What Are Affiliate Links & How Do They Work?

Affiliate links propel creators and bloggers to earn an online income.

By clicking on an affiliate link, a portion of the customer’s sale amount will go to the affiliate marketer as a thank you for bringing the customer to the platform for purchase.

Affiliate links generate income for content creators.

Adding them to your blog posts is almost a guarantee that you will get a bit of extra income from your chosen affiliate program.

What Are Affiliate Links?

Affiliate marketing is when an affiliate, such as a content creator or blogger, gets paid part of the sales made from affiliate links to a company’s website.

When you become an approved affiliate, you will be assigned an affiliate link to put on your social media handles and websites to drive traffic, make sales, and receive commissions.

High-paying affiliate marketing programs will yield you more money than standard affiliate marketing programs.

Do your research to find out more about the highest-paid ones in your niche, so you can get the best return on investment.

Doing research into your market will help you find the best affiliate programs for your blog.

How Does An Affiliate Link Work?

When the buyer clicks on the affiliate link and makes a purchase, the affiliate will receive a commission.

The affiliate marketer receives compensation for promoting the product to consumers on their blog, website, or social media page.

What is the Main Difference Between An Affiliate Link and a Regular Link?

A regular link to the website means that the buyer is purchasing directly from the website.

Of course, an affiliate link is also purchased directly from the merchant.

The link coding is connected to that person’s affiliate account to receive their commission when a buyer pays for a product.

What Do Affiliate Links Look Like?

An affiliate link looks just like any other link.

It may have specific anchor text requested by the affiliate program.

Upon clicking the link, you’ll be taken to the promotional website.

If you make a purchase using the affiliate link, the content creator who generated the link will receive a portion of the proceeds.

How Much Do Affiliate Links Pay?

Affiliate marketers make a specific percentage of each sale the company designates.

Most affiliate marketers earn about 5% commission per sale made on their affiliate links.

However, some people can earn upwards of 50% per purchase, especially for a class or a special event ticket.

Read the company’s affiliate marketing guidelines to learn about your compensation schedule.

Other times, you may be paid for each time that someone clicks on the affiliate link and at least views the products without making a purchase.

Pay-per-click affiliate links will pay a small amount since there are bountiful possibilities that different people can click through your link.

Affiliate links have higher percentages averaging 5% to 20% per sale since it is more challenging to make an official sale.

How to Get an Affiliate Link

Applying for an affiliate link takes time and patience.

You have to meet specific standards in influencing your audience so that the company believes that you are a good fit as an affiliate marketer.

Start affiliate marketing by following the procedure below.

Repeat the process if you want to affiliate with multiple websites.

Find a Product or Service to Promote

Signing up for affiliate programs will enhance your passive income as a content creator or blogger.

First, you must find a product or service that fits with your niche that you wish to promote.  

Find Out if They Have an Affiliate Program

Not every company has an affiliate program.

Once you select the products or services you want to promote, you must check if they have an affiliate program.

Browse links at the top and bottom of the website.

Sometimes you can find information about an affiliate program in the “About Us” section of a website.

Sign Up for the Affiliate Program

Find the affiliate program sign-up link. Complete the application in its entirety.

You may need a link to your blog, website, or social media page, so they can check how many organic followers you have and what traffic patterns are at stake for your brand.

Get Assigned a Link

Once a representative from public relations or another department in the company approves your affiliate application, they will assign you an affiliate link.

Copy and paste the link into your social media page descriptions, promote it on your social media reels, and have it linked in your YouTube video descriptions.

Can You Have Multiple Affiliate Links?

Yes, you can have multiple affiliate links.

This means you can build additional passive income for your brand to enhance profits.

However, if you try to affiliate with direct competitors, there may be an issue if your current affiliate contract states do not affiliate with a specific competitor.

If you like both companies that are direct competitors, evaluate the pros and cons of each one and affiliate with the one you believe will advance your business the most.

Do You Have to Disclose Affiliate Links?

As an affiliate marketer, it is important to note that disclosing affiliate links is required by law.

If you make a YouTube video, place text at the beginning of the video saying that it was sponsored.

In the video description, disclose that the links you are providing are affiliate links so you are within the parameters of the law.  

Disclose with a sentence that you have affiliate links in your social media handle bios and your Link Tree description to reassure that everyone is privy to this fact.

How to Use Affiliate Links

Using affiliate links properly will net you the highest amount of commission possible.

Post them everywhere that you publish content.

Include the Affiliate Link on Your Website

In your list of products and services, have a special section of your website dedicated to affiliate links.

For each affiliate link, have a one to three-paragraph description of what the product or service is and encourage potential buyers to support you by clicking the link.

Encourage Readers to Use the Product

Outline the benefits of the product or service in the description following the affiliate link.

Talk about its usefulness and how it can change their lives by making it more convenient and easy.

Drive Traffic to the Affiliate Site

Driving traffic to the affiliate site is as easy as utilizing tools used by affiliate marketers.

Use an email marketing tool to contact your newsletter members via email so that they are exposed to the products or services which you are attempting to promote.

Hence it will drive them that much closer to clicking the affiliate link.

Ad tracking tools help to realize where the bulk of your customer traffic comes from.

Then, you can promote the best ads that will bring more traffic to your website and in turn, develop traffic to the affiliate site.

Get Clicks on the Link

Get creative on how you get clicks on the link.

Publish a couple of YouTube videos or reels every week with the link in the description so more people explore the product or service more often.

The more content that you can create that includes the affiliate link, the more followers and readers you will get.

Therefore, that increases the likelihood of the link getting clicked on more regularly.

Convert Clicks to Sales

Review the different products with videos and blog posts so your followers and readers can see how the products work.

How will people develop an interest in wanting to buy something if they do not see how it works?

Sometimes it takes someone’s valid and objective opinion for someone to make the final decision to go and purchase a product.

Be that voice and always promote the products.

However, do it in a fun way that does not seem sales-like so that you can build trust with your following.

How to Start Affiliate Link Building

Affiliate link building involves dedication, patience, and constant research.

You have to be on the up and up if you want to make a living as an affiliate marketer.

Devote some time each day to your affiliate marketing endeavors to advance your road to making passive income more valuable.

Have a Strategy

Implement a strategy and write it down in a notebook to solidify it.

Start by looking at different favorite brands affiliated with your website’s niche.

Look on the websites to see if they have affiliate programs.

Communicate

After you put in your affiliate applications, follow up with the companies via email after a week if there is no response.

If it has been at least eight to 14 days with no response at all since you put in your application, give the right department in the company a call for a follow-up.

Build Solid Relationships

Find someone in the company with which you can build a solid business relationship.

Creating relationships will make the partnership between the company and you as the affiliate marketer more defined.

Build a Strategy

Continue strategizing as you develop relationships with the companies.

Email or call the representative you have connected with to get intel about new products or services being offered within the company so that you can help promote them.

Frequently Asked Questions

Let’s go over some frequently asked questions about affiliate links and affiliate marketing for further understanding.

Final Thoughts

Joining an affiliate program and adding affiliate links to your blog posts and other creative content can help you begin to generate an income simply from writing about topics you care about.

Once you’re able to join a program, affiliate marketing is as easy as adding in the necessary links and disclosing your participation in the program of your choice.

Get started with affiliate marketing today and take it step-by-step to start earning passive income!