Tag: Affiliate Marketing

Start an Affiliate Marketing Side Hustle with Ease | Entrepreneur

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Disclosure: Our goal is to feature products and services that we think you’ll find interesting and useful. If you purchase them, Entrepreneur may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners.

If you run a company, you know the importance of diversifying revenue streams. If you aren’t already leveraging affiliate marketing in your content, starting to do so is easy and affordable. That’s because we’re offering a 73% savings on a lifetime subscription to Auto Affiliate Links PRO, a top-rated platform that can streamline your affiliate marketing efforts.

Auto Affiliate Links PRO has earned a 4.5/5-star rating on AppSumo for its intuitive, effective service. The WordPress plugin makes it extremely easy to automatically insert affiliate links into your content from platforms like Amazon, Clickbank, eBay, and more. With so many source options, you can add affiliate links that are authentic to your brand and messaging and ones your audience will enjoy. You can add links individually, in bulk, or by uploading a data feed, and the program will show you where the links will fit, making it easy to add affiliate marketing to existing and new content.

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Prices are subject to change.

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Entrepreneur Store

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November 18, 2023
Why Successful Businesses Embrace Affiliate Marketing | Entrepreneur
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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Even though the marketing world has seen some significant new trends and technologies, one strategy has impressively risen in popularity in recent years: affiliate marketing.

While affiliate marketing has been around for years, it has recently taken a front seat in the media as a “side hustle.” Millennials and Generation Z have taken a recent liking to the idea of earning money passively, and affiliate marketing has proven to be a tried and true method for doing so.

And why is it so popular? I’ll give you two big reasons:
1. It’s easy for brands and businesses to manage.
2. Financially speaking, it’s a win-win.
Let’s break down how affiliate marketing reached this point and the benefits your brand could miss.

Related: 5 Ways Entrepreneurs Can Boost Their Visibility with Affiliate Marketing

The origin of affiliate marketing

First, a little history lesson. If you didn’t know, the concept of affiliates came from the PC Flower and Gifts founder, William J. Tobin, originating in the late 1980s and early 1990s. But it wasn’t until Amazon that the program became more fleshed out and open to the public.

Amazon’s idea was to allow individuals to promote their products and earn commissions on sales generated through their referrals. This concept, of course, was revolutionary as it introduced a performance-based marketing approach, where brands only paid for actual results, such as sales or leads.

Over time, this model gained traction, and when paired with our current technological advancements, it became a mainstream marketing strategy that brands couldn’t afford to participate in.

Related: 3 Tips to Get Started with Affiliate Marketing

The reasons behind the craze

Enter the current day, and affiliate marketing has exploded in popularity. Its current rise can be linked to several key factors.

First, the exponential growth of e-commerce over the past decade has been a significant motivation for affiliate marketing, with more people shopping online than ever. More online shopping has created more opportunities for creators or affiliates to promote the products and services they love while also gaining a little commission.

For marketers and brands — especially small businesses – affiliate marketing is attractive thanks to its low cost and low barriers to entry. On a tight budget, affiliate marketing is a great way to maximize ROI without breaking the bank.

Top that off with the rise of dependency on social media for creators and brands – specifically influencer marketing. It’s easier than ever for people to build an audience online and generate more revenue both for themselves and for brands through the simple process of promoting products and services.

With all that in mind, it’s no surprise the affiliate marketing industry is growing so rapidly, being worth over $17 billion today. Now, let’s look at why the rise of affiliate marketing is a win for brands.

Related: When the World Goes Dark, Will Your Business Keep the Lights On?

Benefits for brands

Brands have much to gain from participating in affiliate marketing and a lot to lose by ignoring it. Here are just a few of the reasons why…

Firstly, it is a great extension of their marketing team — using their affiliates to connect with new and eager audiences at a lower cost.

Secondly, it enhances a brand’s credibility. Positive reviews and recommendations from trusted affiliates can significantly boost a brand’s reputation.

Consumers tend to trust product endorsements from individuals they follow and admire. Think about it – when was the last time you purchased something solely because you saw it in a video or a photo?

Furthermore, affiliate marketing can improve a brand’s SEO efforts. Backlinks can act as roads to your website. With backlinks ranging from a variety of affiliate websites, you end up creating a large roadmap of products that ultimately lead to your website and improve your visibility efforts.

What’s next for affiliate marketing

With all of that said the future of affiliate marketing looks highly promising.

We will likely see a surge in personalization efforts. With tracking systems and the evolution of content marketing, brands can tailor their affiliate marketing strategies to individual consumer preferences to deliver a more personalized and engaged shopping experience.

Additionally, we have seen new social media platforms pop up quickly in recent years — the more, the merrier. More platforms = more opportunities for success.

Lastly, the future of affiliate marketing will be shaped by evolving consumer preferences and online shopping behaviors. With an increasing number of consumers relying on online platforms for their shopping needs, affiliates and brands will continue to have new opportunities to drive interest and improve ROI.

As brands continue to realize the benefits of this marketing strategy, it is likely to remain a prominent fixture in the marketing landscape. By leaning on their affiliates, brands can expand their reach, improve credibility, and drive revenue while providing affiliates with a profitable and flexible income source.

So, should your brand embrace affiliate marketing? The answer is clear: YES!
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Christopher Tompkins

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November 3, 2023
10 Proven Passive Income Ideas for 2023 | Entrepreneur
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There are many ways to generate passive income and change your financial future. Whether you want to earn just an extra $1000 per month on the side or go into something full-time and replace your current salary, different passive income ideas require different work and time.

Upfront work is required, so don’t expect to get rich overnight, but with a plan in place and the right kind of motivation, you can see success much sooner than you think.

1. Start an Online Business

Starting an online business is the best way to generate revenue on autopilot.

Why?
1. You don’t need a ton of cash upfront.
2. You have a lot of room to make mistakes, and
3. It’s one of the most fulfilling life adventures you could ever be on.
I started my first online business in 2008 after being laid off from an architecture job I loved. My website helped architects pass a difficult exam, and people paid me for study material I created to help them prepare.

How much money did this business make?

In one year, I generated over $200,000, more than double what I earned as an architect.

2. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing allows you to generate passive income simply by recommending existing products to other people. If you’ve ever recommended something to a friend, you know how to do affiliate marketing already.

Affiliate marketing has been my most significant single source of revenue, bringing in over $4 million since 2009.

So, how does affiliate marketing work, exactly?

With affiliate marketing, you recommend other people or company’s products and services to your following. You can talk about it on YouTube, a website, in an email, or even just with your social following. And, when someone purchases from your recommendation, you’ll receive a commission from the sale.

One of the most popular and accessible ways to get started is through the Amazon Affiliate Program. People already know and trust shopping from Amazon, and you’ll have a massive range of products to select from.

Just be sure only to choose products that you can stand behind, and that will serve your audience well, and be sure to always be upfront that a link you promote is an affiliate link.

To be successful with this, you’ll need to put time into building an audience who trusts that you’ll always steer them in the right direction and then follow through on that.

Related: 12 Myths and Misconceptions of Affiliate Marketing

3. Start a YouTube Channel

Starting a YouTube channel is an excellent option for making passive income online; it’s free to get started, and if you create videos that people want to watch, you can generate revenue from ads, sponsorships, and even promoting your products.

Recently, I started a new YouTube channel all about Pokemon cards called Deep Pocket Monster. In two years, this new channel has grown to over 500,000 subscribers, and it generates revenue from ads, sponsorships, and even affiliate marketing by promoting card shops and binders on my videos.

4. Open a Paid Membership Business

Like signing up for a gym membership, people join online memberships and pay recurring fees for the sense of community and value it brings them. In fact, we have a couple ourselves:
- Our SPI All-Access Pass is a community of up-and-coming entrepreneurs who get access to all of our courses, workshops, community events, and even guides to help them through the material.
- SPI PRO is our higher-level community of established business owners who want to network, connect, and share ideas with growth in mind. We require an application to get into this paid community.
Both of our communities require a recurring payment (quarterly or annual), but people are happy to continue to pay that because they’re getting more value in return.

With a membership business, you may need a platform to host your community. Circle is our top choice because it’s easy to use and familiar to users who join. This is our affiliate link for Circle in case you’d like to check it out and give it a run!

5. Make Print-on-Demand Designs

If you have a keen eye for design and current trends and know how to use design software, selling print-on-demand designs could be a great option to create passive income.

With print-on-demand, you don’t have to buy any inventory ahead of time, so it’s a low-risk business model.

You’ll work with a print provider, like Printful or Teespring, to sell merch (t-shirts, mugs, bags, etc.) customized with your designs and sold per order.

When someone buys one of your designs, the print provider fulfills, prints, and ships the order on your behalf.

The trickiest part is making unique, high-quality designs that inspire your people to purchase them.

6. Offer Software as a Service (SaaS) Business

Another potentially lucrative option for passive income is to create an app or software that you can offer as a subscription service—also called software as a service (SaaS).

To do something like this requires coding knowledge or the funds to hire someone who knows how to code, but there are many resources available to find people who can do that kind of work for you, like Upwork.

Remember that this is one of the more time-consuming options; it will take a good chunk of time to plan and get things up and running.

Also, you will have to create and offer a truly valuable solution—and market your solution effectively—to make passive income with this, which isn’t exactly easy.

This is a challenging route., but it can be rewarding.

Related: How to Successfully Launch a Product in Under 90 Days

7. Create an Online Course

Everyone has a skill they can teach, so why not monetize yours AND help others by creating an online course?

Making an online course isn’t too difficult either, but it will take a lot of time and effort to ensure it’s useful. We host our online courses on both Teachable and Circle, and it’s an amazing way to package information into a place where people can experience a transformation or solve a problem.

Once you’ve created the content and have everything set up, it can be an incredibly profitable source of passive income.

There are several platforms, like Udemy or Skillshare, that you can choose from to host your course and facilitate getting your course paid viewers.

However, I always recommend using your website to give you greater control and true ownership.

8. Create No-Code Apps

Did you know you can reap the benefits of creating an app without knowing how to code? Apart from hiring an expensive developer, that is.

Yep, you can control the process and create an app through development platforms like Zapier, Appy Pie, or Bubble.

There are a lot of apps out there, so to be successful with this, you’ll need to search and identify a need and fill that need with your app.

If you set your objectives ahead of time and know exactly which problem you’re trying to solve—and who you’re solving it for—you’ll already be a step ahead of the competition.

With this, you can earn high passive income through downloads, subscriptions, ads, etc.—depending on how you model it.

9. Publish an eBook

Selling eBooks online is a very accessible method of making passive income.

The idea of creating a whole digital “book” might still sound intimidating to you, but I promise it’s actually simple to do.

Your book’s content can be informative or entertaining, and it can be as short and simple as a 5-page PDF.

You don’t have to be a pro writer or even an expert on your eBook’s topic. Just be sure to provide high-quality, well-designed content that resonates with your audience.

You can even hire a freelance ghostwriter and graphic designer to help you out.

All you have to do is self-publish it to Amazon or Apple Books and promote it to your audience.

Writing an eBook gives you a vehicle to benefit your existing audience with helpful information, further strengthening your relationship with them.

It’s also a great tool to augment your audience to new levels and boost traffic to your website, podcast, and other channels—growing your brand.

10. Write a Book

Writing a physical book is a great way to generate passive income, not just from the book’s potential sales, but how it may promote other services and products you have to offer.

I’ve written and published three books myself, and although it’s a tough route, it’s super rewarding, and the residual income, if you continue to market the book (or it takes off on its own)can be plentiful.

My self-published book, Will It Fly, has generated a total of $459,341.00 (between 2016 and 2019)

If you’d like to join a community of people just like you who are building their businesses right now, please check out our All-Access Pass. We’ll guide you across our entire course library to ensure you give yourself the best chance to earn an additional income.

You got this!
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Pat Flynn

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August 29, 2023
Our Side Hustle Lets Us Stay for Free in Homes Around the World | Entrepreneur

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Like many young couples, Austin Andrews and Jori Kerr wanted to travel but couldn’t afford the sky-high expenses. Then Jodi stumbled upon a blog post touting the benefits of pet sitting.

“I discovered we could stay in amazing homes around the world for free, caring for great animals,” Kerr recalls.

They paid an annual fee (around $130/year) to join a service called Trusted House Sitters and waited for a response. After a few months, the couple from Bend, Oregon, got an invitation to go down to Grenada in the Caribbean for 14 days to care for a few pets.

The trip was magical, with endless sunsets, long walks on the beach, and free lodging.

“That set our path. After that, we just knew that was what we wanted to do,” says Andrews.

Two years later, the couple has made their love of travel and caring for animals a full-time job. Their company Nomads and Pawpads is a content marketing business that chronicles their adventures pet sitting in 11 countries in 5 different contents. In addition to staying in luxurious homes around the world for free, they earn up to $22,000 a month.

^{Nomads and Pawpads}

Related: These Dog Walkers Are Making $100,000 a Year

Starting as a side hustle

Before launching Nomads and Pawpads, Andrews and Kerr were content just traveling the world taking care of pets as a side hustle.

Kerr worked at a brewery in customer service, and Andrews was a landscaper. They traveled during the winter when Andrews wasn’t working, and Kerr could work remotely.

Although their rent was free, they weren’t getting paid to pet sit. Visa restrictions do not allow international house sitters to get paid for their work. House sitting is a free exchange. They occasionally received money to pet sit around the U.S., but international travel excited them. They needed to figure out a way to make it work.

The solution: Write about their travels using affiliate marketing and social media collaborations to monetize. The couple uses their website, Instagram, and TikTok to market their pet-sitting lifestyle, offering advice, resources, and paid links to house exchange platforms such as Trusted House Sitters.

Other popular pet-sitting sites include:

HousesittersAmerica.com

Rover.com

MindMyHouse.com

As content marketing revenue increased, they could quit their other jobs and take on full-time pet sitting. They now spend about 6 to 9 months out of the year abroad.

Some of their most memorable experiences include trips to the beaches of South Portugal and stays in Singapore and Hanoi.

Most of the requests are easy—walk and feed the dog and/or cat, change the litter, give them fresh water, and light grooming. They’re also asked to take out the garbage and collect the mail, simple requests that leave them plenty of free time to explore their location.

But sometimes, pet owners require something a little out of the ordinary. Recently, they were asked to walk a cat in a stroller. They also had to feed a bearded dragon named Athena.

“That was definitely one of our most exotic pets,” says Andrews. “But she was super easy.”

Related: Do You Love Animals? Here Are 5 Ways You Can Turn Your Passion into Real Money

Is pet sitting right for you?

Pet sitting may sound like a fun and affordable way to see the world, but it’s not for everyone. Andrews and Kerr believe there are a few traits you need to possess to make it work.

You have to be an animal lover. Both Andrew and Kerr are big animal fans. Kerr grew up on a game bird farm with dreams of being a veterinarian. “But I couldn’t really handle the sad part of that,” she says. “Pet sitting is perfect because I still get to be around animals, and, you know, there are some stressful moments for sure.

You have to be flexible and creative. Travel schedules change, so you need to be willing to adapt. You also have to be creative about your going pay your way. Remember, international pet-sitting jobs only cover your housing costs. So you’ll need to figure out how to pay for the rest of the trip. One bonus about Europe, says Andrews. “It’s much cheaper once you get there. It’s like $60 to fly from Rome to Paris.”

You have to be a good communicator. Make sure you’re in good communication with the pet owners. Leaving your home and pets in the hands of strangers can be stressful. “You wanna make sure everyone’s comfortable and on the same page,” says Andrews.

Nomads and Pawpads

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Jonathan Small

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August 14, 2023
7 Affiliate Marketing Strategies for Entrepreneurs | Entrepreneur

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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

We’ve all been there. You invest hours into crafting your brand, diligently expanding your audience, yet your revenue isn’t reflecting the time and effort you’ve put into your platform. All major brands utilize partner marketing, which is significant in growing brands and gaining revenues.

Partner and affiliate marketing play a crucial role in brand growth by leveraging the influence and reach of trusted partners. Companies can tap into new audiences by collaborating with them, increasing brand awareness and driving customer acquisition. This strategic approach allows brands to benefit from the credibility and expertise of their partners, resulting in expanded market reach and ultimately higher revenues.

Below are seven things to remember while working with marketing partners for your company.

1. Redefining high-earning potential

The commonly held belief that fashion and beauty are the most lucrative sectors in affiliate marketing is becoming obsolete. While these areas maintain a significant market share, the high competition they attract can make differentiation challenging.

Special events are also worth considering. During Black Friday 2022, for instance, event tickets, various online services and PC and mobile games claimed the top three positions based on our data. These niche sectors have vast potential for affiliates willing to explore them.

Related: Start an Affiliate Marketing Side Hustle to Bring in Passive Income

2. Fostering niche communities for greater profit

Traditionally, the recipe for maximum income in affiliate marketing revolved around maintaining a wide audience with high engagement. The landscape has evolved today, with the biggest profit potential now lying within fast-growing niche sectors.

Growth of partner sales in niche segments worldwide in 2022 demonstrates this shift, with niches like Console and PC Games seeing a 35% growth, Mobile Services and IT services growing by 95%, and even Movies & Music growing by 33%, according to ConvertSocial data.

Such trends indicate you can unlock significantly greater profits by building a loyal, engaged community in a specific niche.

Related: How to Effectively Beat Your Direct Competition in a Niche Market

3. Engagement is the new currency

Engagement has emerged as the new currency in the digital space, outweighing the importance of audience size. Our report shows that even creators with smaller audiences can earn significant sums, provided they maintain high engagement levels. For instance, one of our client’s Telegram channels, with around 200,000 users focused on gadgets, earns $2,000 monthly.

In contrast, another fashion-focused channel with only 8,200 subscribers made a whopping $6,400 in the same period. This underscores that an actively engaged audience, regardless of its size, is the cornerstone of a successful affiliate marketing strategy.

These statistics demonstrate that the affiliate marketing landscape is undergoing a transformative shift, opening up new avenues for profit and engagement. As we step into this new era, it’s essential to adapt our strategies to these changing dynamics. After all, success in affiliate marketing is no longer just about casting the widest net — it’s about casting the right one.

Related: 3 Tips to Get Started with Affiliate Marketing

4. Monetizing blogs — Quality over quantity

While monetizing a blog can seem daunting, it’s far from impossible. The key lies in focusing on creating and delivering real, valuable content that goes beyond mere advertising. This approach builds a loyal readership and makes your blog more appealing to advertisers looking for high-quality, engaging platforms to showcase their products or services. Rather than churning out countless low-value posts, invest time and effort into producing fewer but high-quality, insightful articles that resonate with your audience.

Related: 3 Tips to Get Started with Affiliate Marketing

5. Fair revenue share — the new norm

In the early stages of content creation as a recognized profession, creators often found themselves at the short end of the stick when it came to revenue generation. The platforms hosting the content usually claimed the lion’s share of profits, leaving creators with a meager sum for their efforts. This imbalance in revenue distribution made it incredibly challenging for creators to generate a significant income, often stifling their creative potential and enthusiasm.

Today, major content hosting platforms have introduced improved revenue-sharing models. These new agreements often involve a higher percentage of ad revenue allocated to creators, more monetization opportunities, and even bonuses based on engagement or view counts.

Such changes have helped boost creators’ income and created a more appealing industry for content creators. By recognizing and rewarding quality content creation, platforms invest in a future where creators can thrive, producing richer and more diverse content. This progressive move has thus set the stage for a new era of content creation, characterized by fairer revenue distribution and a greater focus on quality.

Related: 12 Myths and Misconceptions of Affiliate Marketing

6. Data diving for sales success

The key to future sales success lies within the depths of audience and demographic data. By identifying your audience’s preferences, behaviors and habits, you can tailor your content and marketing strategy to better align with their interests, consequently boosting your sales. Engagement data is your key to sales success.

7. Branding relationships are more than money

There’s more to a brand relationship than just monetary compensation. Influencers can leverage these partnerships to garner additional coverage and audience reach. Plus, a host of intangible perks and networking opportunities are only available to creators with robust relationships with these brands.

Brands are also recognizing the value of investing in top creators. For instance, GoPro hosts a large-scale creators summit with all expenses paid and makeup brand Tarte sent a brigade of their creators to the Turks and Caicos for an “influencer retreat.” This recent collaboration with brands and their creators garnered significant attention, demonstrating how strategic brand relationships can yield benefits beyond financial gains.

A shift is taking place in the partner marketing space. New, more effective methods replace old strategies prioritizing quality content, audience engagement and a deeper understanding of data. It’s time to adapt and tap into the rich potential of this new era. To build a successful brand means to build a mutually beneficial alliance that can amplify your reach, enhance your reputation, and generate greater opportunities in the future.

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Ksana Liapkova

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July 24, 2023
Are These 10 TikTok Side Hustles Right For You? | Entrepreneur
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Many TikTok side hustles promise big money for little effort, but do they work?

To find out, I spoke with Daniella Flores, founder of ILikeToDabble.com. Daniella is a self-proclaimed side hustle queen who went from 0 to 12 income streams in 4 years, paying off over $40,000 of debt in the process.

Daniella broke down a bunch of trending TikTok side hustles on my podcast, The Side Hustle Show. You can hear our full interview below.

Here’s a summary of our conversation.

1. Drop-shipping

In drop-shipping, suppliers ship products directly to customers on your behalf.

Daniella dabbled in drop shipping, running a print-on-demand store on Etsy. Print-on-demand is a fulfillment process that drop-ships products to customers only after a sale goes through.

Using tools like Canva, Printify, and Printful, Daniella designed and sold custom products online for bachelorette parties, such as T-shirts, hoodies, and wine coolers.

Daniella preferred Etsy over other e-commerce sites because of its large user base. Users on Etsy also tend to search for niche products, so as long as you target the right keywords for your niche, you should be able to drive traffic to your store easily.

Etsy also charges as low as $0.20 for each item you list, and you won’t need to do as much marketing there as you would on Shopify and other online marketplaces.

But drop shipping is labor intensive. Daniella shut down their store after a few months, realizing how much customer service went into it.

Daniella’s advice on drop-shipping as a side hustle? Do SEO and talk to manufacturers first before launching in.

Related: 15 Easy Side Hustles From Home to Make Extra Money

2. Transcription

TikTok users have suggested transcribing as a side hustle by signing up for Rev — a speech-to-text service — then running the audio through a free speech recognition software like Dictation.io.

You’ll still have to double-check the quality of the transcriptions, but you can make $1 per finished-audio minute doing this side hustle. One TikTok user claims you can easily make $500 daily on Rev if you work eight hours daily.

But Daniella did some digging and found that some freelancers made as little as $100 a month on Rev. Many also worked eight hours a day — not exactly a side hustle.

Ultimately, Daniella thinks transcribing on platforms like Rev is a great side hustle for beginners but not for those who want to make real money on the side.

3. Low-content publishing

This involves uploading an almost blank book to Amazon and having the company print and ship it on your behalf.

Think journals, diaries, planners, sketchbooks, and notebooks. With these types of books, the value comes from how you’ve structured the mostly-blank pages and prompts and who you’re targeting as your customer.

For the most part, low-content publishing is marketed on TikTok as a shortcut for those who don’t have the expertise or the time to write and self-publish a 25,000-word book.

But as Daniella observed that most TikTok users who do low-content publishing never give distinct numbers or show anything on the back end. They often focus on the creation part, which seems easy enough until you have to sell the book on Amazon.

Low-content publishing on Amazon is a highly competitive space where people pretty much throw their products at the wall and see what sticks.

That’s why Tammie Chrin, a long-time Side Hustle Show listener, developed her method for creating branded books for businesses featuring their content. She calls it KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) 4 B2B.

With this method, rather than rely solely on Amazon for sales, you go to existing businesses and create custom books for them that they can buy or gift to their customers.

4. Selling printables

You create the products on programs like Canva or Adobe Photoshop and market them to your target audience.

The best part? You don’t need to ship anything or meet anybody in person. As soon as someone buys your printable, all they need to do is download it.

TikTok users say this is a great source of passive income, but Daniella says that’s not entirely true. “You’re still a business. You have to provide customer service — all that fun stuff.”

And as with any online business, you probably won’t make much money doing this for the first few years.

Nonetheless, this side hustle can scale once you get the hang of it and don’t give up.

5. Naming companies

Do you have a knack for names?

Squadhelp is an innovative crowdsourcing platform for business names, tag lines, logos, and other similar marketing projects.

For just a few hundred bucks, a startup can submit a proposal to Squadhelp containing the details of their business plan and a request for crowdsourced naming ideas.

Once the proposal is processed, the startup can hold a naming contest on Squadhelp. Contests typically run for about a week and usually attract tons of user entries.

At the end of the contest, the startup chooses one name from the pool of entries, and the winner receives a minimum $100 prize. Some contests pay as high as $500.

The downside? Contests on Squadhelp typically attract hundreds of submissions, so your odds of winning are generally low.

6. Affiliate marketing

With affiliate marketing, you earn a commission on sales referred through your blog or website.

On TikTok, creators say they make as much as $2,000 daily in affiliate sales, even though the platform doesn’t allow users to add affiliate links to their videos.

Some of the ways users get around that are:
- upgrading to a business account
- putting affiliate links in their profile bio
- redirecting traffic to their other social media profiles
- using third-party tools like Linktree
- promoting discount codes in their videos
While affiliate marketing is a legit passive income generation strategy, Daniella says it only works for TikTok users with thousands of followers.

Also, affiliate marketing is a partnership between businesses, not a partnership between a business and any old TikTok user whose profile can disappear any day, Daniella explains,

Affiliate marketing can be a great side hustle, just not by itself.

7. Dumpster diving

Dumpster diving involves diving through dumpsters, usually at night, to discover what got thrown out. You might have better odds of scoring a good haul if you do this in an affluent part of town or check out dumpsters behind a strip mall near you.

You could even cut out the middleman completely and talk to your local stores to see if they’d be willing to give their trash to you directly.

Some TikTok users who dumpster-dive on the side report flipping their finds and selling them for a profit on eBay or Facebook marketplace. Meanwhile, those who are not so lucky share videos detailing their gross or unfruitful experience.

For those grossed out by dumpster diving, Daniella offers an alternative. Help people unpack after moving into a new home and offer to take things they don’t need.

Related: This Dumpster Diver Makes $5,000 a Month Salvaging Designer Items

8. Painting house numbers on the curb

This side hustle is arguably better suited for teenagers looking to earn cash over the summer. It requires no more than $50 to $100 worth of materials from Home Depot, some door-knocking, and half an hour of painting.

The only challenge with this is you can pretty quickly saturate your local market.

9. Niche cleaning businesses

Niche cleaning services are another side hustle especially popular among TikTok users.

Daniella shared how they watched a TikTok of kids washing people’s trash cans. The kids would power-wash up to 20 trash cans a day, earning around $2,000 weekly.

Aside from washing people’s trash cans, you could offer to clean yards, headlights, or gutters. Whatever it is, there’s probably someone out there who’d pay to have it cleaned.

Low-tech services like these also have little to no competition online, so you could easily create a brochure-style website or a Google Business Profile to find prospective customers.

10. Freelance content creation

In this side hustle, TikTok creators make videos for brands. First, they promote the company they eventually want to work with on their page for free. Once they build up an organic following around those brands, they’ll shoot the brands a message and ask if they’re interested in working together.

Rates vary per creator due to the contract negotiation involved, but creators are paid anywhere from $250-2000 per TikTok video, depending on the brand they’re working with.

But be warned: This side hustle requires lots of video know-how. “You have to learn about video marketing and short-form content marketing,” Daniella said.
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Nick Loper

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July 10, 2023
The Top 12 Myths of Affiliate Marketing | Entrepreneur

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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Affiliate marketing is a popular strategy businesses use to drive sales and grow their brand. Although it’s one of the most popular marketing tools in the booming creator economy, some misconceptions about using affiliate links can prevent bloggers from benefiting from them.

1. Affiliate marketing is dead

Statista shows that from 2010-2022, U.S. affiliate marketing spending has steadily increased, reaching $8.2 billion in 2022. Clearly, this channel is not only not dead but also thriving. These days, over 80% of brands run affiliate programs, with 16% of online orders attributed to affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketing drives sales and is used by anyone from media companies, such as Business Insider and The New York Times, to smaller startups and brands that use it through referral programs.

2. It’s too much work

Modern tools make creating an affiliate link easy. Bloggers can start posting affiliate links and earn money from them on day one.

Popular programs include Amazon Associates, ShareASale and Commission Junction. The idea is to connect customers with brands through relevant content and tools by posting affiliate links that generate sales.

Related: How to Start Your First Affiliate Marketing Campaign

3. It’s passive, low-effort income

While some believe affiliate marketing is too much work, others mistakenly believe it takes virtually no work. Although implementing these links is indeed easy, bloggers need to work on their content, presence, and credibility and attract followers to generate sales and make money with affiliate marketing.

Influencers must be mindful of conversions since they are paid by actions. This means that more active calls-to-action, more selling content and more creative product presentation will be needed.

4. Size matters

A common misconception is that only influencers with a big audience can benefit from affiliate marketing. The truth is that conversions play a bigger role than audience size.

Not only do micro-influencers (those with 1,000-100,000 followers) perform at least 90% of successful influencer marketing, 90% of brands actively want to work with them through affiliate strategies. Because of their smaller followings and high engagement rates, micro-influencers are often seen as a cost-effective way for brands to reach targeted audiences and drive sales.

5. Affiliate marketing blocks other income streams

Earning through affiliate programs does not prevent bloggers from entering into direct contracts with brands, but it does help them attract the attention of companies they’d want to work with.

Additionally, affiliate marketing often becomes a stepping stone to working more closely with the brand. Active blogger partners always have an advantage when selecting brands for the partnership since they have the results and audience data to back up their “influencer” status.

Related: How To Start Affiliate Marketing with No Money in 2023

6. “My audience is too niche”

Believe it or not, a niche is often good for affiliate marketing.

Remember, you can’t be successful if you’re trying to appeal to everybody. Having a specific niche is good because it gives you a clearly defined audience with reliable preferences, tastes and buying habits. Brands know these things, so if your niche has gained interest from fans, it can earn interest from brands, too.

7. Brands only care about sales

Sales are no longer the only available form of brand partnership. Brands are willing to collaborate with other targeted actions that generate awareness and credibility, such as starting a trial period, installing a mobile app or requesting a free consultation.

These alternative forms of action are suitable even for bloggers who are particularly sensitive about maintaining their audience’s trust and wish to foster a relaxed atmosphere.

8. It’s not a viable long-term plan

Long-term partnerships are common in affiliate marketing because both parties benefit from sustained collaboration: You get to know the audience better, so your offerings are more relevant, and the audience builds trust in you and the brand.

Cultivating a relationship with the audience and building trust allows marketing expansion to include content like online courses, software and other digital products.

9. It’s too late to get started

The misconception is that there is too much competition in affiliate marketing. However, with new companies emerging each year, the range of advertisers to promote is constantly expanding. Blogs that provide value will always stand out and have access to profitable brand partnerships.

Related: 8 Things I Wish I’d Known Before Starting Affiliate Marketing

10. It’s just advertising

When Forbes surveyed millennials, 84% said they hate advertising, so equating affiliate marketing to advertising can make it seem unappealing.

However, as an affiliate, you only recommend products you have personally tried and liked while providing valuable content to your audience. Your readers will appreciate your tips and personal experience because they don’t want to spend their time and money experimenting. Affiliate marketing provides a more authentic and unique approach to promoting products.

11. You need a blog to be an affiliate

To sign up for affiliate marketing programs, you just need a following somewhere that will see and click your custom links. Having a community is much more important than being on a specific platform.

For example, beauty influencers often promote brands through sponsored content on their social media platforms by creating makeup tutorials and including affiliate links to their websites in the description box of their videos.

12. Affiliate marketing is expensive

Affiliate marketing is the least costly way to monetize a blog on any social media platform. You can create a website for free and maintain a following using tools that social networks provide. For example, banners, plugins and CPA tools are usually accessible for free within affiliate marketing platforms.

While it is true that you will need to invest time and potentially some money to market your blog, it is no more expensive than monetizing through any other available tool on the market if you plan to make it a full-time job and earn a substantial income.

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Ksana Liapkova

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May 26, 2023
Gen3 Marketing Successfully Integrates Agencies, Introduces a Singular Brand

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Press Release
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Feb 1, 2023 15:30 EST

BLUE BELL, Pa., February 1, 2023 (Newswire.com)
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Gen3 Marketing, the largest independent affiliate marketing agency in the world, today announced the consolidation of all its agencies under a single brand, aptly named Gen3 Marketing.

Through this consolidation, Gen3 Marketing will operate as a singular agency with a primary focus on the successful execution of affiliate partnerships and digital campaigns that leverage proprietary data and established relationships to achieve industry-leading results.

The strategic integration of five best-in-class agencies allows Gen3 Marketing to offer more comprehensive solutions while also broadening the agency’s geographic footprint. The Gen3 Marketing brand will now include the teams, resources, and portfolios of the following agencies it had previously acquired:

OPM Pros

OPM Pros quickly became known for creating results-driven value for its partners through the power of strategy, relationships and innovation. OPM Pros has helped augment Gen3 Marketing’s capabilities with an award-winning reputation and experienced leadership.

AffiliateManager.com

AffiliateManager.com has been helping companies compete with effective affiliate marketing programs since 2002. The integration sharpens Gen3’s business-to-business focus while offering proprietary tools for smaller clients.

Optimus-pm

For more than 10 years, Optimus-pm has been an industry-leading affiliate marketing agency with an unparalleled reputation for delivering cost-effective results. Based in the UK, Optimus-pm injects global experience into Gen3 Marketing and bolsters its international roster.

OAK Digital
Founded in 2015 in New York City, OAK Digital brings seasoned management, a global workforce and content partnership expertise to Gen3. The integration provides Gen3 with innovative approaches to affiliate content strategies that deliver measurable results.

The agency consolidation will include Gen3 Marketing’s first-ever dedicated Premium Content team, which employs a hybrid affiliate/PR approach to powerfully transform clients’ businesses by driving incremental awareness and growth. This team sits side by side with the agency’s expert SEO, PPC, Display and Social teams, allowing for a comprehensive integrated marketing solution for those clients in need of these services.

“Ever since our inception, we have endeavored to deliver cost-effective strategies that exceed the marketing and growth objectives of our clients,” says Gen3 Chief Operating Officer, Sam Leone. “As a leading international agency, this brand consolidation unifies the way we deliver service and provides our clients with more resources, data, reach and capability.”

Founded in 2007, Gen3 Marketing has earned more than 40 industry awards by delivering streamlined, customized affiliate marketing programs that consistently generate industry-leading ROI for clients in any vertical around the world.

The agency, who works with some of the fastest-growing online brands, recently executed successful campaigns for GNC, Carhartt, Fender Guitars and Fresh Direct.

“While Gen3 Marketing has consolidated under one single brand, one thing will remain the same: the agency will continue to focus all of its resources to achieve powerful results for clients and strategically transform data into outcomes,” explains Co-CEOs Mike Tabasso & Andy Cantos.

For any further questions regarding this news, please contact Gen3 Marketing at info@gen3marketing.com or visit www.gen3marketing.com.

About Gen3 Marketing

Gen3 Marketing was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, with established agency hubs in Santa Barbara, California, Canada and the UK.

Gen3 Marketing employs over 200 people on six continents and manages over 500 affiliate programs across all verticals. The agency recently won Agency of the Year at Rakuten’s 2022 Golden Link Awards, as well as Agency of the Year at CJU22 as part of the 2022 CJ Excellence Awards.

Source: Gen3 Marketing

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February 1, 2023
Hack Your SaaS Growth With These 3 Easy Strategies
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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Contrary to popular opinion, you don’t have to build an audience before you launch your SaaS business. SaaS affiliate programs give access to other people’s audiences. You will access tons of early users in a few weeks that would otherwise take years. Of course, it comes at some costs that this article aims to help you get ahead of.

SaaS affiliate programs work so that when an affiliate refers a prospect that purchases your product, the affiliate gets a commission in return.

Related: How SaaS Is Changing the Way We Work

Three strategies to launch successful SaaS affiliate programs

If you are planning to launch your SaaS or looking to grow your customer base fast and you’re short on cash supply and not a marketing fan, pay close attention to these strategies.

1. Play the long game with your funnel and pricing structures

Before deciding on your affiliate commission structure, you must determine your SaaS pricing structure and profit margin. Do you want one-time pricing or recurring pricing? Since we are all about hacking growth for a new Saas launch in this piece, a proven strategy is to combine both pricing strategies. Yes, it is counterintuitive!

But SaaS entrepreneurs who have launched successful SaaS products at a nitro-speed mode know this is the secret sauce. The engineering of this strategy will be done in your funnel structure, where your affiliates will send traffic. Your front-end funnel will be a pay-once-access-for-life offer or lifetime deal (LTD). Lifetime deals are limited paid promotions.

However, communicate and enforce usage limits or restrict access to certain premium features for the LTD package. Next, put a subscription upsell in place. This is very important to have to compensate for costs incurred in offering LTD. Also, remember that your recurring revenue has to outgrow your LTD revenue to keep the model sustainable. Here are a few tips to keep this on lock:

2. Offer a limited number of lifetime accounts

Use in-app prompts to nudge users to upgrade to a yearly subscription when they reach LTD usage limits. Use LTD customers’ first-party data to optimize advertisements for the subscription offer. You need a viral loop, as your LTD is a promotional strategy. This is where affiliates come in.

Lifetime deals sell fast, and affiliates jump on it real quick. This fact is what the million-dollar SaaS LTD platforms and their vast affiliate network thrives on. When you throw in recurring commissions (on the back of the commission for LTD sales) to affiliates whose leads take up your subscription offer, you are in for a treat of quality leads.

3. Find niche affiliates

Next up is finding the affiliates that will form your viral loop. You have two options:
1. Reach out and recruit affiliates. Think of this as making cold outreach to affiliates. So, where should you fire your cold shots? It’s best to start with blogs and review sites, content creators and influencers, online communities or brands with complementary products.
2. Tap into an existing affiliate network. This is the growth hacking route. Of course, you have to be ready to part with some of your revenue.
It is possible to launch on these platforms and have zero affiliate sales. This is where affiliate managers come in. They help you onboard the big whale affiliates and manage your launch in exchange for some percent of the launch revenue.

Here are a few tips to ensure you get the best affiliates for your saas affiliate programs:
1. Ensure they have access to your target audience
2. Go for those who have experience promoting SaaS
3. Verify that their traffic sources are genuine
4. Ask how they intend to promote your SaaS to make sure your interests align
SaaS marketing requires a lot of moving parts to achieve success. Hence, do some heavy lifting for your affiliates by providing them with marketing materials to promote your product.

Your SaaS affiliate program promotional kit should include promotional email templates, a media kit, explainer videos, ad creatives, testimonials and case studies. You can support affiliates by hosting live webinars. All affiliates have to do is drive traffic to the webinars.

The LTD offer in the hybrid approach to SaaS affiliate programs will give you the runway cash, the feedback and the marketing data you need to scale your subscription revenue quickly. At the same time, the recurring commissions keep your affiliates motivated.

Related: A Quick Checklist for Building SaaS Businesse
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Said Shiripour

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December 23, 2022
The Pros and Cons of Your Brand Using Affiliate Links

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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

In today’s world of digital publications, online shopping and influencer recommendations, more media outlets are turning to affiliate marketing programs to make easy money. Essentially, these programs partner with editors and media outlets to promote your products in exchange for a percentage of commission. The affiliate program, and the outlets that partner with them, get a piece of the profits from purchases made through their links — in turn, your brand gets in front of bigger audiences.

On top of being a helpful sales tool for some companies, we’re also starting to see more and more top-tier media outlets that only recommend brands with affiliate links. Brands that don’t have them may miss out on some great coverage opportunities.

There are tons of programs to choose from, and you can expect them to take anywhere from 5% to as much as 30% of sales. Programs like Amazon, CJ Affiliate, GiddyUp and so many others can help your company get into high-performing articles in popular publications. So, the question is: to affiliate or not to affiliate?

Before you make a decision, it’s important to review the facts. To help you know if this move is right for your company, let’s talk about the pros and cons of signing up for affiliate links:

Related: An Affiliate-Marketing Program Might Be the Perfect Move

Pros

The most noteworthy benefit of affiliate marketing is the increased press coverage, which hopefully results in higher sales. As a PR firm, we see our clients’ opportunities increase significantly when they work with an affiliate program since outlets are much more incentivized to include them. It is an especially helpful advantage for brands in more competitive industries such as beauty, fashion and tech — where just a few great press placements can truly make or break your year.

Another benefit of affiliate marketing is that the coverage received is considered an earned media placement, which holds much more value in the eyes of consumers. Affiliate link articles are less conspicuous than traditional paid ads and appeal to viewers seeking authentic, trustworthy recommendations.

As experts in the communications field, we know that authenticity matters to audiences, with statistics consistently placing it high on the list of consumer values. One recent study showed that 88% of respondents desire to support brands that appear authentic in their marketing efforts. A well-crafted affiliate article reviewing and recommending your products just may be the perfect strategy to resonate with those buyers.

Affiliate programs provide great opportunities for marketing, brand awareness and potential sales. Before deciding if they are the right step for your brand, let’s review some of the downsides to keep in mind.

Related: A Step-by-Step Guide to Your First Affiliate Marketing Campaign

Cons

Before joining an affiliate program, consider whether or not your brand’s profit margins will comfortably allow for the percentage of commission to be paid. The sweet spot for affiliate marketing seems to be midsize-to-large companies that benefit from the press coverage and can afford the cost of it. Small brands need to take a look at their books and review all options when it comes to marketing strategies.

Consider working with an external agency that has the expertise to decipher if an affiliate program is a good fit for your brand. Our clients often ask us if affiliate marketing is right for them, and the truth is, it varies on a case-to-case basis.

In addition to knowing what your brand needs, an agency can help you review the various affiliate program parties and the differences in percentage commissions they take. For companies that are short on staff members, navigating the market for the best-fitting affiliate partnership, setting the account up, and monitoring the program can be too heavy of a lift. Don’t be afraid to ask the experts to step in.

If you’re unsure if your company can afford the cost and labor of managing an affiliate program, consult with an agency or public relations expert to learn more about your options. The right partnership just might offer the press coverage (and revenue) you’ve been looking for.

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Bryanne DeGoede

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November 7, 2022
Informative New Book Reveals ‘How Students Make Money Online’

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Press Release
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updated: Jun 22, 2017

Birmingham, United Kingdom, June 22, 2017 (Newswire.com)
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Life as a student can be tough financially, but a newly launched book aims to help students become financially free.

How Students Make Money Online is a new e-book by online marketer, Richard D’Angelo, that takes the mystery out of online money making and encourages students to take control of their financial matters.

“I have a personal mission to educate students trapped in the ‘rat race’ and, with the help of this book, my aim is to live out my promise.”

Richard D’Angelo

After years of experimenting with creative and profitable ways to make money online, D’Angelo has penned an essential guide for students to demonstrate how they can effectively make money online while studying at college or university and reduce the financial strain they’re under.

Priced at just $7, the book can be downloaded instantly on purchase from www.HowStudentsMakeMoneyOnline.com and provides students with a wealth of ideas for using online approaches to money making. Early on in the book, D’Angelo admits that there is no magic approach to suddenly making money, but he does provide students with a tried and tested formula for success. With a bit of hard work and dedication, he believes it’s possible for anyone to start making money online.

D’Angelo has been involved in online marketing for several years and is passionate about sharing what he’s learnt, particularly with students.

“After seeing students financially struggle their way through college and university, it seemed right to put together a guide to demonstrate how to make money online during these turbulent times,” commented Richard D’Angelo, author of How Students Make Money Online.

“I have a personal mission to educate students trapped in the ‘rat race’ and, with the help of this book, my aim is to live out my promise,” he added.

The book is split into 18 accessible sections and covers everything required to get started with making money online, including information about how affiliate marketing works online, how to get started with affiliate marketing and how to find the right niche for your individual needs and interests.

Interspersed throughout the book are inspiring quotes from some of the world’s greatest entrepreneurs and leading lights, and each chapter ends with a practical Section Takeaway outlining the key messages and action points.

For any student, old or young, wanting to improve their financial situation and take control of their life, How Students Make Money Online is an easy-to-understand, informative and well-written guide that takes the mystery out of money making and opens up new doors of opportunity.

Further information

Richard D’Angelo, the author of How Students Make Money Online, can be contacted on – info@HowStudentsMakeMoneyOnline.com

To buy the book, or for more details, visit the website – http://www.HowStudentsMakeMoneyOnline.com

Source: Richard D’Angelo

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June 22, 2017