What Is Affiliate Marketing?
Welcome to the affiliate marketing world! Are you looking to make money as an affiliate marketer online? Then this Ultimate Affiliate Marketing Course will help you to get started with affiliate business, no matter whether you are a newbie having no previous experience or knowledge.
But when people decide to make extra money or to earn a part time second income; they often do so with illusions and no idea of how the affiliate marketing actually works.
So, what is affiliate marketing by the way? And how you can make money with affiliate business? Let’s start….
Affiliate Marketing is one of the most common and widely accepted money making opportunity on the internet.
It is the most popular among all of the other methods of making money from home. Basically, affiliate advertising is an online business model without having to invest 1000s of dollars on infrastructure; and manpower like Franchises do.
“Affiliate marketing can be compared to a commissioned salesperson; except you don’t have to do any of the selling if you don’t want. The website you’re placing ads for can do all of the selling for you.”
How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?
I assume that you now have a picture of affiliate marketing and you want to start an affiliate business. But how does it work?
It starts by signing up to the affiliate program of an internet business as an affiliate to advertise for them. You simply won’t be really marketing their product or services; however, you just need to pre-sell the product or services.
This means that if you register as an affiliate of an internet business; and add some banners to your blog, your blog becomes just like a hoarding or signboard or an advertising house.
In contrast to billboards, an internet business owner won’t pay you to post their links or banners on the blog. They’re going to pay you a commission; only if an online visitor from your blog clicks the affiliate link or banner and buy the product, or services that you are marketing.
So, in affiliate marketing you actually make money from percentage commissions; when a visitor you sent to an internet business through your affiliate link actually buys the product or join their services. An internet business then pays you a commission of that product or service to help them getting a sales.
Is Affiliate Marketing Worth It?
If you want a fast answer in a single sentence, then affiliate marketing is the easiest business on the planet, if you can make it work.
As compared with any traditional business it is a joke! And.. even compared, to almost any other online business… it is incredible. Affiliate Marketing first started in 1989 with a guy named William J. Tobin, who holds the proud title of the world’s first internet marketer.
Since 1989 to DATE, AFFILIATE business is an incredible online business, and here’s why…
- Affiliate business can be started as low as $100 to $1000 and still makes six figures a month over very short period (Low investment high ROI!)
- Work from anywhere and still maintain freedom in your life (Be your own boss!)
- Don’t required customer service, staff, no overheads & low costs (100% Profits!)
- You can market anything that you don’t own and yet the income potential is practically unlimited (1000s of Opportunities & expandable worldwide!)
How Much do Affiliate Marketers Make?
My friend who is a blogger and affiliate marketer, makes about $30K in some months. That is a lots of money than any job owner. Some job owner never makes that much in whole year.
The thing that I’m gonna tell you is there is lots of money in affiliate marketing business if treat it like a real business and work dedicatedly.
The real answer is- $0 to $30,000+ monthly! You can see from the above image that Jon Anthony’s blog is making over $30K a month from affiliate advertising. On the other hand, many affiliates make nothing. As I said before, it depends on how you treat your business.
High Ticket Affiliate Marketing Examples
For an example, let’s say you have a niche blog and getting 1000 visitors in a month to your affiliate website or blog (33 visitors per day). This is quite feasible and you even get more per month as you become experienced.
Let’s assume that out of these 1,000 visitors; you get a 20% click-through rate on your affiliate links or banners placed on your affiliate website / blog.
So 1,000 x 0.20 = 200 affiliate clicks per month.
First Case: If only 2% out of that 200 clicks end up buying what you promote, you will get 4 sales.
Second Case: If only 5% out of that 200 clicks end up buying what you promote, you will get 10 sales.
Third Case: If your blog traffic is high quality then you will get 10% out of that 200 clicks; end up buying what you promote then you will get 20 sales.
Now suppose you are promoting a high ticket affiliate product or service that pays $300 commission per sale; you will earn $1200 in first case, $3000 in second case and $6000 in third case with that single high ticket affiliate program.
This is how affiliate marketing works and you have the potential to make the JOB Killing income in few years. I hope, you got the idea of affiliate advertising and how much you can make as an affiliate marketer.
IT IS EASY if you take it from someone who knows it and already made it working…
How to become an Affiliate Marketer?
As you can see affiliate business is the easiest way to make money online without much investment. You know that starting any traditional business or franchises will cost you thousands of dollars and too much overheads. Right?
Affiliate marketing can be started in the next few hours. Are you ready?
Choose your niche or market of your interest..
There are tons of categories (niche markets) you can choose products from like home loans, health & wellness, weight loss, home business, career, investment etc etc. It is recommended to choose a category in which you can become a master or have some personal interest.
Niche it down (means choose any broad niche then expand it) to get more specific sub-niches with low competition.
This helps you in 2 ways:
1.You are more specific about what you want to do. You know who is your target market is.
2. This also helps you getting free targeted traffic from search engines (SEO).
For example, if you choose a niche weight loss (too broad & highly competative), niche it down like:
- Weight Loss program | Diet | Training
- 1.1. Weight loss program for men / women
- 1.2. Weight loss diet for men / women
- 1.3. Weight loss training for home mom
In the nutshell, decide in what category you can write, think, talk. Then it will be easy for you to promote and expand your affiliate marketing business further.
Join Best Affiliate Marketing Programs
Generally, almost every business have their own affiliate program. These are called private affiliate programs. They don’t have any middleman between affiliate like us and the business. So if you have a specific niche, google “[YourNiche]+Affiliate program” and you will get dozens of business offering their affiliate programs in your niche.
If you are a beginner, I recommend not to go for private affiliate program unless you trust or know the person behind it. Many scammers will not show you the actual statistics data or sales made. Insted go for affiliate networks.
On the other hand, there are affiliate networks where other businesses or individuals list their affiliate offers. These networks are acting like a broker. They handle all the records, payments and refunds for businesses and affilite marketers. There are 4 giant affilaite networks:
JVZOO — Internet marketing | software related digital affiliate platforms. (50- 75% commissions)
WarriorPlus — Very much internet marketing | MMO | Software related affiliate platforms. (50- 75% commissions)
ClickBank — Is a mixture of major different niches, but digital only. (40- 75% commissions)
Amazon Associate — You get everything on Amazon. Great affiliate program for digital & physical products but offer 4- 10% commissions only.
So go register any one of these affiliate networks. Review the section below also to avoid common mistakes affiliates make…
5 Mistakes To Avoid When Choosing An Affiliate Program
Below you will find the top 5 mistakes affiliates make when it comes to choosing an affiliate program. And avoid these mistakes at all costs. Then, you will be able to be more effective and make more money for your time so; it is definitely worthwhile to read these warnings and avoid them.
| DON'T JOIN AFFILIATE PROGRAMS THAT... | DO THIS.. |
|---|---|
| COMPETE EACH OTHER | One of the worst things to do is choosing an affiliate program that believes in competing against other affiliates. Instead, choose an affiliate program that agrees with supporting and growing other affiliates to have a larger network and access to more affiliates. |
| PROVIDE LITTLE COMMISSION or REWARD | Too many affiliate programs pay too little and as a result affiliates find it difficult to make the money they should be making. Look for an affiliate program that has a good pay rate for your work. |
| PROVIDE OLD STATISTICS ONLY | You want an affiliate program that offers good, solid, real time statistics, not old statistics or ones that are no longer valid. Do your best to find an affiliate program that offers the most recent data. |
| HAVE NO SUPPORT | You want an affiliate program that guarantees you support round the clock if possible or at least within 24 hours. If not, keep looking for an affiliate program that wants to help you help yourself. |
| NOT PROVIDING FRESH IDEAS OR CREATIVES | Many affiliate programs provide few ideas or creative’s to their affiliates and so thousands of web pages end up with the same advertising. However, affiliate programs would have a better success rate if many different ads were made available so affiliates could alternate ads and place different ads on different sites, depending on the products sold. |
Commit these five mistakes to memory so you know exactly what you are looking for in an affiliate program, as well as what to avoid. You will be much more successful and happier as well if you do not get caught in these traps!
5 Tips To Choosing The Right Affiliate Program
Affiliate programs can be a great way to make money online. You don’t have to spend time developing your own product, worry about taking orders, or take care of customer service.
If you already have a high traffic website or run an e-zine you can stand to earn a steady flow of commissions every month without a lot of extra work on your part.
To help you get started promoting affiliate programs, here are the 5 tips to help you choose the affiliate programs that are right for you.
Choosing Ideal Affiliate Program
1. Choose an affiliate program that match the content of your site or niche. If your site targets a niche market then choose affiliate program that offer products to support that niche market.
2. Choose an affiliate program that pay a high commission. For example 50%-70% on your direct sales. Or choose affiliate program that sales memberships.
3. Join affiliate programs that pay two-tier commissions. This enables you to not only earn commissions on your own sales but also on the sales of people who you introduce to your affiliate program.
4. Join affiliate programs that offer a line of products so that you can earn commissions when your referrals come back and purchase other services or products.
5. Join affiliate programs that offer their affiliates great marketing support. Many affiliate programs offer their affiliates pre-written ads to use or get ideas from, sales letters, marketing banners, and articles to use in promoting their services.
Remember, the best affiliate programs will see their affiliate program as a partnership with you; and combine high commissions with excellent support so that; you can start earning money promoting their products as quickly as possible.
Affiliate Marketing Funnel Setup
A Marketing Funnel is a set of your marketing activities at each stage of the customer journey. It starts with making your target audience aware of your solution with creating a website or setting up squeeze page (Learn how to setup funnel here).
Start driving traffic to your website or squeeze page. How would you get traffic? Learn blogging, SEO, Social media marketing, Video marketing, Guest posting, Paid advertising like Solo ads, PPC etc…
Then guiding them through an evaluation process and finally leading them to make a purchase. The goal is to create a system, which is measurable at every level of the journey.
Five Costly Mistakes Affiliate Marketers Make and How to Avoid Them for Success.
It’s always one of those “I can’t believe its true” moments for new affiliates once they discover the world of affiliates. When they realise they don’t have to worry about product development or shipping…
They immediately jump on board, forgetting to perform their due diligence on the company they are joining. Then soon afterwards they expect to start making money within weeks of starting, but reality always strikes.
They are yet to be millionaires.
Here are some mistakes and tips on how to avoid them.
Affiliate Mistake #1: Lack Of Patience
Patience is a Virtue like they say. It took years for MacDonald’s to be a successful; it took years for Microsoft and other big companies to take off to success. Infact most business takes up to 5years to start seeing profit. Treating your affiliate business as a real business is important.
Super affiliates that earn $20,000 a month took years to get to that point. Research a program before signing up. Commit to stick it out. If they offer guides and training take advantage of it.
Update and maintain your site with fresh contents. Don’t jump ship when the going gets tough.
Affiliate Mistake #2: Too Many Programs
Avoid the temptation to subscribe to too many programs. When the going gets tough, its easy to think the grass is greener the other side. The problem about subscribing to too many programs at the same time is that you’ll fail to give them the attention and focus they deserve to make you money.
I recommend two or three programs at the same time to enable you turn your hard work into cash.
Affiliate Mistake #3: Wrong Choice Of Program
When it comes to choosing affiliate programs, choose the ones that have a generous commission structure, and that pay their affiliates easily and on time. Have affiliate products that fit in with your target audience.
Choosing programs that offers products that might not interest people means no commission or money for you. If you join a program that offers products that are “hot”; you will be competing with thousands of others who are promoting the same product.
Choose a niche you KNOW information about! Check the profitability of that niche.
Affiliate Mistake #4: Generalized Marketing
Focus on Niche Marketing: Focus on a tiny niche, the tinier and narrower that niche is, the better. Try improving on a single key aspect of your business at a time. Putting your efforts in one of two ways will help you achieve your affiliate program goals.
Try getting people to join your list. Then keep in touch with them by sending out valuable info.
Affiliate Mistake #5: Link Exposure
Hiding your affiliate link on your website is crucial nowadays. Most affiliate marketers still make the mistake of making there links visible. The truth is that internet users have become more sophisticated. And the honest truth is that most web users won’t click on an affiliate link or anything that looks like it.
You’ve got to learn how to hide your affiliate links to ensure click through’s. Also, stories of people’s affiliate links being changed to divert traffic has happened and is still happening.
There are many big mistakes made by affiliates that can be easily avoided, but these are just a few of them. However making mistakes in business are inevitable and important.
I recommend failing and making mistakes fast and early in your business than learning from them. This would move you forward towards success.
How to Get Targeted Traffic to Your Affiliate Website?
Thousands of people do affiliate marketing because they can start making money almost immediately; without the expense and time needed to produce a product themselves.
Having a website is not necessary (but recommended) and there is no interaction with your potential customers beyond getting them to the sales page.
Getting involved in affiliate marketing is a great opportunity to make a lot of money on the Internet; but one should not go into it blindly. As an affiliate you must invest some time in research, this is absolutely necessary.
- Know your affiliate niche and what products you want to promote.
- Find out how much you will make on each sale and the return rate of the product.
- If possible, buy or request a sample so you know the product inside and out.
As a first time affiliate it’s a good idea to start with reasonably priced products making at least 50% commission.
The most critical part of any business is of course the marketing. The issue of traffic is one of the most central and fundamental issues in making any money online.
You can separate your marketing campaign into two distinct groups, paid and non-paid. Free marketing can be quite effective if you know how it’s done.
Here is a list of the most popular methods for getting targeted traffic for free.
Blogging and Article Marketing (SEO)
Blogging and article marketing is a great way to increase your ranking with search engines and; direct targeted traffic to your website.
You should write about what you know and related to your niche. If you do not have more information on your topic then do the thorough research then write your informative articles for your readers.
Write your article in a conversational tone so that it’s easy to read. Don’t make your article too long, remember it’s an article you’re writing not a book.
A length of 500-1000 words should be ideal. Your article should be informative and about your website topic. If its just useless information your readers will expect the same from your website.
Writing a blog is also a good way to drive traffic to your site and increase your search engine rankings.
Blogs were originally used as online diaries; but have recently taken on a business dimension. Your blog should be focused on particular niche.
You should have niche blogs to get highly targeted visitors from search engine free of cost.
This is a good technique for increasing traffic and search engine rankings for targeted traffics to your websites.
Here is a review of the course dedicated to niche blogging and writting engaging contents for more FREE traffic and sales.
Email Marketing (Aka List Buidling)
Email marketing or list building, is a great way to get targeted traffic to your blog. Here you’re collecting an emails of people thru an optin page. So that you can market them your future products or services later.
Once you build your lists.. this is free traffic for you forever.
List building is the lifeblood of any business to stay alive. It allows you to build relationships with your clients, learn about the problems they’re experiencing, and accumulate repeat sales over time. The problem is that list building is also the area that most people struggle with the most. Visit here to learn more about list building or email marketing!
Forums Marketing
Participating in forum discussions is another great way to meet people and get your URL out there on every post you make.
You should join forums related to the niche you are targeting or the product you are selling. Google “Your Niche” + Forum to find forums related to your niche.
When you sign up for a forum you have the option of adding a “signature”. This signature will show up at the bottom of every post you make in the forum and should be used to promote your website links and products.
Whenever you make posts you will then be creating links back to your site, while attracting the attention of the forum readers.
Social Bookmarking & Social Media
This is a valuable and reliable way to get traffic and backlinks to your site. There are many social bookmarking sites such as Furl and delicio.us. Or again google it for more sites..
These sites allow you to share your bookmarks along with a description with the public hence the term social bookmarking. The main purpose is to put your links in front of people who would hopefully also bookmark your site giving you more backlinks.
Here a guide on how to generate qualified leads thru social media without spending money on ads ever..
Affiliate Marketing Resources & Tools
The information is free, but searching for it is not, it takes hours of your time. Buy something good to get you headed in the right direction immediately.
Internet marketing is really possible for anyone to do. The cost of having your own website is about $10 a month, after you buy a domain name for about $15. So, the first month is about $25, then $10 each month thereafter.
The only output that is required of you is your time. And that is where most first time affiliate marketers make their biggest mistakes. They do not really appreciate that old, time is money, adage.
Most new marketers are hell bent on being able to say that they spend only $10/month; and they want to insert $10,000/month as profit. That would be great, of course, and it can happen; but it’s going to take a lot longer to do if you don’t invest a little bit to get started in the right direction.
I have had wasted more than 3 years searching for free information. Wasted thousands of dollars on shiny objects. And never made any bucks untill I invested in right mindset and right mentorship.
Would you rather spend $700 on a set of video tutorials; that taught you how to make $100/day in a few months? or spend $0 and search and search forums for a year before you were able to make $100/day?
Best Affiliate Marketing & Blogging Course
If you don’t want to waste thousands of $$$ or years on trial and errors, Jon Anthony’s Blog Money Blueprint is my all time favorite affiliate marketing video course. I would spend the $700 immediately so I could become profitable in a much smaller time frame.
Organic Lead Generation Training for Affiliates
However, many people say that they know they can find the information for free on the Internet. Or there is no need to spend money on information that can be found for free.
(This was my biggest mistake when I started affiliate marketing to make money back in late 2014-15. I wasted 4 years trying for free information.)
Get Access to Organic Lead Generation Training + Cashback bonus!
Forum owners who stand to profit more when beginners stay searching their threads hopelessly for hours on end. The information is probably in these forums somewhere, but it will take you months to piece together everything to become profitable.
And the harsh reality is that the most successful marketers don’t sit in forums giving away all their best secrets.
The only way you get one on one advice and coaching is by paying for it. This is not necessarily a bad thing at all. It saves you tons of time with minimal financial outlay.
What NEXT?
Take Action! Just Don’t Sit in Forums, It’s Death
Time is money! So the sooner you learn the right affiliate marketing information; the sooner you will start to profit with affiliate programs. Of course, you are going to want to ask around or do your homework about programs that are worth the money.
But do this research and just buy something good.
Forums will waste your time all day long. No one is going to answer all of the 5,000 questions that must be answered to get started for free.
You need to pay for that but the cost is in the hundreds of dollars; not 10s of thousands or 100s of thousands like a college education.
Do you have any questions about affiliate marketing that is not covered above? Just comment below or contact me and I will get back to you within 24 hrs possibely.
If you liked this article, sharing is appreciated.
Yours friend in success,
-Santosh Mali
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