Affiliate Marketing- Beginners Guide
There seem to be many people who believe that affiliate marketing is some magical system that allows us to make a lot of money online with very little effort.
Affiliate marketing is a legit and is a way to earn money online, but not everyone will make it in this field. It can be a great way to make money online. However, many will fail because they won’t face the truth. Success in affiliate marketing will take hard work, time, determination and patience
Are you suitable for affiliate marketing?
If you are a beginner, I suggest you ask yourself the following questions to see if this is something you should consider.
- Do you know that building an online business isn’t a get rich quick scheme, but instead it’s about creating an income stream over a period of time?
- Are you willing to follow a step by step training course, over a number of weeks or months, that will show you how to set up your affiliate marketing business?
- Are you ready to create your own website by following the step by step instructions and a few clicks of your mouse?
- Are you willing to devote as much time as possible and never give up?
- Are you happy to invest some money to receive training, hosting, help and support and all the tools you need to get started?
If you answered yes to all these questions, then affiliate marketing is suitable for you, lets have a look at affiliate marketing in a little more detail and see how to get started.
What is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a method for earning commissions for promoting someone else’s products. Simple explanation is where you find a product that you think it has market. promote it and receive a payment when someone buys the product.
You provide a link between the buyer and the seller.
A couple of advantages offered by affiliate marketing are, you don’t have to spend time and money creating a product and it’s quick and cheap to get started.
I am affiliate marketer, however, I will only recommend that you promote products that you feel could be useful for your readers. If you are not confident of a product then avoid promoting.
To be honest; it is important that we recommend products that we know and have some experience with. What does this means:
- You will be happy earning commission for promoting genuine products.
- The seller will be happy because you link new customers
- The customer will be happy getting genuine products
Importance of an affiliate marketer?
There are several good reasons to consider affiliate marketing over some other businesses:
- You can work from home. Once you are earning some money you can give up your current day job and have all the advantages that go with it. For example, no more commuting, no boss, more time with your family…
- It’s economical. Devices like computer is expensive but once acquired no expense apart from internet. Affiliate marketing is cheap to get started, no cost producing a product, you don’t need employees and you don’t need work premises.
- No storage or shipping to worry about. That is handled by the product owners.
- You don’t need to provide customer support. Again, this is handled by the seller.
- Your market is worldwide and you’re online 24 hours a day.
- You can earn a passive income. With a normal job, you have to be at work to earn money. As an affiliate marketer, you can earn when you are not at your computer
- You don’t need any prior experience. There are courses online that will teach you everything you need to know.
How does affiliate marketing work?
The easiest and most rewarding way to get started in affiliate marketing is by having your own website. Once you have a website you can start promoting products related to the niche.
What is affiliate link? Why is it Important?
An affiliate link is a specific URL that contains the affiliate's ID or username. In affiliate programs, advertisers use affiliate links to record the traffic that is sent to the advertiser's website. Affiliate links are essential to monitoring the online performance of marketers.To refer people to the seller’s site, you are given a unique affiliate link. Affiliate programs may offer ready-made banners or other forms of graphics where it’s only necessary to copy the code and place it on your website.
Another and better alternative is to include text links in your posts. When visitors are interested they click on these links and are redirected to the product site. If they decide to make a purchase, you as the referrer make a commission.
The product owners (sellers) can track your affiliate link to see your performance and you will usually have access to sales and other statistics.
Below is the step by step process of how it works, assuming that you have already signed up for an affiliate program and that you have your special affiliate link:
- When you mention the product on your website or you review the product you add the affiliate link. It is recommended to add one or two affiliate links per post.
- A potential customer clicks on the product affiliate link and is directed to the advertiser’s/merchant’s website
- Cookies tracked the customer.
- If customer decides to buy and proceeds to the checkout.
- You will receive credit for the sale as commission
- Payment of your commission for all sales generated from your affiliate link will be done once per month.
What is a niche? How will I chose a niche?
Market Niche can be define in many ways but simply is targeted marketing plan that focuses on one particular section of the market that has high potential to connect with a product or service. Niche can also be define as the product features aimed at satisfying specific market needs, as well as the price range, production quality and the demographics that is intended to impact.Your niche can be anything that interests others. Ideally, your niche will also be a subject that interests you. Perhaps a hobby or another passion you may have. The reason for this is you will be writing a lot of content on this subject because you have passion in it, so if it’s something you know and enjoy this will be much easier.
When you select a niche you should make it as narrow as possible. For example, gardening would be too broad, you should make it more focused. Something like growing vegetables, manual lawnmowers or ponds. By making your niche more focused there is less competition, which means it will be easier for you to make money.
Choosing products to promote?
This will depend on whether you have chosen a niche you are familiar with or not. If it is a subject you know and you use some of the products or services, which you appreciate I would start with these. You will need to find out if there are affiliate programs attached to these products.
To do this go to the website of the product manufacturer and see if you can find a link for affiliates or referral program, this is often placed in the footer.
Another way to do this, select the product you like and google it with “product + affiliate program”. If you don’t succeed the first time try again with a slight variation in the product name.
You can also check to see what other bloggers in your niche are promoting. Check out the products and perhaps you can promote these as well, but only if they completely ethical.
Many companies don’t offer their affiliate program directly to the affiliate marketers, they do it via an affiliate network. Accordingly, you will have to join the affiliate network, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. They are free to join and you will have access to many products, all in the same place.
What are affiliate networks?
An affiliate network is a go-between between the companies that have products to sell, often known as the advertisers and you the affiliate marketer, also known as the publisher.
When an advertiser wants to sell more of a certain product, they may approach an affiliate network to see if they are interested in listing the product on their website. After they agree the product will be listed on their website.
As an affiliate marketer, you join the network and see the product listed. After verifying it’s a good product and it fits in with your niche, you decide to promote it. Depending on the affiliate network and the advertiser, you may be able to start promoting the product immediately or sometimes you need to be accepted by the advertiser.
Once you’re accepted, you can start promoting the product. Usually, you will be provided with some banners and text links that include your unique affiliate link. You can use these banners or you can just copy your affiliate link to use in your posts.
When your readers click on the link, they are directed to the advertiser’s website. If they follow through and decided to buy the product you will be paid by the affiliate network. The affiliate network is also paid by the advertiser.
Perhaps the best thing about affiliate networks is that when you join one of them, you get access to hundreds or thousands of affiliate programs all in one place. Remember you must always check the quality of the products and genuine advertisers.
You may find some low-quality products on some affiliate networks. If you promote these you will harm your reputation. This is why it is important to only promote quality, legitimate products that will please your visitors. Some of the well known affiliate networks are CJ Affiliate, ShareASale, Clickbank or Rakuten Affiliate Network.
Content is King, But Context is Key
Writing content will be your main job as an affiliate marketer. Each time you write an awesome article you create another opportunity to make a sale.
Although you hope to produce a sale from your article you should write your post or review to inform, educate or help your readers. Your article should provide great information that this catchy and incites the reader to buy the product.
Ultimately, content marketing success comes from understanding that in order to extract value from your audience, you must first create value in what you offer them.
Tilt your content. Being a jack of all trades in content creation often hurts more than it helps. Rather than striving to appeal to all audiences, it’s more effective to focus on one key audience segment. The more you connect with a specific group, the more your message will resonate. This is where data and engagement scoring can come into play – utilize the information you have to identify your strongest target audience, then focus on them.
To get stated.
Now that you understand what affiliate marketing is all about and you can see as a business to venture. Therefore you may want to know the best way to get started.
Generally when starting a new business, you will need some guidance to learn the correct way to set everything up. It is always advisable to follow step by step training from some already successful internet marketers.
Recommended training platform
For this, the best resource, by far, that I have found for learning how to set up a successful affiliate marketing business is Wealthy Affiliate. They offer a free starter membership, that includes 10 lessons that will run you through the process of choosing your niche and setting up your first website.
If you’re concerned that creating a website might be beyond your capabilities, don’t worry. Wealthy Affiliate has a site building platform, SiteRubix, which is the easiest website building program I have seen.
The training at Wealthy Affiliate is ideal for all levels of affiliate marketers, especially for people with little computer or website building knowledge. You learn at your own speed, following the video and text lessons which give you simple tasks to complete at each step.
The Wealthy Affiliate platform has been online since 2005 and has more than 200,000 members from all around the world. The members come from varying backgrounds and from different age groups. However, they have one thing in common, they are learning how to become or they are already successful internet marketers. Members are always willing to help you.
I joined as a free member, with no experience of affiliate marketing. After just a days later I decided to upgrade to the paid membership. I now have a business that provides a regular income every month.
If you follow the training, take action and don’t give up, you will also be able to have your own successful online business.
Eager to start? How is cost to join WA?
After the initial free lessons, you are can decide to stay as a free member or continue your training and become a premium member. The cost of joining as a paid member is $49 per month. This includes everything you need to operate your business. More information is provided in this review.
