Affiliate Marketing At Home – Weathering The Economic Storm

I truly hope you’re all coping well during these unprecedented and difficult times. 

With most areas across the globe on some form of lock down, people are staying at home without the ability to really go anywhere except to buy necesseties and to go outside to exercise. I don’t know about your part of world, but we’ve got some pretty strict rules even on that. Our playgrounds are closed, as are skate parks.  No storefronts are open, few or minimal restaurants are open, and people are trying to navigate their new circumstances.

Many people are worried about the virus itself and the potential health impacts it may have on themselves and their loved ones. I think many people are now moving into a phase of trying to understand the economic fallout that is occurring now and will inevitably continue for months and years to come. 

I know that some are saying that COVID-19 will be the biggest economic shock since World War II. The shock will change customer behaviors and business models too. The challenges associated with it will be orders of magnitude bigger than what we are used to dealing with. To handle them, every single one of us will need to adapt in some way – whether it’s our operating model for our own business, a whole new way of operating because your current model has collapsed, or a whole new business or type of employment. 

Whatever circumstances you are faced with, you need to adopt your own operating model that accommodates the extreme level of uncertainty in this new business and economic environment. Most of us will be forced to change in some way as a result of these circumstances. We will all need to find what is right for us to grow and adapt to these changing times. Things that used to work for us may no longer work, and we need to find out will work best for us a result of the ‘new normal’.

What do I mean by that?

Everyone’s situations will be different. But let’s take a restaurant for example. Where we live, many restaurants have closed because customers are not allowed to dine in. However, take away food is still OK. So only the restaurants equipped to sell take away food are currently surviving. For some, they have rapidly changed their business model by:

• quickly turning around an app to notify customers of the take away food available, including placing orders
• doing home delivery without the reliance on Uber which takes a hefty slice of the profit
• ramping up their online presence to remind people they are available for take out, including creating a website if they didn’t already have one
• increased signage in their windows to alert people to the changes and the availability of takeaway and home delivery

The ones that have not taken these steps have temporarily (and in some cases permanently) closed for business.

Most retailers have temporarily closed. I know that my favourite brands have substantially ramped up their email marketing, and are offering free shipping and other special deals. I can pretty much pick which brands are going to stay strong through this time of immense uncertainty.

This means that consumer behaviour is also changing, because people are now forced to shift all of their spending online, with the exception of groceries and pharmaceuticals. Retailers are pushing all of their sales revenue through the Internet.

We All Need to Adapt To The New Circumstances

Meetings are no longer face to face, and are done with tools like Zoom and Skype. Family dinners have now turned into virtual dinners, with the older generation learning how to use technology like they’ve never had to before.

Where I would have gone to my favourite store to buy a new pair of jeans I’ve wanted for a while, I’m now purchasing these same things online through their online store. In fact I have no doubt that I might buy a new jacket as well 🙂 In fact, the same goes for many things of late. I know that in the past three weeks my family and I have hardly gone anywhere, and we’ve made far more purchases than usual online. And let’s face it, we know we’re going to be home to receive them in the post.

Online shopping was already massive, but it will now grow exponentially and will likely remain so even when all this craziness is over. People who have never shopped online are learning how to do it. My prediction is that retail will never be what it was before when the threat of COVID-19 subsides.     

The proliferation of online shopping means that there are more opportunities than ever for people who choose to take them. The opportunities to create your own online business are there for everyone to take advantage of. The opportunity I’m talking about is affiliate marketing.

If you don’t know how affiliate marketing works, the concept is straight forward. 

Affiliate Marketing Opportunities – Available For EVERYONE 

The premise of affiliate marketing is that you can earn a commission for selling someone else’s product via an affiliate link online. Anyone like you or me can sign up to an affiliate program and sell a product on behalf of someone else, say through a company like Amazon.

The beauty of affiliate marketing is that you can earn money from selling products without ever having to buy those products yourself, or ship them. You can do it from the comfort of your own home. This diagram illustrates it beautifully:

In order for you to earn affiliate commissions, you need to have a website. Don’t think of this as a barrier if you don’t have any idea about how to create a website, because you can be taught how to do this.

There are currently billions of people online.  These people are your audience, and they are searching for information, solutions to problems, and to buy stuff. That is where you, as an affilate marketer, come in with your website and help these audiences by offering them information about what they are looking for. You will be helping these people, and you will earn revenue in the process. 

Despite these very uncertain times, affiliate marketing is a constant. It still has a very bright and lucrative future. With my preferred platform there are no barriers to getting started, and you have the tools and support to help you build a consistent revenue stream. 

Here’s the affiliate marketing model that anyone can follow to create their own affiliate marketing business:

You do need to be very aware that affiliate marketing is not a quick answer to any immediate financial issues you may be facing. Even the most experienced affiliate marketers don’t make fast money with a new website. This is a longer term plan for you to be able to weather an economic storm, and to help create an additional revenue stream over time.