Small businesses don’t have to focus on just one income generation endeavour. While it is true that it is very important for a startup business to be clear on goals and to stay focused on what needs to be done to be able to stabilize operations and eventually expand, there’s nothing wrong with trying to earn additional revenues on the side.
One of the ways a small business can make money outside of its core business is affiliate marketing. Gold affiliate marketing, in particular, is a good way to explore the rewards that can be offered of affiliate programs. Gold, along with other precious metals, is widely perceived to be a highly attractive option for investing or storing monetary value. Hence, it is not something difficult to sell as long as the company behind it is reputable.
Affiliate Marketing – An Overview
What really is affiliate marketing? It is a performance-based type of marketing wherein a business provide rewards to affiliates for each visitor they are able to refer or bring to the business. The rewards can be specific rates or percentages based on the sales brought or revenues. Some also offer rewards on a CPA (cost per action), PPC (pay per click), or PPL (pay per lead) basis.
The ultimate goal of affiliate marketing is to generate sales for the company running the affiliate program. Hence, an affiliate should exert effort in promoting the products or services being advertised since an affiliate can only make money if the company running the affiliate program makes money.
The key to getting involved in an affiliate program is online presence. Your small business should have, at the minimum, an email or social media account to be able to share the affiliate links or banners. It’s not necessary to have a website or full-fledged online store. The key is simply online presence since affiliate marketing may also be done via email or even through tweets and Facebook posts.
Also, to be able to make money out of an affiliate program, it’s important that you reach out to audiences. If you have none or only a very limited number of visitors to your website or blog, you are unlikely to get anything substantial from affiliate programs. Likewise, if you don’t do something to promote your links, you will not be able to generate earnings.
What Small Businesses Should Know
It is important to remember that not every affiliate program is worth entering. In fact, most of what can be found online through search engines are fraudulent, unscrupulous, or deceptive. That’s why it’s important to carefully choose the right affiliate programs. It is advisable to limit your options to companies that have established identities and verifiable business operations, something like the gold affiliate program offered by Bitgold, a public company in Canada that also acquired another affiliate program, GoldMoney, earlier this year.
It’s essential to be very mindful of the terms and conditions. The commissions or shares in the revenues should be clearly stated. You should know of at least a few people who have already made success with the gold affiliate programs you are considering.
Also, it’s important to keep watch on news and updates regarding gold related investment scams and schemes. Gold and other precious metals, nowadays, are being touted as safe havens for investors. However, many companies are exaggerating their claims to the point of being deceptive. Avoid getting your small business associated with such scams and fraudulent offers.
Business strategists would warn small businesses about getting involved in affiliate marketing campaigns since they might compete with their businesses. However, when it comes to gold affiliate marketing, product competition is unlikely. The only competition to worry about is when it comes to the time and effort spent for the core business and affiliate marketing.
Obviously, the core business should always be the priority. As such, affiliate links, images, and banners should not take much of the space of the company’s website or blogs, or should not take attention away from your products and services. Also, if the affiliate links and banners tend to make your business less credible (if the prevailing perception of your target audience about online gold trading/investment is unfavorable), it may not make sense pursuing the affiliate program.