What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate Marketing is another method for Companies to generate sales without increasing their sales staff or making large advertising expenditures.
In this method Companies pay a commission to a Company or to an individual ( the Affiliate), who brings them a customer. They only pay a commission if the new customer actually buys the product. So it is a great way for Companies to obtain incremental sales at a nominal additional cost.
But Affiliate Marketing is also a great way for an Affiliate to make money without actually having to have a product to sell. The Affiliate simply recommends a product to his audience on his / her website or blog by writing about the product. The blog or article includes a link that directs the visitor to the seller’s store. You can find more details on Affiliate Marketing in my article ” Affiliate Marketing in 2019. What is it? and is it for me?” Just click on the highlighted text.
Affiliate Marketing is growing exponentially, worldwide, because it is a win- win proposition for both the Seller and the Affiliate. However, for the Affiliate to be successful he must be seen by his audience as an authority in the field and have a following to his blog or website. The website must have a significant number of visitors (traffic).
Therefore, it is essential that the content presented in the Affiiate’s website be valuable to the visitor, and related to the product recommended. The subject of the website, or Niche, should be one in which the writer has thorough knowledge, and therefore is recognized as an authority. If that is the case, the website visitor, or blog reader, will be more inclined to follow the recommendation and buy the product.
The steps in affiliate Marketing are as follows:
1- Select a Niche or Product Line that you want to promote
2- Create a Website for that Niche
3- Write Content for the Website
4- Select a product to recommend. ( Become an Affiliate to the seller of that product.)
5- Direct visitors to your Affiliate Website to the Seller of the product recommended. ( seller’s link)
6- If your recommendation results in a sale you get paid
The above are all essential steps in the process of making money in Affiliate Marketing. Knowledge is King. You must learn all the steps thoroughly.
Training
You can learn many of the steps above for free online in reputable sites like edex.com. Or you can also learn on YouTube free courses. However, many of the courses that can be learned online are taught by entrepreneurs who are in the business themselves and are willing to sell you their “secret” to success. I recommend a safer approach. Sign up for a free beginners course offered by an Industry leader in Affiliate Marketing. I am recommending Wealthy Affiliate for all your training. You can find all details in my article Wealthy Affiliate Review– No Sugar Coating Here. Just click on the highlighted text.
Why Seniors have an Advantage
We are retired with time on our hands. We are free to reach for more, to pursue new dreams. After a long career, or just from living, we have developed social skills that are invaluable in Affiliate Marketing. We know how to relate to people and are good communicators. These are qualities that are very helpful in starting a ” people business” such as Affiliate Marketing. We know people’s needs and have the skills to offer solutions to their problems.
In Spanish there is a saying ” El diablo sabe por diablo, pero mas sabe por viejo”. This translates roughly as ” The devil knows because he is the devil, but he knows mostly because he is old”.
Because we have the time we are free to learn new skills. There is a preconceived notion that older people can not easily learn new subjects. We see commercials where grandparents ask their grand kids how to use a smartphone or a laptop.
THIS IS JUST WRONG. Scientific research shows that brains have a quality called “plasticity” which allows us to continue learning well into our advanced age. We constantly see examples of Doctors working into their 90s or seniors starting very successful businesses. ( If you are curious, I am 77 years young )
To be honest, we have to be realistic and not start a business that will take many years to develop or require full time commitment. However, there are businesses that we can own without being owned by the business. By that I mean that there are businesses that can be set-up in a relatively short time and then operated without constant personal involvement. An Affiliate Marketing business is such a business. Technologies such as Autoresponders, and automated E-Mail Marketing Systems are of great help.
Conclusion
YES. Affiliate Marketing is a good fit for Seniors
I recommend that you start by joining the free training program offered by Wealthy Affiliate. If you sign up here, clicking on my affiliate link, I get notified that you are joining and I will then be able to provide you personal support to get started. Hope to meet you inside the Wealthy Affiliate community.
Carlos
E-Mail: carlos@mymonetaryfreedom.com
I have been trying to get my mother who is 67 to try some online work as she is looking for something to keep her occupied during the daytime as she gets bored very easily but everything I suggest she doesn’t like the look of.
I have shown her survey sites, PPC sites, video watching sites, even tried to get her to record her own videos to put on youtube but she is having none of it
I came across this post while searching for ways that seniors can earn money online and really love the idea of affiliate marketing and I’m hoping my mother does to
I will be showing her this tomorrow when I see her and if she likes the idea then I will get her to leave a comment herself so you can point her in the right direction if that is OK?
Thanks for sharing this with me and fingers crossed you will get a comment tomorrow from my Mam 🙂
Thank you Matthew for sharing my post with your mother. You may want to mention to her that in addition to the benefit of making money online she would be joining a very supporting community with members across 190 countries.Although Wealthy Affiliate is mostly a business community you meet very interesting people with whom it is a pleasure to converse.She will not have time to be bored.If she joins Wealthy Affiliate on one of my posts I will be pleased to assist her in getting started.
That’s an awesome post. And, yes I agree 100% that Affiliate Marketing is suitable for seniors. In fact, it is not for those who call themselves OLD. It is for happy seniors who are always young and enthusiastic like you.
Your analysis is in-depth and comprehensive. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. In fact, I’ll pass on this post to my parents who are around 68 and strongly believe that they are too old to do anything now.
Thanks a lot for sharing this fantastic post.
Thank you for sharing this post with your parents. Please assure them that we are never too old and we can live life fully well into our old age. They may like to learn more about opportunities for seniors at https://retiredreadyformore.com
From one angle I agree with that seniors have more life experience and are thus at an advantage, but from another angle I disagree.
It takes time to get yourself adjusted to the whole internet culture that newer generations grew up in. Though it shouldn’t pose a major hindrance. Just something to be aware of, since older people tend to stick out on the web. Not because they are old, but because a big part of the whole internet culture was defined by certain people (definitely not everyone) from the newer generation who spent a huge part of their lives and free time on the internet before it really became that mainstream. It’s like people say, amateurs vs connaisseurs, passion vs commercialization.
From another angle, their life experience shouldn’t just aid them socially, but I can imagine that they should also have a stronger background niche-wise.
You are right in saying that younger people have the advantage of having been exposed to the Internet from an early age, and that they are more likely to use newer technologies.I have noticed that most of the seniors that visit one of my websites do so from a PC and not from a mobile phone.As we know the growth of mobile phones is adding to the access to the Internet. However, older seniors especially those with business experience are more comfortable outsourcing some of the tasks required to build an online business. Seniors like myself know our limitations and know what to outsource.Furthermore, there are many automation tools now available,such as autoresponders, website building platforms, etc. It is no longer necessary to learn coding or HTML. Seniors can focus on what they do best such as writing rich content and outsource some of the technical stuff to the younger ones. The Affiliate Sales market is huge.There is room for everyone as long as they love what they are doing.
Hi Carlos,
I enjoyed your article and found it quite enlightening. I am a senior my self and I can relate to your article Affiliate Marketing for Seniors. It is something I actually enjoy doing myself. It does wonders for the “older brain” in keeping us sharp and certainly increases our technological abilities! Many older generation Americans do shy away from the computers, partly because they own older slower models, and have no idea about the newer lightening fast computers. I have tried to get my sister to upgrade, and explore the internet, maybe even look into affiliate marketing. But, no luck yet! If I do convince her, I will show her this article because it is focused on seniors!
Thank you for thoroughly explaining the opportunity!
Chas
Hello Chas,
It is a pleasure to talk to a fellow active and enthusiastic senior. With advances in science we have learned that there is a thing called ” brain plasticity” that allows the brain to learn well into advanced age.We have no excuses if we choose to retreat rather than live life fully and pursue our dreams.You may want to mention to your sister that now it is much easier to get into affiiate marketing .There are platforms for designing a website, autoresponders to answer our mail and Sales Funnels to guide the process of converting initial contacts into profitable sales.The Sales Affiliate Market is huge and growing. We can just choose to write quality content using our vast experience and knowledge, and outsource the trivial tasks. It is possible to get started for free at Wealthy Affiliate.The best of luck to you in your business and life.
Carlos
Hello Admin,
I’ve read your post very carefully and I like your post very well. My father is a computer engineer. He had the post of manager in a company. But from 6 years ago he attacked from heart stroke of two times. That’s why he is not able to go anywhere or office. He’s mentally broken for this. He still wants to do something for us. By reading your post I come to know about affiliate marketing. I am really very happy to have the opportunity to read your post. I will show your post to my father as soon as possible. I know that my father will get much relief by seeing this. I will also tell my father to enter your link and join with you.
Yes, I agree with you Admin that affiliate marketing is the best income source for seniors. Your post is so helpful for my father. Thanks a lot dear. 😃
Thank You Zihad for your comment. I agree with you that affiliate marketing is a good fit for seniors.However ,I am not sure that I would recommend it to your father because of his health condition.Affiliate Sales is demanding and can be stressful.Furthermore, it takes time before you can make money. What would work best is if you would work together with your father in partnership. He could write technical articles recommending computer products, which would restore his self-esteem since he would be sharing his technical knowledge in computers, and you could handle the administrative parts of the business. Good luck to you both.
Carlos
P.S. Your father may be interested in my other website; https://retiredreadyformore.com
I totally agree with you that affiliate marketing is best for seniors being the fact that they have vast knowledge to mirror their niche on. Also, if they are willing to, they can leverage their skills and experience developed over the years to maximize the quality offered on their various websites. I’ve been trying to convince my dad into affiliate marketing but he seem adamant by always addressing himself as being too old for such. I would make sure he reads this post and I’m confident this should change his perception about affiliate marketing.
Thank you for your thoughtful comment. It is great that you are encouraging your father to try affiliate marketing.We seniors sometimes need the support of family to try a new venture.Sadly, many times the family reinforces the view that we are too old ,and should just retire. Your father may like my other website ” retired ready for more “. Thanks
Hi, Carlos.
I am touching fifty and agree with you that age has nothing to do with creativity.
Your post on the scope of Affiliate Marketing for Seniors is really motivating. We have a lot of experience and know how to do it correct. In fact, we are true Devils (LOL).
So happy learning and keep pumping with more such motivational posts.
Warm Regards,
Gaurav Gaur
Hello Gaurav,
Thank you for your encouraging comment. It is good to see a young person like you appreciating the value of Seniors. We all need to stay motivated at all ages, and reach our potential. Learning is a life long experience in business and in life.
Sincerely
Carlos Gusts