Quick note: This post includes affiliate links to products that could earn me a small commission at no additional cost to you if you decide to buy through one of those links.
For the past few weeks, I have been thinking a lot about venturing into affiliate marketing. This could easily be a long story but I'll with this: I have been a freelance writer, doing remote work, since 2019. Freelancing has been a great respite for me from years and years of corporate jobs while sustaining my thirst for travel. It was a great blessing not to have to deal with what most traditional company-employed workers went through during the pandemic months (years, for some). I was also blessed to have landed a great company, a great boss/Managing Editor, and a virtual working team and support staff.
For the past year though I went through a sabbatical. For personal and health reasons, I had to focus on keeping myself well and above ground. Since January I have kept myself busy moving to a new apartment, and everything that comes along with it, dog-sitting a shih tzu who has terrible abandonment issues (it's another story that I may get to tell one of these days), and tending to plants which is, hand-to-heart, a never-ending science project.
Lately, however, I have been feeling like I could allocate some of my time towards learning more new things that are preferably income-generating, and interesting to me for the most part. The latter is very important because I tend to burn out easily. (Yeah, I'm working on that.) Getting back to my freelance writing gig is still in the books for me, but right now I want to try something new, something I haven't tried before.
I got the idea for affiliate marketing as a side hustle from, well, social media. You see, I started making and posting reels of our dog on my personal Instagram account and it became my IG feed's prominent content - replacing my usual travel, nature, and food-related posts. Shortly after, I began receiving DMs from pet store business owners that have an online presence. I never did check if they have physical shops apart from the online stores they were promoting, but that is beside the point right now.
As it happens, these online businesses wanted to make our doggo a product ambassador where I'd create content featuring their products, i.e. pictures and/or videos of our little cheeky pup (not quite a pup really, he's 9 years old) in exchange for free exposure of my page on their page, and a range of benefits like small commissions, freebies, discounts, etc. I chatted a few of them up not really intending to do the promotion thing for them but to get an insight into their business strategy - I hope you get the gist.
So, after a few exchanges, I did not exactly feel much enthusiasm for it. You see, back when Instagram was just gaining popularity and regular social media users who were still heavy on Facebook, I used to get these types of proposals for clothes, pieces of jewelry, sunglasses, and whatnot with the same perks. The idea just did not appeal to me then. Especially if I have to shell something out for a product that I most likely will not love let alone promote it to my family and friends. But what did appeal to me is the idea of marketing products online for a commission, i.e. as a distributor for a product that I believe in, and authentically advertise it to the general online public. I just have to figure out how to go about it.
Recently though, I began seeing feeds from "side hustle" pages on Instagram and Pinterest and affiliate marketing appears to be trending. I am not a Tiktok-er but I can imagine it is blowing up over there, too. Quick PSA though, as we all should know by now with social media, we have to be extra vigilant with the kind of information we absorb. Just because someone with a sizeable following said it does not mean you have to believe it. That goes without saying, I hope. I know I tend to be long-winded before getting to my point, often digressing, but here we are.
Long story short, the idea of affiliate marketing caught my attention and I found myself reading more about it online. If you have come across this blog by chance and you happen to be interested in earning extra income with your laptop or mobile phone and internet access, then affiliate marketing could be something that you can look into as well.
I encountered several sites where you can sign up and hop onto the affiliate marketing bandwagon such as Clickbank, Rakuten Advertising, ShareASale, Peerfly... there's plenty out there. I also came across these easy-to-use online platforms that can help you provide resources and information if you are looking to be a freelancer and taste the life of a digital nomad. Data entry jobs, social media management, app reviews, and virtual assistant jobs are just some of the remote work opportunities that you can choose from. Here are some links:
Feel free to check them out and see which ones will work for you. I did say I tend to be long-winded but, at any rate, when it comes to side gigs I believe in encouraging everyone to do their own research as opposed to simply jumping into something that they saw on the internet blindly. Suggestions from promoters, marketers, and writers like moi will simply remain suggestions. The final decision is always yours. Do your pros and cons at your own time and pace. I will be doing the same. Ciao!
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