Are you worried about not having a retirement plan? If yes, then I have the perfect solution for you. Hi, my name is Francisco, and I am the owner of Planet Marketing, a digital marketing agency. My company specializes in Facebook Ads, Google Ads and Remarketing. I quit my 9 to 5 over 20 years ago and I don’t have a conventional retirement plan. Yet I am not worried! That’s because I was able to use affiliate marketing to build enough passive income to last me several lifetimes. You too can do it by following the tips that I give here. In this article, I am going to;
- Explain why it’s never too early to start worrying about a retirement plan
- Give a brief definition of Affiliate Marketing
- Show how I was able to build my own retirement plan using affiliate marketing
- Show you how to use Affiliate Marketing as part of your retirement plan
It’s never too early to worry about a retirement plan
The entire world is living in difficult times. COVID 19 showed how vulnerable most people are. A few weeks into the lock-downs that were imposed around the world, and people were already struggling to make ends meet. Anyway, COVID-19 may eventually be defeated, but the challenges that people face will likely remain.
If you are one of those people who survive from hand to mouth, the solution is for you to start earning passive income today. It’s never too late or too early to get started. Do things right, and you could very well start living the life of your dreams.
Most retirement plans are not adequate
Some of the tips that we give here take years to begin bearing fruit. You need to be patient. You need to keep your eye on the ball. One thing to note is that there are two categories of people when it comes to retirement plans.
The first group is composed of people who have no retirement plan at all. Surprisingly, there are millions of these people across the United States. If you are one of them, then you need to go through this article to see how affiliate marketing can help you.
Then there are people whose retirement plans are simply not adequate. This applies to the majority of people who are out there. They have retirement plans, but these are probably not enough to help them live comfortably in their retirement. If you are one of these people, again, affiliate marketing will help you supplement your retirement income.
What is Affiliate Marketing
We have mentioned affiliate marketing several times already as one of the solutions for people who have limited or no retirement plans. But what is affiliate marketing?
Well, the subject of affiliate marketing is one that I have covered extensively on this blog. I am, therefore, only going to give a brief definition here. Feel free to check our my article on how affiliate marketing works if you want to learn more.
Definition of Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing should be thought of as a contract between an affiliate and a brand under which the former sells products and services on behalf of the latter. In return, the affiliate gets paid a commission. So, the more the sales, the better the payout for the affiliate.
How does it work?
To understand how affiliate marketing works, we need to look at all the major players. We have already mentioned the brand and the affiliate, but they are not the only players in this matrix;
- The brand/merchant/vendor is responsible for coming up with the product. This can be either physical or digital. As an example, I have a DIY Facebook Ads Marketing course that I sell on this website. That’s an example of a digital product.
- The affiliate does marketing on behalf of the brand. Going with the example that I have already given, I have people who do marketing for my DIY Facebook Ads Marketing course. They do this using various platforms; blogs, email, social media and other methods.
- A third player in the affiliate marketing matrix is the affiliate network. Affiliate networks serve as the middle ground on which affiliates and brands meet. As an example, I have my own products listed on ClickBank. The advantage is that I get access to thousands of affiliates. For the affiliate, the advantage is that he or she does not need to run around looking for affiliate marketing opportunities.
How I used Affiliate Marketing to boost my retirement income
As noted earlier, I have already exhaustively discussed affiliate marketing on this blog. Feel free to check my other articles if you want to learn more. The question that this article seeks to answer is; how can affiliate marketing be used as part of a retirement plan?
It’s all about building passive income
Affiliate marketing, as it turns out, is one of the best ways of building passive income. And if you do it right like I did, passive income can serve as a great retirement plan. I have already noted that I no longer need to work, because I have already set myself up to go on earning something well into the future. I am going to give you a brief look into how I was able to do it here. But first, let us define passive income;
What is passive income?
Passive income is something that most of us would like to get. But what is passive income? Well, in simple terms, passive income is money that you earn without having to put in regular work. It’s the opposite of your ordinary job. There, you spend hours toiling. If you don’t work, you don’t earn anything. However, with passive income, you earn without working. At least not regularly.
The idea is to gain financial independence to enable you to earn money even as you travel, sleep or do any of the other things that you like. If you are like the average American, you probably hate your job. Having passive income is one way of liberating yourself from doing what you don’t like.
I have become my own boss
Just to bring the story closer to home, affiliate marketing was how I was able to quit my job and start earning enough to never worry about not having a retirement plan. To cut the long story short, I decided several years ago that I was not really cut out for the 9 to 5 environment.
An example: Shopper Approved
Fortunately, I had the courage to call it quits. I then created this blog and started doing affiliate marketing. The rest is history. One of the companies that I joined is called Shopper Approved. This company is a good example of how I earn passive income.
Shopper Approved is into online reviews. If you want to get star ratings in your Google Ads and in Google Shopping, then they are the company that you should go for. Anyway, after joining Shopper Approved’s affiliate marketing program, I started writing blog posts about their services. I published those on the Planet Marketing Blog.
After doing lots of SEO, my articles started appearing at the top on Google. That, in any case, is the key to Affiliate Marketing. You can do everything right, but you will not make it if you are not able to bring your content before the right audience. So, keep that in mind.
Anyway, I have my affiliate links in all the Shopper Approved articles that I have written. So, when somebody reads my article on how to get star ratings in Google Ads, as an example, the challenge for me is to convince them to sign up for Shopper Approved or for any of the other companies for which I am an affiliate.
Recurring commission
Once they sign up using my affiliate link, I earn a commission. One thing to note is that Shopper Approved is one of the affiliate marketing companies offering recurring commissions. That’s the best kind of payment as far as being an affiliate is concerned. It means you will continue to earn passive income for as long as the person you referred to a company continues to settle their monthly subscriptions.
I am also an affiliate for other companies that offer once off payments. Examples are web hosts such as Bluehost and Dreamhost. This type of payment is okay because you earn more at once. But it means you do not continue to benefit from your referral. So, this type of payment is not really good as far as building passive income to give you a comfortable retirement is concerned.
How many people have I referred?
Shopper Approved pays affiliates 20% per referral on a recurring basis. The entry level plan at Shopper Approved stands at something like $200. Anyway, over the years, I have referred over 300 people to Shopper Approved. So, you just do the Math. It means I earn thousands of dollars from this company every month. And because it offers recurring income, it also means I have a solid retirement plan.
I don’t need to work anymore. And Shopper Approved is only one company for which I am an affiliate! So, the potential for using affiliate marketing as part of your retirement plan is massive. You only need to know when and how to get started, which is what I am going to show you below.
How to use Affiliate Marketing as part of your retirement plan
Anybody out there can grow their passive income through affiliate marketing. And we have noted that passive income is key to a comfortable retirement plan. There is no rocket science to it. You may make mistakes along the way, but you should be able to start earning something after a while. Again, you need to be patient. I was able to do it, so you too, can do it! The following is how to make affiliate marketing start working for you as part of a solid retirement plan;
1. Create your own blog
Yes, you can do affiliate marketing without a blog, but it’s not going to be easy. Creating a blog is, therefore, the very first step on the path to using affiliate marketing as part of your retirement plan. To be frank, it doesn’t take much to create your own site these days.
There were once days when you needed to know such things as HTML to get started. Now, it’s a simple matter of using a CMS such as WordPress or Joomla to get started. Once everything is set up, you can begin posting your content.
Anyway, if you need help creating a site, don’t hesitate to get in touch with me. I will be very happy to do it, for a small fee of course. Anyway, I actually encourage people to do it on their own. You learn a useful skill along the way. You can find videos on how to create a website on YouTube and elsewhere on the internet.
2. Decide on an area of focus
This is actually a very important step on the way to generating income for your retirement using Affiliate Marketing. Before doing anything else, you need to decide what your site is going to focus on. Are you going to create a news website?
Or are you going to go for a Digital marketing blog like mine? Maybe you wish to go for a niche site selling Amazon products? Those actually work very well, though you don’t get recurring income that way. However, a niche website, when done right, can serve as a great source of extra cash.
Anyway, it’s important to narrow down your focus. If you try to cover everything, you will not be able to build the kind of audience that you need to act as part of your retirement fallback plan. Part of succeeding in the digital world involves having a loyal audience. This applies whether it’s a blog, YouTube or Facebook.
3. Buy a domain and a web hosting plan
Next, you need to decide what your site is going to be called. Don’t obsess over this. Domain names no longer have the SEO juice that they used to have, so you can get away with calling your site anything. Having a keyword in there, however, would still be helpful. An SEO site that’s called chickens or another unrelated name would hardly attract visitors.
People are much more likely to click if it’s called seochicks.com! Anyway, once you have decided on the name for your site, you need to buy your domain and web hosting plans. Domains cost around $12 per year, so that’s probably not going to be your biggest expense. Web hosting costs are varied. Some web hosts will charge you as little as $2 per month, while others charge hundreds of dollars.
We recommend that you buy your hosting plan and domain under one roof. Most we hosts out there will offer you a free domain the first time as part of their plans, so this is something that you should take advantage of. Having everything under one roof also makes it easier to manage your site. Anyway, the following are the web hosts that we recommend for beginners;
- DreamHost
- Bluehost
- Kinsta (for bigger sites). Our own website is hosted by Kinsta and it’s a great host.
4. Create your site
Next, you need to create your site. We recommend that you use WordPress on your site, since it’s the most user friendly CMS that’s out there. Again, this is something that you can do on your own. However, if you need help, don’t hesitate to get in touch and we will get you set up and on the way to building a retirement plan using affiliate marketing.
5. Produce content for your site
The aim, when it comes to affiliate marketing, is to convince people to sign up or buy something using your affiliate link. Part of this process involves creating useful content. I have already given my own example.
Once I have signed up as an affiliate with a particular company, I write relevant content about that company. These may be reviews or other content. I also write general articles relating to my area of focus.
In fact, most of the articles on my blog have nothing to do with affiliate marketing. I just write them to provide useful content to people out there.
But what if I can’t write?
If you don’t know how to write more than a few words, the good news is that there are content writers out there who you can hire to do the job on your behalf. Get in touch with me and I will be able to help you in this regard.
6. Do Search Engine Optimization
Search engines are wonderful things, yet they can be very challenging. In order to successfully build your affiliate marketing income as part of your retirement plan, you need to do lots of Search Engine Optimization.
The wonderful thing about Search Engines is that they offer free traffic. Once you have reached the top, you can be sure that people will read your articles and they will sign up for the affiliate marketing programs that you are promoting.
However, the challenge is that there is stiff competition for appearance on the first page on Google and other Search Engines. So, how do you do it? Truth is, it takes time. Along the way, you need to do Keyword research, write useful content, use keywords in your content, do internal linking, and earn backlinks.
We have already noted that it takes years. So, you need to get started right now. The great thing is that Search Engines give prominence to older sites in Search results. So, if you get started right now and write ten or so articles on your site, you can be sure that a few years down the line, they will start earning you something.
Anyway, you can check out some of my Search Engine Optimization plans. I do emphasize, however, to my clients that SEO is not the task of one day. If you see anyone promising you results within a few days, you should know that you are being lied to.
7. Use social media for Affiliate Marketing
Social media has pretty much turned the world in Zombie-land, yet this is something that you can take advantage of to boost your affiliate marketing plan as part of your retirement plan. What you need to do is to make sure that you have enough of an audience to be able to sell goods and services on behalf of brands.
If you go to places such as Facebook and Instagram, as an example, you will understand what we are talking about here. Social media has spawned a new breed of people called influencers. These people have thousands and millions of followers. And companies pay them thousands per post to promote their products.
The challenge, as is the case with blogging, is on building that audience. Again, you need to provide answers to the questions that people are asking. If you know that people are asking about fitness, you can start an Instagram page promoting your own journey to fitness. Be focused and consistent, and you should soon begin getting the desired results.
8. Use social media to promote your blog
Apart from promoting affiliate products on social media, you can also use social media to promote your blog. In fact, social visibility is one of the factors used by search engines to give rankings to web pages. So, you need to make sure that each piece of content that you publish on your blog also gets posted to your social media pages.
9. Never give up
Done right, affiliate marketing can serve as an effective retirement plan in the tough world in which we live today. However, most people make the mistake of giving up after only a short while. That’s why there are so many abandoned sites out there.
My advice to you is; you should never give up. Stay focused and you could very well be like me. I have already talked about recurring income. You should try to mostly promote companies that offer recurring income. That’s what I do.
Yes, I also promote companies offering once off payments to affiliates, but recurring payments are the best. That’s particularly the case if you want to build your retirement income. Convince enough people to sign up for the programs that you promote, and you will be able to earn enough to survive on till the end.
