Affiliate Marketing For Dummies: How To Get Started ASAP! (Step By Step Guide For Beginners)

One of the best and ‘simplest' ways to make money online is through affiliate marketing.

This business model allows you to make money without having to create your own products since you only focus on promoting other people's products for a commission.

For this reason, most beginners who're looking to make money online are lured into this business model.

But most people fails to understand the meat and potatoes of this business model since most people thinks that affiliate marketing is all about grabbing your links and paste them all over the internet and then boom – the money starts rolling in.

But l tell you that this business model is more than just pasting your links everywhere and expect to get money just like that.

Although this might work here and there, its not sustainable when you're looking to make a stable income online.

Thus, l have decided to sit down and write this article for you so that you can have a better understanding about this business model.

So read till the end if you want to learn more about affiliate marketing.

What You'll Learn:

So without further ado, let me jump straight into more detail.

What Is Affiliate Marketing?

Ideally, affiliate marketing is a business model whereby you promote other company's products and services and you get paid a commission in return.

Have you ever referred a friend to a specific product on amazon or any other store?

I’m sure we always refer our friends and loved ones to various products and services that best meets our needs.

But do you know that some people are actually getting paid for recommending products and services to other people?

I believe that we all do affiliate marketing in one way or the other when we refer certain products and services to our friends, family, or loved ones.

For example, if your friend has a migrant headache, you may recommend a specific medication to him/her as well as where he/she can buy that medication.

Right there is another form of affiliate marketing but its only that you do it unknowingly.

But this article will shift your mind-set from being a free lead generator for big companies to someone who actually gets paid for ‘preaching' about certain products and services.

NB: l have a full article which explains what affiliate marketing is, as well as how it works. You can read this article if you need a detailed explanation about the basic fundamentals of this business model.

How Do I Become An Affiliate Marketer For Beginners?

Becoming an affiliate marketer is as easy as ordering a pizza online.

However, making money with affiliate marketing is the ‘hardest' part.

But lm here to show you how you can get started with this business model in the simplest way possible.

To begin with, you have to identify a specific problem within a specific market since customer's problems are always evolving on a daily basis e.g. How to lose weight.

Once you identify a problem, you have to find great products and services that best solves that problems e.g. Meticore weight loss supplement pill.

Simply apply to become an affiliate for the product that you ‘believe' to be the best cure for your ideal customer's problems.

Once you become an affiliate for the company, you will get your custom affiliate links and you can start driving traffic to those links.

However, most people makes the biggest mistake of spamming their links all over the internet and in some cases, some people who sees your links might not be interested in those products.

The key is to find where your ideal customers hangs out, and you find a way to grab their attention so that you can connect them to ideal solutions for their problems.

The best way to connect with these people is through producing valuable content which those people are always looking for.

Once they're in your ecosystem, you can then recommend products and services to them.

Note that this can be done on any platform e.g. YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, etc.

But my favourite method is through using a blog since SEO traffic is evergreen i.e. 100% free and highly targeted.

It doesn’t matter which platform you use. The key is to identify where your ideal customers hangs out and you find a way to tap into that audience.

NB: You can read this article if you want a step by step guide of how to get started with affiliate marketing the right way.

How Much Do Beginner Affiliate Marketers Make?

To be honest, most beginners who're looking to make money online struggles to make a single dime.

The main reason being that this whole online world is not as easy as people thinks.

As l mentioned earlier, affiliate marketing is more than just pasting your links all over the internet and that's what most beginners do.

But if you do it the right way, you can make a full time income since there's a lot of money to be made in this industry.

The key is to find a mentor who can help you navigate this whole online game so as to cut your learning curve into half or less.

This saves you time and energy that is involved in doing trial and error since a mentor knows which pitfalls to avoid.

I know that most people thinks about $997 guru courses that are prominent online, since most online courses are priced anywhere around that price range.

But l tell you that you don't need to buy an expensive course in order to succeed in online business.

You can consider something like the One Funnel Away Challenge (by ClickFunnels) which only costs $100.

For that low price, you can learn most of the basic fundamentals of online business and you can implement the strategies whilst taking the training.

Thus, l always recommend beginners to take this training in order to cut your learning curve.

You can read this article if you want to learn more about the One Funnel Away Challenge.

Affiliate Marketing For Amazon

There is no doubt that Amazon Associates is the most popular affiliate program amongst beginners who’re looking to get started with affiliate marketing, since amazon is probably one of the biggest companies in the universe.

One of the main reasons why l like amazon is that it is very beginner friendly as it has less barriers to entry.

Also, you can find various products to promote inside Amazon Associates since there is thousands (if not millions) of products available on this platform.

The key is to choose a niche then you promote products that falls in that niche since it is not practical to promote each and every product on amazon.

Once you decide on your niche, simply create some valuable content on your blog, YouTube channel, or any other platform that you wish to use and you then link various products which are relevant to your content.

When someone buys anything on amazon through your links, you earn a referral commission which varies between 1% - 10% depending on the category.

Keep in mind that your referrals must purchase something within the first 24 hours of clicking your affiliate link in order to get credited for the sale.

That's the biggest caveat of Amazon Associates i.e. low commissions and short cookie period.

Other than that, amazon stills remains one of the best affiliate programs for beginners since it is one of the easiest ways to get started with affiliate marketing.

NB: Note that l have a full article that goes in-depth regarding Amazon affiliate marketing. You can read it here if you want to learn more about amazon affiliate marketing.

Affiliate Marketing For Companies

Are you looking for the best ways to increase your company's revenues without stressing too much about increasing your marketing efforts?

If so, then you might need to launch an affiliate program for your company, so as to allow various people around the globe to promote your products and services on your behalf (for a commission).

There is a lot of people out there who has an audience that is more than willing to buy products and services.

Studies shows that most people prefers to buy products when they're recommended by someone whom they know, like, and trust.

Thus, by launching an affiliate program, you will be able to tap into other people's audience and those people are more likely to buy products that are recommended by someone whom they know.

You can choose to launch your own in-house affiliate program if you want to manage your affiliate program on your own.

Alternatively, you can choose to launch your affiliate program via a network such as Commission Junction, Impact Radius, Share A Sale, etc if you're not ready to bear the burden on your own.

Whether you choose to run your own affiliate program or you launch it via a network, the key is to attract as many affiliates as possible so as to increase your chances of success.

Affiliate Marketing For Blogs

There is no doubt that affiliate marketing is one of the best ways for bloggers to monetize their content since it allows them to recommend various products and services to their readers.

Rather than relying on Google AdSense which only pays around 2 bucks per 1000 page views, you can earn a lot more from affiliate income from that same amount of traffic.

For example, let's say that you're a weight loss blogger, you can find various products to promote on platforms like ClickBank, Amazon, Digistore, etc.

And the beauty part is that some of these products pays up to a few hundred bucks per every sale that is generated through your links.

For example, let's say that you're promoting a product that pays $50/sale, you can make an average of $1000 per every 1000 web visitors taking into account the 2% average conversion rate.

Now let me make a quick disclaimer: The earnings may vary depending on various factors like traffic quality since some traffic converts better than the other.

But my point is, you can earn a lot of money from affiliate marketing rather than just relying on Ads alone.

And the beauty part about affiliate marketing is that you don't have to worry about product creation, shipping, inventory, etc.

You just focus on promoting other people's products and services to your blog readers and in return, you will earn some commissions.

NB: By the way, you can read this article if you haven't started your own blog yet.

I believe that blogging is one of the best ways to make money online since it opens other avenues beyond affiliate marketing and Ads.

Affiliate Marketing For Websites

Lately, there's a strategy that has been used by some affiliates who're looking to make money the ‘simplest’ way.

Instead of starting a blog, some affiliates chooses to create a static website that has a brief description about few selected products then a call to action (normally a ‘BUY' button).

I have a friend who is crushing it using this strategy since he looks for great affiliate products on amazon, then he creates a simple product description, backed by an image and a call to action button.

Keep in mind that this is different from blogging since a blog requires a lot of in-depth and fresh content on a regular basis.

However, this is not the case with static websites since these requires little updating than blogs.

But keep in mind that static websites do not perform well on search engines since most of them has thin content that is less optimised for SEO.

For this reason, you establish another traffic source like YouTube, whereby you drive traffic from your YouTube videos to your static website in order to yield better results.

Other than that, this technique remains one the best strategies when it comes to the world of affiliate marketing.

You can read this article if you want to learn how to create your own website today.

Affiliate Marketing For Instagram

Is it possible to do affiliate marketing on Instagram?

I always get this question most often since most people believes that Instagram is just a socialising platform for posting cool pics.

But do you know that there’s a lot of people right now who are crushing it with affiliate marketing just by utilising this platform?

The key is to create a page then you start providing valuable content based around a specific topic/niche.

Since it is difficult to place links in the descriptions of your posts, you can put a link in your bio then you tell people to check your bio if they want to learn more about a product or service that you're promoting.

If you’re promoting multiple products, you can use something like Link Tree, which allows you to create a simple landing page that accommodates all your links.

You can then place your Link Tree link in your bio hence making it easier for your audience to access those products.

Please note that this is not a full tutorial on Instagram affiliate marketing.

Thus, you might need to look for detailed tutorials on YouTube if you want to learn more about this topic.

Affiliate Marketing For TikTok

One of the fast growing platforms right now is TikTok.

TikTok has been gaining a lot of traction in recent years since more and more people are joining the platform on a daily basis.

But most people always think of little teenagers dancing to random songs when they think of TikTok.

But lm here to tell you that this platform is more than just an entertainment platform.

It is also a money making platform since there is a lot of buyer traffic on this platform.

The key is to define your target audience then you provide intentional content that is optimised to attract those people.

The key is to utilise the ‘hook, story, offer' strategy so as to get more leads and sales.

This strategy works well in the make money online niche since most people are looking for ways to make additional income online.

Thus, this can be a great opportunity for someone who knows how to grab the attention of those people.

You can also learn more about TikTok marketing through YouTube tutorials since there's a lot of great tutorials regarding this topic.

Affiliate Marketing For Facebook

Another great platform to use for affiliate marketing is Facebook.

There is no doubt that Facebook is one of the most used social platforms since it has a lot of daily active users who visits the platform on a regular basis.

Thus, there is also an evergreen opportunity for making money on this platform since some users of this platform are ‘buyer traffic'.

The key is to decide on your niche since it is impossible to be a jack of all trades.

Once you decide on your niche, you should optimise your profile in a manner that shows what you specialise on e.g. ‘l help obese adults to lose weight’

Another important tip is to look for banners or logos that clearly describes your craft.

Once you optimise your profile, its now high time to look for your target customers.

The key is to join groups where your ideal customers hangs out then you start providing valuable content inside those groups.

And guess what?

Some people in those groups will start to add you as friends since they will be curious to learn more about the topic at hand.

Over time, you can start to build relationships with those people through messenger and hopefully, you will promote your offers somewhere down the line.

Although it might take some time, the strategy remains a useful technique to make money with affiliate marketing (using organic traffic).

NB: Don't spam those groups with your links. Rather, focus on providing valuable content and people will naturally follow you.

Once you attract people in your sphere of influence, you can then recommend your offers to them after building some relationships with them.

Wrapping Up

I hope that you've gained a lot of value from this post.

I tried by all means to share my knowledge regarding affiliate marketing, so as to help some few people out there who're looking to get started with affiliate marketing.

If l had this information when l got started, l would have succeeded a lot faster than l did since l didn't know all this information.

The key is to take action and implement some of the strategies shared in this post.

Even if you fail multiple times, its good to learn from your mistakes, make corrections, and come back stronger and better.

The key is to pick a strategy and you execute it until you succeed since success is a series of progressive efforts that compounds over time.

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