Does Affiliate Marketing Really Works In Nigeria? & How Can You Partake?
So you’re interested in affiliate marketing and you wanted to be sure if it works in Nigeria? Well, I know that feeling.
I’ve been there!
To be candid, affiliate marketing works Worldwide, so far you have access to an internet connection and a browsing device.
Mind you, I never said it’s easy!
Affiliate marketing isn’t a get rich quick scheme.
It requires a lot of work and research. Plus, constant relationship with your audience.
So the question should really be… does affiliate marketing work in Nigeria for me? And the right answer to that can only be answered by you.
How much of work, effort and passion can you put into it?
Once you’ve known what it takes and you’re willing to give in all your best, then you’re already on a good start.
In other to make affiliate marketing works for you here in Nigeria, you need to understand the rudiment of this business model.
Understanding What Affiliate Marketing Is
Affiliate marketing is a self-employed business model that requires little to nothing in starting up. It doesn’t require you to create a product or keep product inventory.
Most of the risks are carried and managed by the owner of the product. Your only task is to recommend the product to your followers.
Shipping and sending of the product is handled by the vendor, while you receive your commission on every successful sale you made.
Affiliate marketing is a flexible and logical business model that creates multiple streams of income on a passive level.
This means you can get paid from your business while you’re on holiday or simply while you’re sleeping. It works on auto-pilot!
Does Affiliate Marketing Works In Nigeria?
The answer is YES and NO based on your action towards it! If you want it to work, then yes it can work! And if you don’t, then it won’t.
Think of it as a physical business that requires the normal running around with staffs. For your business to thrive, you’ll need proper:
- Training
- Planning
- Marketing Skills
- Networking
- Business partners
- Etc.
Same things work for affiliate marketing!
Before you begin to push any products you need to draft out plan and do proper research before you fully lunch out.
How Can You Make Affiliate Marketing Work In Nigeria?
#1: Product Research
You need to do thorough research on any product you want to promote. Promoting products without knowing how it works is purely setting yourself for failure.
Ask yourself these questions:
- Can I use this product or service myself?
- Is this product providing any value to its users?
- Will my audience be interested in such a product?
- How much will I make from promoting this product?
- Is there a long term value for promoting this product?
Questions like this are what you should constantly ask yourself before you choose any product you want to promote.
Once you’ve done your research and know pretty much everything there is to know, there be more confidence to promote the offer.
#2: Build Your Website
Having your personal website is very important if you want to succeed in any affiliate business. I’ve seen people ask countless of time about starting affiliate marketing without a website.
It possible to make some sales here and there but in the long run you’ll see the need to have your own website.
The cool part about this is that you’re only going to pay for hosting. And once you’ve done that, the next payment is after the next year.
Trust me, it’s very impossible for you to run an affiliate business for a straight year and not make anything in return.
It’s CAPITAL impossible!
The way this is possible is for you to create a website and not publish content for the whole year.
You don’t need to bother yourself with Domain Name because you can get it for FREE using BLUEHOST!
Perhaps, you need help with your blog set-up, we can actually do that for you for FREE here at SmartBizFreedom.
Simply contact us through the Contact Us page with your Bluehost purchase receipt using this link!
#3: Consistency
Consistency is vital for the success of any business. Be it affiliate marketing or a roadside hawker. You need to be consistence if you want a good result.
You can set up a Google Editorial Calendar to keep you in check and remind you if you have not to work or publish content for the day.
You need to be consistence with your blog if you want any fast result from your affiliate business.
#4: Create Your brand
Now that you’ve started your blog, you need to get all the awareness you can get for yourself. Create several social media account to portray your brand.
You need your follower to recognize you for only one thing and this is what your blog is going to be about.
Your BRAND!
This way, whatever it is you’re promoting is going to go alongside your brand which is going to be widely accepted by your audience.
Also, this will help you create trust easily with your audience and bond with them properly.
#5: Track & Monitor Your Earnings
You’ll need to keep stats of your affiliate earnings most especially if you have more than one affiliate program you’re promoting.
Know the affiliate program that your audience interacts with the most and also the one that makes you the most money.
Knowing this will help with your business scaling and lets you know which part of your business is doing well and which is not.
Once you’ve been able to understand them running your business will be a lot easier than you think.
Pros and Cons of Affiliate Marketing
Just like every other business out there, affiliate marketing has its own advantage and disadvantage or simply call it pros and cons.
The Pros of Affiliate Marketing (Advantage)
#1: low start Up Capital
This is one of the best advantages of affiliate marketing. You can get started with as low as N21,000 or less. And this is going to be the cost of setting up your blog with Bluehost.
Affiliate marketing is free to start and hardly will you see any affiliate programs that will prompt you to pay money before you can start promoting them.
This is considered as one of the best ways to monetize an existing blog and you want to start cashing in with.
You just need to sign-up with any affiliate program and get your own unique affiliate links to start promoting your offer.
Your only cost will be that of data consumption and perhaps if you choose to run promotion which is not compulsory.
#2: No Physical Product
Another good advantage is the fact that you don’t need to have a product of your own. Think about it, if you want to start any business you need to have at least a product or service you’re selling to the people.
And these products don’t come cheaply, you need to invest in them and do lots of other stuff to make your customer happy.
This, however, isn’t the way affiliate marketing works. You don’t have to bother yourself with product and logistics.
You just need to locate other people’s product that interests you and promote it if they have an affiliate program in place.
#3: Highly Scalable
Affiliate marketing is very scalable to the extent that there’s no cap on your affiliate income. You can make as high as you want to make.
I’ve seen affiliate marketer making as high as 50 million on a monthly basis and others making more.
You just need to do your home-work and scale existing affiliate program that’s working well for you.
A good way to do this is to start running adverts to generate more traffic and invariably increase your affiliate income.
#4: Passive income
Affiliate marketing allows you to make money passively. What I mean by this is that you can make money from previous works you’ve done for a very long time.
This business model is very flexible that you can make money months after you’ve stopped working. However, you do need to know that, this is only possible when you have you blog fully up and running.
You can start by getting your domain and hosting on Bluehost. The domain name comes for free and you only need to pay for hosting.
Cons of Affiliate Marketing (Disadvantage)
Affiliate marketing is not all sunshine and rainbows; it has its own disadvantages or drawbacks that you should be aware of.
#1: Time Consuming
As you already know, nothing GOOD comes for free and affiliate marketing is not an exception. It requires a lot of time on research and creating fresh content for your readers.
Truth is if it’s actually easy everyone would be doing it!
You need total dedication and a lot of sacrifice from your side most especially if you’re just getting started.
The initial stage is usually the worst; it gets better by the day. You must be willing to let go of some things if you really want to see a result from this business model.
#2: No Total Control
Another disadvantage of affiliate marketing is the fact that you don’t have total control over the product you’re promoting.
You don’t decide the commission; you only work with what’s stated by the vendor. Another thing is, they can decide to close the affiliate program whenever they want to.
This is because it’s their company and you’re just an affiliate. So your control is limited compared to when you’re the owner of the product.
#3: Competition
You should also know that affiliate marketing is highly competitive. There are several other affiliates promoting the same products you’re promoting.
This will lead to traffic and customers competition between affiliates. If you’re not totally on your game, you might not make as much as you ought too.
Another bad side too this is that some affiliate program may become difficult to enter since there are several affiliates applying to promote the offer.
#4: Bad Vendor
Finally, bad vendor! These are bad affiliate programs you should stay away from. I’ve worked with one or two affiliate programs didn’t pay me my commission irrespective of my sales.
This best way to avoid this is to Google the affiliate program reviews. Check the experience of other affiliates promoting the offer.
If it’s good you can go ahead and promote them, but if you not, you need to stay away totally!
Conclusion
I believe so far I’ve been able to answer the question about affiliate marketing working in Nigeria. Now I want to hear your own opinion and answer this same subject matter using the comment box.