Affiliate marketing is a great way to make money, and it’s definitely something you should consider if you want to start making some extra cash. But it’s not as difficult as it may seem at first glance. This blog post will give you a good overview of how it all works. Once you understand the basics, the rest will be easy to pick up.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is an old business model where you make money by promoting someone else's products or services. It's a great way to make money online, because you don't need to create your own products or services. You simply need to promote those of others.

Please note that I have included affiliate links that I earn commissions on on this post.

How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

Affiliate marketing is a process where a company rewards its affiliates for each customer they refer to the business. Affiliates typically receive a commission for every customer that they send to the company. This process can be beneficial for both the affiliate and the company, as it helps the company find new customers while also rewarding the affiliate for their efforts.

How will the company know that you’ve helped them generate the sale?

Well, when you join or become a member of an affiliate programme, you will be given a unique tracking code also referred to as an affiliate link.

As an Affiliate marketer you will need to include your affiliate link whenever you promote an affiliate programme (company's products/services) on social media, on your blog post and website and so the company can correctly pay commission to the affiliate marketer for any sale generated through their links.

How to earn money through affiliate marketing

1.    Find a niche that you stand the best chance of making a lot of money and you are passionate about.

2.    Set up a website and commence creating content inline to niche

3.    Use Keyword research tools to ensure your site’s SEO (search engine optimization) can show up for relevant search terms in search engine results

4.    Create social media accounts and consider paid ads

5.    Search for affiliate programmes within your niche, Sign up/Join affiliate programmes within your niche and include the affiliate links in your content

6.    Build an email list

7.    Be persistent and patient

Let me walk you through the above points in detail:

1. Find a niche that you are ardent about and you can make money over a long term

If you engage in a niche you are passionate about but you are unable to generate passive income on, you are going to be bored and give up. It is not enough to just find a niche that you are passionate about because your main aim to start an affiliate marketing business is to generate income. However, finding a niche that you are interested in will keep you engaged and you are most likely to succeed.

2.Build a website and commence creating your niche related content

Technically, you can make money through affiliate marketing without creating a website, however having a website makes it easier to manage your business. So create a website (a good place to start with could be a WordPress blog) and then create relevant content to your niche as such people will have something to read when they visit your website. That said, please attach great importance to my next point.

3. Use Keyword research tools to ensure your site’s SEO (search engine optimization) can show up for relevant search terms in search engine results

SEO is very essential if you want to attract the right people to your website on an ongoing basis for a long term. SEO is a complex subject, however keyword research is the most important tool in this regard as it enables you to create content that people want to read/learn about; there are a lot of keyword research tools out there such as Answer The Public, SEMrush, Google trends just to name a few. You can learn more on this in my later article.

4. Set up social media profiles and consider paid promotion

Social media is also an important way to attract people to your website(and affiliate link), it is therefore vital to setup your profiles earlier rather than later. Also, consider the possibilities to use paid social media promotion, but make sure you already have affiliate links before walking down this path.

5. Search for affiliate programmes within your niche, Join affiliate programmes within your niche and include the affiliate links in your content

Sign up to affiliate programmes so that you can start making money from your affiliate marketing business. We we will go through how to identify the best affiliate programmes in a moment. Make sure that your affiliate links are included in your content before you launch your website.

6. Build an email list

Building an email list gives you the chance to update people on your list and your website visitors on newbies and there be chances of potential affiliate sales.

Some examples of good email marketing providers are AWeber, GetResponse, Mailchimp, ConvertKit just to name a few. You can learn more about email marketing in my next blog post. In the meantime, I have a blog post that compares AWeber against GetResponse Here.

7. Be persistent and patient

To build a good affiliate marketing website takes time and it equally takes time for a content to be ranked on search engines. So be patient and keep going and after a few months you should start to see results.

We have now covered the basics of affiliate marketing, let's get into the practicalities of affiliate marketing.

How do I start affiliate marketing?

The first step is to decide the type of products/services you will be promoting, usually referred to as 'choosing a niche'.

The things to consider when choosing your niche are as follows:

What am I interested in? – In order to run a successful affiliate marketing campaign, it is easier if you are passionate about the product/services you are promoting.

What are the available affiliate programmes? Ensuring there is a suitable affiliate company/partner you can collaborate with for your chosen niche is very important.

Are people interested in your niche?

If there are hardly anyone interested in your chosen niche, there is high probability that it will be a struggle for you to make money.

How competitive is your niche:

A niche that there is the indication that there is money to be made will be ultimately competitive, so you may struggle to make money a new affiliate but things will definitely fall into place over time. Niches with no competition is an indication that people are not interested in that niche so you will need to find a balance between the two extremes. It can be tricky to find the right niche, so choose wisely.

The next step is to create a web presence for your affiliate marketing business. The areas to look at in this regard will be:

Create your own Website

It is crucial to have your own website if you are planning to attract search engine leads. If you create contents that are well ranked in search engines for related terms used on your chosen affiliate niche, people will click to the results they get, read your content and ultimately click on your affiliate links.

Create your email marketing list

Another great way to generate passive income via affiliate marketing is email marketing. Sending relevant news and offers to the people signed up to your emails, then you will potentially get a steady stream of income. It is tricky to get people to sign up to your email list but you could use email marketing tools such as AWeber or GetResponse.

Social Media

A great way to gain potential leads is through social media platforms, and you can promote either your affiliate links via social media or your website or both.

Promoting your affiliate links differs from promoting your website as there is reduced steps for people to access the your affiliate link and compete that crucial sale. However, if your ecosystem is in your website, you are are able to build long term relationship with people through your email list.

Ensure that you are GDPR compliant with the technique you use. Finally, also make sure you comply with the rules of the affiliate scheme(s) you have joined.

Attract traffic to your website (or affiliate links)

Without traffic to your website (or affiliate links) you will not make money, hence be mindful that traffic is crucial to affiliate marketers. However, you need to attract the right traffic and do it in the right way.

Here’s how to do it.

Develop customer personas

Focus your interest on attracting the right people since the chances are high that very few people attracted to your website or affiliate links will generate commission for you. So it is vital to tailor your content on people who are interested in your products/services you are promoting as it will appeal them.

Get a better understanding of SEO

You may have used keyword research to decide your niche, but understanding SEO will make you develop steady traffic to your website - just don't expect instant results.

Use paid ads

When you start affiliate marketing, you can attract traffic to your affiliate marketing website through paid advertising. With targeting options available, you can easily attract the right kind of person to your website. However, note that it is easy to get paid ads wrong and ultimately spend more than you make.

Create engrossing content

Creating a good content is hugely important to build a profitable affiliate marketing business; it could be through reviews, blog posts, ebooks, newsletters, in depth guides, infographics etc, but one of the main ways to attract people's attention to your website's is your content.

How to join affiliate marketing schemes?

An easy and quick to to find out if a company has affiliate link is to Google the 'business name' affiliate marketing programme.

Most major companies have run affiliate programmes, you may find that have outsourced their affiliate programmes to third party specialist companies.

Below are some great companies that you can find products and services to promote as an affiliate marketer:

7K Metals - this is a wealth autopilot investment in metals(gold and silver) collection whilst earning big weekly recurring commissions. This is one of my favourites.

Fiverr CPA - this has a wide range of products so you are like to find products within your niche

Fiverr Business - this is an affiliate programme where you can find literally all the services required to grow your business online.

Fiverr Learn - you can find online courses here at a very affordable price

CJ Affiliate - this is an affiliate network that manages a large number of big brands

Amazon Associates - this is an online shopping giant that you are likely to find products within your niche.

You should be able to find an affiliate scheme by using the above sites along with Google, and when you find an affiliate programme(s) you want to join, make sure you understand the company's rules and stick to the rules when attracting leads.

You may find that some programmes only want established websites, if that happens, don't be discouraged; try elsewhere.

Conclusion

If you want to succeed as an affiliate marketer, you will need to work hard and ideally you will need to have an affiliate marketing website to earn passive income and live life on your terms. It is not going to be all rosy, but keep going each time you feel like giving up.

I hope the above guide is helpful. In the meantime, if you have anything to add or any questions, please leave a comment below and we will reach out to you.