As we get older, the need to have some kind of a passive or residual income in our golden years will always be in our thoughts. The opportunities available in the wide wide world of internet is vast and extensive. The trick is not to get sucked into the scammy ones though.
I delved into affiliate marketing a few years ago as a stay at home mom but stopped because I ended up applying for a job in the hospital and having a guaranteed income coming in was a better idea than wasting my time learning something I am not sure will generate any revenue. Although some requirements have changed from ten years ago, some things are still the same. You have to get approved by the affiliate sites you wanted to work with and you have to have a lot of followers in your website and other social media sites for people to even click on any links of the products and companies you are affiliated with. Building the number of followers that really bring in traffic and engagements to your sites really takes time. I still have a long way to go from getting the number of followers and buyers for a steady income but now I hope I will have enough clicks and buyers to keep it going. Income stream with affiliate marketing can be viable if you are continually and consistently working at it and have loyal followers and buyers that constantly visit your links.
Now that I am trying to work at it again, let's see if I can actually get it to give me some earnings. I will surely let you guys know how it is as the time goes by.
As I am reading and watching youtube videos about affiliates, I always come across influencers. If you base your comparison as an Amazon affiliate vs. Amazon influencer, they are basically similar. Here are some differences among the two:
1. You can start adding links as an affiliate as soon as you submit your application as long as you have a running website or blog and other platforms you can add links to. You just need to have some materials already entered. It will take a little more time to get approved as an influencer though. You need to prove that you have the required number of followers and engagements in your social media sites before you will be approved, you don't need to have a website.
2. You get links to share to your blogs, websites, etc as an Amazon affiliate while an Amazon influencer once approved gets an Amazon storefront. When you click on an influencers' link you get an Amazon store site with the influencers' name on the left hand side.
3. An affiliate needs to have three sales within 180 days of opening the associates account to be an Amazon affiliate, if you can't get the three sales within the 180 days, you are off the program. An influencer starts earning right when they are approved and have their storefront.
4. Once you have three sales as an affiliate within 180 days of applying, you will not be removed from the program. If an influencer whose Amazon storefront and links stopped having traffic, you will be removed from the program.
5. Both earn similar commissions. It depends on the category of merchandize and companies you link to. Both can reapply if you removed.
Ana of Thesheapproach have a comprehensive blog and youtube post I'd like to share where she explains these differences in detail.
As an associate, you are also required to disclose it to your followers.
Here are examples from thesheapproach blog:
- “As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.”
- “[your name] earns commissions from some of the services/products listed on this site.“
- “[your name or blog name] is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com“
Thank you for dropping by.
