No matter your niche, there are affiliate opportunities everywhere!
If you don’t know what affiliate marketing is read this post first: What Is Affiliate Marketing And How Does It Work?
Or join this free 5-Day Master Affiliate Marketing email course.
How To Become An Awin Affiliate
What is affiliate marketing?
In general, affiliate marketing is the act of promoting a brand’s products or services by means of your own platform (blogging, social media, vlogging, etc.) and being rewarded for the sales you drive by getting a commission from the amount you sell.
- Affiliate: brand promoter.
- Affiliate Program: either a network of brands (which is what Awin is) that are looking for affiliates or a brand that has its own affiliate program.
For example, at LadyBossBlogger we have our own affiliate program that is open to anyone looking to sell our blogging, influencer, and email marketing courses. LadyBossBlogger affiliates get 40% of the sale.
Below is an example of what an affiliate might post on Instagram.
Every affiliate program is different, but usually, affiliates get 10-20% of the sale. All the brands on the Awin network have a different commission percentage amount.
What Is Awin?
Awin is a marketing platform for influencers.
With 13,000 advertisers, over 100,000 publishers (affiliates), and 180 countries Awin is at the top in terms of affiliate networks. They work as the middleman between you and brands looking for affiliates.
By connecting you with the right brands on Awin that match with your niche, you will be earning money as an Awin affiliate in no time.
Easy 3 Steps To Get Started!
STEP ONE:
Click here to head over to Awin and sign up.Â
You’ll then be walked through the steps to set up your account which will ask you questions about:
- Your business/brand
- Your main audience/business type
- The products that you typically sell/promote
STEP TWO:
Pay the $5 registration fee, you’ll earn that back right after you make your first $5 sale which isn’t that hard.
STEP THREE:
Wait until their compliance team has approved your account. This may take up to 48 hours, but they provide you with different guides and articles to help you better understand the process while you wait! Once they’ve approved your account, you’ll be all set to start finding brands to promote on your sites!
How To Pick The Best Brands For You
When creating your account, you were asked to pick some niches that align with your brand so that Awin can help find the best brands for you.
Here are the deciding factors on how to choose the best companies to promote as their affiliate:
1. Commission Rates
Depending on the brand/name/business, these will vary. It is important to know how much you will be making before you give loads of time to creating material geared towards selling their product.
Some programs can be very deceiving about what percentage or flat rate they intend on giving you, so make sure you know this beforehand. The bigger the percentage the better! The highest percentages you’ll see are 40%.
2. Cookie Length
This is the amount of time your affiliate link stays active once a visitor has clicked on it. Some are 90 days, 30 days, or even as short as 24 hours – such as Amazon.
Meaning, once a visitor clicks on your link, that is the amount of time they have to make a purchase in order for you to receive a commission before the link expires.
Every business has different cookie lengths, be sure to know these timelines so you can better understand the effects your marketing has on your readers. The longer the cookie length, the higher the chance of you receiving your earned payment.
3. Brand Awareness
Now this one is pretty self-explanatory, but knowing the impact a given brand has on your audience is also very important. If it’s a name people generally recognize, they are more likely to trust what you are saying about it because of their past experience with the brand.
If you’re promoting a brand that is not as well known, you better make sure that you are satisfied with the brand before you start advertising it to your audience. Your audience trusts your judgment, therefore only promote what you believe in.
Pro Tip:
Make sure to be authentic. No matter how simple it may seem to promote something despite you having used it before or not, only promote products and services that you are proud of.
There is nothing worse than losing followers/readers/customers because you promoted a product that either didn’t align with your audience or was down-right a bad product. Be transparent.
It’s as simple as this: don’t promote brands you personally wouldn’t use!
I hope that after reading this article that you are walking away knowing a little bit more about the business of affiliate marketing and on your way to start partnering with Awin‘s brands!
Affiliate marketing can seem tricky, but with a network like Awin, you will be promoting brands and services you love in no time. There is no better way to start making an income as a blogger and learning more about the products and services you may want to create yourself someday!
Fran Kolars is a blogging intern for LadyBossBlogger. She is currently working towards her bachelor’s degree in Retail Merchandising and Interior Design at the University of Minnesota. Blogging is an interest of hers that was sparked by her passion for mental health, self-care, and motivation for women.