Learn how to make money by promoting other people's products online.
If you are looking to make passive income by promoting other people's products, you have come to the right place.
This guide will tell you everything you need to know about affiliate marketing and give you the steps to get started today.
Affiliate marketing is a system where people can earn commissions in return for sending customers to a business through an affiliate link.
Affiliate marketing helps both businesses and affiliates (the people who promote the business), as they each get something out of it.
The business receives more customers, while the affiliates earn commissions. In other words, a business with an affiliate program pays people who get them customers or sales.
Affiliate programs are created by businesses in order to get more customers. Affiliates can then sign up for these programs, and if accepted, they can start promoting to earn commissions.
Some examples of affiliate programs include Nike, eBay, Home Depot, and Amazon.
Affiliate networks are not to be confused with affiliate programs. An affiliate network is simply a platform that hosts a lot of affiliate programs.
Affiliate networks make it easy for affiliates to find affiliate programs, as once you join an affiliate network, you can easily join the programs that are on it.
Here is a list of some popular affiliate networks I would recommend taking a look at:
Affiliate links are individualized links given to each affiliate in an affiliate program. These links can then be tracked by the businesses to see which links bring in what sales.
In short, affiliate links give you credit for the sales you bring to a business.
To keep things simple, there are 3 things you need for affiliate marketing to work: a business with an affiliate program, an affiliate, and an audience.
First, affiliates must find and join an affiliate program. Next, the affiliates share their affiliate link with their audience. The audience then goes through the affiliate link, and some of them make purchases. Finally, businesses will pay out commissions for any purchases made through an affiliate link.
There are a few different types of ways affiliates can earn commissions. Naturally, some will end up paying you more than others.
Here are the common commission models that affiliate programs will use:
Not all niches work the best with affiliate marketing. Some can have thousands of affiliate opportunities and products to promote, while others may have a handful.
Also, some niches just have affiliate programs that pay more because their products are more expensive. On the other hand, more expensive products mean fewer conversions.
As you can see, there are a lot of things to consider when choosing a niche for your affiliate marketing strategy. Here are some general guidelines to get you started on your niche brainstorm:
This will make creating content for it much easier and by being an insider on the niche, you will have an idea of what products or offers your audience is looking for.
Picking a niche that is super specific may limit your earning potential with affiliate marketing. For example, making all of your content around light switches may end up limiting you.
While it is easier to become an authority in these lesser known niches, it is much easier to grow when there is a good amount of search volume for your topics.
For example, runners buy running shoes, and hikers buy hiking equipment. These two examples show that money is being spent in the running and hiking niches.
In most cases, there will be opportunities to offer affiliate products to your audience that are relevant to them. However, it is a good idea to do research beforehand to ensure there are selling opportunities.
Although you are not limited to just one platform, you should decide on one primary platform that you will focus on. This increases your chances of success on that one platform, rather than stretching out across five and failing them all.
Many platforms exist, and some are better than others for affiliate marketing. However, if you have experience with one and know the ins and outs of the space, I would go with that.
It is also worth noting that the most effective platform will vary depending on which niche you choose, as the user base of each platform is different. Aim to pick a platform that you know your target audience already uses.
Here are some ideas to get you started:
Now that you have a target audience in mind, it is time to decide on some affiliate programs you plan to use. Although you don’t have to stick to the ones you choose now, it can be useful to have an idea in mind when you start creating your content.
Look for an affiliate program whose products could genuinely help your audience. In the end, your success depends on how much value you can provide to your audience.
You don’t want to do the work of building up an audience just to find out that the only affiliate program for your niche pays a 1% commission. Take the time now to do some solid research on whether there are affiliate programs for your niche before you go about building an audience.
One way to do this is to search “Best affiliate programs for (your niche)” or “(your niche) affiliate programs”. In many popular niches, there are lists of potential programs you can join.
Here are some more places to start looking for programs:
This is arguably the hardest part of affiliate marketing, as it can take a long time to build a sizeable audience on most platforms. This means that if you already have some sort of following, use it to your advantage.
When creating affiliate content, your goal should be to inform your viewers about the product and answer any questions they may have.
Keep in mind that your viewers are looking for an honest review, so be sure to mention things that you don’t like about the product as well. In addition, not every piece of content you make needs to be for selling an affiliate product. It is a good idea to balance the amount of selling you do with other forms of content, as this will help grow your audience.
Now comes the fun part. At this stage, you will want to put more thought into how you convert visitors into sales.
Now that you have an established audience, you will be able to get accepted into most affiliate programs. Once you get in, put your affiliate links where relevant to monetize your content.
The image below is an example of how Forbes monetizes their content with these boxes containing affiliate links.
Optimization is also another important part of any successful affiliate system. If you currently have a 2% conversion rate of website visitors clicking on affiliate links and manage to tweak some things to get it to 4%, you just doubled your sales.
Optimizations can be as simple as restructuring your content, changing the color or size of a button, or making your website look more appealing. It is also a good idea to test out different affiliate programs to see which ones your viewers prefer.
As you get deeper into optimizing your content, A/B testing will be something to look into.
There are many tools that affiliates can use to earn more through affiliate marketing and do it more efficiently. Although you don’t need any, implementing them into your affiliate marketing strategy can increase your earnings and chances of success.
The tools you use will depend largely on what platform you choose to build your audience on.
According to Glassdoor, the average affiliate earns $65,166 each year. As a beginner, this number will be much lower, however, with time, you can make much more than $65,000 a year.
Yes, affiliate marketing is completely free to start, as you can start growing a following on social media at no cost today. However, if you choose to go the route of using a website, you will need to purchase a domain name and hosting; however, these are quite cheap.
Although you won’t be earning anything until you have an audience, you can technically start without one. Keep in mind that many affiliate programs review applications and are looking for affiliates with a sizable audience, so you might not get into the ones you want as a beginner.
Affiliate marketing can be a profitable income stream if used correctly. With the steps given in this article, you should now have a good idea of one way you could go about affiliate marketing.
To be clear, there are many ways you can approach affiliate marketing in an attempt to earn money. There are sites out there that make tons of affiliate programs without even making content.
To be successful with affiliate marketing, continue to learn not only from others but also from taking action.
