Earning Through Affiliate Marketing -

In this month's Blospedia Sharing, Blogger Amicytia Nadzilah shared her experience in earning through affiliate marketing. Here are some insights.

It all began when Mbak Ami (this is how I called her) saw that people in Shopee Video can really earn millions of rupiahs monthly from affiliate marketing. She mentioned an influencer who can earn 11 million monthly from making short videos and attaching affiliate links to them. Whenever someone clicks the link and makes a purchase, this influencer will receive a certain commission from the shop. Mbak Ami was so curious, is it really true?

Affiliate Platforms

There are several platforms that you can get these affiliate links from. Mbak Ami divided them into 3 categories:

1. Digital Products

Many people now sell digital products, such as e-books, worksheets, and online classes, through Lynk.id. However, if making your own digital products feels overwhelming, you can sell other people's digital products as an affiliate. Lynk.id allows you to sell a maximum of 5 digital products as an affiliate. Once a buyer purchases a digital product, you will immediately receive a certain amount of commission.

Affiliating with Lynk.id is cheap and easy because you don't need to have a product to promote it. You can promote the digital product on any social media platform that you have an account on, such as Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.

2. E-commerce

E-commerce sites, like Shopee and Tokopedia, have their own affiliate marketing platform. Take Shopee, for example. It has a platform called Shopee Video where content creators can post short review videos for products being sold on Shopee.

Unlike Lynk.id, you must have the products you want to make the video with. That's why a little bit of capital is needed to start this seriously. To cut costs, you can start with the products you already have and have used.

Every video and purchase should also be validated by the system before you gain the commission. Purchases by family members or people who share the same WiFi with you will not be calculated for commission. However, the commission is the greatest among all types of platforms.

3. Third Party

There are also third-party services that offer affiliate marketing across multiple platforms. Accesstrade is one of them. It connects brands and publishers. As a blogger (or a publisher, as Accestrade calls it), you can get the affiliate links to many brands and many e-commerce sites, including Shopee, Blibli, Lazada, and TikTok. So, you don't need to register for many e-commerce. One registration to Accesstrade would be enough.

In Accesstrade, you can also choose your form of promotion yourself. You can use short texts like in Threads, short videos as in TikTok or Instagram Reels, long videos like in YouTube, or long texts like blogposts. Any place where you can attach a link, you can use it as media for promoting the affiliate link. Accestrade also provides banners that you can attach to your websites or share on social media.

Mbak Ami's Strategy on Affiliate Business

Mbak Ami started affiliating last year. Since then, she already earned several million rupiahs. Here are some of the strategies that she uses:

1. Focus on One Platform

Similar to what I learned from The Dollar Warriors, the first key is to stay focused. Mbak Ami chose Shopee Video to be focused on. The reason, according to her, is that, unlike other platforms, people who visit Shopee Video already have an intention to buy something. They have their money ready, they are looking for something specific, but they need to see the product from a point of view other than the sellers' own video. So, it is easier to get some conversion.

Mbak Ami makes a minimum of 3 short videos daily and uploads them to Shopee Video. She shoots the products from several different angles. She also makes sure that the video she created has enough lighting so that it will be clear once uploaded to Shopee Video. She also consistently shares them on all social media until she gets at least 50 viewers.

2. Do Product Research

Before she decides which product to sell, she does thorough research on the product. Here are several points that she checks before deciding on a product:

Does the shop good commission percentage?
Is the sales number good enough?
How many other affiliate has already made the video?

Applying these strategies consistently, she succeeded in earning a moderate amount of money. She also now receives free samples from brands.

Can Bloggers Also Be Affiliates?

While affiliate marketing is popular among social media influencers, Mbak Ami said that bloggers also have a good chance of earning through this channel. Bloggers can write product reviews and add affiliate links to the blog posts. Bloggers even have more advantages because they already know how to write SEO-friendly articles that will rank higher in search engines. Their reviews can last even longer than short videos.

You can start by registering for Accestrade and start adding affiliate links to existing blog posts. Then, create product reviews from the products you already have. If you do this consistently, someday, maybe brands will see your value and contact you to make a deal with them.

What I Learned from This Session

I was also registered as an affiliate on several platforms, but I couldn't earn that much money from them. From what Mbak Ami explained, I learned that I need to focus on one platform and be consistent.

I am very grateful that Mbak Ami was willing to share her experience on this topic. I can't wait to join the next Blogspedia Sharing session and learn more.

What about you? Do you have any experience in affiliate marketing? Or do you just begin to be interested in this earning channel? Share your thoughts in the comment session. See you in the next post.

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