Affiliate marketing is a great way to make money from home. There are many people running successful blogs that make them well over six figures per year. What may have started out as an Amazon affiliate site can transform into something bigger by joining affiliate programs that pay better commissions and have longer cookies. It’s a level that many affiliate marketers hope to achieve. It’s an unbelievable achievement considering that all you need is to know how to build a website quickly and easily.
Yet, what often gets ignored is that there is a way to supercharge an affiliate site’s income that can go beyond what it could normally make. That is by creating a product of your own to sell instead of promoting others. Instead of collecting a commission, it is much better to put all of the money into your pocket. In this article, we will go over what you can do to transform an affiliate site into an e-commerce store.
Run the numbers
One of the barriers to entry with an e-commerce site is that you have to have some money upfront to invest in things like the manufacturing of the product. One of the nice things about an affiliate site is that it costs very little to get started and there is no initial investment in most cases.
However, when you are ready to take things to the next level you have to understand the costs. If you have had this as a goal since you started the affiliate site then hopefully you have been using the income from the blog to reinvest in the site. When you run the numbers you will be able to understand if you are able to make the transformation right away or if you need to wait.
The major cost is going to produce the goods you plan to sell. There is some money that you will need upfront before you even start the manufacturing process. If you need to have a prototype built then expect to pay some money for that plus the shipping. Then, when you decide to move forward with the order, you will have to put in a minimum order for it to be manufactured.
After you’ve calculated how much it costs to produce the goods, there is the shipping that it will cost to get them to the fulfillment center or to your location. If you are using a factory in China which is the most common thing to do then the shipping costs will sometimes be more than what you paid to have the products made.
Make a better product
When you are trying to think of what you can sell, the best way to go is to look at the products that you are currently getting commissions on. Take a look at what people are saying and look at some of the negative comments. They will likely be saying what could be done better. It’s up to you to create a better product using the comments as a guide.
The temptation is to try to make the product different or even an entirely new product. This may work but if you just make a better version of a product that you already know that people are buying then you will have a big advantage.
Have a recognized brand
If you’re going to go through the trouble and expense of creating a product to sell on your site, it should be one that can sell on its own. It will need your traffic, in the beginning, to sell steadily, but if you want to make a lot of money it needs to continue even when there is no traffic of your own. This means that you need to create a brand and push that instead of simply relying on your own website to do all of the work.
When you create a brand then you are making a connection in people’s minds to your product. You should have the colors the same across all of your materials including the social media channels and any other marketing that you will use. Then the logo needs to represent your product well and be used the same way as the colors.
The idea is that if somebody were to see the logo somewhere that it would be recognized and people would be interested in your product when they have a need to purchase.
Next up is the marketing of the brand so that you can create that awareness. A good way to boost awareness quickly is to ask an influencer in your niche to do an unboxing video on their channel. People trust influencers since they are essentially regular people. Unboxing videos are popular and will bring you a lot of attention.
Don’t forget about customer service
One thing that separates an e-commerce site from an affiliate marketing one is that you have to take care of customers with an e-commerce site. Since it is now your store, you have to deal with people unhappy with the product or shipping and take the time to make things right. An affiliate site has none of these responsibilities since they send traffic to somebody else’s store so what happens after the initial click is out of your control.
It is your responsibility to handle customer questions about the product or shipping. If they are unhappy with what they received then you have to deal with returns or refunds. This can be quite time-consuming and expensive but it is the cost of doing business if you decide to start an e-commerce site.
Good customer service is also another opportunity to do better than your competition. If one of the complaints that you see coming up often in the comments is poor customer service then you can end up coming out on top by taking better care of your customers. Creating loyalty through good customer service is a great way to ensure long-term success.
