Affiliate Marketing for Photographers – It Can Be Lucrative!

Is photography something you do for a living or as a hobby? If you currently don’t would you like to? What area of photography do you specialize in? Whatever it is you may be an expert in several areas of this business. Such as equipment, tools, software, and training among others. Are you aware that affiliate marketing for photographers can be a very lucrative business? With little or no start-up and running costs.

I don’t know how much you know about the affiliate marketing business. If you are a photography pro, I assume you make money by serving the photographic needs of your clients in several ways. Perhaps you provide a service and charge a fee for your time and expertise. Or you have fixed charges depending on the scope of your assignment. The bottom line is when you work you earn. When you don’t work for any reason, you don’t earn.

How would you like to set up a photography-centric, Internet-based business that enables you to earn an income 24/7? I’d like to summarize it below.

Affiliate Marketing In A Nutshell

Affiliate marketing is a way for photographers to earn money by promoting other people’s products. Here’s how it works:

Choose a relevant product to promote (e.g. Photography gear, editing software, or courses). Sign up for an affiliate program with the product’s company. Get a unique affiliate link with the product’s company. When someone clicks on your link and makes a purchase, you earn a commission.

Although it is helpful to promote what you personally use and believe in, you can also promote products you do not own, but know a lot about. In affiliate marketing, you can write content in the following three categories.

1. Tutorials on how to use the product, software, or service.
2. Best of articles comparing several similar products.
3. Reviews of a specific product.

Your main goal should be to attract people interested in what you write about to your website. The next step is to build rapport with them followed by inviting them to join your email list. More about this later.

You can accomplish these goals by providing valuable information in all your articles to help your readers ……

1. Learn something new in photography.
2. Help them learn more about photographic products and services they are interested in
3. Make a buying decision using your expertise and knowledge.

When you succeed, you earn a commission when they purchase that product via the affiliate link you provide.

The next step is to track your results to see what’s working and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Your influence will expand as you get to know more about what your visitors are interested in through the feedback you request. By starting and nurturing a healthy dialog, you can build trust with your audience. As your traffic grows, so will your online income.

Does this make sense to you? Please let me know in the comments section below.

A Graphical View Of Affiliate Marketing

The following is a graphical view to illustrate what I stated above.

A customer (1) who is looking for help, or is searching for a product or service on Google, Bing, or Yahoo, finds your article online on your website (2). Your review helps them solve a problem or meet a need. In that process you help them make a buying decision. When they click on your affiliate link, they are taken to the company that sells that product (3). They purchase that product, and you make money (4).

This concept is simple. For this to work, there are specific skills and actions necessary that I shall share below. But first, let’s review how the online search system works using Google as an example. Since over 80% of searches are done through Google, this is a good starting point.

How Google Search Works

Since you, the photographer will be writing your article, it is helpful to read what Google has to say about how they rank the posts related to a customer’s query.

Google gives an excellent overview of the search process in its article How Search Works. The most relevant articles are presented to you, the person asking the question, in a list. This could run for several pages. The chances are you will rarely check out articles that appear after the second page. Most of the time we tend to stick to what Google presents on page 1.

Two Categories Of Articles That Are Presented On Page 1

1. Paid ad articles are listed first and in the right margins
2. Organic Articles that Google concludes does a great job in answering the question. No charges are necessary for these.

Most affiliate marketers start using the free organic approach to builod a growing traffic and sales. Then they use paid ads, as well as Pay Per Click (PPC) to scale up their business.

Authors who pay Google to rank high are presented at the top of this list. That doesn’t mean they are the best articles that answer your query. It is up to you to open those links to find out for yourself.

When you scroll past the paid ads, you will find articles that are listed in order of relevance and high quality according to Google. Each post will have a summary you can read to assess which may provide you with the best answer.

Now that you know how this search process works, pay careful attention to what articles get listed on page one after you enter and submit your query. Open the articles with the ad prefix followed by those that are not.

After reading them judge for yourself which ones did a better job in answering your query and let me know in the comments section below.

Steps To Take Before You Build Your Website

You will be connecting with your customers through your website which we will explore in detail in another article. There are ways to easily build your website. This is not complicated but requires some training. Before you take that step, there are other critical actions necessary to attract traffic. Don’t worry about that now. We will address these in detail in yes, I’m going to say it again, in another article.

The 9 Critical Steps To Creating Your Affiliate Marketing Business

Your options are endless. Hence you need to narrow this down to a few specific areas in the field of photography. Only you can make this decision. I’d like to help you by asking you the following questions.

Here are the 9 critical steps to create your affiliate marketing business. We have already addressed some of these briefly.

1. Select a niche based on one thing you are passionate about
2. Build an affiliate marketing website
3. Create helpful content to educate, and promote the products and services in your niche
4. Learn and implement the organic process to get Google to rank your articles on page 1
5. Set up your content for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
6. Drive traffic to your website and manage it using funnels
7. Use the free tools provided by Google to optimize your business for success
8. Use email marketing to build rapport with your customers and expand your business
9. Promote your business using social media to drive traffic to your website

I’ve written articles on each of the 9 steps above that are summarized with links in the following website post:

The Best Way To Do Affiliate Marketing

Short List Of Affiliate Programs To Get You Started

These come from the areas of hardware, software, and courses. Let me share just a few below to get you started if you decide you want to create an affiliate marketing business based on photography.

There are companies that sell a wide range of cameras and a plethora of equipment related to cameras. Since drones have become commonplace, you can market these items if you feel like it.

My advice is if you love drones, then create a dedicated niche around drones and photography. My purpose is to excite your imagination as to the possibilities. Let’s get to it.

B&H Affiliate Program

B&H is like a worldwide one-stop shop that specializes in all things related to audio-video creativity. I am certain you must be familiar with this company being a photographer yourself. Did you know they also have an affiliate program? Here is a brief history of the company.

The following screenshot tells you all the areas they support in the upper navigation bar. Click this graphic to go to their affiliate program application page.

DJI Affiliate Program

Creating a niche based on drone photography can be an amazing experience. If you decide to enter this niche, you don’t have to restrict yourself to one drone manufacturer or associated equipment. However, DJI dominates this field and offers a wide variety of drones.

Click their banner below to access their affiliate program. DJI is listed with the ShareASale affiliate network. You will need to open a ShareASale affiliate account before you can apply as an affiliate for DJI. Click on the ShareASale link to learn more about this network and to join them as an affiliate.

Amazon

Would you have thought Amazon sells high-end photographic products? If you didn’t, think again. Click the banner below to go to the page shown to explore the cameras and associated equipment marketed by Amazon.

How To Find Affiliate Programs Based On Products You Use Or Know Of

It makes sense to promote the products you use and have positive experiences with. It is easy to find affiliate programs for these products. Just type in the manufacturer and affiliate in the search window of Google and you will find one or more affiliate sourses you can join.

For example, I typed into Google the phrase, Affiliate Program For Canon Photographic Products and the following page popped up. Canon happens to have joined to DCM network for affiliates to sign up through. Click the screenshot below to get connected to the Canon Affiliate Program.

I think you get the idea of how easy it is to find quality affiliate programs, software, and courses. Bear in mind that the commissions paid for hardware products range from 2% to at most 5%. For digital products such as software and online courses, the commissions can start at 30% and go all the way as high as 90%.

What Next?

I have given you a lot to think about. Do you really want to create a side hustle for your current photographic business that can open up amazing opportunities for you? If you have a strong desire to help others in this fascinating field of yours, then I highly recommend you learn more details about affiliate marketing.

There is a company based in Canada that has been creating hugely successful affiliate marketing entrepreneurs since 2005 that you may want to check out. You can actually do this for free. There is no risk to see how you can start your affiliate marketing business before you decide to get more deeply involved. I wrote a review about Wealthy Affiliate that you can access by clicking the link below:

What Is Wealthy Affiliate About

The next thing I highly recommend you do is to assess what specific niche you would like to start your affiliate marketing business and research affiliate programs available that you can eventually sign up to.

Tips To Consider

When you begin an affiliate marketing business your initial goal should be to write articles to provide answers to potential future customers rather than to sell products right away. Your eventual goal is for your articles to rank high in search engines like Google so that people searching for answers can see them and click them to read what you wrote.

Google favors sites that earn the reputation of being an authority site in your chosen niche. My advice is to focus on helping people first. When your sites get ranked on page 1 and even in the 1st position, then go back and add affiliate links to the products you talk about.

There is another factor at play here. When you apply to become an affiliate of a well-known brand, they want to know if your website is getting sufficient traffic to grant you affiliate status. Hence, it is counterproductive to apply to affiliate programs prematurely. Sadly, this is something most entrepreneurs don’t learn until they already make this mistake.

Amazon is one of the easiest companies to sign up as an Amazon Associate. However, in order to maintain that active status, you must generate at least three sales in three months. Otherwise, your Amazon Associate agreement will be revoked and you will have to wait a month or two before you can reapply.

I Appreciate Your Feedback

Please share with me in the comments section below if you found this article helpful. I’ll be happy to answer any questions you may have. Please also click the link to What Is Wealthy Affiliate About to learn more about this company and how to sign up for their free introductory course in affiliate marketing.

In the meantime, I wish you much success in your photography business.

Cheers!

Edwin