Affiliate marketing is the best way to grow your black owned business’ customer base without having to spend a fortune. By using affiliate marketers, you can create more exposure for your business, sell more products, and boost revenue all without having to invest anything upfront. Affiliate marketers are motivated to find customers for the companies they work with and as result, are highly invested in making sales.
In this guide, we review the aspects of Affiliate Marketing For Black Owned Businesses, beauty products affiliate programs, do you need a business license to do affiliate marketing, and how to sell with affiliate marketing.
Affiliate Marketing For Black Owned Businesses
Affiliate marketing is a great way for black owned businesses to grow their customer base. By using affiliate marketers, you can create more exposure for your business and sell more products without having to spend any money upfront. Affiliate marketers are motivated to find customers for the businesses they work with and they’re therefore highly invested in making sales.
Businesses can use affiliate marketing to drive sales, gain online visibility, and get more customers without paying anything upfront.
Affiliate marketing is a free way for you, as a business owner, to drive sales and gain online visibility. You can do it by promoting your products and services through websites that already have an established audience. There are many benefits of affiliate marketing:
- Affiliate marketing is free to set up. All you need is a website or blog where you can host content related to the product or service being sold.
- It allows businesses to get more customers without paying anything upfront. Instead of paying thousands of dollars for advertising campaigns, companies pay their affiliates only when they make a sale (or when the affiliate refers them new customers). This means that affiliates have nothing at stake in terms of time spent promoting products or services; instead, they see affiliate programs as an opportunity for both parties involved (i.e., the customer who wants something and needs help getting it, and the business owner who wants someone else’s outreach).
Affiliate marketers can earn money by setting up an online store and selling products on behalf of a business.
Affiliate marketing is the practice of earning a commission by referring customers to another business. When you sign up as an affiliate, you create a unique URL (web address) that contains a special tracking code. This code allows your website to track sales and commissions on products or services sold through your links.
You can apply this same process to promote any product or service you like, including those from Black Owned Businesses (BOBs). However, there are some important considerations to keep in mind before signing up with any company:
- Affiliate networks require you to use their network-specific code on every page where their ads appear — even if it’s just one banner ad across all pages within your website;
- Affiliate networks will pay based on how many clicks they receive from people who visit your website through their ads; and
- Some affiliate platforms require certain types of websites (i.e., ecommerce sites only), so be sure yours fits those requirements before signing up!
Affiliates are motivated to find customers for the businesses they work with and they’re therefore highly invested in making sales.
Affiliates are motivated to find customers for the businesses they work with and they’re therefore highly invested in making sales. They can earn commissions on any sales they make, which gives them a financial incentive to close deals.
As an affiliate, you’ll be working directly with your partners, so you’ll have direct access to client information such as their contact details and social media profiles. This makes it easy for affiliates to reach out and introduce themselves—and when clients know about your affiliation, it helps them trust you (and vice versa).
Google is not allowing affiliate marketing as an advertising model, but you can still get exposure through content marketing.
If you have a product that you want to sell, but aren’t sure how to market it online, you’re in luck! There are plenty of ways to advertise your business without breaking any ethical or legal norms.
One of the most effective ways is through content marketing. Content marketing involves creating and distributing valuable content that helps your potential customers find out more about what your company has to offer them. This can be done through blogging, video production, and social media management – among other things.
The best part? Google doesn’t prohibit black owned businesses from engaging in such practices – so there’s no need for concern!
Affiliate marketers get paid commissions on their sales so the only way for them to make money is to close sales.
Affiliate marketers get paid commissions on sales, which means that their only motivation is to make sales. If a marketer closes a sale, he or she gets paid! This may sound obvious (I mean come on, you’re trying to make money here), but it’s important to understand why affiliate marketers are motivated in this way.
Do you think about your own job? Do the people who report to you get paid commission or salary? Chances are they’re being paid commission because they want to make more money than what they would if they were just working for an hourly wage. Most people don’t have enough discipline and/or drive to work solely based off of their salary alone—they need extra motivation in order to do better at their job.
The same goes for affiliate marketing: if someone can only earn $10 per hour by doing boring tasks like filing paperwork all day long while another person earns $100 per hour by selling products online via social media marketing techniques (which is WAY easier than filing paperwork), then which one will be more motivated?
You can start out as an affiliate marketer with no initial cost or you can pay for a website or social media ads.
If you’re looking to get started with affiliate marketing, the first step is to choose which company(s) you want to partner with. There are several companies that offer great affiliate programs and they are all listed in this article. Once you have chosen a program, it will walk you through the steps on how to sign up and get started making money as an affiliate marketer.
In terms of cost, some people might think that starting out as an affiliate marketer requires some type of initial investment by purchasing products or paying for advertising (i.e., website creation or social media ads). However, there are other ways besides spending money upfront that can help grow your business without incurring any initial costs such as:
- Creating content yourself using tools like Google Docs;
- Using images from Pixabay;
- Using resources from FreeStockPhotosOnline;
- Creating graphics using Canva; and
Affiliate marketing is a great way for black owned businesses to grow their customer base.
Affiliate marketing is a great way for black owned businesses to grow their customer base. It’s free, easy and doesn’t require a lot of startup costs. Affiliate marketers can start out without any upfront costs, just by sharing some information about the products they are promoting with their friends and family, who will likely be interested in purchasing those same items themselves. The affiliate marketer is also motivated to find customers for the businesses they work with because they earn commissions on sales that come through their referrals. This means that if you have a product or service to promote, it’s likely that you could find an affiliate marketer who would be willing to help spread word about it in exchange for getting paid when someone buys something from your website through them!
beauty products affiliate programs
It’s no secret that the beauty and cosmetics industry is worth billions of dollars. The good news? Getting a slice of that $$$ pie is completely possible for beauty bloggers.
Promoting beauty and cosmetics products can be a particularly profitable side income, especially if you know which programs to join.
In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the best beauty and cosmetics affiliate programs out there. We’ll explore why they’re great options for making affiliate income, and we’ll also provide tips on how to maximize your earnings from these programs.
So whether you’re just getting started in the world of affiliate marketing or you’re looking for new programs to promote, read on for some great ideas!
How we compiled this list
Before we dig into the list, I just want to share how we compiled it.
To create this list of the best beauty affiliate programs, we analyzed which merchants over 70 top beauty blogs were sending their readers to with affiliate links.
Blogs we analyzed include blogs like Kate Loves Makeup, Gemma Etc., All in the Blush, Ruth Crilly (A Model Recommends), as well as beauty media brands like Byrdie and Allure.
After all, if a famous beauty blog is repeatedly linking to the same site, there’s a good chance it’s converting for those products and their audience.
The result is a list of the top beauty affiliate programs, based on the affiliate strategy behind the internet’s top beauty blogs and websites.
Beauty affiliate programs
In this list, you’ll find affiliate programs for makeup, luxury beauty, skincare, Korean beauty, and more.
You’ll also find UK-based beauty affiliate programs, so you can recommend the same product for each segment of your audience at a retailer they know and trust.
Here are the best beauty affiliate programs:
- Sephora affiliate program
- Ulta Beauty affiliate program
- Dermstore affiliate program
- MAC Cosmetics affiliate program
- SkinCeuticals affiliate program
- NARS Cosmetics affiliate program
- E.L.F. affiliate program
- Glossybox affiliate program
- Boots.com affiliate program
- Cult Beauty affiliate program
- LOOKFANTASTIC affiliate program
- Beauty Bay affiliate program
- Revolution Beauty affiliate program
- Feelunique affiliate program
- Glossier affiliate program
- Charlotte Tilbury affiliate program
- CHANEL affiliate program
- Clarins affiliate program
- Selfridges affiliate program
- Tarte Cosmetics affiliate program
- Birchbox affiliate program
- Scentbox affiliate program
do you need a business license to do affiliate marketing
how to sell with affiliate marketing
How does affiliate marketing work?
Upon joining an affiliate program, you get a unique link that contains a tracking ID. This allows the merchant to track if you’ve referred customers to them.
People who click on your link also get a tiny file called a cookie stored on their device. This (usually) holds an expiry date, so you get paid even if they delay buying for a while.
Here’s an example of how it works:
- Someone visits your post on the best winter jackets.
- They click the Amazon affiliate link for one of your recommendations.
- They close their browser to pick their kid up from school.
- They go back to Amazon the next day to check out the product again.
- They buy the recommended product, along with some ski gear.
Thanks to the affiliate cookie stored on this person’s device, you earn a commission on the recommended product and the ski gear.
How much money do affiliate marketers make?
Most affiliate marketers earn less than $10K per year. That’s according to a survey from Influencer Marketing Hub.
Yet, roughly one in six (16.87%) make $50k per year or more.
Matt Giovanisci is a good example of a high-earning affiliate. His site, Swim University, made $149,991 affiliate commissions in 2021.
Keep in mind though that these people have done an excellent job building their brand. It’s taken them years of hard work to reach this level.
If you’re just starting out, your checks might look more like this for a while:
You need to manage your expectations. You won’t earn the big bucks right off the bat, but don’t let this discourage you.
The success of others tells you that with hard work, time, and the right knowledge, you too can potentially reach those levels.
Learn more: Here’s How Much You Can Really Make From Affiliate Marketing
How to get started with affiliate marketing
Follow these seven simple steps:
Step 1: Choose your niche
Your niche is the category you want to talk about and promote.
To stand out amongst the countless other websites today, my advice is to be specific. Instead of tackling a broad niche like food, go for something a bit narrower, like grilling. This helps you build a more focused audience and may also help with SEO.
Here are four questions to ask yourself to find a good niche:
- What am I good at?
- What do I like doing?
- What am I curious about?
- What do other people tell me I’m good at?
It’s hard to overstate the importance of choosing something you’re passionate about. You’ll need to create a lot of content to succeed with affiliate marketing. If you choose something you hate, you’ll find it hard to press on when the going gets tough.
That’s why, when I built my first site, I chose to talk about one of my hobbies—breakdancing. And despite knowing nothing about marketing, I grew it to an estimated 2K monthly visits.
Learn more: How to Easily Find a Niche for Affiliate Marketing
Step 2: Decide on a content platform
You can do affiliate marketing on any platform. This includes:
- Website
- YouTube
- Social media (e.g., Instagram, TikTok)
- Newsletter
- Podcast
The method you choose will depend on your preference and occasionally, your niche’s preference. For example, people who are learning breakdance will prefer videos. So, even if you prefer writing, running a YouTube channel may be a better option.
That being said, we recommend building a website and using search engine optimization (SEO) to rank your content high on Google. This allows us to generate passive search traffic consistently, which means consistent clicks on affiliate links too.
Step 3: Find affiliate programs to join
There are three main types of affiliate programs to choose from:
- High-paying, low-volume — Niche products with fewer buyers. For example, HubSpot sells only to businesses but their affiliate program pays well (100% of first month and 15% monthly recurring commission.)
- Low-paying, high-volume — Products with mass appeal, e.g. PS5 games. For example, Amazon only pays up to 10% commission. But the good thing is they offer commissions off the entire value of the purchase (and not just the product you recommended.)
- High-paying, high-volume — Expensive products with mass appeal, e.g. credit cards. An issue is that these programs tend to attract affiliate marketers with deep expertise and pockets and willingness to black-hat tactics.
Which affiliate program should you join? This depends on your niche and level of expertise.
If you’re targeting consumers, go with the second model: low-paying, high-volume. If you’re targeting businesses, go for the first one: high-paying, low-volume. Popular programs include software and web hosting-related products.
The best way to find these affiliate programs is with a Google search. Alternatively, enter a competing affiliate site into Ahrefs’ Site Explorer and go to the Linked domains report.
For example, I know that Pat Flynn promotes a number of software products on his website, Smart Passive Income. Eyeballing the report shows that Pat links to Aweber pretty often. And if we expand the caret, we’ll see that Pat is an affiliate.
It only takes a quick Google search to find an application form for this program.
If there is a product you’d like to promote but they don’t have a public affiliate program, reach out to the company and ask if they would be willing to build an affiliate relationship with you.
Learn more: 9 Best Affiliate Programs for Beginners (Any Niche)
Step 4: Create great content
If you want your affiliate site to succeed, you need to create high-quality content where your affiliate links fit naturally.Don’t just blindly curate products from Amazon’s best sellers. Go the extra mile and make sure your content solves your readers’ problems.
For example, if you’re doing reviews, you should actually purchase the product and test it. Use it over a period of time and report your findings.
That’s what Wirecutter did for all their articles, which explains their success. For example, in order to find the best air purifiers, they tested more than 50 of them:
If you can collaborate with experts to review your findings, that’s even better. Again, Wirecutter goes above and beyond in this aspect, solidifying their status as the gold standard of affiliate websites:
Step 5: Drive traffic to your affiliate site
You’ve created great content. The next step is to get more people to read it, so they will click on your affiliate links.
Here are three traffic strategies to consider:
A. Paid traffic
This is where you pay for traffic to your site. You can do this using pay-per-click (PPC) ads.
The advantage of paid traffic is that the moment you start paying, you get traffic.
However, there are some downsides.
First, running ads will dig into your profits. It’s quite normal for advertisers to lose money before they make it… if they ever do.
You need to be realistic about how long it takes to optimize a paid traffic campaign.
Secondly, once you stop paying for ads, your traffic will stop.
Generally speaking, ads are a great traffic strategy if you’re part of a high-paying affiliate program and can make the numbers work.
But if you’re completely new to paid marketing and have no marketing budget (or are working with lower commission programs like Amazon Associates), then it might not be such a great idea.
Learn more: PPC Marketing: Beginner’s Guide to Pay-Per-Click Ads
B. SEO
SEO is the practice of optimizing pages to rank high in search engines like Google.
For as long as you can rank high in the search engines for your target keywords, you’ll get consistent and passive traffic.
On the most basic level, SEO is about:
- Understanding what your target customers are searching for
- Creating content around those topics
- Making sure Google understands clearly what your page is about
- Acquiring or earning links to push your pages higher in the search engines
- Ensuring Google can find, crawl, and index your content