Now that your site is built, it’s time to line the bread basket. You can begin generating passive income by creating niche content while participating in an affiliate program. Your content will drive the visitations to your page, which in turn, will generate money for your affiliate.
Sales, marketing, advertising? Big tasks for people with an idea but no experience in eCommerce. Believe it or not, it’s not as hard as it sounds. With the bit of information I give you today, you could pave the way for a steady passive income. Let’s begin by talking about your niche.
Pick Your Niche
This is the first and most important step we will talk about here today. If only for your sanity and interest, it needs to be something you thoroughly enjoy. Below are some tips on how to go about choosing the right niche for your site.
- What are you passionate about? Now is time to make accounts the old fashioned way. Write it down. What do you love doing, making, or reading about? You may be surprised how quickly a hobby can become a money-making venture. Write down a few ideas you could see yourself taking a long-term interest in.
- Make problems your profit. Have you experienced a recent problem that drove you to innovate? Perhaps you encountered a problem at home where you created something to fix a problem. Maybe you said to yourself, sheesh, I wish someone made something for this. Or perhaps you were looking online for an answer you couldn’t find. Were you able to find a solution? Then tell others!
- Where can you add value? Think about that list you made in step 1. Is the internet flush with websites concerning these topics? And are you knowledgeable enough to create consistent, new content? The answer should be YES.
- Network with companies and people in your niche. You want to write a blog about gluten-free meals for kids but don’t know too much about the subject? You need to talk to others with the same dietary interest. There are expos, conventions, support groups, and medical professionals you can be learning from. The same goes for anything you are selling – be it information or a product. Google your niche to find a community of like-minded people. You will learn a lot and have more content to fuel your blog.
- Look at the market. All you need to do is Google your niche. What does your competition look like? You have to consider if your content would get lost in the hundreds of other similar websites. If the market doesn’t seem to have much concerning your niche, but people are asking questions about your type of information or product, then you may have a great idea.
- Ask your peers. Talk to friends, family, and even strangers about your idea. Gauge their interest and if they would enjoy visiting your site or buying your product. They may have thought of ideas you haven’t. Have a set of questions you want to ask them in order to get all the information you need.
- Can you profit? Sometimes we set our sights higher than we can afford. If you are planning to make a product to sell, you must look at the cost of producing that product, shipping it, and any other costs incurred. Information is a cheap yet valuable thing to sell. Creating a blog with information people want and need is a product itself. You can find someone to write your content for you and make this an even more passive process. Your time is money. If your monetization model works, you can afford to pay someone to create quality content.
What is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is the process by which one company rewards another for business brought in by the affiliate. For example, let’s say you are an Amazon affiliate. You may have an Amazon banner and links within your content for readers to click in order to draw them to the Amazon site. As your company grows, you can also find affiliates to link to your company. It’s all one, big network of affiliates helping each other generate income.
Finding your affiliates.
Finding an affiliate or affiliate program is as easy as Googling it. If you are looking to create a makeup review blog, look for beauty product affiliate program, or something similar. There is also a popular affiliate search engine out there called oDigger. You can look there for affiliates and peruse their products.
How to draw affiliates and become one.
You need to keep your website in tip top shape. Whether you want to become an affiliate for another, large company or allow other sites to publicize your product, you need to keep up appearances.
- Create an amazing landing page. You should have already done this. WordPress helps you create a great looking website. Just don’t get too complicated with the design. It should be easy on the eyes and clear to read.
- Have a stellar image. You want to have an exceptional reputation. This will keep affiliates happy and interested in your website.
- Pay on time. If you are paying affiliates to advertise for your site, be sure to pay on time. This goes with number 2. To keep a good reputation, you have to keep your affiliates happy.
- Show how well your site performs. This means sharing data with your affiliates and companies you want to advertise for. They will want to see how well your site does with hard data. If you are doing well, you will want to boast your success anyway!
- Communicate quickly. It’s important to get back to those who are interested in partnering up with you. They shouldn’t contact you and hear crickets. In this information age, these deals are done quickly or not at all. So, set time aside each day to answer or emails or hire a digital assistant to help you with this.
- Link to relevant products. Like I stated before, when looking for an affiliate program, try to find something that pertains to your niche. It will keep your readers interested.
- Pick quality brands. Being an affiliate for a new product can be great, but sticking with brands people know and love could yield you even more payback. Companies will see the types of brands you are tied to, and that will make you more desirable.
If all of this seems easy, it’s because it is. From super successful podcasters to small mom-blogs, people are utilizing these types of monetization models to generate income. Strike while the iron is hot to become a part of this community of passive income makers.