How Do I Start Affiliate Marketing to Make Money Online?

If you’re wondering how to generate more revenue with your online business here are 7 Ways to Start Making Money Online with Affiliate Marketing.

Source: JustLearnWP.com

 

Affiliate marketing is one of the quickest ways to make money online, and while it’s not as easy as simply putting ads on your website, it’s still profitable.

Affiliate marketing is perfect if you have a blog or website selling other products, and it’s simple to begin.

Keep reading to fully understand what you need to get started with affiliate marketing to make more money from your online business.

 

The formula is simple, in that your goal is to generate traffic, have them read good copy, and then choose to convert.

 

So how do you get started with affiliate marketing? Read below to find out.

 

1. Choose the Right Niche

 

Your niche matters, because your niche is your target audience that you will build your site around.

The best way to get started is to pick a niche you’re passionate about, so you can talk about it enthusiastically and expertly. Second to that you’re going to need to see if there is real money in that niche. You definitely want to make sure that you choose a niche that can generate money even if you’re not totally passionate about it.

Lastly, you’re going to need to build an ‘authority’ site. The key ingredients;

• A lot of great content

• A solid SEO strategy

• Benefits the user

• Site traffic

 

Setting up a site:

Setting up a site really isn’t all that difficult. If you’re new to this, use WordPress, since it’s easy to use, and you don’t need to know how to code to get going.

In fact, you can even get a free Premium WordPress theme for just about any niche when you sign up for hosting at WP Engine.

 

You’ll need to make sure that you buy a domain too, and since there are thousands of sites, make sure it hasn’t been bought by someone else, and choose your options.

 

From here, you install the site, put in the theme, and add everything that you need to. At this point, you’ll be making content.

 

If you don’t have enough content, then you’re not going to be taken seriously, so it pays to build up your site and content before trying to build affiliates.

 

 

2. Consider your Affiliate Network

 

Next, consider the affiliate network.

You need to find one that fits you and the merchant. The easiest way is to choose a network, and there are many different networks available.

ClickBank, for example, is a good one, and if you want to sell the information and don’t want to worry about managing the business, this is a good startup to consider. Sometimes, even considering individual entrepreneurs is a good idea, but you should definitely research, and make sure that you choose one that fits you, and allows you to benefit.

 

If you’re worried about your options, you can always take a look at Amazon as an option.

How the Amazon affiliate program works

Amazon’s Associates program is free to join and open for anyone. Once you create an account, you’ll have the ability to create links directly on Amazon that contain your special referral code, also known as an affiliate link.

When someone clicks through your affiliate link, a cookie is placed on their computer. And when they make a purchase, Amazon knows to attribute that purchase to you, because you referred them!

Amazon then rewards you with a commission percentage on the entire sale. Sites like SmartRVing.net can earn good revenue this way.

 

3. Choose Your Products

Choosing the right products is important!

You want to look at different products, and you should consider;

• the commission rate

• Return on Investment (ROI)

• if the product is a good fit with your audience.

The products you choose to start your affiliate marketing program with should be relevant, and good quality.

In the example above, you can see how the Happy Campers product is a perfect fit for the popular RV blog.

Almost equally important, you should become very familiar with the products that you’re selling. After all, you’re going to be selling them to others, so you need to instill trust with your audience to ensure that products and services are received well.

How To Find Products to Sell

One of the best ways to find great products to sell is by using Amazon. Go to the Amazon Best Sellers category and choose a niche your interested in. On the left menu you’ll find “Any Department” and you can filter by category or product.

 

 

For a more in-depth tour of choosing high profit products for your niche, check out this post.

 

Compare different programs to see what the benefits to you will be. If needed, talk to the sellers to get their thoughts, and figure out if you can talk to someone directly, or if you need to email in order to contact support.

 

4. Try Before you Buy

 

If you really aren’t sure about a product, consider buying it before you promote it.

You can see if it’s worth it, and if you’re feeling like it will actually work — if it does, then that’s great. Plus, if you write product reviews, you can improve the credibility, which is great since people can find out if there are any aspects of this that they need to know. You can start with inexpensive affiliate products, and then buy the higher-end ones. Sometimes, they even work out a deal, and you can even share your case study with others. Some merchants even allow you to try a sample and complimentary access to it in order to decide for yourself if you want to use this.

 

 

 

5. Content Matters!

 

 

Content is so important, that I really wanted to circle back to it.

Once you’ve set up the site and have the affiliate marketing in place, you need to make content. Product reviews are great for people to read, and you can create some great links with each of these.

Producing content that people will enjoy is the backbone to any successful website and since you’re trying to generate sales through content — it’s pretty important.

In fact, for affiliate marketing the conversion process goes like this:

• C = Content
• T = Traffic
• P = Pre-Sell
• M = Monetize

Content is probably the most difficult and time consuming element to affiliate marketing, because you need it to rank in search, you need it to speak to a specific audience and you need it to be valuable enough to share.

One of the most effective ways to build out your affiliate marketing site is through blog posts. My personal recommendation is to launch your site with about 25 high quality posts ready for launch and another 50 ready to drip feed in daily.

If you find writing blog posts just isn’t your thing, you can always outsource your writing to achieve your goals.

 

Evergreen content is also really good too. It’s important that if you do this, you have keywords that work, regardless of when the users read the blog or the post.

A great example of evergreen content is that RV holding tank treatment blog post that I found by using the search below:

Finally, there are informational products that you can give out. You can give free content to others, so long as they provide their email address, and you can send it. It will generate interest in the product that you’re selling, and if there is enough traffic there, you could use other SEO marketing tactics, including AdSense in order to help with this.

 

Regardless, you want content that matters, and putting it there will help.

 

6. Promote, Promote, Promote

 

The final aspect of this is promotion.

No site becomes successful without promotion. This involves social media marketing, building traffic via guest posting, creating an email list so that you can get people to sign up for updates, and the like.

If possible, you should try to use the content so that you can get attention from other companies. Real product reviews, banner ads, even promoting on social media is a great way to get people interested in your content. Social media allows you to get word of mouth campaigns going online, and even doing live videos are effective, since it will get people interested. Youtube is great if you’re going for longer sorts of approaches when using video marketing.

 

Paid advertising is good too, but do be wary about the channels you use, since some types of promotion, especially Facebook promotion, tend to not generate the results that you want.

 

Finally, make sure your links look good. Give the users a way to see the product that looks good. Make it look nice and pretty in order to make it look great, and there is even a WordPress plugin that does the job, which in turn will shorten the link, and easier to put in, especially if they can’t find it in the browser.

 

Affiliate marketing is a great way to generate an income, and these steps will allow you to get started with the best business you can create, and you can generate results quickly and efficiently with this form of SEO Marketing.