need it?”

For years now, this question has become one that everybody faces when they want to make a significant change in their lives. Whether it’s learning a new skill, investing in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, losing weights, quitting alcoholism, overcoming anxiety etc. There’s so much information than you can consume.

And this is the perfect situation which brings up a void for courses to fill up. The best courses promises a result if you learn and implement the system taught. You get information when you need it and you get an action plan also. This actually saves you from sorting through a mess of information since courses makes it easier for you to reach your end goal efficiently.

Where would you even start out from?

On a safer side, you can go to communities like LURN and find courses that are directed for both people who are starting out general businesses as well as specific businesses. Some for beginners and some for more advanced people. All of them are examples of courses organized to give you the information you need and at the right time you need it.

For thousands of years, there have been great formal courses which great teachers but the internet has opened up the opportunity for more people to create and distribute courses to teach people about more topics than it has ever existed in history.

These course have also become a great gateway for affiliate marketers to help their audience solve the problems in their lives. If you have and audience of health conscious people, you can promote courses to help them with various health and wellness issues. The same way if you have an audience who are looking to make more income to better their lifestyle of living and enhance the status quo of their families, you can promote courses to teach them how to make money online.

One of the course we promote is the Fast track [How to make money be asking people simple yes/no questions]

Advantageously, there are many courses available for affiliates to promote because there’s no extra cost to the course creator. And since the contents are all digital, they do not incur any other cost for a sale. As a result, many course creators are happy to offer 50%+ commissions to affiliates who promote their courses.

Because courses are pretty much a straightforward way to help your audience or readers, course have become a popular type of offer for affiliate marketers to promote. Consider this if you are a newbie.

2. PHYSICAL PRODUCTS

As a beginner, this is also a popular one among a lot of affiliates. Physical products works the same way as the digital courses and this has made it gain the necessary attraction needed. As an affiliate, you earn a commission for every sale you make.

Some of the popular marketplaces that offer physical products include eBay, BestBuy, Rakuten, Wealthy Affiliate, Share A sale etc. However, the most popular program in this physical products categories Amazon Affiliate which is run by the parent company Amazon.

With all the credibility Amazon wields in the eyes of its consumers, you can start off by promoting their products to your audience. In fact, in some niches, this is the best way for you to monetize as an affiliate marketer.

However, before you get taken away about joining Amazon Associates, you would have to consider a few things about selling physical products.

• Lower share of commissions as compared to digital products: Manufacturers of physical products may incur extra costs after purchases are made such as shipping and handling, tax etc. This makes them mostly work in smaller margins.

• Best practices changes all the time: The way physical products are sold today are different from a few years back and so they would still change with time.

• Amazon Affiliate has a strict regulation about how people promote their products: As an affiliate marketer you become limited to the various ways you can possible drive buyer traffic to your products.

Note that, these limitations aren’t limited to Amazon Associates only. Other affiliate networks in the physical products category also follow some of these practices.

3. CPA OFFERS

CPA offers are a little bit different from the digital and physical product category. Unlike we talked about an affiliate receiving commissions for a sale made, CPA which stands for Cost per Action usually pays a flat amount of money for specific actions.

These actions are not always about sales, sometimes you receive a flat amount for generating leads. Other times you receive payment when people register for free trials. There is a wide range of CPA offers and you can start here if the model interests you.

A popular one I am an affiliate for is Fiverr. Fiverr is a website that connects freelancers with businesses. Any service you would need for your business- there is someone on fiverr to help you out. You can even become a freelancer yourself if that is what you want.

You can read my article on how to make money on fiverr here.

CPA offers have their place in most affiliate marketers’ portfolios. They allow you the freedom to offer your audience a more comprehensive range of offers. As with the other types of offers, In order to protect your reputation and your audience’s experiences, check the integrity of what you are promoting.

4. HIGH TICKET OFFER

As the name implies, these types of offer are called high ticket because they are the most expensive offers out there and surely they are not for the faint hearted. This is why especially for beginners this might not be the best place to start of your affiliate marketing journey.

High ticket offers are usually offers that are at least $300. Whilst it must be lower in some niches, they can even go beyond $999 in other niches too.

High ticket offers are usually a collection of products and services that try to be an “all in one” package.

The major advantage of promoting a high ticket offer is that you would be offering your audience the best program in your specific niche. Additionally, you also make more money for each sale due to higher price margins,

There is also a downside to these types of offers. You would have to work harder in order to make a sale. This might include actively creating a lot of content to lead people to the product, adding bonuses and mostly holding live events and webinars to promote the offer. This advance skillset is what somewhat makes this unfriendly for beginners.

The other downside is that these offers are hard to come by easily and you would mostly find it by networking or joining private communities.

In whatever the case may be, all beginner affiliate marketers should have a goal of reaching the level of having access to at least one high ticket offer.

CONCLUSION

Becoming a successful affiliate as said earlier begins with finding the write offer you can stand by any time.

I know this little guide has been an eye opening of where you are now and the possibilities you could have in the long run. Dedicate the necessary time needed as a beginner, work hard and with time this whole learning curve would become a thing of the past.

Now your next steps are important. You can watch this free presentation on how to make family and friends answer simple yes / no questions and make money online.