In this way, affiliate marketing can be a great way to earn extra income without hassle or upfront cost. Sounds great, right?

THE COMPLETE GUIDE ON HOW TO MAKE MONEY WITH AFFILIATE MARKETING

 

Welcome to affiliate marketing. With this concept, you can make money at any time, from anywhere – even while you sleep.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is where you promote another company’s product or service in return for a commission on the sales you generate. Commissions are typically a percentage of the sale price but can occasionally be a fixed amount.
It’s similar to a salesperson earning a commission, except you don’t work for the company. Instead, it’s like earning a reward for sending a new customer to the company.

In other words, when you help another company generate sales, you get a cut!

But before we get into more details, we must understand some terms first.
• Affiliate/Publisher – This is you. Who is referring people to a business?
• Affiliate marketing websites – Company websites with an arrangement to reward people who refer customers to them.
Some of the best affiliate marketing programs include
i. ShareASale Affiliates.
ii. Amazon Associates.
iii. eBay Partners.
iv. Shopify Affiliate Program.
v. Clickbank.
• Merchant – The business that operates the affiliate marketing program.
• The customer. This is a member of your audience who uses your affiliate link to purchase a product from the affiliate company or network.

So, how does it work?

Affiliate marketing essentially involves two parties. The merchant and the affiliate/Publisher who is you.
So, when you sign up for the affiliate marketing program, you agree to refer customers to the merchant, and the merchant agrees to pay you a part of the sale percentage in commission.
Makes sense? Perfect.

How do they know you referred someone?

Well, every affiliate program comes with a tracking system. When you sign up, you will get a special link/code unique to you. So, the system can show who referred that person whenever someone buys.

Why do affiliate marketing?

Here are two reasons why you should consider doing affiliate marketing:

1. Low-cost and low-risk

Starting a business means incurring upfront costs for products, employees, equipment, rent, etc. This makes it risky and expensive.
With affiliate marketing, all you need is a website. Even if it doesn’t work out, all you’ve wasted is time and a little bit of money.

2. Easy to scale

A typical salesperson only sells products from one company. As an affiliate marketer, you can promote products from many different companies and earn commissions from all of them.

3. Passive income.

While any “regular” job requires you to be at work to make money, affiliate marketing offers you the ability to make money while you sleep. By investing an initial amount of time into a campaign, you will see continuous returns on that time as consumers purchase the product over the following days and weeks.
You receive money for your work long after you’ve finished it. Even when you’re not in front of your computer, your marketing skills will be earning you a steady flow of income.

4. Cost-effective.

Most businesses require upfront start-up fees and a cash flow to finance the products sold. However, affiliate marketing can be done cheaply, meaning you can get started quickly and without much hassle.

How Much Money Can You Make as an Affiliate Marketer?

Income for affiliate marketers varies, with some making a few hundred dollars and some making six figures. It depends on what is being marketed, how much influence the marketer has, the affiliate’s reach, and how much time is invested in marketing products.
Those spending more time marketing the company’s products will often earn more money.
Wow! So, is it just another get-rich-quick scheme?
Wrong. Affiliate marketing is not a quick fix. It can take time to generate the traffic needed to generate substantial income.
But do not worry. I will guide you in getting started and scaling up your income.

How to get started with affiliate marketing

I have said a lot already. It’s getting more interesting now. Why don’t we get into the thick of then?
Follow these seven steps to get started.

Step 1: Decide on a platform.

Theoretically, you can do affiliate marketing on any platform. Even Instagram and Facebook work. However, it’s much easier to build an audience and increase your affiliate sales via one of two channels: a blog or YouTube channel.
Starting an affiliate marketing blog today is relatively easy and cheap. There are plenty of tutorials online that teach you how to get started. The best part? It’ll likely only cost you a few dollars per month.
Once your site is up, optimize it for search engines, so you have a better chance of ranking. From there, you’re free to add affiliate links to your content.
YouTube is a free platform that allows you to post unlimited videos. This is an important affiliate marketing platform because YouTube is the 2nd most popular search engine.
You can get a lot of traffic through your affiliate link on YouTube, and the videos can rank on Google too.

Step 2: Choose your niche

You already use and like plenty of products, so you must publicly discuss them to get started.
Any topic works. However, you’ll need to choose a topic that focuses on a specific category. For example, the topic of “fashion” is an enormous category. Rather than tackling that, try something more specific, like Sneaker fashion.
Keeping your topics tight can help you build a more focused audience and potentially help you rank higher in search engines.

Step 3: Find affiliate programs to join.

This depends on your niche and level of expertise.
Finding the best affiliate programs is key to your success in affiliate marketing. There are tons of high-paying affiliate programs you can join. Here are some ways to find the best ones.

1. Google search

Searching for affiliate programs on the biggest search engine in the world, Google, is an easy way to find the best affiliate programs in your niche.
Simply search for ”affiliate marketing program” + ‘‘your niche”, or search for ”affiliate marketing program” + ”a specific product you want to find” and find many programs that could fit your topic.

2. Affiliate directories

Affiliate directories are listings of affiliate programs and are a great way to find new affiliate programs. These are the places where managers of affiliate programs come to get visibility for their program, and affiliates come to find the best affiliate programs in their niche.

3. Find affiliate links

There is also an option to find high-paying affiliate programs through affiliate links from websites similar to yours. For this, you need to know who your competitors are.

Step 4: Create great content

Suppose you want your affiliate site to succeed. In that case, you need to create high-quality content where your affiliate links fit naturally. Don’t just blindly curate products from Amazon’s best sellers. Go the extra mile to ensure your content solves the visitor’s problem.
How? If you’re doing reviews, actually purchase the product and test it.
However, if you don’t have money to buy every product, you can always start with what you have at home. For example, if you had a tech blog, you could create reviews on the gadgets you own.

Step 5: Drive traffic to your affiliate site

You’ve created great content. The next step is to get more people to read it, so they will click on your affiliate links.
The best organic and free strategy to do this is search engine optimization (SEO).
SEO is the practice of optimizing pages to rank high in search engines like Google. You’ll get consistent and passive traffic for as long as you can rank high in the search engines for your target keywords.

On the most basic level, SEO is about:

Understanding what your target customers are searching for;
Creating content around those topics (blog posts, product pages, etc.);
Taking care of the “technical” stuff to push these pages higher in the search engines (including link building).

Step 6: Get clicks on your affiliate links.

Just because you have a fantastic piece of content doesn’t mean people will click on your affiliate links. For instance, some best practices, such as link placement, must be considered.
If all your affiliate links are at the bottom of the page, where people rarely scroll, clicks will be few and far between. On the other hand, make every other word a link in your introduction, and your content will look spammy.

Step 7: Convert clicks to sales

In affiliate marketing, two conversions need to take place for you to make money. The first conversion is the click to the product page. You’re 100% in control of this action.
The second conversion is the visitor purchasing the product. In the case of affiliate marketing, the merchant controls the checkout, and their conversion rates are out of your control.
The trick is to play the game to your advantage and look for merchants with programs that convert well.

Tips to Help You Become a Successful Affiliate Marketer

Ready to try your hand at affiliate marketing? Here are our top online marketing tips to help you get started.

1. Develop a rapport with your audience.

When beginning your affiliate marketing career, you’ll want to cultivate an audience with specific interests. This allows you to tailor your affiliate campaigns to that niche, increasing the likelihood that you’ll convert.
By establishing yourself as an expert in one area instead of promoting a large array of products, you’ll be able to market to the people most likely to buy the product.

2. Make it personal.

There is no shortage of products you’ll be able to promote.
You’ll have to choose products you personally like or even products from your favorite brands. Make sure that your campaigns center around precious products that consumers will enjoy.

3. Start reviewing products and services.

Focus on reviewing products and services that fall within your niche. Then, leveraging your rapport with your audience, tell your readers why they would benefit from purchasing the product or service you are promoting.
Comparing this product to others in the same category is incredibly effective. Most importantly, ensure you generate detailed, articulate content to improve conversions.

4. Choose campaigns with care.

No matter how good your online marketing skills are, you’ll make less money on a wrong product than on a valuable one. Take the time to study the demand for a new product before promoting it.
Make sure to research the seller with care before teaming up. Your time is worth a lot, and you want to be sure you’re spending it on a profitable product and a seller you can believe in.

5. Stay current with trends.

There is serious competition in the affiliate marketing sphere. You’ll want to make sure you stay on top of any new trends to ensure you remain competitive.
Additionally, you’ll likely be able to benefit from at least a few of the new marketing techniques that are constantly being created.
Be sure you’re keeping up to date on all these new strategies to guarantee that your conversion rates, and therefore revenue, will be as high as possible.

Wrapping up affiliate marketing

Follow the tactics I have shown you here, and you will be on your way to making money
through affiliate marketing.
Before I sign out, there is something I’d wish to mention. These are the fundamentals, and applying them will get you off on the right foot. Don’t expect life-changing income or the freedom to quit your 9 – 5 overnight.

Affiliate marketing takes time.

Flat isometric vector concept of affiliate business, marketing strategy, referral program, partnership.

Focus first on making your first affiliate sale. This is how to build up a site that eventually generates a decent income. As your site grows, set new goals, and continue experimenting.