Image Source: Shannon Smith
Shannon Smith was an average American who was forced out of her job after the pandemic struck the country. She was laid off from her job as a waitress and found herself in a slump.
Shannon then worked as an online fitness coach and earned around $1,000 to $2,000 a month. However, that required her to work about 10 hours a day. So she started to find another stream of income.
Last July 2021, the 24-year-old dreamer decided to take on a bigger but more effective strategy to earn money – using technology and innovation. She used her TikTok, and Instagram accounts to market wealth-building tools and online programs.
In just three months, Shannon grew her social media followings to 40,000, and her income reached $8,000 a month – in passive income. These come from commissions from her affiliate posts. With this system, Shannon was able to earn a lot by working only 2 hours a day.
The new-and-rising entrepreneur said that passive income-generating businesses take a lot of effort at first but “pay off in the long run.”
Here is Shannon’s advice to others who want to build their own:
- Automate your business
To make passive income, set up automatic systems at the start of your business. This will save you so much time because your most essential tasks will run on autopilot.
- Don’t try to reinvent the wheel
I see a lot of people try too hard to reinvent the wheel completely with social media posts to get their business into the spotlight.
But after acquiring 109,100 TikTok followers, I’ve learned that the key to going viral and growing your audience is to study what’s working for others. Sure, you want to be original, but you should be posting content people already find interesting.
- Focus on solving a problem
The main goal of any business is to sell a product or service. But at the end of the day, no one cares about what you sell — people care about their own goals, their own dreams, and their own problems.
You want to indirectly market your product in a way that highlights how it can help meet your audience’s needs or help them achieve a goal.
- To sell to your audience, engage with them directly
Individual posts on Instagram or TikTok are great for providing value and entertaining your audience, but it’s almost impossible for your audience to get to know you through these curated posts.
Having a connection with your audience is important. As people get to know who you are, they begin to trust what you are saying and what you are selling, which will lead to more sales.
I engage directly with my audience by responding to their comments and messages, or by going live on Instagram and TikTok. This gives me a chance to build a personal connection with them through genuine back-and-forth conversation.
- Be selective about what you promote
If you’re planning to start an affiliate marketing business, these are the main things I recommend looking for:
- High gravity: Gravity means the number of people who are actively promoting the product. If this number is high, you know the product is good.
- Low refund rate: If a product has a high refund rate, it means that a lot of people have been unsatisfied with it, so you want to avoid these. Promoting products with high refund rates can decrease your audience’s trust in you.
- Recurring subscriptions: These are the best types of products to promote because you will receive a commission payout every month each time the subscriber renews their subscription.
- Positive reviews: I always Google reviews for the affiliate programs I’m looking into before deciding to promote them. I want to make sure its a widely-liked product.
Opinions expressed by CEO Weekly contributors are their own.
