AllThingsconsidered

The short answer is: NO! I have never come across an affiliate marketeer who is making a significant income from it and is willing to share this proof with me. Not one. Ever. Been 4+ years in the hunt and I know my fair share of affiliate marketeers. I have personally been banned from forums like www.warriorforum.com because I specifically challenged all those so called gurus who were selling their work for $97, or $47 or $27 (and made $100,000s from it), to show me proof. The only proof I wanted was either a video recording of them entering their PayPal account or Bank Account statement that was showing the same. Never got it. I suggested many other options/alternatives to them to validate their wild income claims, only to get booted time and time again. yes, I tried under various IDs, etc. Is there income from affiliate marketing - sure there is. Is it enough for people to make the wild claims they do - to sustain a large living of it - NO! That is a pure scam (in my opinion) and I refuse to budge from my stance, unless shown otherwise (i.e. proven wrong). Affiliate marketing benefits the company whose product/service you are selling. Let me repeat that again, affiliate marketing benefits the company you are promoting --- not you! Simple. 1000s of people sign up and promote their products in the hopes of making an income. If 1000s of people are actually promoting the product, then the products would be flying off the shelves - the sad reality of it is - they are not (in majority of the cases). If you promote say a product from Amazon, the cookie is only valid for 24-hours! Now lets say you have 50,000 visitors a month, realistically, 100-150 or so will click in (I say this from experience and from having seen many high-traffic blogs, who do affiliate marketing). Out of this 100-150 clicks, they usually have 1-3 sales per month. That's it. Those who claim that their cookie is valid for 45 days (good!), but what about the product? Either it is crap (a fact easily verified by the percentage of the income you would be getting back from the sale price), or the mere fact that 10,000+ people are promoting it. The chances of you making a sale is slim to none. The amount of money you spend in promoting the blog and promoting the product, does not do justice to the income made. Many people will tell you of how to go about making 100s of sites with micro-niches, etc. and you will be raking in the money. Please go ahead and try and prove me wrong. I would love to see to the contrary. Like I cited, affiliate income is there, but not enough to make a significant living from it. Most of the Long Sales Letters you will see, with screen shots of crazy income accumulated over a 24-hour period, etc. are all fake. 100% fake. Why is it that only in this industry (Internet Marketing / Affiliate Marketing) do you see those LONG winded sales letters and when you try to leave the page, a message pops up asking you (convincing you for the last time) not to walk away from this lucrative opportunity. I have seen so called gurus on Warrior Forum go bankrupt and absolutely broke. I keep bringing Warrior Forum again and again, because it is highlighted as the mecca for internet and affiliate marketing. The people who really are making money are those who are selling their products and services. A person who makes a product for say amazing SEO plugin for WordPress is making money. The affiliates are not. For example, Thesis WordPress theme by DIY Themes is surely making money, their affiliates are "sooooooo" many (emphasis supplied), that the entire market is chopped up and distributed amongst the 1000s of affiliates and what each gets in turn, are a few $100 at best (if at all). Its a numbers game for those starting out, and the odds are stacked against you. Why on earth would a person who has discovered a way or promotes a secret recipe of making $10,000s a month, share it with you for a few measly US$? Answer - because that is the fraternity con. All the other gurus would back each other and the novices like you and me, those who lie in bed all day, dreaming of how we could go online and make a very decent income and quit our jobs and take the vacations, get conned by these so called gurus, and money from our wallet (you will notice) will flow to 'them' be it in shape of SEO tactics, SEM, back links acquisitions, webpages setup, landing pages sales, mentorships, classes, plug-ins, robots, automated techniques, mailing list magic, 100% sure copy writing services, more secret recipes, analytical tools, more courses, e-books, more reading, the infamous "try harder, don't give up now" or "shampoo-wash-rinse-repeat" mantras that are constantly pounded into your subliminal mind. Those with deep pockets, and I mean deep, who have the resources to buy 1000s of domains, lots of resources working for specialized micro-niche pages, and driving traffic to them, one way or the other, are making money. They have a wide spectrum of websites which is equally balanced with a wide spectrum of website traffic (very high traffic to very low traffic) and they average a very decent income. But they are not on these boards selling their secrets. They stay away from such crap and continue to focus on what works for them. They have the money to do very large scale buying of Adwords and other keywords to drive traffic to their website and keep you out on the periphery. Every story you read about affiliate marketing, is like a cocaine story. There is a pusher in there, trying to promote or push their product or service to you, whilst at all time keeping you mesmerized by the promise of the big affiliate income source. Its like when I was young and I read the "Emperor's New Clothes".... only a little boy could see that the Emperor riding on the horse was only in his undies...and if you continue to believe in this fable, that is all that you will have left. Ask around for how many have been successful at affiliate marketing and what portion does it constitute of their overall income - the answer would be surprising for you - very little. Meagre in most cases. Ask around to find someone who really made it - in affiliate marketing, and the answer is you won't find many. You will however find that most of them transition to some form of a product or service they sell to you, be it content writing, guru-ness teaching, learning the ropes, e-books, sales, etc. all to tell you how to make it in affiliate marketing world. Quite a contradiction. The game is a loop. This answer is not about being venomous at all. But it is about letting people know - think before you take the leap. The internet has simply exploded with the false pretense of fast money, cars, vacations, debt-free living, beaches, jewelry, fine wines, villas by the beach and city condos.... I think you know better. There is no harm in learning affiliate marketing. Maybe you could be the one who makes it and proves me wrong. If so, I shall have a lot of respect for you. But do so with care. Most of what is taught - is freely available on the Internet. Freely! You just have to be patient, and clever in seeking out the material and putting it all together. I don't expect everyone to 'get it' - and this is what cons rely on, they hope you don't get it and then con their way into making sure you are on the long but sure path of getting it - which sadly never arrives. You will be flustered, frustrated, angry and feel violated once you discover how much money you have wasted on it. For good orders sake, don't put your hand into your savings or college funds, retirement fund. The only people I know off, who are making money, but still I have not seen an income statement to that effect and hence I am very cautious, are the people who run very large mailing lists. When you have numbers in the 25,000+ readers in your mailing list, it is very well possible to make affiliate money off them. However, having said this, there are two caveats to the above statement. Many readers feel 'cheated' if a link they clicked on in your list, somehow made you money (yes, crazy thought, but it is true). You cannot continually keep pitching affiliate links to your readers, else they will deem the list to be a source of spam, and unsibscribe themselves from your list. (Mailing) Lists are run like campaigns, spaced a few days apart. The income can be 'decent' provided the offering and the campaign was well thought of. However, I might add, it takes (months, if not years) to have such a list of so many people who opt-in, and the key point to note in lists is that they cater to a very specific vertical/niche. You can only market within that niche. Building such a huge list of subscribers takes a lot of money, so if the Question is can you make it - via lists, I would say, the jury is still out. I am 'convinced' it can be made, however, I have yet to see proof for the same. I don't know what the big deal is why people cannot share proof. The affiliate marketing scam is equal in size if not greater in size to the Nigerian 401 scam. Yes, you really have a person willing to give you $ 1 Million. BS you say? Then how come you buy the same BS packaged in a different way, when someone tells you how you can make millions in affiliate marketing by buying their <insert product/service name here> for $X? Stay in this niche long enough, and you will unknowingly transform from an affiliate marketeer to a provider of services or a product (mark my words!). Then you too shall be trying to find newbies the 5,000+ people who are logged in on Warrior Forum or other places like Digital Point, etc. and be making a comfortable living, in trying to sell 'stuff' to these people (mostly genuine stuff but equally balanced by a lot of fraudulently pre-packed BS). And the best part is the newbies are in millions! Millions! Imagine the possibility of duping them! The subliminal advertising is so convincing, you will be drawn to it - the gravity of making money always will lure you. My advise, keep your wallet/money away! Do NOT go on the impulsive shopping spree. The 1 day only left, or a limited time offer. It just never ends.

There are several ways to make money online by affiliate marketing some of are written below . 1. Create a Website or Blog for Your Niche To make money with affiliate marketing, the first thing you need is a website. When it comes to building your website, you have tons of options. But we highly recommend using WordPress. With WordPress, anyone can quickly build a professional-looking website in minutes. Plus, WordPress has more tools to help their sites perform at a higher level than other website builders. That means more functionality across your site and a better user experience (UX) for your visitors. If you’re interested in making money with affiliate marketing, WordPress is definitely your way to go. You can check out these tutorials if you need help building your site: 2. Choose Affiliate Products to Promote If you’ve done the work to choose a niche, choosing affiliate products to promote should be easy. Choose products that fit your niche and relate to your content. One of the best ways to select your affiliate products is by joining an affiliate network. Affiliate networks are businesses that connect merchants and affiliate marketers so both can earn more money. Affiliate marketers use affiliate networks to make better product selections to promote on their site. Here are a few tips you can use to get the most out of your affiliate links’ placement: Only link where appropriate: Don’t add an affiliate link if it doesn’t fit in your content. This will negatively impact the user experience (UX) and cost you more lost sales in the long run. Add links as early as possible: If you’re showcasing many products in one article, make sure you add your affiliate products at the top of the list. Most people won’t take the time to read an entire article. You want to make sure they see your affiliate links early on. Get more out of your site’s space: You can use floating bars, inline banners, and sidebar widgets to promote your affiliate products. These enhance the impact of your content and lead to more sales over time.

Affiliate marketing is an advertising method where a company pays you to assists in bringing in traffic or leads to their products and services. You are referred to as affiliates and they pay you a commission fee to find ways to advertise their business. This marketing method has rapidly developed with the growing use of the internet. Amazon popularized this marketing method by creating an affiliate marketing program where web sites and blog owners placed links to the Amazon web page for a product being tested and evaluated in order to obtain marketing fees when a customer buys the product. Affiliate marketing is basically a payment for your performance in advertising a company’s product. Affiliate marketing is considered as one of the simplest methods of making money online. It is among the most effective inexpensive method of making extra cash money while you are using the internet. It is a cooperative initiative between a vendor and the affiliate marketer. Most bloggers use their website for affiliate marketing in developing some added cash for themselves. You, as an author or blog writer, are paid for helping a business advertise its product or service. This has come to be a proven cost-effective and quantifiable technique of bringing long-term results for most business owners. There are various ways of using affiliate marketing to make money however most often is: The publisher or blog writer (affiliate marketer) gains a percentage of the sales when a visitor makes a purchase with your affiliate link posted in your blog or website.Your payment depends on your contract with your employee. The commissions might be a percentage of a sale or maybe a fixed amount per transaction. At first, to generate income may be a little challenging. But you'll get used to and make whole lots of cash.

The best way to earn while you learn in affiliate marketing is to share your journey as a relatable beginner. Affiliate marketing is about finding an audience you resonate with, offering value and then presenting your awesome product to solve their pain. While obviously a lot of people get swept up in following the guys who are standing in front of Ferraris and showing the high-flying lifestyle, many people will get turned off by this as they see it as unattainable or not real (which often it isn’t). When I started out on my affiliate marketing course I would share my journey of what I was learning on Facebook, plus my wins and struggles. I found that this actually drew a lot of people to me who asked me questions about what I was doing. People buy from people and like to see you’re a real person. If you want to earn as you learn when starting affiliate marketing make sure you; Post daily on your chosen social media accounts telling people what you’re learningAnother rule of thumb is to follow the RVL formula (Results Value Lifestyle). Don’t be afraid to show who you are, this will encourage the right people to follow you and see if you’re doing it, they can toShare struggles and wins. If you have results share them, if not leverage others on your course until you get themPut soft calls to action at the end of your posts eg; message me if you need help, if you want to know what course I’m on reach out, if you want to know how I achieved this…Reach out to people and have REAL conversations. Don’t just pitch or spam people, start by just actually finding out about a person. Transition the conversation when it feels right into finding out if your product would be a fit for that personFocus on value and not just spamming. If you help people, the money will roll in after

I used to think that being involved in affiliate marketing is effortless and is an easy way to earn passive income. Well, it is not AND money does not simply fall from the sky. In any business success - EFFORT and COMMITMENT - is Key. So before you immerse yourself in this business - ask yourself whether you are willing to put in 100% EFFORT and COMMITMENT. By definition “Affiliate marketing is the process of earning a commission through promoting other people's or company's)products. You find and select a product you like ( which is usually termed as NICHE) promote it to others and earn a piece of the profit for each sale that you make. “ Sound easy as ABC right? Well technically not that easy as it sound. You need to be committed to learn the steps towards become an Affiliate Marketer and most important is to take ACTION. Here are some basic steps as to how I got started : I first tried learning from internet but find it rather difficult to understand. There is lots of Video on YouTube but the tutorials are rather scanty in content . So the next best thing I did was to enroll in a classroom program that guided me step-by-step on how to get started as an Affiliate Marketer. This was my initial investment -knowledge acquisition. To start in any business , one need to put in a small investment initially - for nothing is free. But this investment has given me good returns indeed. The program also required that I made a small investment in having at least one domain name and a web hosting account to be registered - just like any other business - it must have a name and a site. For web hosting and domain name there is plenty of service providers to chose from such as BlueHost; GoDaddy etc You also need to sign up for your auto-responder account ( eg. AWeber or GetResponse) to capture and store emails of your clients/customers who subscribed to your promotions. One thing to remember is that both web hosting and auto-responder services requires payment - but it is cheap and affordable. Next, you need a to identify your NICHE.If you don't quite know what your niche is yet, here's some advice that you might find useful. Some key questions to ask yourself when determining your niche are: What topics am I already passionate about? Is there money in this niche? Is there enough interest in/demand for products in this niche? Are there affiliate programs available in this niche? Choosing an affiliate program that cater to your chosen Niche will take some work. Put in a significant amount of time into analysing the program because this is, of course, where your income will come from.How much commission are you likely to make from the products? Make sure you sign up for programs that are profitable and generate a sufficient return in on investment. There are many Affiliate Programs for both physical products available in the market such as Amazon Associate etc. and for digital product such as ClickBank, ShareASale; Market Health;JVZoo and so forth. You need to sign up for a free membership before you can start promoting their products. The terms of commission will be spelled out clearly by these programs Finally, once your site is ready, it's time to create content for it. The content you create must be relevant to your niche but also interesting and engaging enough to keep your audience coming back. There are many software available on how to create your Landing Page/Squeeze page that can be used to attract subscribers. Just get one of these to meet your basic need when creating this page to be uploaded to your website. Then you need to promote your products by getting lots and lots of traffic to your products. There are free traffic method - such as through FaceBook Postings, YouTube Video ; On-line Forums; Blogs - and through paid traffic such as advertisements in FaceBook; Bing Ads or Solo ADsSo there you go, some basic information to get started in affiliate marketing.The lure of affiliate marketing is undeniable; who can resist passive income? But to make that passive income happen, you have got to put in some work first. The steps listed above are well…not passive. You need to commit; take action and persevere to see success.

If you want your business to grow, you need to promote it on the same platforms that most people are using these days. Millennials for instance are active on popular social media apps such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. These are free and you can easily create an account and start promoting your business and generate organic traffic. However, simply doing this will not be effective enough which is why here are a few pointers on how to leverage the full potential of social media marketing- ● Firstly, you need to understand who your targeted audience is. Create a list of keywords best suited for them and use them as hashtags in your post. This will ensure that anytime a particular hashtag is searched for by a potential customer, your post will come up. ● Try to increase the community engagement. You can do this by being active on all your social media handles and posting regular updates. Gather as many followers as you can as this will increase your odds of generating leads. ● Respond to queries about your products in the comments section or messages. You need to be aware of all the conversations and discussions that are happening regarding your products and respond to it whenever appropriate. It will help in building better relations with customers. ● You can go live on a social media platform and give your audience a tour of the office, staff and the whole manufacturing process. These behind the scenes live videos will help build the trust of your audience, especially if it is a new business venture. ● Last but not the least, marketing through social media will help create brand awareness and brand recognition. You can link the home page or product page so that customers can directly buy it from social media platforms with a few simple clicks. Social media marketing can also be paid in the form of Facebook Ads, Pinterest Ads or Instagram Ads. If you are a startup or small business looking to create a strong social media presence but not fully aware how then take a Social Media Optimisation (SMO) course from a reputed institute to make the most of social media. On the other hand, if you have the necessary funds then you can outsource your marketing activities by hiring a digital marketing agency.

1. Increased brand awareness Social media is one of the most profitable digital marketing methods that syndicate content and increase your company's visibility. Implementing a social media strategy will significantly increase your brand awareness as it will appeal to a large audience of consumers. First, create social media profiles for your company and start interacting with others. Let employees, business partners, and sponsors "like" and "share" your page. Simply interacting with your content increases brand awareness and strengthens your reputation as a company. 2. More incoming traffic Without marketing your company on social media, your incoming data traffic is limited to your regular customers. People who are familiar with your brand are likely to search for the same keywords that you’ve already rated. Without using social media as part of your marketing strategy, it will be much harder for you to reach someone outside of your loyal customer base. Every social media profile you add to your marketing mix is ​​a gateway to your website, and any content you publish is another way to attract a new customer. Social media is a melting pot of different types of people with different backgrounds and behaviors. Different people have different needs and ways of thinking. By syndicating your content on as many platforms as possible, these people can reach your company organically. 3. Improved search engine rankings While posting on social media can drive traffic to your website, further efforts are required to achieve significant success. Search engine optimization is very important in order to achieve higher page rankings and access to your company website. Although social media doesn't directly increase search engine rankings, social media examiners indicate that more than 58% of marketers who have used social media for a year or more still see a higher search engine ranking. Being able to top your keywords will revolutionize your traffic and continue to generate positive results for your business. 4. higher conversion rates With increasing visibility, your company gets more conversion opportunities. Every blog post, picture, video, or comment can direct viewers to your company website and increase traffic. Social media marketing enables your company to make a positive impression through a humanizing factor. When brands are interactive, sharing content, commenting on articles, and posting on social media, it embodies a brand. People prefer to do business with other people rather than companies. Over 51% of marketers said the time it took to build relationships with consumers had a positive impact on sales. The more you impress a visitor, the more likely they are to think about your company when there is a need for your products or services. 5. Improve brand loyalty One of the main goals of almost all companies is to develop a loyal customer base. Since customer satisfaction and brand loyalty usually go hand in hand, it is important to get in touch with consumers on a regular basis and build a bond with them. Social media is not limited to the presentation of your brand's products and advertising campaigns. Customers see these platforms as a service channel through which they can communicate directly with the company.

I personally use Sprout Social because they have every feature I need, plus they have online courses and webinars for users and much more. However, there are many other tools available for social media managers. Here is a list of the 10 most famous tools: 1.Hootsuite - is an easy-to-use social media manager. Users are given access to a single dashboard with the most popular social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. You can manage and schedule your posts, receive important updates, follow people, share posts, and more. Hootsuite helps you reach all your social feeds at the same time, regardless of your location. 2. Buffer- Just like Hootsuite, it supports Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and even Instagram, a platform that has proved tricky to integrate in the past. Buffer’s dashboard differs from Hootsuite in that it shows only the timeline of your posts, without facilitating further interaction with the above platforms. 3. Sprout social- This tool basically combines various social media equipment into one platform from social media scheduling to monitoring to reporting etc. 4. Agora Pulse- This is an all in one social media platform with responding, scheduling, and reporting facets, etc. 5. Sendible- This is one of the pleasant social media structures which is constructed in particular for unique corporations with countless clients. This device will permit you to customize your dashboard in accordance with your branding for attracting new clients. 6. Clincher- This tool will enable you to manage your page’s agenda and public posts and reply to social messages and analyze your social media platform. 7. Social pilot- Social media pilot is a kind of tool that automates the administration of social media, making it an easy dashboard. 8. Mavsocial- This is the social media administration device with a focal point on visible content material and this can additionally control your Facebook commercials as well. 9. Post planner- With Post planner, you can format the publishing calendar, locate content, and submit constantly. 10. CoSchedule is a complex system that manages team tasks and projects and offers social media management tool as well. Like the previous tools, CoSchedule’s platform enables users to create a timely content map. As a bonus, you can build a holistic social campaign for your brand using their tools. I suggest you take free trials of the tools, try them out one by one and then you can decide which tool suits your needs best.

Things You’ll Need: Google Analytics PixelTrakk (or equivalent) Spreadsheet Collecting The Data First make sure that there is Google Analytics code on every page of your site. Now, what I want you to do is get familiar with the Google URL Builder. Using this free tool you will be able to generate links to your pages that are tagged up. Your Google Analytics code will recognize these tags in your link and tell you in depth information about these visitors inside your dashboard. Before you start posting away there are a few more steps. Next you are going to set up goals in your Google Analytics account. If you don’t know how, pay someone on Fiverr, it’s a 5 minute job for someone who knows their way around. Login to PixelTrakk (or equivalent), create a quick campaign. Use that link with the tags from Google URL builder as your destination URL, enter a value of the sale, and click continue. Then, place your PixelTrakk tracking code on your conversion success page. For example, the download page after someone buys your product or shipping confirmation page. You now have a tracking link that will track the visitor through your funnel and track the revenue generated Analyzing The Data Take that spreadsheet I told you to have and create the following columns… New Fans Clicks Transactions Costs Revenue Value Per Fan ROI Each row of this spreadsheet should represent a new month. As you go about your month posting to your Facebook fan page or Twitter or wherever, keep making and using these tracking links like I explained above for whenever you link to your site. Once a month log into your Google Analytics, Facebook fan page insights, and PixelTrakk accounts. Fill out the numbers for new fans, clicks, transactions (actions), costs, and revenue. Don’t forget to factor in the wages of whoever is managing your fan page for your costs. Divide the revenue number by the new fans number. This gives you your value per fan. Finally, divide “revenue minus cost” by “cost” and multiply by 100. Slap a little % sign on the back of it and you have your ROI. Update this spreadsheet every month and you’ll be able to see whether your efforts are growing your ROI or decreasing it.

The best would be The Upfront Value. No matter, what platform you are using, the upfront value will sure attract and hook your audience, no matter if they’re cold, warm, or hot. But before providing this value, make sure to : Conduct your prior research. You can’t target well when you don’t have clarity of what your audience expects from you. Listen and find out their biggest pain points and as well as their complete persona and buying behaviour. You can even provide upfront value to make sure your customers participate in providing you this data. This information is also useful for you to further develop content and product. Go for data! If you can’t provide a whole-hearted upfront value, it is best to just leave it. Since it is a common strategy nowadays to hook cold leads up, people tend to be more and more skeptical about it. I’ve seen much half-hearted value that often scams its leads. This is a huge no-no as it will affect your Brand image on social media. Always strive the best for your customers. On the other hand, if you can provide a great upfront value, people will be less skeptical about your paid commodities. “If they can provide this value for free, imagine how much value that their paid service/products will bring”. Constantly updating your offer. An outdated lead magnet will turn potential customers off. What works today, may not work tomorrow. It will also limit your reach towards existing customers. If you constantly have new things to share, people will be paying more attention to your Brand. Eventually, you will have a stronger bond with your customers.

Building a social media community can be a tricky business. 1. What’s your goal? This is the first and most important question because it heavily dictates that best route for achieving your goal. Are you trying to increase your business revenue by getting customers to sign up for an online course? Are you trying to get feedback from people who are testing out your software? Are you offering customer support? Finding your real goal in building a social media community will already illuminate the best way to do that. 2. Consider your channels. Once you’re aware of what sort of social media community you really want to build, you can start considering your different avenues. Are you going to make a Facebook page? A LinkedIn Group? Considering where your audience spends their social media time will help you really hone in on what will best work for your business and be the best use of your time. A Facebook page might be great for a stay at home mom’s group focused around parenting, whose goal is simply to build a community, share knowledge, and be a source of information. A LinkedIn group might be better for a group where you promote your course about being a solopreneur by offering free downloads and resources specific to that line of work. The reality is that most businesses are strapped for time or money so that may be a good place to start. What do you really have time for? Can you commit an hour a week to scheduling posts or do you have a full-time social media marketer? 3. Build, build, and build some more. There are so many ways that you can build a community on social media, but a few pillars to stress heavily in your strategy are: Build a brand persona and identity. I wrote a whole post about this that I’ve linked at the end of this answer, but the reality is that you need to have a strong sense of who you are and the type of people that you want your community to be made up of. What kind of content do those potential community members like to view? Do they like to see infographics? Quick videos with tips relevant to their industry? Behind the scenes pictures of your manufacturing process? Build your community around that kind of content. Encourage sharing both in your community and outside of it. Build trust with your community members until they’d feel comfortable sharing their advocacy for the community outside the realms of your reach. Hope that helps!

Making money out of the social media is a creative job which is often ignored. However, this is a reality these days that Twitterati, Instagrammer, SM Manager and similar such terms are not just attributes but a profession as well. After making a fair amount online and from almost every social media, I am glad quora system has referred this question to me! See the earnings from social media in two ways: 1) Cash 2) Kind or favour returning Let us discuss the conventional method first of all and exchange it for the cash. i) Social Media Manager If you are apparently 'wasting' time on the social media, it is the time you need to act smart and do not fo it for free. With no dearth of the startups and companies trying to make a mark on the social media sites, the demand of the SMM is quite high. You will be required to manage different social accounts be it facebook, twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat, Reddit to name few and oh! Even Quora. ii) Personalised accounts In this world of the marketing, the need of the influencers has registered a remarkable growth in the industry. You are just needed to put up a post appreciating brand x on your social media accounts and bling! You have a message of credit from your bank! GETIT GETIT? However, for this approach, you need to have enough number of the followers/friends/subscribers online. iii) Sell your products on social media Do you own a website or deal in online business? Are you looking to increase the traffic or the sale of same and want to do it without profit sharing? Welcome to Social Media! Create your audience and sell your products! iv) Refer and Earn Are you not having a fair online base and working on it yet want to earn? That is where Social Media can help you earn. Companies like Amazon and Google are anxiously waiting for you to join the refer and earn programs run by them! v) Youtube Create some unique content and post them in your videos on youtube. Enough said! vi) Like, Share, Comment, Tweet, Retweet Uh, what? Is it true? Yes! There are agencies which want you to register just to like, share, comment, tweet, retweet and similar jobs in exchange of money. Interesting, no? Trust me, it pays you huge!!! You think you lack the act of kindness? No worries, you can earn in kind anyway! i) Influencer Same thing but this time, you get the perks and not money. Hey! It is same, no? Say, a few days back I had the best stay at a resort in Lonavala for a night and it was all just because I promised to promote them on my social media if I had a nice experience. ii) Link affiliation You promote someone, they promote, it is all resource sharing business, you see? These are few things that can help you make money. However, the entire game is of numbers, your skill, creativity and time. If you are okay giving time and have a little of skill and creativity, the social media wants you.

There are 4 P’s of marketing which are the key factors that are involved in the marketing of goods and services. They are the Products, Price, Place, and Promotion. Social Media is a huge platform to engage audiences as they spend most of their time on social media by scrolling. Using social media strategies you can create awareness among customers and increase business reach. Promoting on social media will drive good results. One of the most effective marketing tools in your arsenal is social networking. Currently, 90 percent of young adults use social media to connect with companies, and this figure is only expected to rise. To help, check out this guide: Building a character for an Audience- The core of effective social media marketing is about speaking to a specific audience with your social posts. And unless you have an intuitive idea of who your target audience really is, you’ll need to create audience personas. The most important social media platforms for today's children and adult is Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Pinterest, Twitter Goal-setting and objective- Once you've got a good idea of who your audience is, you’ll then need to identify key goals for your social media marketing efforts. What do you actually hope to achieve with your strategy? Without goals and associated metrics, you won’t be able to measure ROI and determine if your efforts are actually effective. Budgeting- With your goals set, next, you need to determine how much money you can allocate to your social media marketing strategy. Resourcing/team building- shows that while actually developing a social media strategy is more difficult for small businesses, enterprise companies also face significant challenges in securing enough internal resources to make it happen. Research- Once you know who’s going to run your campaigns, and what tools they’ll use to create it all, it’s time to research: Your campaign content (What resonates with your audience?) Your posting strategy Your social media campaigns will likely involve using a combination of your own native content and sharing the content of others. Producing Content- Your social media strategy will require a mix of content to be successful, so you'll need to develop a process to create this content, and maximize its worth. These are some strategies that will help you grow your business on social media platforms but social media is mainly used for branding. Using social media platforms you will get 85% of branding. You can’t get more sales.

1. Social media helps get the word out and generates brand awareness First and foremost — social media does, in fact, help get the word out about your business. But even more important than the exposure, it provides you with the opportunity to grow relationships with your target audience. Your fans, followers, and connections are people who know your organization, have likely done business with you in the past, and will be most likely to tell their friends about you. 2. Social media is popular — really, really, popular You don’t need to be a dedicated reader of tech blogs or an expert in online marketing to know that social media is really popular among consumers. According to the Pew Research Center, 69 percent of American adults use social networks, which means that social media will touch nearly every customer that walks through your door. For most small businesses, Facebook — which has 2.32 billion monthly active users — is the jumping-off point for getting started with social media marketing. With its extensive reach and dynamic functionality, there are very few businesses that couldn’t benefit from having a presence on Facebook. And starting there will make it easier when you want to try something new. 3. Social media is cost-effective As more social networks add algorithms that filter what users see in their news feeds, your organic content may get lost in the shuffle. Take advantage of the low-cost advertising features offered by the social networks to promote your content and special offers. Most social media advertising is cheaper than traditional advertising, so you don’t have to spend a lot of money to reach more people, increase your audience, and grow your business. 4. Social media reaches all ages and demographics Social media defies age barriers. A Pew Research Center study found that 69 percent of US adults are using social networks. While the majority of that percentage are aged 18-29, a substantial amount is attributed to other ages that use social media as well, including 34% of Americans 65 and older. So, no matter how young or old your target audience may be, chances are most of them are already logging on and waiting for you to get started. 5. Social media encourages two-way communication Social media gives you the power to learn more about your audience, their interests, and collect feedback. Ask your customers to share their thoughts, questions, and ideas to get to know them better. You can respond just as fast, without having to pick up the phone or worry the customer isn’t seeing your response.

Social media marketing initially started in the early 70s through emails and online forums but has grown into the empire that we know of today. Almost hundreds, if not thousands, of social media sites are becoming platforms for not only individuals but for companies as well. Specifically for online businesses, social media marketing is one of the leading sources to increased brand engagement from customers, an increase in sales, and improving customer communications. Now that you know the meaning and influence of social media marketing, the big question is how to use it effectively. Especially if you’re thinking of starting an independent business, using these social media sites is an easy and free way to grow your audience. Listed are a couple of questions to ask yourself before creating you online platform: What are you hoping to achieve through social media marketing? Whether it be to gain recognition or to simply sell a product, every post you make should have some sort of common goal to follow. This action could be as simple as using the same phrase or slogan on every post or video or directing your viewer’s attention to your website or product. From there, you’ll be able to convey your goals to your audience in an organized manner.