This is the best affiliate marketing tutorial for beginners that you will ever find on the web. Think I’m lying? Just pause for one minute and scroll down on this article. Did that look like any article you’ve seen recently? Well, I don’t think so.
I made this article as the ultimate guide to affiliate marketing for two reasons.
- To help you get started fast
- To give you a roadmap that will help you in the long run
You don’t need to read this article once, just keep this as a guide that you can come back to at any time when you are feeling a little bit confused. Let’s not waste any time. I’m so glad to have you here. So let’s get started
What is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is the sweetest and easiest online business I’ve seen. I love it so much. There are 5 main reasons why I prefer affiliate marketing to other business models
- It’s easier to start
- You don’t need to create your own product
- Your earnings have no limit
- It can be done from anywhere in the world
- With affiliate marketing, you can get fast results. Just start promoting someone else’s products and start earning.
How does affiliate marketing work
Affiliate marketing is a very simple and nice online business to start. As an affiliate, you’ll be given a special affiliate link that you can start promoting. This affiliate link will have your id attached to it. This is how the company will know that you made the sale.
When you have a successful sale attached to your name, you’ll be paid your commission. Later on in this article, I’ll show you different ways to get paid as an affiliate marketer.
How to become an affiliate marketer
Step 1: choose a niche
The first step is to choose a niche. This will determine the type of affiliate products you promote as well as the type of audience you would attract. There are various niches you can choose from but the best in my opinion falls under these three categories:
- Health
- Wealth &
- Fitness
But don’t just chose health as your niche, that’s too broad. Go for a sub-niche under that main category. For instance, this website talks about online businesses and digital marketing but for now I’m focused on the affiliate marketing.
Step 2: Join affiliate programs
After deciding on your niche, the next step is to find affiliate products that would be valuable and interesting to your audience.
I recommend joining just 1 or a maximum of 2 affiliate programs if you are just getting started. Don’t rush into joining multiple affiliate programs, this will slow you down.
Don’t worry yourself about joining an affiliate program because I’ll show you right now how to find affiliate products to promote. Read this article to find for the best affiliate programs to promote as a beginner.
How to find affiliate products
1: affiliate marketplaces
These are websites that connect affiliate marketers with product owners and vice versa. You can find thousands of affiliate programs in these affiliate marketplaces.
- Jvzoo
- Shareasale
- Clickbank
- Warriorplus
- Cj
- Impact
- Digistore24
- etc
2: Google
With google you can find any affiliate program of your choice. Just look around you and see the products you are already using, then go to google and check whether or not they have an affiliate program.
3: company websites
Another cool way is to go to any website you are thinking of promoting and check their footer menu to see if they have an affiliate program. Here are some companies that run their own affiliate programs are:
- getresponse
- bluehost
- dreamhost
- ofa (clickfunnels)
- fiverr
- etc
Step 3: get traffic to your affiliate links
You’ve picked one or two affiliate products to promote, applied and you are approved to promote them. The next step is to start driving traffic to their websites using your affiliate link. This is the most important step
How to get traffic to your affiliate links
I’m going to show you 6 ways to get traffic to your affiliate links. Again, pick one and get started, don’t try to do all 6 because it will slow you down.
Method 1: Blogging
To promote affiliate products using a blog you need to write about the product. This could either be a review, a comparison, or a tutorial showing people how to use the product.
Blogging is a good strategy because when you optimize the blog post properly and it begins to rank on google. It could be a very good source of passive income.
The more of these articles you make and optimize, the more affiliate commission you can make in the long run. Lastly, if you monetize your blog with AdSense, you’ll have another source of income, not just affiliate commissions.
How to create a blog
1: go to dreamhost (highly recommended)
2: choose a domain name
3: create the WordPress site
How to promote affiliate products on the blog
Step 1: Look for low competition keywords to write about
If you want to promote affiliate products on your blog, the best way to do it is by writing about things people are searching for on google but don’t write about things that 1,000 other bloggers have written about. Also, your DA will be very low so your best option is to cover low competition topics that people are searching for.
But remember we are still in step 1, don’t write about these articles yet. That is step 5. Just find these keywords and save them on a spreadsheet.
Step 2: Write a review
Remember the affiliate product I asked to join earlier, it’s now time to write a review about that product. It’s a good idea to use the product first so that you’ll gain more insight about the product and you’ll be able to explain it better.
If they product has a free trial, fine and good, take the free trial and test drive the product first before writing about it.
Once your review is written and set up. It’s now time to go to step 3
Step 3: Write a comparison post
Write an article comparing the product you want to promote with another similar product and make sure people are searching for this comparison. If no one is searching for the comparison then it’s just a waste of time to write about such article.
At this stage, you are not trying to rank on google for these keywords but we are doing this because these would be our money pages (the review and this comparison)
Step 4: write an ultimate guide
Think about the people who would be interested in your affiliate product. What kind of tutorial are they searching for online? This is your chance to get more exposure to your affiliate links.
In this step, you must write an article that solves some or most of the problems these people would be searching for. Your goal is to funnel traffic from this ultimate guide to your money pages. You can also promote your affiliate links directly on this article.
Make sure you write about a topic that gets thousands of monthly searches. Again, your goal is not to rank now because the competition for such keywords would be very high. The last step would do just that.
Ensure to cover all the necessary topics when writing this article (the ultimate guide) and answer all the necessary questions. This article you are reading is a good example of an ultimate guide
Step 5: write articles with your low competition keywords
Finally, the last step. It’s time to go back to your spreadsheet. Remember all the low competition keywords you found earlier. It’s now time to cover all those keywords and write about them.
You’ll be able to rank for low competition keywords, but they don’t get many searches per month that’s why you’ll be writing a lot of them. But your goal with these articles is not to sell anything.
Your goal is just to help people and your other goal is to funnel that traffic back to your ultimate guide where you’ll be talking about the main product you want to sell. If you are monetizing your blog with google AdSense, you can place AdSense ads on these pages to earn some cash from the traffic on those articles.
That’s the main blogging strategy for affiliate marketers.
Before we move to the next section, I just want you to think about that strategy. Isn’t it wonderful? Now you know why most bloggers without a strategy never earn anything online.
Hey this is just one strategies for promoting affiliate products, if you want to learn the advanced affiliate marketing strategies from people making millions of dollars online, read this letter. Notice what I just did, I’m linking to my affiliate link there
How to increase blog traffic to earn more commissions
Step 1: understand SEO
If you want to get more traffic to your blog, you have to learn all you can about search engine optimization. Once you understand this, you’ll be able to create articles that will rank over time.
You also need to learn how to get more backlinks and increase your domain authority
Step 2: write longer articles
The average post that ranks #1 on google has more than 2000 words. What does this tell you?
Blogging is not like it used to be. Back in those days, you could write about anything you like and still rank on google. But now, you need to be thorough in your articles by covering everything the readers need to know about the topic.
Step 3: optimize your content to rank on google
Hoping you cover each article in-depth, you are still not guaranteed to rank. You have to optimize your content to rank on google. This includes:
- Adding your target keywords around the article.
- Giving each and every image on your article an alt attribute (to help people with visual impairment understand what is about)
Step 4: check if your website is on google
Most people write content on their blog (very detailed articles) and wait for weeks and sometimes months but never get traffic to their site. Sometimes the solution could just be to add the website on google that’s why you should always check if your site is on google.
To check just go to google search console and inspect your website URL to see if it is on google. Just this alone could help you increase the amount of traffic coming into your website.
Step 5: share your content on social media
Social media is a really wonderful place to promote your content, social media sites like Facebook hate it when you post links on your profile. When you do this a lot, they tend to limit your profile reach (I’m also guilty of this). That’s why my posts dont get many views and engagements
They want you to run ads on the platform and this behavior is quite understood.
But, that doesn’t mean you cannot promote your site using Facebook. They are some cool way to promote your site using Facebook, the best is to add your website link on your profile
Step 6: promote your site using ads
Lastly, you can promote your site with ads. This is a paid strategy but you can get fast results this way. There are many platform you can buy ads on like google, Facebook, taboola, quora etc. just check them out. Join this challenge if you want to become an advanced marketer online
Step 7: use viral growth strategies
I learnt this from Hassan Aboul Hassan the owner of h-educate. This includes things like giveaways, competitions, content syndication and building a community. It can help you increase your website traffic very fast.
When you use viral growth strategies, you can build your brand faster than you even though possible. With these strategies you can increase your blog traffic a lot. Hassan explains more in this video
Method 2: YouTube
The platform not only helps you promote your affiliate products through your videos but you can also join their partner program and earn money through AdSense as well.
In this case, you’ll need to get up to 1000 subscribers and 4000 hours of watch time before you’ll be eligible to join. So YouTube creates an extra opportunity for you to earn money.
If you already have a small YouTube channel, you can monetize that by creating videos about the affiliate products you are trying to promote. This is just like free exposure, the more views your YouTube videos get, and the more affiliate commissions you would be able to earn.
How does YouTube work?
YouTube has its very own special algorithm that ranks videos based on the relevance it has to the specific user. YouTube also suggest videos using this same algorithm.
There no need trying to crack the algorithm because there are many successful YouTuber that can be emulated.
Why use YouTube?
- It produces fast results unlike blogging where you have to wait for a long time
- Your videos can rank on google bringing in more traffic
- YouTube is free to start and run. All you have to do is make videos
- When people watch you for a long time, they begin to trust and like you. YouTube makes this process faster
How to do affiliate marketing on YouTube
Here are 4 simple steps you can use to promote affiliate products on your YouTube channel.
Step 1: create your YouTube channel
This is very simple and can be done in less than 5 minutes. Just log in to YouTube and click on your profile picture at the top right, click on channels, if you don’t have a channel before you’ll be prompted to create one.
Follow the steps and your YouTube channel would be up and running in a few minutes.
Step 2: create keyword specific YouTube videos
These are videos that are created specifically for a particular search query. For instance, when you create a video titled “how to become a lawyer” that’s the keyword. People are searching for this keyword every single day. So if you optimize your video very well for this keyword you have a chance at ranking for it.
On the other hand, if you create a video about “the 5 things do every time you go jogging” you might not get many views. There are many established YouTube channels doing this but that’s because they already have a lot of subscribers who would like to know about their life.
Step 3: create videos about the product you are promoting
Assuming you are already growing your YouTube channel, if you want to monetize with affiliate marketing, then start creating videos about the product you are trying to promote and direct people’s attention to the description of your videos
Step 4: add your affiliate links in the description
Now you are telling people to check out your video description, don’t forget to add your affiliate link(s) in your video description. Your affiliate link should be at the top of your video description.
How to get more views from YouTube
If you want to get tons of views and subscribers on YouTube, follow the 7 tips below
#1: use catchy but relevant thumbnails
Have you ever seen any of Mr. Beast’s videos on youtube? There are always catchy and interesting. Just like they are screaming “click me click me” Here’s an example of what I’m talking about
I enjoyed watching this one. You don’t have to be Mr. Beast to create a catchy thumbnail, just make sure that it is relevant to whatever your video is about.
#2: write a good title
How can we know a good title? It should promise some sort of value, entertainment, or surprise. When your title goes well with your thumbnail, you can start getting more views faster than you thought.
#3: edit your videos to increase watch time (use lots of jump cuts)
This is a very big one here. YouTube’s algorithm checks your video to see if it is being watched for long. YouTube wants its users to spend more time on the platform. That’s why they suggest videos that have a higher watch time because this shows that people are interested in your content.
we as humans have a very short attention span so make sure you use a lot of jump cuts in your videos. here’s a video on youtube explaining this
#4: recommend other videos at the end of each of your video
YouTube allows its users to promote their own videos at the end of any of your videos. This can increase your overall views, watch time and subscribers.
Make sure to add endscreens at the end of all your videos. By doing this you would be increasing the your watch time and getting more chances for affiliate commissions
#5: share your YouTube videos outside of YouTube
There are many big platforms where you can share your YouTube videos. For example, quora which is a q and a platform can be used to promote your videos. How?
By answering questions on the platform and embedding your YouTube videos, you’ll be able to get more views from quora. These views additional videos can help you earn some more commissions as an affiliate.
#6: try to improve your click through rate using tubebuddy
Tubebuddy is one of the best tools every YouTube should use when building a YouTube channel. With tubebuddy, you can run spit tests on your thumbnails to see which one is getting the most clicks. This helps to reduce guess work and increase your click through rate faster.
With higher CTR, you’ll get even more views on the platform.
Method 3: Email marketing
The third way to promote affiliate products is by building an email list. With this method, you are not required to create a blog or a YouTube channel. Although you can use them to build your list.
What is email marketing?
Email marketing is basically building a list of subscribers, nurturing them and making them offers they need.
That’s the simple explanation of email marketing. It’s what I do and it’s really profitable. If you are not yet building your email list, check out this free training by the founder of systeme.io on how to build a profitable email list that produces $100 per day
How to build an email list for affiliate marketing?
Follow this 6 simple steps to build a profitable email list. And if you want to learn this by watching a video, check that link above
Step 1: choose your platform
The first step is to choose the platform you’ll use in building your email list. This could be getresponse or convertkit or anyone. But I recommend you start with systeme.io because it is free to start and you can even create a free blog on the platform.
Step 2: create a simple squeeze page
After choosing your platform, it’s time to build your simple squeeze page. This page has only one job, which is to get people to give you their name and email.
Luckily for you, on systeme.io there are a lot of prebuilt squeeze pages. Once you are logged on to systeme.io, just head over to funnels. Create a new funnel and give it a name.
You’ll be prompted to choose from a bunch of templates, pick anyone you like and reedit it to fit the design you have in mind. Once that is done, you have to create your freebie.
Step 3: create a freebie
You’ll be giving something to this people in exchange for this email address. This thing is called the freebie. Your freebie can be anything as long as it gives them some value and helps them in one way or the other.
Here are some examples of freebies that you can use to collect their name and email.
- Ebook
- Checklist
- Template
- Video
- Software
- Swipefile
- Cheatsheet
- Etc
You can use anything, don’t spend too much time on this step so that you can start getting results fast.
Step 4: design the cover of your freebie
After choosing your freebie, it’s now time to create a visual representation of this freebie. Create an image that will help people visualize what they are getting.
To do this just head over to canva. Assuming you were giving an eBook. Search for eBook cover on canva and you’ll find a lot of prebuilt templates on the platform. You can also design your own eBook cover from scratch. If you don’t know how to create good designs, just go with one of the prebuilt templates.
Step 5: create an email with the link to download that freebie
Now, you have squeeze page up and running, you’ve created your freebie. Create an email that will be sent to people immediately they opt in to your email list.
We won’t redirect people directly to our download page because it would result in a lot of fake emails singing up. After they enter their name and email on our squeeze page, we would be using automations on systeme.io to instantly send them the email containing the download link and redirect them to another page called the bridge page.
Step 6: Create your bridge page
The bridge page will just be a page that is trying to get people to click on our affiliate link. On this bridge page, we could have a video or just text that’s explaining the benefit of the affiliate product we are trying to sell. And at the end, there would be a big bold button telling them to click and check it out.
Step 7: drive traffic to your squeeze page
The last stage is to drive traffic to your squeeze page in order to build your email list.
How to drive traffic to your squeeze page
#1: Through your blog
#2: using social media
#3: Through your YouTube channel
#4: With paid ads
Is email marketing profitable?
Yes, email marketing is profitable. With email marketing, you can earn as much as you like. here’s a video from a mentor of mine on youtube showing you how he earned $2000 from email marketing
Method 4: Social media
Our goal on social media is not to make sales instantly, but to build trust and authority while directing people to the squeeze page we’ve built.
So we won’t be pasting our affiliate link everywhere, rather we would be giving value and making people see us as a trusted authority in that niche.
This is what most newbies don’t understand and that’s why they continue pasting their affiliate links everywhere like a spammer.
Method 5: Write kindle eBooks
If you don’t want to create videos but you love writing and you don’t have a blog, then posting kindle eBooks is one of the surest ways to promote your affiliate products.
You see, amazon allows you to publish your own books on the platform. You can choose specific niches and write a book related to those niches.
Inside your book(s) would be links placed strategically to help you promote your affiliate products. Or if you are much of a guru, you’d add links to your squeeze page.
Amazon has a lot of readers and buyers. So by using this strategy, you can get results fast sometimes even faster than blogging.
How to get paid as an affiliate marketer
There are different ways to get paid as an affiliate marketer, these are:
- Pay per click
This is where you get paid just by getting people to click on your affiliate links. Although not all clicks will result in sales, you’ll still earn money for getting people to take that action.
Don’t get all excited because this does not mean you can earn more than others it only means that, you’ll get paid for every click on your affiliate link.
- Pay per lead
In this case, you’ll be paid for every qualified lead you send to the company or business. Not I said qualified lead not just any type of lead.
The quality of each lead will be determined by the company.
- Pay per sale
In this case the affiliate can earn even more per customer and the commission structure is usually higher than the ppc and ppl models. As the affiliate, you can earn anything from 50% up to 100% for the sale of the product. But this is usually for frontend digital products.
I prefer the pay per sale model to the ppc and ppl models because of the higher commission structures.
Do this as an affiliate marketer if you want to earn passive income
- Build an email list so that you can send emails regularly
Building an email list is one of the best and most important things to do as an affiliate marketer. With your email list, you can generate cash on demand.
This can only be achieved is you nurture them. Which brings us to tip 2
2. Nurture your email list
Immediately anyone joins your email list, they are skeptical about you. They don’t know anything about you and they probably don’t even like you.
It your job to make them see the value in staying on your email list. In this case by providing value. When you provide value to the people on your email list, then they’d begin to know, like and trust you and your recommendations.
3. Promote recurring affiliate products like systeme.io and getresponse
If you truly want to make passive income with affiliate marketing then you must promote recurring commission affiliate products. These are affiliate programs that will pay you commissions month after month for bringing in a customer as long as that person remains a paying customer.
How to withdraw your affiliate commissions
When it comes to withdrawing your affiliate commissions you have many different options. There are many different payment gateways that you can use in withdrawing your affiliate commissions to your bank account.
The most popular of them all are paypal and payoneer. The bad news is that paypal does not allow people from some countries to use their platform and many affiliate programs prefer to send out commissions with paypal.
The good news is that there’s a solution for that already and you have many other payment gateways too.
Some companies allow their users to be paid with direct deposit. This is my personal favorite because your affiliate commissions will be sent directly to your local bank account.
Frequently asked questions
Can I make money with affiliate marketing?
Yes, you can make money with affiliate marketing but you have to follow the right process in promoting affiliate products. Don’t just spam your affiliate links all over the place in the name of affiliate marketing.
What are the various ways to promote affiliate products online?
You can promote affiliate products on quora, YouTube, on your blog and even through social media but your main focus should be to build your email list (your own platform) so that you can promote affiliate products whenever and however you please.
How long does it take to make money as an affiliate marketer?
It depends on your budget, time and how much of hard work you put into it. If you use paid traffic, you can earn affiliate commissions that same day but if you go through the blogging route then you might have to wait for about six-eight months to start getting traffic and earning some commissions.
Is email marketing still profitable?
Yes it is still profitable. If you are an email marketer but you aren’t making enough sales. Send more emails, educate your subscribers in each email and transition to the sale. Do not sound like a car sales man all the time. Lastly, make more offers while maintaining the chosen niche because different offers attract different people.
Conclusion
After reading this article, you should now be able to do affiliate marketing. You will know where to find affiliate programs to promote, where to promote them and how to promote them.
You now know how to use YouTube, social media, email marketing and your blog for affiliate marketing. I even went as far as showing you how to get paid your affiliate commissions.
This is the best affiliate marketing guide for beginners as you’ve seen. If you got value from this article, tell me: how would you like to promote affiliate products – blogging, YouTube, paid ads or social media
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