Cost of Affiliate Marketing - How I shaved $100 per month off the Cost of Affiliate Marketing

byJnsiah

2.5K followers

Updated 6 years ago

What is the Cost of Affiliate Marketing?

What is the meaning of Affiliate Marketing cost? This is the monetary value of the amount that needs to be paid in order to get a commission or earn an income from your affiliate marketing business venture. The costs include: effort, computer, software, internet, subscriptions, etc.

The cost of affiliate marketing shouldn't be expensive. At least that is what we hear from the experts. However, I have noticed that it can get quite expensive with loads of shiny software being launched. On the face of it the affiliate marketing software are meant to solve the problems we face but start using it and you notice it doesn't actually save you the time or solve the problems you face. I review my costs every month and I realized that I was paying for some email marketing, video and hosting software which I could avoid. I took the time to analyse this software, the returns I generate from them, the alternatives I have if I stop using them or what my losses will be. In this blog I will talk you through some of the software I replaced and what the alternatives were. I will also share with you some free software we have on our computers and how we can use them as an alternative.

Shinny software for affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is a great avenue to earning revenue and there are loads of shinny software available to users. Sometimes we can get carried away because of the look of the software and also the reviews that come with them. Most affiliates give us these reviews and they write blogs depending on their affiliation to the product. Of course there are genuine blogs but you wouldn't know unless you have actually used the product and that is the key. Coincidentally, a client was adamant that "PayPal" was a better payment system than "stripe", because she had read a blog online that said so. To top it all the blog mentioned that the costs for PayPal was the same as Stripe, when we checked on the stripe website the revelation on the price was staggering. But there you go we shouldn't take everything at face value. It is important that we make our own research after we have read blogs. Wealthy affiliate gives users the opportunity to try if for free which is great. By trying, users can make their own decisions. Wealthy affiliate is also a community where you can ask questions about which software is best. But I urge you to ask why it is great for the individual and not just take the fact that they recommend a particular software at face value.

Review and monitor your affiliate marketing costs

Affiliate marketing is a business venture and like every business you need to keep an eye on the costs. At least a monthly review of your costs will help you identify subscriptions you may have overlooked. It is also gives you the opportunity to search for better alternatives for your software. The questions are you using the software and does is warrant the amount its costing you? What returns are you making from the cost of the software. I was using a very good video software, at least I thought it was one of the best. But it was costing me $29 a month. I knew I needed the software but I didn't want to continue paying that much. I also realized it limited my creativity and so I went back to basics and started learning about iMovie the free apple software for making videos. Of course not many people will blog about iMovie because it doesn't provide any income for them. I noticed that I could actually do more with iMovie than I could do with the video software that was costing me $29 a month.

Subscription hookup - contributory to the cost of affiliate marketing.

Subscriptions software is great for software providers, they automatically send invoices and debit your bank account each month. You can easily forget about that transaction if you do not keep an eye on your bank accounts. Sometimes it is a real hassle to close the subscription account and in many instances users can't be bothered to close their subscription accounts. Make sure you review your accounts monthly. By reviewing and monitoring you can ask vital questions relating to your subscription accounts. I canceled my subscription accounts on email marketing and info graphics software through my constant review of my costs. The good thing is you can go back to subscribe at anytime if you need to use the software again and who knows there may be better and cheaper alternatives when you do. However, most software providers do charge more if you pay monthly rather than yearly so look out for the extra cost if you decide to go via the monthly route. The question is will you the software throughout the year or you only want it for a specific period. The Wealthy Affiliate program is an example of a subscription you need subscribe to annually. It is a place for hosting your website as well as provides continuous education. It doesn't make sense for me to have it on a pay as you go basis so it is one of my annually paid subscriptions. I regard it as a direct cost to my affiliate marketing business.

Know the software you have, before you commit to increasing the cost of your affiliate marketing

As I noticed from my using iMovie app, I noticed that I have this fantastic software on my mac book after doing my own research and you can do the same. There are loads of free software about that you can use before you commit to a paying affiliate marketing software tool. When starting, look for the freebies that work and will give you what you need. Only commit to a paying software when you start generating income. However, with some subscriptions like wealthy affiliates you may have to commit to paying because it is important to the success of your business.

Review and challenge yourself. -

This will reduce your affiliate marketing costs

As you have noticed review and monitoring is very important to shaving the costs of your affiliate marketing. I have done that to shave $100 off my costs. You may shave more or less but it is still worthwhile. Without reviewing and monitoring your costs you wouldn't know what and how much you can save. Cost savings is key to the success of your affiliate marketing journey. Some software can be daunting to use, especially the freebies and iMovie is no exception. Look out for my training on iMovie which I will be launching soon. Like anything else you have to give it a try and persist until you shave some dollars of your bill.