How to get Started with Affiliate Marketing: The Beginner’s Guide

Today, we’re going to show you what affiliate marketing is and how to use it to make money with affiliate commissions.

Affiliate Marketing: An Overview

Affiliate marketing is a process through which people earn money by promoting different affiliate products and services. The marketers are paid affiliate commissions depending on several factors, typically the number of affiliate sales they bring in. For example, a fashion retailer might pay a marketer 10% for every completed sale they referred to the retailer.

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An affiliate program is beneficial for everyone involved: the businesses selling and the marketers trying to drive more affiliate sales. This is why big businesses such as Amazon have a large affiliate network (Amazon Associates doing Amazon Affiliate Marketing) that aims to attract as many participants as possible.

Affiliate sales are tracked via affiliate links. The marketer places the links where a visitor can click, and the website tracks how many times visitors clicked on the link and how many sales of affiliate products resulted from these clicks.

Blogging is one of the most popular options for affiliate marketers. However, besides a blog post, you can also place your affiliate links below your videos on platforms like YouTube, on your email lists, and on social media accounts.

Why Businesses Love Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing can drive massive amounts of traffic to a website if a business partners with the right marketers and these marketers know how to entice people to click on their affiliate links. 

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The affiliate marketing business does not have to do much to get this traffic; all they have to do is create an affiliate program and pay marketers from its affiliate network who participate and drive new sales.

For an affiliate business, launching a program means a new traffic source, other businesses doing digital marketing for them, new income from affiliate product sales, increased audience size, and much more. 

Types of Affiliate Programs

There are two ways to categorize affiliate programs; by how they pay and how marketers solicit clicks for affiliate products. Some ways marketers solicit clicks include:

• Content – This is typically done through blogging. Here, a market or business creates enticing content, ensures it has enough traffic on the site, and places its links within the content for people to click. A good example is review sites with blog articles containing product reviews. The great thing about content is you can accurately predict the audience size and traffic volume by doing keyword research. All you have to do is create awesome articles based on your product knowledge.
• Search – This is done through search engines where brands focus on getting found on an affiliate program search engine, so people come to their website and click on affiliate links. Whether the business focuses on paid search or SEO, search affiliate marketing works in tandem with content marketing.
• Social – In the age of social media, many influencers are making money promoting products on their social media pages. The most popular options include Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
• Email list – some marketers get in touch with their target audience through email marketing. By creating great newsletters and targeted email campaigns, this type of affiliate marketer sends offers through links in emails.

Here are some forms of compensation that can be used to categorize affiliate programs:

• Pay-per-click – The affiliate is paid when someone clicks on an ad. This is a less common affiliate business model.
• Pay-per-lead – This alternative pays affiliates for the number of sign-ups. The visitor has to click on a link on the affiliate’s website, go to another website, and complete the signup process. In the affiliate dashboard, you can see the leads you generated from your promotion efforts.
• Pay-per-sale – This type of affiliate marketing compensation is easy to understand; the affiliate is paid a percentage or fixed amount for each product or service sold through their affiliate link. With this model, you can make a solid monthly income from affiliate marketing.
• Pay-per-post – Here, an affiliate or influencer is paid for posting content about a brand, product, or service in front of a specific target audience. It does not have to be a blog post because influencers are often paid for posting pictures on their social media platforms if they have enough followers. This is one of the more effective strategies for B2C audiences and influencer marketing.

Affiliate Marketing Commission Rates

The commission rates for affiliate marketers will depend on the companies they work with and the type of compensation they agree to. Many companies pay a percentage of the sale, typically 5 to 50%, while some pay a fixed amount to their affiliate network.

How To Get Started with Affiliate Marketing

You need to follow several steps to get started with affiliate marketing. Building on the proper foundation will help you be successful and build a sustainable affiliate marketing business, as affiliate marketing is the most popular way to earn a passive income. 

Choose a Niche

Many marketers might tell you first to choose the platform you use, but we think choosing a niche is a better way to get started as an affiliate marketer. The niche will help you determine your affiliate marketing business’s best platforms and strategies.

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There are so many niches to choose from that it can be challenging to get started, but once you jump over this hurdle, things will get easier. When choosing a niche, you want to start with a category and then niche down.

When choosing a category, choose either something you are interested in, what you are an expert in, or one where you can create lots of content. You want to avoid getting started and then being bored after creating ten pieces of content. If you are an expert, you likely have a lot to say on a subject, and choosing a niche where you can create lots of content is self-explanatory.

Niching down means getting more specific within the niche. Instead of building an affiliate website for DJs, you can create one for DJ equipment. Since DJ equipment is still a broad niche, you can niche down to DJ mixers and controllers. Check out these affiliate marketing landing page examples to get a better idea.

There is less competition when you niche down like this, so it is easier to rank your website, and there is still enough high-quality content to create for your target audience. Since you are targeting a specific demographic, most people visiting your website will be looking for advice, information, product reviews, or recommendations, and this is where the affiliate clicks will come from.

Pick a Platform

Your niche will help you determine the types of platforms you use as an affiliate marketer. For niches where you need long explainer content, a blog is an excellent option. A blog or YouTube will be great for niches where you need to explain something.

Starting a blog is the clear choice for many, as it aligns well with various niches and is relatively easy to begin. Essential tasks include researching keywords, mastering SEO techniques, and crafting top-notch content to establish a strong presence. For those seeking to optimize their blog effectively, investing in professional SEO services can greatly enhance visibility and engagement.

Social media is also a great platform if you already have an audience you connect with. Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram are great for this. Remember, consistent posting is one of the best strategies on social media, especially on platforms like Instagram, where people scroll through hundreds of posts daily. The more relevant content they see, the more likely they’ll engage with your account, which will help you earn free Instagram followers organically and build a loyal fanbase for your affiliate marketing.

Publish content following a social media calendar to ensure that you tick to a consistent posting schedule.

Choose an Affiliate Program

Apart from looking at affiliate programs by considering the categories they fall into, as discussed above, there are other broader categories.

The first is high-paying and low-volume affiliate programs that typically have very niche products and very high payouts. There are lots of examples of such programs in the software-as-a-service niche.

These programs are highly competitive as there are fewer buyers. Also, many affiliates are attracted to them because of the higher commissions.

Then there are low-paying, high-volume programs. A great example is Amazon Associates, where you should target numerous sales for a small percentage of the sale price. Because there are many products with many customers to choose from here, these programs can be very lucrative. They are also easy to start with, so they fit beginners well.

High-paying, high-volume affiliate programs are for products with much mass appeal. Think of credit cards. The problem with these programs is that they require you to have lots of experience, expertise, and a sizable marketing budget.

Create Great Content

Now that you have picked your niche, platform, programs, and products to promote, you need to create content. This should be high-quality and useful content so people can share it and visit your website again. It should also match your niche so that your affiliate links fit in seamlessly.

Do not make the mistake of only looking at high-paying products and creating content around them; do your research to find out your ideal visitor’s pain points so you can create content that solves their problem. When you suggest a product, they will be more open to buying it because they know it will help them as your content already did.

One of the biggest mistakes you can make when chasing affiliate income is to go after products that offer high commissions, even if you know nothing about them. For example, VoIP is a great industry to start an affiliate business because it’s blowing up in recent years – everyone needs a business phone that works online.

However, do you really know how to build an affiliate marketing strategy around internet telephony? Create engaging affiliate content? Build an authoritative online presence?

Instead, choose an industry that you know and love with relevant products you have experience with. You may have more success and money with affiliate marketing by selling camping gear than by selling high-ticket B2B offers.

Get Traffic

This is the most challenging part of affiliate marketing as it requires building an online presence and creating relevant content. Fortunately, there are lots of options to choose from here. They include:

Paid traffic – You pay to have your ads placed high on search engine result pages, social media, and other websites to get traffic. Bear in mind that some affiliate marketing programs forbid you to bid against the business owner’s keywords. Even without this obstacle, this is a very expensive marketing channel to put your affiliate content out there.

The costs you’re paying for Google Ads or Facebook Ads (or other social media sites) are going to cut into your affiliate revenue. If you need to pay $10 for a click and you can only get $12 of commission for relevant products, you’re putting yourself at risk. Instead, build your own online presence and online business with a website or mailing list.

Search Engine Optimization – Ensuring your website ranks as high as possible in search engine results. Making an affiliate income with this type of program can be challenging as you’ll be competing for affiliate revenue with everyone else targeting the exact keywords.

Many people have launched their affiliate marketing career by launching a website. It requires some knowledge of digital marketing but the potential income could be immense if you do it the right way.

Building an email list will allow you to have a list of people you can tell about your latest content or even products they would be interested in. You can easily make money with affiliate marketing through emails instead of affiliate sites if you can attract enough people to subscribe.

Building an online presence through email is less expensive than building a website, but you still have to create relevant content rather than focusing all your marketing efforts on selling.

Social media marketing. You can run an affiliate campaign by creating valuable content on social media, especially if you’re in the B2C world and you have a large follower base. For B2B sales, digital products, and something for a more enterprise audience, you may struggle to take your affiliate marketing program off the ground on social media.

If you do sell to a B2C audience, influencer marketing can be a lucrative opportunity for you. Not only can you tell a personal story on a social media channel of your choice, but your audience will more easily identify with your content.

Generating Clicks

Even with great content and lots of traffic, people might not click on your links if you do not optimize for clicks. Start by checking link placement. You do not want your links to be too high or too low on the page. Additionally, you do not want too many links because doing so will make the content look spammy and you won’t be seen as a reliable affiliate partner.

Next, ensure all links are placed within context. Place them on product names or anchors containing keywords. For example, if you’re selling dog food to make affiliate revenue, create an anchor such as “Purina dog food” as it will look natural.

And one of the most important affiliate marketing tips is to include an affiliate disclosure on your website. This means adding a message that you make money with affiliate marketing from affiliate offers on your website. It will actually create more trust with your readers and increase conversions rather than hurting your affiliate marketing strategy.

Lastly, use callouts like calls to action buttons to draw people’s attention to your affiliate links and generate affiliate income. There is a wide range of options here for your affiliate campaign, but starting with “Click here to purchase” or “Buy now” is a good way to kickstart your affiliate campaign.

Conclusion

Affiliate marketing can help you increase your income whether you are doing it as an individual or is income-generating for your business. Understanding how to get started will help you build your affiliate marketing business on the proper foundation, which can help ensure its success.

And don’t get discouraged if you don’t start making an affiliate income right away. There is a wide range of platforms and tools you can try to make money with affiliate marketing – all you need to do is find the marketing channel that works for you, start creating affiliate content and you’re ready for your success story.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it take to get started with affiliate marketing?

It depends as there is a wide range of variables. However, you can get started with anywhere from $500 to $2,000 in initial investments. Don’t expect to make money with affiliate marketing immediately though, as it can take months of creating valuable content and working on your affiliate strategy to start seeing your first affiliate revenue.

How much you need to invest depends on your affiliate offers too. You will need more money to achieve affiliate marketing success in competitive niches.

Is affiliate marketing hard for beginners?

If you’re just looking to make money with affiliate marketing, and you’re not willing to put in the time for learning, it might be difficult. Launching any affiliate campaign requires lots of knowledge of marketing, sales, human psychology and more. For a beginner, starting out in the affiliate marketing industry can be very challenging. This is why many times, affiliate marketers are people with extensive knowledge of marketing looking for an additional income stream.

I don’t have a lot of money to start with, can I do affiliate marketing?

It’s absolutely possible to start in the affiliate marketing industry without a huge starting capital. If you don’t have lots of resources at the start, use that time to learn more about affiliate strategy, creating high-quality content, and researching different types of products and affiliate offers.

Even more important for an affiliate marketing career is the knowledge of relevant products on your website. As mentioned, generating an income from affiliate marketing is easier if you focus on something you know and love, rather than chasing popular affiliate networks such as Amazon Associates.