MAKING MONEY ONLINE AS A MARKETER /MARKETING STUDENT

Everybody needs money! That is the underlying fact and to get a constant and stable source of income is very difficult with the current economic status. This article is mostly dedicated to college students who do not have the time to take up part time job and still got expenses to meet with the limited resources they have. Such expenses include tuition, undertaking school projects/homework, attending school educational trips, purchasing books and other study materials such as gadgets. To cut it short, students need money! Here are a few methods that a student can use to make money online.

Affiliate marketing programs

What is affiliate marketing?

This is a very common strategy being used by online companies to get you marketing their products or services and from the clients you bring them you earn a commission of a certain percentage of the sales or profit that they make. This could be a great way to utilize your free time and you could be creating your online assets by just clicking on your computers.

Why do you think I could excel in affiliate marketing?

This is the easiest marketing practice since it involves mostly publishing a company’s product, service or link and by these acts you become their affiliate. When you are an affiliate, you are just like a formally hired sales person of the company and this means the higher your performance the higher the reward you take home. The difference between online affiliate marketing and being a sales man for the company is that with online marketing you do not have to move, all you need is sit and spread the word to start earning and creating your database/assets online. Online marketing as an affiliate mainly involves spreading the news in social media which is at large disposal for students like you. The activities /tasks you undertake are simple calls to action that the company requires to meet for example sign up, buy, like etc.

How will the company know I am an affiliate marketer?

To select a good affiliate marketing program might prove to be a task for beginners. A good affiliate program has the following characteristics:

•          It should be automatic –this means when you register on the company’s website, you are recognized as a potential affiliate marketer and therefore you are given a referral link for you to use in your marketing. This is just like a promotion code in real life where you get discounts if you purchase using the code given to you by your friend.
•          The company should say about their affiliate marketing program on their website. The details should be clear and the access to your link should be permanent. This means your link shall never change over time.
•          Your affiliate marketing earnings or commissions should be traceable and separate from other earnings you might have acquired on the website of the company. For example if you are a writer on a homework help services website, your earnings from writing should be separated from your commissions earned by your referral of students to the website.

How do I select my area of expertise in online affiliate marketing?

There are various tools used in online marketing and a few examples are listed below:

•          Social media marketing
•          Email marketing
•          Pay per click(PPC)
•          Search Engine Optimization programs
•          Press releases
•          Advertisements on your blog etc.

These might seem pretty difficult tasks for you to undertake but that should not worry you, here are a few steps to make you get a success and start earning a lucrative passive income as a college/university or high school student.

Steps to become a successful online affiliate marketer

Get your target market/niche

A target market is a part of the population you live in which you think might be interested in the product/ service you want to conduct affiliate marketing for. In the marketers’ language it is consumers’ common interest or behavior. For example if you are marketing as a student for a homework help service website, your target market is right there with you! Your colleagues can be a good niche.

A good market target should be one that;

•          You have a passion about
•          You are knowledgeable about
•          You are interested in

When your target market meets the factors above, you are likely find it easier promoting the product /service to that market segment and creating more customers hence more money. Other factors are competition, demand and the profit margin for your product or services. For a student affiliate marketer, homework services marketing should work excellently for you since the demand for such services is high especially with busy students and they are within your reach.

Conducting your research

Conducting research is simple, you need to have the knowledge of your target audience i.e. their likes, language (keywords they use to get their products or services) for example if you are marketing a homework services-free online homework help, homework answers or math homework help might be just but to mention a few of your keywords. You can use Google Key word Planner for your research for you to understand your target audience keywords.

Get your advertising platforms:

Now that you have identified the requirements of your target audience, it is a good time to start spreading the news. You can use the following;

Social media

These include for example

•          Facebook
•          Twitter
•          Google +
•        Pintrest

And other social platform that you might have used. The idea is, for maximum results and hence income, you need to spread the news very fast and continuously on as many platforms as possible.

 Email marketing

You can use your referral/affiliate links as your email signature to spread the new. This would be effective if you communicate a lot using email. The advantage is that every person(s) you send an email might be your income source. So spread the news!

Blogging

Blogging is good method of advertising either for your product or as an affiliate marketer. You can spread the news of your product or services using a blog you own or by creating one.  Here are the links that will help you start blogging

•          Blogger
•          Wordpress
•          Medium
•          Typepad

Please add your comments for other readers if you know any other blog publishing software.

Examples of companies offering affiliate marketing programs

By this time you asking yourself how to get started, right? Here are a few companies that I have used myself and they have trusted affiliate programs and good reputation.

•          Payoneer
•          Rakuten
•          Amazon
•         Allhomeworktutors
•          Click here for another list

I hope you enjoy your marketing career as an affiliate and share more knowledge on this topic by commenting below. If you find this article useful please share it on your social media for your friends to learn too.

For students, enjoy your school life and let the sky be the limit.

Happy Marketing!!!