The internet has given retailers the opportunity to reach a global market in a way that is so fast and efficient it is hard to believe the world could exist without it. eCommerce has made life easier for businesses and customers alike.
It isn’t just because it allows companies to sell their products and services around the world without major hassles, but because it allows them to market more efficiently by using their own means and getting their own clients to actually help them in exchange for a portion of the profit.
That’s right, eCommerce is a win-win situation where businesses need their customers to promote their products and services for them. Affiliate programs and advertising targeted at search engine results has become the norm in today’s marketing.
What is an Online Marketer?
An online marketer is an individual in charge of promoting goods and services online in exchange for a profit. These marketers differ from traditional marketers, because they are not hired by agencies to form a brainstorming group for creating marketing campaigns.
Instead, these online marketers are individuals or groups of individuals looking for opportunities to promote existing online offers on goods and services. In this sense, they refer a product to other people so they can buy it, earning a profit in the process.
Online marketers do this by creating platforms to promote existing products on eCommerce sites. By creating a blog to place ads targeted toward a specific audience, they can get visitors to click on ads.
When people click on an ad, they can be tempted to buy what is being promoted, especially if it is a new or scarce product, or maybe a discounted product. When someone purchases that product through that ad, the marketer earns a profit from that sale.
How can eCommerce help you as an Online Marketer?
eCommerce can help you as an online marketer because, for the most part, online marketing can be a passive activity, which means that an online marketer can make passive income through eCommerce.
eCommerce can help you as an online marketer because basically every eCommerce site has an affiliate program.
An affiliate program is an agreement between the retailer and the marketer aimed at promoting the retailer’s stock using the marketer’s means while making him or her a profit. For example, one of the most popular affiliate programs to date is Amazon’s.
eCommerce can help you because you won’t be chained to a group of marketers telling you how it should to be done. You create your marketing platform, you choose what niche you want to market and you’re set!
eCommerce can help you because eCommerce sites will offer you, in general, a 6% to 25% profit from the final sale. The good thing is that you don’t need to sell what is in the ad. You just need to direct somebody to make a purchase on the eCommerce site through the ad!
For example, Dress Lily’s affiliate program offers you commission rates of 8% to 12% over the price of the final sale.
You can choose to work on different affiliate marketing sites focused on different niches, with each niche giving you different profit margins according to their product prices.
You can set up a blog for audiophiles and make a review on this $12,000 klipsch home theater system. By getting someone to buy it, you can earn a 4% commission… that will land you a cool $511 profit! Not bad at all!
Where can you start?
You have to start by deciding what you want to promote. It is recommended that you work with something that you know about, because it will make it easier for you to promote products and find leads by knowing what they are looking for.
Then, you have to find eCommerce sites offering affiliate programs to work with. If you’ve already decided the niches you’ll be working with, you can narrow your search and go for specific sites.
In this first case, you can find affiliate programs on sites that you already know, or look for eCommerce sites in your niche and review their programs, so you can join them.
For example, if you wanted to sell pop culture related merchandise that can sell well, look it up on Google and check the sites offering the best selling merchandise and the best affiliate programs.
If you’d rather work with different easy to sell or more generic stuff, or if you want to exclusively work with deals, you can go straight to Amazon and sign up for Amazon associates, where you can find all kinds of products to promote!
Now, you need a platform where to place your ads. It can be a blog or website dedicated to niche content. You can use WordPress to build a website ready for ads with some simple steps.
In our case, we have created a WordPress site dedicated to giving information on diabetes, so here we can place ads promoting products for diabetes care. Once you have your website in place, you’ll be ready to create content and place ads around it using your affiliate programs of choice!
