Select your Acquisition Channel
It is worth noting that there is not a single Forex affiliate marketing method which can always guarantee success. Instead, there are at least 5 ways marketers can do this, each of them having its own distinct advantages and downsides. So the marketers can promote Forex brokerage company products by five channels:
- Social media pages
- Email marketing
- Video channels
- Websites
- Podcasts
Now, let us go through each of these in more detail.
Getting Started In Forex Affiliate Marketing by Social Media Pages
One of the easiest ways to get started with the Forex affiliate marketing is to create a page on one of the popular social media sites. The page might focus on one of the aspects of Forex trading. For example, promoters can call it ‘Forex trading signals’, ‘Trading
economic calendar’, or other specific topics.
The affiliates can then post regular updates about the chosen topic. They can also promote their page using social media advertising services in order to attract more visitors. Once they gather a significant number of daily visitors, the promoter can join one of the Forex affiliate programs. As a result, they can put links to these brokers on the page and promote their products.
Once the affiliate marketer gets some people to sign up and start trading with the brokerage firm, then they will start receiving commissions from the broker. Here it is worth noting that there is no single universally accepted commission scheme. Instead, there are several types of these.
For example, with the revenue sharing agreement, the brokerage company shares a certain percentage of income received from the new client. With the cost per lead (CPL) arrangement, the broker pays the fixed rate commission for every client who signs up for the trading account and verifies his or her email and phone number.
The brokerage companies typically offer larger one-off payments for cost per action (CPA) commission scheme. However, in this case, they usually require traders to deposit a certain amount of money and execute a number of traders for the affiliate marketer to receive the payment.
Finally, there is also a hybrid option. This typically represents a mix of revenue sharing and cost per lead (CPL). So this means that the affiliate will receive a payment for every client which signs up for the trading account, but will also get a share of revenues received from this customer.
Consequently, the promoter and the brokerage firm will agree on one of these options and then the affiliate can start earning some income.
It goes without saying that promoting company products on the social media pages does have its advantages. The marketer does not have to pay for hosting fees or worry about the website design. The only possible expense is the advertising costs if one decides to promote his or her page. In addition to that, the promoter can invite friends to the page and potentially get some number of followers.
This method of affiliate marketing does have its downsides as well. The fact of the matter is that social media sites might not allow the promotion of the products of some brokerage companies. The marketers should also comply with the terms and conditions set out by the social media platforms when promoting their pages or products.
Consequently, these factors can represent a significant limitation for some promoters. For example, the affiliate marketer might have a very popular social media page and have an opportunity to earn some decent income by cooperating with the brokerage company. However, he or she might not be able to do so because of those restrictions.
Email Forex Affiliate Marketing Explained
Email marketing is another option affiliates and Forex brokers can cooperate with. The main idea behind this is to have a large list of emails of people, who might be interested in Forex trading.
The promoter can then write them an email, explaining the advantages of opening an account and trading with a particular brokerage firm. They can also put some images to make it more visually appealing and also attach the link the reader will click if he or she decides to go to the broker’s website.
Just like with other methods of affiliate marketing, the brokerage company will then pay commissions when the new clients register for the new account and start trading on the platform.
This type of approach does have certain advantages. Here promoters do not have to worry about website hosting costs or social media page advertising expenses. They also do not have to write every single email they send out. All they have to do is to create 2-3 templates for products and send them out to as many emails as possible. So in a way, this method can be the cheapest and the least time consuming option for affiliate marketing.
However, despite all of these upsides mentioned above, this approach also has its own drawbacks. One thing to remember here is that promoters should always be careful not to be categorized as ‘spam’ by the email providers. If this happens, these emails will automatically be put into the ‘spam’ folder. There are some people who read those emails out of interest. However, in the majority of cases, people simply empty the entire spam folder, without reading anything out of this category. Consequently, if this happens, it can be very damaging for the affiliate marketing business.
Successful Affiliate Marketing by Video Channel
One of the popular ways of affiliate marketing is to promote products through video channels. This can be especially effective with Forex trading. Here the promoter can record videos of analyzing currency pairs with the charts, using the technical or fundamental indicators. Or alternatively, they can review the trading platforms, or focus on any other aspect of Forex trading.
The affiliate marketers can mention the name of the brokerage company in the videos and also put the link in the description as well. Once the channel becomes popular and recruits some clients for the broker, the promoter will then start receiving payments from the Forex affiliate managers.
The benefit of this method is that the affiliate marketer can build his or her popularity and name recognition by these videos. They also do not have to convert any website operating costs. In addition to that, they can earn extra income from their channel as well.
The downside to this approach is that the affiliate still has to conform to the rules and regulations set out by the video sharing website. Consequently, the marketer might not be able to promote the services of all Forex brokerage companies. It is also worth noting that not all people are comfortable with recording videos, so this might not be the best option for these individuals.
Building Forex Affiliate Websites
The next item on our list is building the Forex affiliate website. This involves the purchase of a domain name, choosing a hosting provider, designing the website, researching keywords, and publishing posts on a regular basis.
The upside to this method is the fact that the individual is in charge of the website and can promote the services of any brokerage firm. Also, there is no risk of his or her account being deleted by the social media or online video sharing websites.
Despite these advantages, this type of affiliate marketing has two distinct downsides. People looking for Forex affiliate business tips should keep in mind that starting a website for affiliate marketing does need some decent startup budget. These expenses include such items as the cost of purchasing the domain name, hosting expense, website design, and the keyword research software. It goes without saying that these costs can add up to a significant amount.
The second major downside here is that this method requires a very serious effort and might take a year or longer to yield any results. The fact of the matter is that there is a great deal of competition on the internet when it comes to the financial websites. Consequently, getting a decent ranking from the search engine companies can be rather a difficult task.
So as we can see, this method is the largest investment of money and time, something some affiliate marketers might not be most compatible with.
Starting Forex Podcast
Finally, we have people in affiliate marketing who promote products using their podcasts. This essentially represents an audio show, which covers some specific topics. For example, there are historical podcast series, which chronologically covers the history of one particular country or empire. There are podcasts about cooking, medicine, politics, sports, psychology, and all sorts of other topics.
In fact, regardless of their interests and hobbies, everyone is likely to find a podcast which has something interesting to offer to them. This is why podcasts became even more popular during recent years.
So how can one do the Forex affiliate marketing in this field? Well, the marketer can start covering different topics about Forex trading, whether that be trading strategies, economic indicators or other items. Alternatively, they can discuss the latest developments in the currency and commodity markets. They can then record these audio files and publish them online, in order to make it available for download.
Once the marketer manages to gather a large audience, then he or she can start promoting the products of the Forex brokerage companies at the beginning or the end of each podcast series. For example, the promoter might recommend for interested listeners to open trading accounts with a broker. Or alternatively, the marketer can even create some special episodes in the podcasts, discussing the advantages of trading with one particular brokerage company.
Here it is also worth noting that some companies give special discounts or bonuses for the podcast listeners. For example, at the beginning of the show, the host might announce that listeners can type the special link, where they would get a certain amount of discount or bonus for purchasing the product of the company.
Obviously, this can work quite well with brokerage firms as well. For example, the broker might decide to offer podcast listeners some sort of
deposit bonus, up to a certain amount if they sign up for the trading account. This actually works with some customers, because they like the fact that as loyal listeners of the podcast, they are getting some special offers. So many of them might decide to take advantage of those opportunities.
This can also have a positive effect on the popularity of the host of the podcast. The reason is that by offering these special deals, the marketers can show to the listeners that they do not only care about their earnings but also provide them with some lucrative offers as well.
Many people like listening to podcasts, because they can do so when driving the car, walking on the street, doing a workout, cooking or doing other activities, which do not allow them to watch the TV, mobile or laptop screen, but are still able to listen. In fact, many people download several podcast episodes on their phone and listen to them as they get busy with their daily activities.
Another benefit of starting a podcast is that the level of competition here is relatively lower than with blogging. After all, regularly recording audio files is not something the majority of people are willing to do. Consequently, this allows marketers to build their name recognition and the loyal audience base.
At the same time, it is important to point out that starting a podcast does require the proper audio equipment, research, and some website to upload those files. The latter one does not necessarily need to have a very high quality design and dozens of pages.
All marketers need is to create a visually appealing design for the main page and post the download links for every new publication of the podcast series. After all, most listeners are much more interested in the contents of the podcast, rather than the website design.