Ever wonder how multi-billionaires keep up with their lavish lifestyles? Through clever online marketing and smart use of affiliate marketing, you can become a digital millionaire too! Let’s dive into how you can make money online and how you can use this new found knowledge to better your life.
The Basics Of Online Marketing And Affiliate Marketing
If you’re reading this, I assume you’re either a) aware of the importance of SEO and having a web site that’s both mobile-optimized and user-friendly or b) you’re looking to pick up on the basics of SEO and web design and hoping to learn more about affiliate marketing.
SEO simply stands for Search Engine Optimization and involves using keyword research to figure out what words and phrases your target audience might use to search for your product or service. If you’re doing SEO wrong, your site won’t appear in the relevant search results and you won’t be able to generate any sales. User-friendly web design takes a bit more work but makes a big difference in terms of increasing visitations and lowering bounce rates. A high bounce rate can severely hurt your SEO efforts.
When someone types in a search query and lands on your site, they’re called “visitors.” As a digital marketer, you’ll want to focus on converting these visitors into paying customers.
Pick A Niche
One way to make money online is to choose a niche and then find products relating to that niche. For example, if you’re passionate about lifestyle and fashion, you could start a blog for women or men who want to learn how to dress a certain way. You’ll want to make sure that your niche is big enough to support your efforts, but not so big that you overwhelm yourself with new content. Also, make sure that you don’t pick a niche that’s already saturated; you’ll never stand out among the hordes of blogs already writing about your chosen topic.
The advantage of picking a niche is that you have a clear direction to take your content management efforts. If you want to learn how to dress fashionably, you’ll have to create content relating to fashion. Similarly, if you want to learn how to cook a certain type of food, you’ll have to create recipes for that specific type of food. When you have a niche, your blog posts can be more specialized and, therefore, more valuable. In addition, you’ll be able to niche down your blog’s target audience, enhancing your engagement levels.
Create Great Content
So, you’ve picked your niche and you know what content to create. Now, you need to figure out how to create content that will be valuable to your target audience. One way to do this is to look for “tip” articles, which are shorter pieces of content geared towards providing helpful advice. For example, if you’re passionate about lifestyle and fashion, you could write an article for women advising them on how to dress fashionably. Or, if you’re a personal stylist, you could write an article for men advising them on how to dress their wives or girlfriends.
Make sure that your content is valuable and that you’ve created something that will stick out above the rest. Ideally, your content should teach your target audience something new or provide them with a new way of thinking. If you can, conduct a little experiment and see how many of your existing articles result in sales. This will help you determine how content marketing strategy affects conversion rates.
Make Money With Affiliate Marketing
The second way to make money online is through affiliate marketing. Simply put, affiliate marketing is when you promote a product or service that’s owned (or owneded) by someone else and you make a commission based on the sale you bring in. For example, you might write an article about fashion and then include an affiliate link pointing to a product that’s owned by Victoria’s Secret. If someone clicks on that link and purchases the item, you’ll make a 20% commission.
There are various ways to make money online with affiliate marketing. For example, you could create a blog for women and then promote and write content for various brands (e.g., Victoria’s Secret, Ralph Lauren, and others), or you could create a podcast and then promote and speak at various affiliate marketing conferences.
You will need to learn how to create affiliate marketing scripts and how to structure them effectively. Also, make sure that you’re always disclosing your affiliations (i.e., which products you’re promoting and how much you’ll make if someone purchases one of those products). Consumers want to know that the products they’re purchasing are worth what they’re paying and that the salesperson isn’t trying to sell them a snake oil product.
Make Money With Affiliate Marketing (continued)
Once you’ve mastered the basics of SEO and affiliate marketing, you can dive into more sophisticated methods of generating an income online. For example, you could create a blog for dog owners and then, based on your existing knowledge and skills, pitch various products relating to dogs (e.g., a pedometer designed for dogs, or a chew toy made out of bones) and earn a commission from each sale.
If you have a specific product or service in mind that you think might be a fit for a niche, don’t hesitate to pitch it to someone. Likewise, if you’re passionate about a topic related to dogs (e.g., dog training or canine anatomy), start a blog devoted to that topic and then, based on your existing knowledge and skills, pitch various products relating to dogs (e.g., a doggie bowl, or a harness designed for dogs) and earn a commission from each sale.
Once you’ve generated a modest income, you can consider taking your efforts further and learning to convert those sales into a permanent income stream. This is easier said than done, but if you follow the right steps, you’ll be able to do this. For example, you can use affiliate marketing to establish yourself as an expert in your chosen field and then, eventually, enter into a monetized partnership with a major corporation. Alternatively, you could establish yourself as a freelancer and then attract clients who might be willing to purchase your services (e.g., write an article for a client, design a website for a client, or, perform market research for a client).
The Dangers Of Being A Digital Nomad
The last thing you want to do if you’re looking to make money online is to move to another country and start a new life there. That’s what a lot of digital nomads do and it’s not a bad choice; after all, affordability is a key reason why so many are choosing to migrate to another country and establish themselves (at least partially) online.
What you want to avoid is establishing yourself in one place and then hopping around from place to place, continually looking for work. If you do this, you’ll never be able to sit back and enjoy life as a digital nomad. Instead, you’ll always be looking for work, struggling to make ends meet and hoping that the next place you land will be your ticket to financial freedom.
In terms of the danger of being a digital nomad, you have two things to watch out for: bad clients and bad business partners. As a freelancer, you’ll have to take on various projects that might not be worth your time and effort. Some clients might be very demanding and not willing to pay for the level of service that you provide. In these cases, it’s best to walk away. The second risk you run is by partnering with untrustworthy individuals or companies. If you do this, you might end up losing a lot of money and have to terminate the partnership (at least, temporarily).
Make sure that you only work with reputable companies and individuals who you can trust. In order to verify the legitimacy of a company, you can use reputation management platforms like ClouDz or TruRep. With these platforms, you can lookup any company and get detailed information about their business practices. Doing business with a company that has a terrible reputation won’t benefit you in any way, so make sure that you steer clear of these types of entities.