What is Affiliate Marketing?
I’ll not try to define it because definitions are not really that exciting anymore. I bet you’re here for a step-by-step guide to affiliate marketing and that’s what you’ll get. A guide that will actually help you make money as an affiliate marketer, not some valueless definition.
I have made thousands of affiliate sales over the years, and even till this day, I’m still thrilled at the concept of just selling other people’s product online and getting paid for it.
It’s super exciting when you make that first affiliate sale, and it’s even more exciting when it’s payday and you’re paid the commissions for the sales you made for that week or month.
And one of the most amazing thing about selling affiliate products is that you don’t have to see the product you’re selling (if it’s a physical product), you don’t have to touch it, you don’t handle shipping, you don’t handle returns, you don’t handle customer support, you don’t handle anything.
All you do is refer people to the product sales page through your affiliate link, the customer buys, you get credited for the sale, and at the end of the month, you get paid.
Affiliate marketing is pretty straightforward. At least the concept is. You can explain it to anybody, even a kid, and they’d understand exactly what it’s all about.
Help someone else sell their product, and get paid a commission for it. Simple, right?
What’s not straightforward though, is actually doing it. The concept sounds simple but the execution is not that straightforward.
And that’s exactly why I’m writing this article. It’s to help you execute. It’s to guide you beyond just the theoretical understanding of what affiliate marketing is, to the point where you have the skills and the tools to actually sell affiliate products successfully.
So below, I’m going to lay down a series of steps for you to become a successful affiliate marketing.
Step 1
Be eligible to apply
I know most people think the first step to making money as an affiliate marketer is to just look for some high-paying affiliate programs and just join all of them, and start making money. Lol.
That’s funny.
Anyone thinking that is not totally wrong though. But for the most part, you’re wrong if you think that’s the first thing you need to do.
I know, to actually make any money, you need find an affiliate platform or program with products that you’d like to promote, join them, get your referrer link and start promoting them and making money.
But the thing most people forget is that most well-structured, quality affiliate programs have some eligibility criteria you have to meet before you can apply.
It’s not all of the programs though, some really solid ones have eligibility criteria you have to meet.
Some of these criteria are fairly easy to meet though. For instance, some require that you have a blog with a certain amount of traffic, or a social media page like YouTube or Instagram with a tangible amount of following.
Now, if you’re new to all of this, even if a certain program have no eligibility criteria for you to apply, if they just accept everybody, I would not still encourage you to apply.
Applying to an affiliate program is not the first step to becoming a successful affiliate marketer that makes shit-loads of money.
Because, just think about it, who are you going to sell those affiliate products to when you join an affiliate program as a newbie?
The answer is nobody. You don’t have an audience, you don’t have traffic, you don’t even have any content in place like a blog, YouTube or anything.
And if you can’t sell the products, you don’t make any money.
So, the first thing you must do if you want to start making money as an affiliate marketer is to build an audience of people who will buy that product that you intend to sell.
So, here’s Step 2:
Build an audience – Choose a niche
You need to either start a blog, or a social media page like YouTube or Instagram. And then create content that will attract people to listen to you, and follow you.
Now, building an audience starts with choosing a niche. When you create content, you don’t just write or create content about anything you like. You create content about a particular topic or area of life that people might be interested in.
It could be sports, could be finance, dating, health, fitness and so on.
You’ve got to choose a particular area you want to focus on, and then you start creating.
Here’s a simple tip for you to choose your niche
Create content about what you know. Write about what you know. Don’t just say, I want to create content about health and fitness, or I want to create content about sports, because there are lots of affiliate programs that offers health products that I could promote and make money.
No.
If you know nothing about health or sports, why torment yourself trying to write or create content about something that you know nothing about?
Trust me. It’s a nightmare creating content about topics you know nothing about. Because before writing any article or making a video about that topic, you have to do lots of research, and sometimes, you’re not still sure of what you’re talking about.
It’s a lot more better, when you create content about a topic that you’re comfortable with.
If you are a woodworker, create content about woodworking. If you’re photographer, create content about photography. If you’re a makeup artist, create content about that.
Your life will be a lot more easier when you just tell people what you already know online.
Now moving on to Step 3.
Choose a platform for your content
Like I mentioned earlier, you can start a blog just like this one, where you create and publish content, or you can start a social media page like YouTube, Instagram, X, and other ones out there.
I personally like writing a lot. So, I chose blogging when I got started. I started a blog, and that really helped me a lot.
YouTube is also very fine, if you know how to make good videos.
Step 4
Start creating content about your niche, and publishing them on the platform of your choice.
Now, you don’t just create content about anything thing you like, or just publish anything you like on your blog.
You want to find out what people are searching for in whatever niche you choose.
For instance, if I chose woodworking as my niche, I have to find out what people are searching for under woodworking.
To do that, here’s what you need to do.
Visit other woodworking blogs and see what they post about. Just search Google for “woodworking blogs” and you’ll see a bunch of them.
Go through the blogs, and just find out how they structure their content, the popular topics they post about and so on.
This will give you an idea of what you should write about or create content about in your own blog.
Next, use keyword tools to find more content ideas you should write about.
A keyword tool is a tool where you’ll enter a single keyword or a phrase like “woodworking”, and it will spit out several other related keywords just like the one you searched.
It will tell you their search volume (which is how many times people search for those keywords on Google or whatever platform you’re using).
Google has a keyword tool you can use, called the Google keyword planner. Pinterest also has a keyword tool which I use regularly to find new keywords people are using to search for topics in my niche on Pinterest.
Use these tools and you’ll be able to find a lot of topics you should create content about.
Step 5
Share your content on social media
As a blogger, you don’t just create blog posts, publish them on your blog and forget. You share them on social media like Facebook, Pinterest, X, Linkedin and so on.
If you don’t share them, people won’t find them. And you won’t be able to grow the audience and traffic you need to sell products and make money as an affiliate marketer.
So, create, publish content, and share them on social media so that people can find them.
Step 6
Be helpful with your content
The way you’ll be able to build an audience fast is if you’re really helpful with your content. If you aren’t trying to help people, they’ll see through it and they won’t engage with your content.
So, publish helpful content. Your blog should have a main theme. There should be a goal. The whole content in the blog should be trying to get people from one level to the other.
When people take a good look at the content you publish, they should see that you’re trying to get them from one level to the next.
For instance, if you browse through most of the content on this blog, you’ll understand that I’m trying to use my content to teach you how to build a business online, how to get traffic, how to get people to see your business, how to make money with the business, how to grow online and so on.
I also have content on life in general. How to get through life, personal development stuff, productivity and stuff like that.
It’s just me, talking about what I know, sharing my experiences with you guys, and trying to help you out.
Your blog should be like that.
Make it easy for people to see, that you’re trying to help, and I promise you, your blog will grow. It will not grow overnight. But it will grow as you put more work and effort into it.
Step 7
Now you can join some selected affiliate programs
Once you get content going either on a blog or on another platform like YouTube, once you’re getting traffic coming in, and you have an audience going, then you can join any affiliate program of your choice.
Join affiliate programs that have products you already talk about on your blog. That’s why I used the word, selected.
For instance on this blog, I’ve talked about Cloudways hosting a few times, which is the hosting platform I use on this blog.
I’ve registered on the Cloudways affiliate program and I promote it on this blog. I promote it because I use it.
So, the first affiliate programs to join would be the ones you already talk about their products.
Join them and start promoting them on your blog.
You’ll find it much easier to promote these types of products because they’re products that you use, and you have confidence in.
I try to promote only products I’ve used or tested myself on this blog. Because they’re the easiest to promote.
You can easily talk about a product if you’ve used it yourself.
That’s the purpose of affiliate marketing. It’s you recommending a product you’ve used to people, so that when they buy it, the company selling that product pays you a commission for bringing them the customers.
Rounding up – I don’t call myself an affiliate marketer
I believe that’s the ABC of what affiliate marketing is all about. It’s a system of selling products from other businesses in exchange for a commission.
But I don’t call myself an affiliate marketer, and I don’t think anyone should aspire to become an affiliate marketer.
If you set out to just be an affiliate marketer, that means you set out to sell other people’s products only.
And this is what I see most newbies do. They set up blogs where all they write about are product reviews from site like Amazon and other marketplaces, all for the purpose of earning some commissions from referring and selling these products.
At the end of the day, they do make money, but all they’re doing is promoting other people’s businesses.
If all you do online is recommend and sell other people’s products in exchange for a commission, you’re not building your own business. Rather, you’re helping other people sell their products and promote their business.
There’s nothing wrong with that, but at the end of the day, you don’t have a business of your own. You’re nothing more than a simple affiliate marketer.
What I recommend instead is to come up with your own products and start selling. Affiliate marketing should never be your main source of income.
Right from day one, you should have plans to sell your own products.
If you create content about woodworking, come up with your own woodworking products and sell them on your blog or website. That’s how you make more money.
Anyway, that’s all for now. If you have any questions or you believe I missed anything, please let me know in the comments below.