The affiliate marketing industry could reach $8 billion by 2022. That’s nearly double what it was worth in 2015. With affiliate marketing, you can earn money by promoting products you love!
Not sure where to get started? With this affiliate marketing for beginners guide, you don’t have to wait!
Keep reading to learn everything you need to know about affiliate marketing. With this guide, you’ll have the affiliate marketing tips you need for success. As you expand your reach, you can generate more sales and start earning money!
Set yourself up for success in 2021. Discover how to start affiliate marketing with this simple guide today!
What is Affiliate Marketing?
What is affiliate marketing, exactly? Before you can learn how to start affiliate marketing, it helps to understand how the process works.
Affiliate marketing allows you to earn commissions by marketing someone else’s products or services. As an affiliate, you’ll become a salesperson and marketing expert. You’ll support a merchant’s brand to generate sales and attract loyal customers.
As you start selling their product or service, you’ll earn a commission.
To get started, you’ll need to choose a product you love and want to promote. Choosing a product you believe in will make your marketing genuine. Consumers will see why you value that product and want to buy it, too.
Each time you make a sale, you’ll earn a little money.
The merchant will track your sales using affiliate links. These links will send people from your website to another.
You can market the merchant’s product or service using a website, social media platform, or blog. When someone clicks on the affiliate links, you can earn a commission. You’ll receive a dedicated tracking link for your campaigns.
The link will track your clicks, leads, and conversions.
You can use affiliate marketing to generate passive income online!
Types of Affiliate Marketing
Before you can learn how to make money with affiliate marketing, you’ll need to choose a type of affiliate marketing.
The top traffic sources for affiliate marketers include SEO (69.22%), social media (67.32%), and blogging (64.48%).
Site Owners
Many affiliate marketers start by creating their own websites. Then, advertisers can contact you to become an affiliate. They’ll use your website to promote their products or services.
As you generate more website traffic, merchants will take notice. You can use banners, widgets, or other creative marketing methods for your affiliate links. Then, you’ll create a blog post that covers a topic relevant to the product or service.
Newsletters
As you start creating blog posts for your website, consider creating newsletters, too. You can send your subscribers special offers within each email. You can use these offers to send consumers to the merchant’s website.
Then, you can make sales to boost your commission.
SEO and PPC
You can also expand your reach using search engine optimization (SEO). When someone Googles the product or service, your website might appear. A higher SEO ranking will help you reach a larger target audience.
Ranking higher on Google can help you appear as a credible resource in the industry, too. Consumers will start to trust your suggestions. They could start purchasing the affiliate products and services as a result.
You can also become a pay-per-click (PPC) affiliate. You can use digital ads to drive consumers to the merchant’s website. PPC ads can appear on Google, Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms.
Content and Coupon Sites
Most affiliate marketers use content sites to expand their reach.
Site owners can write a review for the merchant’s product or service. These reviews can convince consumers to look into the product. As consumers make purchases from the site, the site owner will earn a commission.
As consumers rely more on online shopping, many affiliates have started using coupon websites, too. You can offer a coupon for the merchant’s product to boost sales.
There are also websites that offer services to help shoppers, such as review portals and comparison sites.
Social Media
As you use this affiliate marketing for beginners guide, consider your options.
You don’t have to stick to one avenue. Using more than one type of affiliate marketing can expand your reach.
Don’t forget to stay social! Start by generating an audience of loyal social media followers. Then, post engaging videos reviewing different products and services.
You can add a link to your post directing your followers to the merchant’s website. Then, you can earn a commission for each sale.
Becoming a social media influencer can help you expand your reach. You’ll generate a following, allowing you to improve your affiliate marketing strategy.
Also Read: 10 High Paying Affiliate Programs For Beginners 2022
How to Get Started
Some marketers earn between $5,000 and $100,000 a year. The more successful affiliate marketers earn millions. Before you can start earning, you need to know how to start affiliate marketing first.
Here are the five easy ways you can learn how to make money with affiliate marketing!
1. Choose Your Niche
Focusing on a broad market could make it more difficult for you to connect with customers. Instead, choose a niche within an industry you love.
Make sure your niche is small enough that you can zero in on your target audience. At the same time, make sure it’s large enough that you can make money. Otherwise, you might exhaust your audience too quickly.
As you use this affiliate marketing for beginners guide, consider your lifestyle. What are your passions? Is there a niche you already have a lot of knowledge about?
You can find your niche by:
- Using Google Trends
- Conducting keyword research
- Existing products and services you love
- Looking for influencers within a niche industry
You can use your passion, expertise, and knowledge to your advantage. Consumers will see you’re knowledgeable and enthusiastic.
They could come back to learn more from you based on that passion.
2. Find Your Opportunities
Once you find your niche, you’ll need to find an affiliate network or program.
Many popular merchants, including Target and Amazon, already offer affiliate programs. These programs are free to join. Make sure to research each program to make sure it suits your target audience first.
You might find a company you love that already advertises an affiliate program on its website.
Consider researching out to brands you love, too. Ask if they have an affiliate program set up. They could help you get started.
Otherwise, consider looking into an affiliate network. Networks are providers that give you access to numerous merchants within their network.
You might want to consider a sponsored post program, too. A sponsoring company will pay you to create a promotional post. For example, you can create content for social media or a blog post on your website.
You’ll receive payment upfront in these cases.
Remember, you need to find a program that suits your niche. Otherwise, you’ll fail to reach your target audience. Learn more about each program to choose the one that’s right for you.
3. Build Your Platform
Where do you plan on posting your affiliate links? How will you reach your target audience?
Many affiliates create their own website or use social media.
Creating a website will give you complete control over your brand and messaging. If you plan on using a website, you’ll need to display a notice. Let your readers know you’ll earn a commission when they click on affiliate links.
Otherwise, you could find yourself in legal trouble later on.
You can use WordPress to start building your website.
If you don’t want to use a website, consider different social media platforms, including:
- YouTube
Make sure to choose a platform based on your target audience. Understand each medium, too. For example, you can’t include links within individual Instagram posts.
Some platforms require affiliate disclosures as well.
4. Create Content
Once you have your affiliate marketing platform, you can start creating content.
Make sure your content is branded and authentic. Authenticity will help you better connect with your target audience.
Consider different forms of content, including:
- Blog posts
- Recipes
- DIY and how-to guides
- Product reviews
- Giveaways
- Discounts/coupons
- Banner ads
To stay organized, consider creating a content calendar. You can post content regularly to expand your reach. You can also schedule your posts to publish on specific dates.
Make sure your posts are compelling and interesting. Otherwise, readers might not care about your content. You could struggle to attract an audience of readers as a result.
5. Get Marketing
As you use these affiliate marketing tips, consider how you’ll reach your audience. Remember, there are a few ways you can market your affiliate links.
For example, you can use an email marketing platform like Mailchimp to send affiliate content to your subscribers.
Consider trying your hand at video marketing and podcasting. Videos and podcasts are engaging and easy to consume.
Otherwise, create your website content and start using SEO. As your SEO ranking improves, you can reach more customers and generate more sales.
Affiliate Marketing for Beginners: Your Guide for Success in 2022
With this affiliate marketing for beginners guide, you can start selling and earning that commission! Start creating content and growing your affiliate partner base. With these affiliate marketing tips, you can boost your personal brand and start making money with ease.