Are you a teacher? Did you find this article when you were looking for opportunities to create an online business? Please let me know in the comment section below. Do you think teachers can become successful entrepreneurs? Specifically, are teachers a good fit for affiliate marketing?
If you know what affiliate marketing is, great. If you don’t, worry not as I will tell you about it below. But first, may I ask you some questions?
- What area of teaching do you specialize in?
- How long have you worked as a teacher?
- Is your planning for retirement on track?
- If you are retired, do you feel you are financially in excellent shape?
- If you are, congratulations, If you are not retired, what plans do you have to change that?
Peace Of Mind
Most of the nice things in life cost money. If you want to help your kids in their lives, that costs money. When your spouse needs something to meet their needs, that costs money. Vacations? More money. Saving for emergencies? You guessed it. That also requires money.
When retired, your income is dependent on your pensions and the returns on your investments, assuming you have investments. For most people, even if they did all the right things to prepare for retirement, a shortage of funds to meet every need is the norm. If you think that Social Security will protect you, don’t bet on it.
These shortcomings can cause a great deal of stress. And stress is a major contributor to making you sick. What you need is peace of mind. The best way to get that is, to take back control of your income-earning potential. My main goal here is to show you a way to do that.
Out of all the many available options, I want to share just one, affiliate marketing, and how becoming successful in this can help you to earn additional income to give you that all-important peace of mind.
But first, can I tell you a little about my work and teaching experience and how affiliate marketing has helped me?
My Brief Teaching Experience
I graduated from The University of Liverpool in Electrical Engineering and Electronics. When I was looking for a job, I discovered the world of Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) and started my career in this very specialized field.
My pay was extremely modest in my first job. I needed a way to supplement my income. The solution? Teaching math to adults in an evening class.
Since I had struggled to understand these math concepts myself, I explained them to my students in a way I could understand. They had difficulties similar to mine. Hence, they also were able to understand math in the way I taught it to them.
The proof of my success was in the math scores my class got when they took their tests. The majority of them scored high.
I’d love to hear interesting teaching stories you have to tell. Just write them in the comment area below.
OK so let’s dive into affiliate marketing.
What Is Affiliate Marketing?
If you know what affiliate marketing is, great. If you don’t here is a diagram that shows how it works:
A Summary
You help others solve problems or meet a need by recommending products you do not own. In other words, this is a business model where you, as an affiliate, can send customers to the companies that do sell these products. Like Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy.
There are thousands of companies that have affiliate programs, including a myriad of companies that offer all kinds of digital online training courses or modules for a fee. I shall share who these companies are below.
When a sale is made, the company, also called the vendor, sends you, the affiliate, a commission check. How is this done?
After you apply and are accepted to be an affiliate for them, they give you an affiliate URL link unique to you. This is what you use to direct customers to the vendor.
Just think about it. You don’t have to worry about carrying inventory or processing the purchase cycle. Yet you earn a commission, Neat, right?
Click this link to learn more details about how this process works.
Affiliate marketing works best when you create your business based on your passions. If this happens to be in the educational field you may want to become an affiliate of one or more companies that offer educational programs.
Instead of just recommending these companies in general, get to know specific courses that appeal to you and promote those. When a visitor to your article likes your recommendation and decides to click your affiliate link and purchase that course, you will earn a commission. If a customer sees other courses and decides to purchase those, you will also earn commissions from those purchases too.
A Few Companies That Offer Education Affiliate Programs
- Rosetta Stone
- Udemy
- Coursera
- Masterclass
- Linkedin Learning
- Teachable
- Pluralsight
- Rocket Languages
- Skillshare
- Udacity
- The Princeton Review
- Thinkific
In an upcoming post to help teachers like you find an affiliate marketing niche, I shall go into more detail about these companies. If you wish to research them yourself, go ahead. If you feel like it please tell me what you learned about these companies and did you find a couple you would consider promoting.
Other Niches
If you wish to pursue passions other than in the educational field, go for it. May I suggest selecting an area where there is less competition? Help is available on this process.
The products and services in your selected niche need to have reasonable demand and at a decent price to make it worth your while.
Don’t worry about this right now. I will show you where you can go to learn how to select a great niche for you using tools created using Artificial Intelligence.
The Always Present BUT!
But, and there is always a BUT, ha! Before you get too excited, I want to share some stark truths with you. Then you can get as excited as you want. This business is worth getting excited about for one very good reason.
In my opinion, this method of starting a business is by far the lowest cost way to do it.
Stark Truths You First Need To Know
No matter what people tell you, there are no get-rich-quick programs. You may stumble onto what may appear to be so, only to find out they are get-poor-quick programs. I kid you not. Been there, done that. Sadly, it is very easy for scam artists to use psychological tactics to weaken your resolve and part you from your hard-earned money.
What about playing the lottery? You could be spending $100 every week for a lifetime and not win any major prizes. The chances are you will win money in the lottery. Mostly for a few dollars. Isn’t it far better to do something that has a winning formula that is totally under your control?
Finding something that has proven to work is the first step. I felt that affiliate marketing was a good fit for me. It may also be for you. But then it may not. After you read the article above, you can decide. Click this link if you do not want to scroll back.
The Other Side Of The Coin
Are you willing to create a plan to get properly trained and do the work consistently? It may take several months before you begin to see results. And a year or two before you start to earn a consistent income so that you can quit your job. Do you have the patience for delayed gratification?
Remember, a business is not a job where you get paid by the hour. You are building an asset that will pay you over and over again after the work is done. Check out the graph below that shows this concept.
When you start building your business, the income you get for your time is little or nothing, As your asset builds, and starts generating income, you will arrive at a point where your income takes off and grows exponentially. You will then be in maintenance mode where your business will be doing the heavy lifting for you.
The time it will take to reach that point will depend on the training you receive, how quickly you develop the necessary skills, and the hard and consistent work you put into your business.
If you need more income immediately, then I suggest sticking with your job. Or look for a higher-paying teaching position. Consider building your online business part-time.
Unless you are retired and have a regular pension that gives you the time to develop an online business. Even so, planning and hard work is still required.
There is no way around that I am sorry to tell you. So stick with me to see how teachers are so well positioned to do extremely well as entrepreneurs. Especially in affiliate marketing.
Why Do I Think That Is So?
I am not alone. Read what the Huff Post says about why teachers make some of the best entrepreneurs. Some key qualities they recognize are:
- Teachers do not become teachers for the money. They like to educate others to make a difference in the world.
- Multitasking is in their DNA. Teachers are not afraid of juggling many tasks. However, they also know when to focus.
- Teachers are skilled in communicating. This quality is essential for entrepreneurs and especially in affiliate marketing.
As a teacher, how do you see yourself? Is the conclusion of the Huff Post correct? Let’s see how these qualities can be applied to affiliate marketing.
Firstly you will need to learn new concepts. To reach as many people as possible online you will need to create a website. This activity today is not what it used to be.
You don’t need to know any code or use it. The company I was trained in has a system where you can build a basic website automatically in 30 seconds.
Let’s look at the main requirements of building an affiliate marketing business.
The First Actions You Will Need To Take
- Pick a niche to target a very narrow group of individuals you seek to help.
- Select and buy your domain name.
- Build your website.
- Write content to help your readers make a buying decision
Once you become very good at the above, you will start to earn a growing stream of income. Several conditions need to be met before your article will appear on Google and especially on that coveted Page 1. Even on the very top of Page 1.
Google and the other search engines will need evidence that you are serious about this business. The best way to show you’re serious is to add value to your articles to help those who are searching.
In other words, you have to work on your website to become an authority on what those who are searching for. Then, you need to keep at it by writing helpful articles on a regular basis.
You can learn the skills to drive traffic to your website. Your valuable content will help those visitors to learn your insights on the products in your niche. When they feel you have shown them the product they are considering purchasing will meet their needs, the chances are they will click your affiliate link and make a purchase. And you will earn a commission.
Where Do These Customers Come From?
Ask yourself, where do these customers come from? If you were looking for more information on a product you want to buy what would you do? You would probably go to almighty Google and enter your query in the search window. Lo and behold, Google shows you a long list of sources for the information you seek.
What happens next? Each of the items in this list has a brief summary of what that link is about. The one that comes closest to the query is what you will most likely click.
Unless this link is directly from the vendor, you will land on the article of the affiliate marketer who wrote it. Here you will find a review about the product that will help you make a buying decision. The price you will pay is exactly the same as if you went to the vendor’s site yourself.
Why Vendors Use Affiliate Marketers
Strangely, vendors are not the best source to help their customers see how these products can solve their problems or meet their needs. Affiliates do a much better job here.
No wonder large and small companies offer affiliate programs to boost their sales. When you buy the product, the affiliate marketer will earn a commission.
How would you like to be that affiliate marketer earning that commission?
The concept is simple. As always, there is more to this process to learn to make this work for you.
How To Become An Authority To Satisfy Google
This is not as difficult as it may sound. Here is where the hard work comes in. Nobody can become an authority on everything buyers are looking for. So what can you do?
You chose a very narrow slice of products or services that fall into a specific niche. This niche must be an area you have a lot of expertise in, and/or are passionate about.
In my opinion, the most optimum category for teachers to help others is in the field of education. You can pick whatever educational specialty you like. Then use your teaching skills to show your target audience how these courses can help them gain the knowledge they need for a specific application.
Look for tips on how to pick your winning niche as a teacher in a future article.
Once you are clear about what your niche is, you create a lot of content in the following categories:
- Product Reviews – Details about the products including pros and cons
- Best of Articles – Compare several similar products and make your best recommendation
- How to articles – How does this product or service meet a specific need or solve a problem
I think you get the idea. By the way, you don’t have to choose a niche in the educational category. It can be in anything that you are passionate about. You have total freedom to choose.
Alternative Methods To Make Money Using Your Expertise
There is another way to use the Internet to use your teaching knowledge and skills to make money online. By creating and marketing courses on your own. Find out what is missing in the educational space. Conduct some research. Then create your very own digital course in PDF format and market it online,
You may start off with one course. Then add to that. Who knows you could become the next Anna DiGilio. Who is this individual you may ask if you don’t know already?
Read the following article by Forbes Magazine
Millionaire Entrepreneur Who Spent 23 Years As A Teacher
Forbes magazine wrote the following article about how Anna DiGillio started her own online business to solve a pressing need in the teaching profession she had uncovered. I strongly recommend you click the following link and read it:
How This Teacher Left The Classroom And Build A Million Dollar Education Business
You don’t have to do affiliate marketing to create an online teaching business. Like Anna, you can create your own teaching courses and market them online. Hence, you do have options.
Before you do this, I strongly recommend going the affiliate marketing route to accumulate the experience and results of teaching an income online. Either way, I shall be showing you how to get the training for either approach.
Interview Excerpt
Here is an excerpt of the interview I want to draw your attention to. The interviewer’s name is Robyn D. Shulman.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Shulman: As a teacher, how did you learn to make it in the business world?
DiGilio: I started to read every book on marketing and growing a business and listened to every company and marketing podcast I could find. I also spent over $40,000 taking online business courses to teach me how to grow and scale my company while making a more significant impact on the world.
Notice that Anna was willing to spend a small fortune to learn the skills to become effective in using the Internet to grow her business to the tune of over $40K! Would you say that was worth every penny she spent to build her million-dollar business? You bet.
You don’t have to do that. In fact, you can get all the training you need to first build your online business and then learn to scale that up for significantly less. Plus, have up to 10 websites hosted for free when you subscribe to the training.
How much does that cost? Let me share with you what I did and what millions of others are doing.
Ideal Training Online
How would you like to be trained to become really good at being an online entrepreneur? Either in affiliate marketing or marketing your own educational products?
I searched on the Internet to find resources that could help me in my quest. Sadly, what I discovered were organizations that tricked me into taking my money and providing me with very little benefit.
Unfortunately, the approach most often used was to suck me in with a lowball price. Once in, I discovered that in order to learn what I actually needed, I had to pay extra. A lot extra. The courses were in modules and each had a price that exceeded hundreds of dollars.
Then there were others who charged very little and gave very little value too.
The ideal training program for me was a company that taught me the skills I needed as well as providing the tools necessary and the support and mentorship I would need. All at a fair price that was transparent right from the start. Preferably with no upsells.
I found such a company through trial and error. After being with them for over three years and earning regular commissions, I highly recommend them.
Would you like to read my review of this company? Click the banner below to find out more.
Keeping Track
I highly recommend you create a success plan based on the training you receive. This is a combination of scheduling your training, writing content, and tracking your progress.
Create a daily schedule. As you complete each task, check that off. As much as possible, focus on one task at a time until you complete it.
For example, when you schedule writing content, stick with it until your article is complete. The training will consist of a combination of live sessions where you can ask questions and receive immediate answers. As well as recorded sessions where you can also ask questions and receive answers later.
Schedule your business-building activities for only 5 days a week. Leave the other two clear to catch up if and when you fall behind. If you schedule and work every day of the week you will suffer burnout. Plus, you will not have time for catching up when you fall behind. This can actually add stress to your life. Please don’t do that.
Are Teachers A Good Fit For Affiliate Marketing?
Do you feel the information I have provided in this article as well as in the links answers this question for you? Please let me know in the comment section below. I’d like to close loose ends by adding some Pros and Cons about teachers doing affiliate marketing.
Pros
- Teachers enjoy teaching others to learn new things and solve problems
- Are empathetic and care about their students
- Teachers are hard-working
Cons
- Teachers enjoy teaching so much they are hesitant to try other things to earn an income
- There is the question of building tenure and enjoying a pension at retirement that could cause resistance
- There will be a challenge to carve out time to go through the training and build your online business
Mindset
You have the option to change your mindset to overcome the Cons as stated above. It comes down to changing habits. This is difficult to do, but once achieved, will help you do exceptionally well. Especially when combined with the strengths in the Pros.
The great thing about affiliate marketing is you can do it part-time to create a regular stream of extra income. As this income grows, you can assess your situation to see if there is a path to quit your teaching job and do this full-time.
If you could add an extra $1000 or $2000 a month working an extra one to two hours a day, will that be worth it? Only you can make that decision.
The Formula For Success
As a teacher, I feel confident you will find the formula for success in affiliate marketing. But only if you decide this option to make extra money is for you. Please leave me any comments or questions below.
I wish you all the success in the world.
Edwin Bernard
I am a teacher—I teach electronics at a university. I agree with you that we will always do well as affiliate marketers with our excellent communication skills. Although affiliate marketing is a little different from the classroom event. But with little training as teachers, we can continuously improve our skills and communicate our ideas rightly to our audiences
You were spot on in saying with a little training teachers could reach out to a wider audience. This will provide them with the opportunity to boost their bottom line too.
Thanks for commenting.
Edwin
I think affiliate marketing is a great fit for teachers! They’re already used to coming up with creative ways to engage their students, and they have the perfect skillset for promoting products and services.
Yes! Teachers are a great fit for affiliate marketing! They’re outgoing, enthusiastic, and have a lot of energy to put into promoting products and services. Plus, they’re always looking for new and innovative ways to reach their audience.
Hello Sojiel,
You are absolutely right with your conclusion. I firmly believe that teachers need to be informed that they have far more opportunities to reach and educate people through affiliate marketing. If you know teachers I’d appreciate it if you shared this post with them.
Thanks for commenting.
Edwin