If you’ve been researching a lot about the best way to make money online, you’d probably find a lot of people talking about something called affiliate marketing.
You may have also heard that it provides an amazing opportunity for you to make some good passive income.
But you might be wondering. What is affiliate marketing? How does it all work? What do people mean when they tell you to drive traffic or earn commissions? What are they talking about?
And unfortunately, not a lot of people actually explain to you what affiliate marketing means for you as a beginner. So you might be looking for an amazing guide to affiliate marketing that explains all this to you.
Well, fortunately, you’re in luck. In this article, I will break down affiliate marketing for you in simple terms. I will explain to you what it is, how it works, and how it can help you make big bucks online. And, if you’re ready to start, I have a guide on how you can start affiliate marketing step by step.
Let’s get going!
What Is Affiliate Marketing?
In a nutshell, affiliate marketing is recommending your audience to other people’s products that can help them and earning money for doing that. You’re essentially the “middle man” where you connect people who have problems to others’ products that can solve them.
An example will help illustrate this. Suppose someone was looking to buy something at a Walmart. But he doesn’t know where the closest Walmart is, so he asks you for directions.
Once you give him the directions, he is able to go to that Walmart and buy what he needs.
The thing is: Walmart makes money, but shouldn’t you make money too? Because, if it weren’t for you, he would never have been able to buy what he needed!
It’s the same principle that applies to affiliate marketing: you help people find what they need and you make money for it.
The Benefits of Affiliate Marketing
By definition, affiliate marketing is promoting other people’s products. As you can see, the concept is really simple.
That is why many online entrepreneurs start as affiliate marketers before selling their own products themselves. And that is what makes affiliate marketing so powerful.
Here’s another thing I really like about affiliate marketing.
With affiliate marketing, it’s a win-win-win situation. That’s right: there are three winners.
- You’re a winner because you earn money for helping out customers.
- The customer is a winner because they now have something that can solve their problem.
- The seller is a winner because they made a sale with that customer.
So when it comes to affiliate marketing, everybody involved wins!
How Do I Start as An Affiliate?
Well, the goal of an affiliate marketer is to direct customers to products that can help them solve their problems.
But, first of all, you need customers that need help and, since you’re new here, those customers don’t even know you exist. So, you need to put yourself out there and show the world that you’re around.
Finding Your Customers
Now how do you do that? You need to go to a place where people are most likely to go to find an answer to their problem.
They might be on social media with a support group who share their problems and share advice. Or they might go on YouTube and listen to someone who can explain possible solutions on video. Or they might read a blog where they can read detailed information about their problem and find answers.
The key here is to be where they are and solve their problems in any of these areas: on social media, on YouTube, on a blog, etc.
In the world of marketing, we say that we are using these areas, called platforms, to generate traffic. We meet our customers on these platforms, they get to know us, and they listen to us.
Engaging Our Customers
Now, of course, we need to engage our customers. If we don’t, they’ll ignore us.
We’ll need to decide on a niche that interests us. If I like computers, technology would be my niche. If I were into weight loss, my niche would be health and fitness.
Once we’ve chosen our niche, what we need to do is give our customers information that can help them out. This will attract them and get them to trust us. That’s why creating content about our niche is important.
If you’re on YouTube, upload videos. Or, if you’re on social media, create engaging posts. Or, if you run a site or blog (like WebCents), write new articles or blog posts.
Once you do that, any traffic interested in your niche that comes to you will stick with you and come back to you in the future.
I actually have an article on how you can get free traffic to a blog. However, this also applies to YouTube videos and even social media posts.
How Do I Find Products to Promote?
Finding the kind of programs we want to promote shouldn’t be that hard. After all, if I chose technology as my niche, I would find computer programs to promote. If I went into health and fitness, I would promote something like health supplements and diet plans.
There are two ways to look for products to promote. One way is by googling something like “diet plans,” finding a diet plan we’re interested in (such as Nutrisystem), and going to its website. More often than not, there is a link for affiliates to sign up for free and promote the product.
Another way is by signing up for free to an affiliate network, from which you can find a variety of products under specific niches. There are many affiliate networks you can consider, such as ClickBank and Amazon Associates.
Once you join a network, you can use it to search for products in your niche. Consider checking out my top 5 affiliate networks so you can get an idea of which one works for you.
When looking for a product to promote, don’t focus on the commissions. That is, don’t choose the highest-paying product because it’s not always the best for you.
As an affiliate, you need to believe that the product will work for your customers.
And, if you don’t know what the product is about or if it can help, research on the product. Read the product’s sales letter and customers’ testimonials. You can also watch reviews of the product on YouTube.
Once you have a good idea on the benefits the product can provide, you can choose to promote it, knowing how you are going to describe it to your potential customers.
What Is An Affiliate Link?
Every affiliate has to have their own affiliate link, which is a link with special code that tells a certain product I’m their affiliate and that I should get paid for getting customers to buy it through my link.
In other words, if someone clicked on my affiliate link to Product X, they would go to Product X’s website and Product X would know I’m the affiliate who brought the customer there.
Then, if that customer went ahead and bought Product X, Product X would see that the purchase was made through my link and pay me for that.
The money we make as affiliates is called a commission because our payment is only a fraction of the sale that was made.
How to Manage My Affiliate Links
So how do you find your affiliate link to the product you want to promote? Well, most likely, you’ll need to sign up for an affiliate account with the product you’re promoting.
Once you do that, your affiliate link should be found somewhere in your account. I recommend copying and pasting all the affiliate links that you get into a text file, labeling them with the products they point to. That way, you don’t have to go sign in to your account every time you need your affiliate link.
There is a program I’d recommend that can keep track of all your affiliate links and to make your links look nicer as well. It’s called ClickMagick. This is a great tool that can help you manage all your links and even make them look more pleasing to the people you’re showing them to.
ClickMagick even comes with a free guide you can read so you can learn how to start using it to your advantage. Check out ClickMagick and see if it can help you get going with putting your affiliate links together.
How Do I Show Them The Products I’m Promoting?
As you create content in the niche you chose, be sincere with them and help them out as much as you can.
Once customers see that you are interested in helping them, they will start to trust you, and after you give them a lot of useful information, that’s when you offer them ONE product that can help them out.
If there are other products you want to promote, save them for other videos or articles. I don’t advise promoting multiple products in a single video or article.
To offer a product, use a call-to-action statement, something like this:
Those are a few weight loss tips you can use to help burn off those calories. But if you’d like to lose weight faster and more efficiently, you might want to check out [Product Name]. Many people have seen amazing results with [Product Name], so there’s no reason why it won’t work well for you. If you’re interested, click the link below to get started.
Below this statement, place your affiliate link as either a button or text to entice your customers to proceed.
For your call-to-action text, I don’t recommend a cliche statement like “Click here”; say something like “Get Started” or say something pertaining to your niche: “Lose Weight Now” or “Start Making Money.”
How Do I Make Money as an Affiliate?
There are two ways that you can get paid as an affiliate.
The most common way is by getting your customer to buy the product you are promoting. Once the sale is complete, you (as the affiliate) earn a percentage of that sale, called a commission.
The percentage you earn varies based on the product. Amazon products usually pay you only 2-6% of the sale, or 2-6% commission.
Digital products tend to be more generous; they can pay you up to 50% commission, and a select few may pay you the entire sale (100% commission).
For instance, if you promote a $350 product that pays 30% commission, you would earn $105 for every sale you make.
Another way to make money as an affiliate is by hoping that the customer who purchased a recurring product will continue to pay for the product on a monthly basis.
That means you get a commission every month for as long as the customer who signed up through you continues to use the product.
Usually, your payments are processed digitally, such as through PayPal or direct deposit. However, there are a few affiliate places like ClickBank that offer payment through check.
However, I’d encourage you to receive your payment digitally as it is a safer and more secure option. Be sure to check the product’s affiliate page or your affiliate marketplace. These places will give you information on how exactly you will earn for being an affiliate.
Wrapping Up
Are There Ways to Get Better as an Affiliate?
There are definitely many ways that you can improve as an affiliate marketer. By doing these things, you should see higher chances of success and build better rapport with potential customers.
With that said, here are a few things you can consider working on to get better.
Build a brand
You should have your content and affiliate links listed under an umbrella brand. This way, you build better trust with the people you’re serving, and they will start to believe in the content you are providing.
You can name your brand in two ways: you can use your own personal name or you can choose a name that relates to your niche. Be sure to check out my entire article on the five steps to building an online brand.
Invest into yourself
As you work on your affiliate progress, you need to leave room for improvement.
Consider investing money into courses or programs that will help, not hinder, you as an affiliate. Below, I provided a great affiliate resource that you can use to start investing in yourself.
By doing this, you become a more trustworthy affiliate and your content will become unstoppable.
Take action and don’t stop
Many beginner affiliates are going to struggle with this because they are skeptical as to whether they are reaching for success or just wasting their time.
All it takes is a strong determination and a lot of patience and you will most certainly succeed as an affiliate.
The problem is that many people give up affiliate marketing before they even see their success. Don’t be another number. Simply take action and don’t stop until you earn the money you seek.
If you’re ready to get started making money as an affiliate, check out my complete guide on how to make money with affiliate marketing step by step.
Further Information
There are many other things I could talk about being an affiliate, but I think they are beyond the scope of beginner level.
If there is anything I didn’t cover about affiliate marketing and you would also like a forum and plenty of resources to help you start your affiliate journey on the right path, there is a site I highly recommend for you. It’s called Affilorama!
This is a great website where you can watch bite-sized lessons on everything you need to know about affiliate marketing. There is also a forum on the website where you can interact with others and get your affiliate questions answered. They even have a complete Pathway to Passive Income guide that can guide you step by step on how to start a successful affiliate marketing business.
If you’re interested in checking it out, you can get started below!