How to Get Started with Affiliate Marketing

How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

Affiliate marketing programs are a great way to grow your business or personal brand. The process is simple: you place links to products on your website and blog and when someone purchases something that you recommend, you get a small percentage of the price.

There are tons of companies offering affiliate accounts to help sell their products and services but what is in it for you? Here are some reasons you should get started with an affiliate program.

Extra income. If you have enough traffic, you can make some money with affiliate marketing. However, you need to have enough followers and several links if you want to make some money. In fact, many say you should see the income as a bonus, not your main source of money.

Very little work. When you use affiliate links, you aren’t going to be the one who has to get products, market them, and wait. You also aren’t going to have to ship them to the customer and make sure that they get them (and they are pleased with it).

Already blogging? Good bloggers are already putting out a lot of good content and driving traffic to their website. Because of this, they are getting some traffic to their website. It isn’t going to take much more effort to add some links into your writing.

What Are The Steps To Become An Affiliate Marketer?

1. Create a website with a built-in blog. (We recommend WordPress)
2. Find a target niche you want to discuss or blog about.
3. Research products and solutions in your niche.
4. Sign up for the Amazon Affiliate Program and other sites like Commission Junction and ClickBank.
5. Find affiliate links for the products you want to review.
6. Create content in the form of tutorials, video reviews, and resource pages with your affiliate link.
7. Optimize the page and track your rankings in Google.

How Do I Find Products in My Niche?

Ask yourself what am I passionate about? Typically, the things we’re passionate about are things we can already discuss in detail which makes it much easier to create content. There is a wealth of content on Youtube and Google that can help with ideas on a particular subject. Searching these two will also help determine how saturated the market is for that topic.

Quality Content

Some affiliate networks and affiliate programs (Like Amazon) require you to already have established content, site traffic, and monthly views at a certain level before they’ll accept you as an affiliate, so be sure to read the eligibility requirements for the specific networks and programs you’re considering before you apply.

Email List

You don’t have to be obnoxious with popups and harassing people to signup for your list, but creating an email list is definitely a good option to build your network. In fact, email generates $38 for every $1 spent, which is an astounding 3,800% ROI, making it one of the most effective options available.

Setup Google Analytics

Tracking your website traffic will help you determine who is visiting your site and how they are consuming your content. This will help as you produce more content so you can see what works and what doesn’t. It’s also a good idea to expand on this with custom SEO reports. This will allow you to get detailed keyword reports and help track where you show up in the SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages).

Hopefully this helps if you’re on the road to generating a passive income with affiliate marketing. Be sure to follow our blog for more tips and resources for growing your business!

Need help? Contact us to learn more about growing your business with affiliate marketing.