These days it seems everybody and his dog want to be Affiliate Marketers. Nothing wrong with that I hear you say.
Unfortunately there is so much rubbish and miss-information on Internet on the best and proper way for a Newbie to get started so I thought I would add my opinion to the subject.
So here it is!
Affiliate marketing is by far the most lucrative and rewarding method of making money online.
You simply promote the products you like to your audience and receive a commission every time a purchase is made through your referral link.
Seems simple enough!
Anyone can become a marketer and benefit a great deal from it. So, if it is something you want to get into, you’ve come to the right place.
Let’s get to it!
How To Get Started.
Use your website or blog to advertise and promote products or services from companies you prefer to work with. You can make as much as 50k or more per year from your referrals. The key thing is
to have an audience that favors and trusts your content.
Give your site visitors a reason to keep coming back to your blog and ensure they always find what they are looking for. That is how you grow and retain your followers.
Offer quality content and become the go-to person for specific advice or information. Your target audience will barely stay away. So, once you get that out of the way and begin increasing traffic to
your site, take the next step; become an affiliate.
Look for reputable companies that offer affiliate programs and join. You can work with as many companies as you want and promote as many products or services as you like. However, it is wise to stick to your niche when deciding what to advertise.
Remember that you want to show your audience how professional and knowledgeable you are in a specific area. You also want to help them to quickly and easily access what they need. The most effective way to do that is by sticking to your niche and providing the right information on time.
JOIN THE RIGHT AFFILIATE PROGRAMS
Advertise for companies that cater to your audience’s needs. This means you only work with companies that allow you to promote products that will be helpful to your followers. Find out the kind of products or services that you can market and then sign up.
Other things to consider when picking the right program is the amount of money you will make as well as the company’s reputation. How long have they offered affiliate programs? What do present and past affiliates say? What is their experience? Looking into these questions will help you to work with the right company and benefit as much as you desire to in the long run.
You can join reputable companies like Amazon, ClickBank, or eBay to quickly get started and avoid the hustle that comes with examining ones that are just starting.
The best thing about this is that there is no limit to what you can promote. Your niche is already catered for. You just go to the Amazon website, search for products you want to promote and sign up. The sign-up process is pretty much straight forward.
For example, if you choose Amazon, go to the affiliate program page: https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/
Go to the ‘Sign up’ button. Sign in to your Amazon account or create one. After signing in, follow the prompts and build your new account. Some of the information you will be asked for include your contact details, website URL, and bank account details. Complete the sign-up process and activate your account.
You will also add topics that you want your links to target during the signup process. Select products you want to promote on your site, blog, or YouTube channel after successfully activating your account.
PROMOTE THE RIGHT PRODUCTS
After successfully becoming an affiliate, you are given a unique ID and URL to use on your site or blog. You promote the selected product or service to your existing audience and get a commission
each time a sale is made. Now, the best way of getting your visitors to complete a purchase is by giving them a reason to. Briefly talk about the product you are advertising, mention its useful features, and show them how they are going to benefit from it.
Make sure they understand that you are using affiliate links on your site and receive a commission each time a purchase is made. That is how you maintain trust. Don’t trick them into buying something that isn’t going to be useful to them or something that you are not sure of. In short, promote products or services that you are pleased with or ones you have done enough research on.
Tips to help you pick the right product.
● Choose a product you use.This is by far the best method because you will be promoting
something that you have experience with. You know how it works, how you are benefitting from it, and why it’s the best there is.
So, pick a service or product that you are currently using. For example, if you are a web design content creator, you can advertise and promote the hosting company you are using.
Talk about the advantages of picking that hosting company such as their brilliant support system and massive discounts.
Another great tip is to promote products that you have used in the past. Talk about your experience and then briefly mention why you switched.
● Pick one that solves an existing problem.
Find out the common challenges or problems that your audience is facing and pick a product that provides the right solution. If you are not sure whether or not it’s the perfect solution, select two or three which are similar and research on each.
● Look for reviews or testimonials.
You can look for reviews or testimonials from previous and current users. A quick Google search can help as well. You can also ask experts for their insights.
● Visit other blogs in your niche.
Visit 5 or more blogs that offer the same content as yourself and be on the lookout for the kind of services and products they promote.
Write down what catches your eye and do your research on each item. After you are satisfied with the information you have and have concluded that the selected product or products will be helpful to your audience, become an affiliate for it.
● Ask your audience.
Last but certainly not least, ask your audience. However, don’t be too direct. Say “What challenges are you currently having with ABC?” That should give you an idea of the perfect service or product to pick.The hardest part is turning your followers into buyers by promoting the product in a way that leads to more clicks and sales? However, the best thing about most programs is that they help you with the marketing process. They offer useful tips for marketing the product you’ve chosen. So, you don’t have to worry too much about the marketing process as a beginner.
However, doing your research and learning new tactics can help to speed things up and reach your goals faster.
CONVERT LINKS INTO CASH
You’ve chosen your affiliate program or programs, have successfully created your account and added affiliate links on your site. But how do you get your users to follow those links and make a purchase?
How do you convert those links into cash?
Here’s how:
● Use the right structure.One thing that most affiliates don’t realize is that the key to making a
sale is structuring your content right. Meaning, you have a clean and clear content layout. You don’t randomly add affiliate links or add a product that is completely irrelevant to what you are talking about.
This means that if you blog about fashion and lifestyle, you don’t promote tech products. If you are a business blogger you don’t advertise clothing and so forth.
This proves your credibility and authenticity. It shows that you are not just after cash but care about your users because your ads are specifically tailored to their needs.
● Make sure your links fit seamlessly with your content.
For example, if your post focuses on tips to open up a new office, you can talk about location, marketing channels, as well as the perfect setup which includes choosing the right office furniture or equipment.
Mention the importance of giving the office a professional touch and then promote certain products that will help your audience to make informed decisions. Briefly explain why
specific options can work in their favor and then add the link. You can mention quality, cost, etc.
Take it a step further and talk about the importance of having a business website. Give the reader several options. For instance, hiring a developer, finding one on freelance sites, or choosing a
hosting company that offers web design services.
Explain the pros and cons of each choice. If you have partnered up with a certain hosting company, you can then talk about the advantages of choosing them. For example, “they offer an all-in-one solution and will help you launch your site in no time” and then insert the link within the content.
● Write review posts.
You can also create and share content that’s centered on reviewing products or services. Select top 6 services within your niche that will be useful to your followers in some way. Cover the advantages and disadvantages of all 6, mention cost, their support system, updates, as well the learning curve where applicable. Make sure at least your top three recommendations are services you’ve used or are using and prefer. Do enough research on ones you’ve never tried and then recommend them.
● Create a promotional page.
Design a page that is dedicated to promoting specific services or products. Add ‘Essential Tools’ or ‘Recommended products/services’ on your website’s main menu. This will help users to easily navigate through your site and find what they need.
Mention the promotional page on every post. As long as your content fits in with one or two products. The main point is to ensure your affiliate links go with your content and your promotions take users one step toward their goal.
JOIN AFFILIATE NETWORKS
The next step is to join affiliate networks especially if you are not seeing the results you are aiming for. Affiliate networks connect affiliates with merchants or companies that have affiliate programs and want to sell their products. They provide an easy way to select and promote products to your
followers, users, or subscribers.
The only downside is that you will be promoting products that are produced by a merchant you are not familiar with. Meaning you don’t know their reputation, reliability, and so on.
That is why you have to purchase and test each product before recommending it to your audience. However, this can be overtaxing. So, the best option is to work with reputable affiliate networks that are known for their exceptional services.
Amazon, CJ Affiliate, ClickBank, eBay, and ShareASale are brilliant examples. You can start with any of them, gain experience, and then move on to the ones you prefer.
Find out crucial information such as how much you are going to make as well as the percentage that will be deducted from each successful transaction before joining a network.
The most important thing to bear in mind once you choose a program is to adhere to the company policies, rules, and guidelines. That is the only way to succeed.
Pick the right product.
Promote products from reputable companies, ones you use, ones you have experience with or ones with high reviews. Don’t make the mistake of advertising what you are unsure of because that is how you lose trust. If you don’t know where to start, just stick to services from trustworthy companies.
You can never go wrong.
Recruit affiliates.
If you have a product you want to promote, you can create an affiliate program and recruit affiliates. This is a quick way of marketing yourself and getting the product off the shelves. If you already have an audience, you can easily find affiliates.
Talk about your program, why you started it, as well as how it’s going to benefit those who join. Come up with a commission structure and mention commissions as well. How are you going to pay recruits? Is it going to be a pay per sale, pay per lead, or a one-time commission?
Send out emails to existing customers. Explain why your program is the best as well as why they are best suited for it.
You can also advertise your affiliate program on your site, blog, YouTube channel, and other social media platforms to attract recruits. Use Google AdWords as well.
Reach out to niche bloggers and ask them to review and recommend your product to their followers. This is by far the quickest way to get the word out there and reach out to the right people. You can also join affiliate networks and use them to find affiliates. In this case, you become the merchant.
Develop a long-term partnership and build your reputation by producing the perfect product, sticking to what you promise, and handing out fair payments. Once affiliates trust and love your
service they will do the marketing for you, and find more affiliates as well as customers.
SUCCEED AS AN AFFILIATE
Just like any business venture, your main aim as an affiliate marketer is to succeed and make money. I’ll show you the best ways of doing just that!
● Build a reputation.
This is the key to succeeding in the affiliate marketing business. So, it has to top your list of priorities. Building your reputation and being known for ABC is the most effective way of growing your audience and marking your territory.
People know what you represent. They know where to go to find certain information and trust your content. If you create valuable content and ensure you solve a problem or offer useful resources on your posts, you will easily increase traffic to your site, get more YouTube subscribers, and Facebook or Twitter followers.
● Keep your visitors engaged.
Retain your visitors and continue to grow your audience by keeping them engaged. Ask questions, create surveys, respond to comments, offer how-to-guides or reference guides, have giveaways, and use coupons or discounts on your site. People hardly stay away from that.
Once you have more and more people engaging with your content, promoting products and getting them to complete a purchase becomes easy because they trust you.
● Learn from the best.
Find out how the experts are doing it. Search for highly-influential niche bloggers and study their approach. How do they advertise products on their blogs? Which products do they promote? How
often do they add affiliate links to their content?
● Study the product or service before promoting it.
Add affiliate links to your content only when you have done enough research on the product or service. Know your products and be selective. Advertise the right product or service that you trust.
● Stick to your niche.
Don’t go off-topic. Stick to your niche. That is how you build trust and increase sales. If you specialize in business content, promote business-related products and services only. Diversify your content but stick to your niche.
For example, start a series that gives freelancers advice on how to successfully expand their businesses and another one that focuses on marketing and increasing their revenue.
Add affiliate links within your content and help make their journey easy.
For example, recommend one or two bookkeeping software they can use.
● Provide useful information.
Provide valuable content with useful practical information and promote products that will take them one step closer to their intended destination. Don’t advertise or mention services for the
sake of it. True, you want to make money but you also need to maintain your reputation and retain your followers.
● Leverage the power of SEO.
Use search engine optimization tactics to grow traffic because it’s all about traffic. Study the best practices and implement them on your site.
● Be patient.
Last but not least, recognize that everything worthwhile takes time. Be patient with yourself. It may be awhile before you start making money but that’s just part of the process. So, don’t give up.
Keep proving valuable content, selecting the right products to promote, working on your SEO skills, and marketing your brand.
Sooner or later, you will reach your goal but it won’t be overnight. So stay patient – it will take time and just a little bit of work.
