Starting affiliate marketing is one of the best things you can do if you want to build passive income.
Earn money 24/7, because the internet never sleeps and your website is always online.
Yes, even making money while you sleep.
In addition, you can rake in some extra money with the push of a button if you have built up a large mailing list.
Starting affiliate marketing involves a lot of information.
I hope everything is well and clearly explained in this starter guide. I’m assuming. Good luck!
What Is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is promoting the products of other companies or individuals. In exchange for your promotion, you will be paid a commission per sale.
To keep it simple and clear, here are 5 steps to get started with affiliate marketing.
- Find a product you want to promote
- Find out if there is an affiliate program for that product. You can do this by searching in Google for: ‘Product name’ affiliate program.
- Register with this network you found for that product. You will now receive your unique affiliate link . With this link, the seller sees that his sales are by you, giving you a commission. If consumers actually buy something through your link, you get a commission.
Simple right?
I can also explain it in a much more difficult and deeper way.
But for this article, it is important that we start at the beginning and get you to the point of receiving your first commission.
How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?
There are a lot of ways to track affiliates today, but they are all based on someone clicking on your unique affiliate link.
The most common and easiest way to track is via a cookie.
When someone clicks on your affiliate link, a small file is saved on the computer of the person who clicks on it.
If they then buy a product on that website, the seller knows that he/she was sent by you.
Cookies are often valid for a long period of time. For example, 90 days.
If the person does not buy anything today and does in 20 days, you will still receive a commission.
There are also more difficult ways based on IP address or email, but we’re not going to get into that.
Here’s How To Start Affiliate Marketing In 6 Steps
We will discuss the method that is most used in affiliate marketing and that also makes the most money. Namely having a website or blog.
- Create a website or a blog
- Choose an industry and then look for a niche within this industry
- Find products in this niche that you can write a review or review about.
- Register at an affiliate program (any one that is suitable for your country).
Search affiliate networks. - Create content on your website. You can do this, for example, by writing reviews about products or making tutorials.
I will describe all these steps in detail for you, but it is important that you first understand the process in general terms.
How Much Money Can You Make With Affiliate Marketing?
The amount you can earn with affiliate marketing is very different. It can be between 0 and millions.
Your income is determined by the products you promote, the traffic that comes to your website, and some other additional marketing skills such as email marketing and SEO.
But in this article, you will see how much money can be earned with all the forms of promotion that are out there.
You can choose any product to promote. Affiliate programs are everywhere that want to pay you commission for the sales you make.
But, it doesn’t mean you have to promote everything just because you can.
The most important thing to remember when choosing a product is, “Is the product relevant to my audience?”
Take for example. I’m going to try to sell fitness supplements for entrepreneurs.
The audience that my website attracts is entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs who want more information about business models.
Yes okay, maybe there are some entrepreneurs who also use fitness and supplements. But why would they buy this from me and not from body & fit?
The fact is, your products need to be relevant to your website and audience.
For me, it would be much more beneficial to promote namescheap.com
This is a website where you can buy cheap domain names and have them hosted. Every online entrepreneur who is about to start needs this.
Do you understand the principle?
For example, I often write articles about a business model and promote a course that is most suitable for this.
By purchasing the course via the affiliate link, you support me a bit again.
Consumers do not realize it themselves, because it does not cost more than normal. The seller only gives me a small part of the amount.
Likewise with affiliate marketing. If you really want to dig deep and follow a blueprint to become successful in affiliate marketing, then I can advise you to get started with Affiliate Marketing Domination.
I also started this myself.
3 weeks after my website was online, I received my first commission. Fast right?
Domain name + Hosting
It is of course very important that you have a domain name + web hosting. If you don’t have this you can’t make a website, very simple.
If you don’t have a domain name + web hosting yet, I advise you to get one from namecheap.com. Once you’ve done this, you can continue with this starter guide.
Questions To Ask Before Promoting An Affiliate Product
When I decide which product I want to promote, I always ask myself the following questions:
Am I using this product?
Does a vast majority of my audience benefit from this product?
Is the buying process easy?
Is there a good commission ratio?
If I can answer these questions with a yes, it is often a good product. Be sure to promote and test it.
Do: Make a list of products that you think your website/blog audience could use. Try to think of as many as possible.
These can really be any products you can think of. Clothes, toys, information products, etc.
Start Of Affiliate Marketing
Okay, now you should have an idea of what you want to promote. Now is the time to decide which products are best for you and your audience.
There are 3 different types of affiliate products that you can promote:
- Physical Products
- Information products
Services - Each of these options has its pros and cons. We will discuss this below.
I think physical products are the easiest to promote.
Simple and only through the easy affiliate program of Bol.com.
Literally, all products you can think of are offered on this platform. You can promote all of those products.
The same applies to Amazon, and other companies offering affiliate marketing.
The public that comes to this website is probably interested in good books about online business and about different business models.
So I’m going to look for this on Bol.com
I type in ‘make money online books’ and come up with a book that teaches you how to dropship and how you can earn money with it.
This book is a great fit for people who come to this website to read about dropshipping.
Click on the product, so in this case on the book, and then you will receive an affiliate link of that product.
I then incorporate this link into the text of articles about dropshipping.
For example, in between, I write ”Learn more about dropshipping?
This book contains everything you need to know! “As you can see ” book ” and hyperlink and you can click on it.
Just click on it and you will see that you come to the right page.
If the visitor then buys something on Bol.com, I receive a commission by using the cookie.
Also about any other products he buys.
You get a percentage on the shopping cart on Bol.com.
Good right?
Yes and no!
The commission you receive on physical products is relatively low.
At Bol.com you get a maximum of 8% commission on the shopping cart, but I have also had with more expensive products (€300.00) that I only received €6.00 commission.
So this is hardly anything.
Then you have to get a lot of visitors to your website to earn.
Cookie Duration
Pay attention to how long the cookie is active for the different programs.
At Amazon, for example, this is only 24 hours.
The consumer must therefore make his decision in 1 day and buy something if you want to receive a commission for this.
Bol.com has, I believe, 90 days.
Then the consumer has 90 days to decide whether he/she buys the product. This way you make sales much faster.
Super important, but not everyone pays attention to this!
Affiliate Marketing With Information Products
The next type of affiliate product that you can promote is information products.
These products are usually made by people who specialize in something. You often learn how to do something.
A good example of an information product is Affiliate Marketing Domination.
Through this course, you will learn everything you need to learn to become successful in affiliate marketing.
You learn this from someone who sometimes converts 6 figures, PER MONTH.
There are many reasons why information products are so good to promote
These products are often a bit more expensive, so that also means more commission for you
They often have a face behind them. A face that creates trust and is easier to sell. This person also often has social media and is fairly well known in that specific world
Behind these products are often strong marketing funnels. These lead to significantly more sales. Sending is often enough
They solve a problem or offer a solution for your visitors
In the past, it was often more difficult to promote these products than regular physical products. You had no network for this.
Nowadays you have different networks, of which PayPro is one.
Here you can find all the information products that the sellers would like to have promoted.
How Do You Choose Which Information Products You Want To Promote?
You can really make tens of thousands of dollars promoting information products.
Make sure that you choose the products well and that it perfectly matches the needs of your visitor.
Again, the commissions are a lot higher than physical products. That’s why I like to promote these products so much.
Did you know that the commission on an information product is usually between 30-50%?
It costs next to nothing to make such a product because it is all digital.
When I look for good information products, I usually look for products made by people who are good at marketing, why?
Because I send traffic into their marketing funnel. They then ensure that the consumer converts.
So think for a moment. Have you taken a course yourself or bought another information product that has helped you well and has a relatively high price?
Check if an affiliate program is available for this.
I do that too, but unfortunately not with an expensive product.
Affiliate Marketing With Services
The third type of product you can promote our services.
This is also a very good business.
These products allow me to promote affiliate products, use email marketing, host my domain name, and so on.
My company will not work without these products. No online business works without these products.
That means that a lot of people need it. This is good for you as an affiliate.
It is also easy to promote these products, why? If I use them and really like them, then you probably will too!
The cool thing about promoting services is that you often have recurring revenue.
I promote GetResponse (the best email marketing program) and Enormail (a Dutch email marketing program).
If people take out a subscription with this, I get a percentage of that subscription every month.
This way you at least have a certain income.
If you are going to start affiliate marketing yourself, you will also need the programs I mention.
You can then also promote it yourself. So think carefully about what you use yourself and simply promote it.
You usually get a 15-30% commission per month for this.
My Favorite Services To Promote
If you have a website about blogging, marketing, or online business in general, there are tons of great services you can promote.
But you can only use a limited number of them yourself. Promote these services. You know a lot about this and can write enthusiastically about it. These are my favorites:
GetResponse: best email marketing software right now. In addition to email marketing, you have many more features. For example, you can create the most beautiful opt-in pages. Here you can choose whether you want a monthly amount or €100 for each new subscriber.
Email: the best email marketing program. They pay commission every month.
Namecheap: Universal domain main name provider. Good support and hosting from the Netherlands is obviously the best if you live in Nigeria. You can get domain names for $8.88 They pay a monthly amount.
Why Choose Affiliate Marketing Over Other Options?
Many new bloggers think that advertising with banner ads is the best way to use your blog.
You can’t be more wrong than that.
They often start with Google Adsense, because it’s easy.
To be honest, I can’t remember the last time I saw an Adsense ad.
No, but seriously now, you are not only making your website ugly, but you also need to have a ridiculously high number of visitors to really earn a nice income.
The same goes for selling ad spots to sponsors.
It is even more profitable to place your own banners of affiliate products that you promote.
So don’t make the mistake of starting with Adsense. You need at least 1,000+ visitors PER DAY for this to be able to earn some money.
Believe me, 1,000 visitors per month is already difficult!
Best Affiliate Products For Beginners
Anyone can start affiliate marketing, but only a few can be profitable quickly.
There are 3 types of products that I recommend promoting as an affiliate beginner.
Here you have the best chances to grow your business and earn commission quickly.
How Do You Promote Affiliate Offers?
Okay, now the most important part.
You should now know what affiliate marketing is, which products you want to promote and you know how to get affiliate links.
But if you don’t know how to promote this properly, it doesn’t matter if you do, does it? Nope.
In this section, we’re going to look at the easiest and most successful ways to promote affiliate offers.
Affiliate Marketing Product Reviews
Once you’ve built some trust with your audience, product reviews can be a great way to generate sales.
This works for all three types of products you can promote. I have personally had success with each strain.
The key to successful reviews is honesty.
I make honest reviews and sometimes tell that I don’t like the product.
Of course, you will not make sales on that product, but you will show your honesty.
Everyone knows that almost every product is not perfect, so don’t set high expectations but be open and honest.
This way you have a good chance that the visitor will buy it anyway.
In any case, make sure you include the following in your product review:
A clear title tag that also contains your keyword
Clear call-to-action, so that the visitor knows how to buy the product. Do this at the top and bottom of the page
A clear recommendation
Personal experiences and opinions
I’ve had success with this myself many times on other websites. Also here I have already done it, but this is more about the software I use.
Affiliate Marketing With Tutorials
Tutorials are one of the easiest yet most effective ways to make affiliate sales.
It may take some time to make a really good tutorial, but it’s well worth it.
What exactly do I mean?
Very easy, you make an article or video about how to do something.
Do this step-by-step so that they can follow you exactly. In this, you make it clear that it is really the key to use that program that you are using in the video or in the article.
Then the readers have to use the same program and they often want to. This is where you place your affiliate link.
I’ve done some videos of this. You can view them under the headings ‘videos’ in the menu bar.
Make sure you provide great value with these tutorials.
If people really benefit from it, you will see that the sales are increasing.
Moreover, this is a beautiful piece of digital real estate, because it is on the internet forever.
So you always earn money with this, if you do it right.
Affiliate Marketing With Comparison Articles
This is also a very good affiliate strategy to generate sales.
It works best when 2 products are almost the same and many people are thinking about purchasing one of the products.
A good example is a comparison between the latest PlayStation and the latest Xbox.
If people are looking for a new game console, it’s probably one of these two.
This is an example, I would never choose this myself. There is always enough information about these products on the internet.
This makes it very difficult to rank in Google.
Compare products that really help people. Take web hosting as an example.
Most web hostings all have different functions and prices, so it is very useful to list everything.
Of course with your affiliate links of the hostings under the comparison.
Email Marketing With Affiliate Marketing
This is probably the most effective method when it comes to making sales through affiliate marketing: email marketing.
At the same time, it is also one of the most advanced methods. Maybe I’ll write a video or article about this too.
If you would like this, please leave a comment below this article.
Once you have a large audience, many of whom are subscribed to your mailing list, you can create a series of emails to promote a product.
This works best with information products with relatively high commissions.
It is important that your emails deliver real value, otherwise, the readers will not open your next emails and you will lose a lot of potential customers.
For this to work you need the following:
A mailing list with at least 1,000 people
A product that you have used or had success with. Or a good story/reason to promote
A product that converts well (the sales percentage of people who are actually forwarded via your link)
I think 7 emails is a good number.
Send a valuable email every 3 days.
You can automate this with autoresponders.
Make sure you don’t promote any products in your first 3 emails yet.
Build value first to make sure readers actually open your email.
If the open rate increases, you can carefully promote products in your next emails. But, above all, continue to deliver a lot of value!
Biggest Affiliate Marketing Beginner Mistakes
Many people who start affiliate marketing make the same mistakes.
So make sure you don’t make these mistakes.
Below is a video to explain which errors these are
A Few Latest Affiliate Marketing Tips
If you follow all the strategies above, you will be making sales with your blog in no time.
To increase your chances, even more, I have some extra tips for you here.
Use Beautiful Links
If you do not give words a hyperlink but simply place the link, you will see the entire link.
Many links are ugly, long and you will see that it is an affiliate link. The best thing to do in this case is to shorten your link.
You can do this with Bitly.com. They turn an ugly link into a beautiful link.
Example unmodified link: https://degeldwolf.nl/affiliate-link-plaatsen/
Example Bitly link: https://bit.ly/2W42yzS
Now you see that the URL of my website is not that ugly, but you can imagine that a link with all numbers and letters is not something you want to click on.
So you make fewer sales.
Develop A Good Relationship With An Affiliate Manager
Most affiliate programs also have a manager for this.
Approach these first before setting up entire campaigns. They can often tell you what works well. This saves you a lot of time.
