Affiliate Marketing - Quick Guide for Beginners 2023

Affiliate marketing offers huge opportunities to make money from home without financial investment, you just have to invest your time and energy. You are not investing financially and therefore there is no risk of loss compared to high rewards. Patience and consistency are the key to success for any affiliate.

But don't think that making money online through affiliate marketing is too easy, you have to spend a lot of time, use a marketing strategy, expand your thinking power, gain knowledge as much as possible on the Internet and start with a simple affiliate program like amazon, not aiming to earn a lot but to gain practical experience because practice makes the man perfect.

 

Affiliate Marketing - Beginners Quick Guide

Here you will find a quick guide to affiliate marketing to get started with negligible funding.

1. Review your capabilities and select the area of ​​expertise.
2. Create a website and develop social media.
3. Look for compatible affiliate programs to join.
4. Build trust with good blog post, articles, product reviews and comparison compatible with products that are expected to sell.
5. Be patient and consistent in driving traffic to your blog.
6. Once you have built trust and generated traffic through the blog post, you will get a click and your affiliate links will convert to sales.
7. Promote innovation and expand the range of products through different niches.

 

It sounds easy enough, but trust me, it takes constant effort and dedication to become successful affiliates. Even to drive traffic to your website or social media like Quora, Pinterest, Facebook and Instagram, it takes at least 3-4 months, so don't give up hope and keep trying. Always dream big, the highest ambition, the deepest commitment and the greatest effort will succeed you.

Before moving ahead, long term planning is very important because after 2-3 years, where you want to see yourself, you have to decide today only. So, let's understand some general terms used in affiliate marketing.

 

General terms used in affiliate marketing

Affiliate Marketing:

Affiliate marketing means selling someone’s product via website or social media to earn a commission. OR, we can say that recommending, advertising, or promoting a company’s (merchant) products for sale through the website and/or social media and in return earning a commission on every sale is called affiliated marketing.

 

Affiliate:

Affiliate is a person (you) who publish or advertise the merchant's product for sale and earning a commission once the buyer has purchased it. A commission is generated for each sale made.

 

Merchant:

The merchant is a manufacturer, developer, service provider, brand, or product owner who wants to sell their product. He can directly manage his affiliate program or contract through an affiliate network.

 

Consumer:

The consumer is a buyer, people all over the world who click on affiliate links and buy the product posted by the affiliates.

 

Network:

It is an intermediary between a merchant and an affiliate who provides the media, guides the affiliate, and handles product delivery and payment. It serves the product database, sets up the affiliate tracking mechanism, awards commissions on the sale to the affiliate and thus makes affiliate marketing possible.

 

Affiliate Agreement:

This is an agreement between an affiliate (you) and the affiliate network accepting the terms and conditions. It decides how to promote the product and what commission you will be rewarded in return for generating each sale.

 

Affiliate Link:

This is the product specific link generated for your Affiliate Account ID to enable you to advertise on your website or on social media for visitors to click and purchase the product. It also helps the affiliate network to track clicks and product sales through your ID.

 

Banner Ads:

These are the most engaging visual ads in hypertext pictorial format with a unique clickable product link that you can display in your post or website to attract buyers. When the visitor click on it, they reached to actual product to buy it.

 

Impressions:

Impression is basically the count or the number of times a visitor has viewed the affiliate link you posted in your blog post or on your website.

 

Click Through Rate (CTR):

This is basically the relationship between the impressions (number of times the link is shown) on your article / website and the number of clicks and shown in a parentage.

 

Conversion Rate (CR):

This is the relationship between the number of clicks on your advertising link and the action of completion (actual purchase of the promoted product / item). It is represented as a percentage.

 

Cost Per Action (CPA):

It is more related to the cost of advertising compared to conversion. Suppose you pay the advertiser (or buy paid traffic) to drive traffic to your website to promote clicks and ultimately convert the click into an actual sale. This gives the actual cost to achieve this conversion. It must be low to ensure your profit margin.

 

Cost Per Click (CPC):

Much like CPA, this is the cost you pay per click if you hire an advertiser or buy paid traffic.

 

Commission:

It is agreed upon the amount (money) that you will get in return for selling the product that you have promoted on your website.

 

Above the Fold:

When you go to a post on a website, this is the content that you see at the beginning before scrolling down. The most important part of your blog post is to engage or capture your visitor's attention.

 

Cookies:

Cookies are small text files that store information about website URL, IP addresses, date, time, affiliate ID, etc. In affiliate marketing, this information allows the affiliate network to track the commission payable to the individual affiliate.

 

Cookie Expiration Date:

It is the validity of the existence of cookies and mainly defined by the affiliate networks.

 

What is affiliate marketing and how does it work?

Affiliate marketing means selling someone else's product via a network through a website or social media to earn a commission. OR, we may say that recommending, advertising, or promoting a company's (merchant) products for sale through the website and / or social media and in return earning a commission on each sale is called affiliate marketing.

Typically, bloggers use three strategies to make money online: the first is to use advertising like Google AdSense, the second to use affiliate marketing, and the third is blend of above two. We can compare Google AdSense with government work, less effort - less money or limited money and dependent on your blog traffic, also showing too many ads annoying blog post readers.

Affiliate marketing is the best option if you want to earn unlimited money online from home with negligible financial investment (i.e. website with hosting). Even without a website, you can start affiliate marketing using social media and email marketing. But most of the best affiliate programs need your website to qualify for membership.

Here is the basic affiliate marketing process which is very clear in the figure below

You join the affiliate program, display the advertisements (affiliate products link) on your blog post or share on social media, the visitor clicks on your link and when they buy the product, you get a commission on each sale made.

 

How to plan and start affiliate marketing?

The hardest thing in the world is to begin any kind of work, and the easiest is to think. Thought is the foundation of the beginning, so now is a stage that you have already started, which is thought.

For long term sustainable business and income, you need to have short term and long-term planning. Then prioritize what to do first and which things take time.

 

1. Review your capabilities and select expertise field

It is always better to start affiliate marketing in your area of ​​interest but to diversify the products. In this internet world you can learn everything, and of course Google will help you. So, don't limit yourself to your skills, you can explore new areas as well.

Find affiliate programs with the bestselling products, high paying (commission) and high conversion rate products. This is not for startup purpose but for long term planning and to decide on the niche (website topic).

 

2. Choose a media for affiliate marketing

You can do affiliate marketing through any medium including your website, YouTube channel or through social media like Facebook, Instagram, Quora, emails, etc. Pinterest is also a good medium to promote your affiliate product links, it looks like social media but is actually a search engine. (how to use it effectively, we will come back in a separate article).

But for sustainable affiliate marketing, setting up a blog website and / or YouTube channel is the best option as it is also easier and cheaper.

 

2. Build a website/ niche and grow social media to drive traffic

When selecting your niche, try to focus on the subcategory, for example, “Health and Fitness” is the main category, so to select your niche you can focus on subcategories such as "Diet", "Weight loss", "Yoga and meditation", etc.

This will help you build your visitor's confidence that you are an expert in that specific topic and when you promote an affiliate product through your post, people will believe it is beneficial to them. It not only helps with conversion but also helps drive traffic to your website.

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Once your website is ranked in Google, you can explore other areas and follow the same strategy. Don't be disappointed if your niche isn't getting a lot of traffic, keep the effort. (usually it takes around 3 to 4 months to generate the traffic). Link your post to social media like Quora, Facebook page, Instagram, and search engines like Bing, Medium, Pinterest, etc.

 

3. Search compatible affiliate programs to join

Use Google, You Tube, and Quora to research and study affiliate programs. Always read reviews or comments of affiliate programs and top selling products to get a feel for the suitability for your area of ​​interest and niche.

There are three type of affiliate programs

i) Low commission but high-volume affiliate programs

These affiliate programs offer low commission but have mass product volume across almost every category and their consumers are in the billions. These are the most suitable for beginners. The Amazon Affiliate Program is the best example of a low commission but high-volume type affiliate program.

 

ii) High commission but low-volume affiliate programs

These types of affiliate programs are high paying programs because the price of their product is high, and the consumers are limited. Here, a certain time, the consumer has to pay regularly to renew his membership. This type of program also offers a recurring benefit to affiliates. Examples are software, membership, and accounts or financial.

These affiliate programs are not suitable for beginners.

 

iii) High commission and high-volume affiliate programs

This type of affiliate programs includes financial services, forex, credit cards, etc. It requires special skills to manage this type of affiliate programs.

 

There are three different types of affiliate products

a) Information Products: These are mostly related to e-learning.

b) Physical Products: These are available in mass quantity and  in large varieties. For example, products in Amazon, eBay and other similar platform.

c) Services products: These are related to services such as software, hosting, templates, etc. which provide the unlimited source of earning to affiliates.

 

4. Build trust with great posts compatible with products planned for sell

Study the keywords and write unique articles related to the products you want to sell. Google Analytics and the Google Search Console are free tools that help you find the keyword related to your niche.

If you are a technician and have decided to sell something like software, you can create a review article or comparison article with other software, you can highlight the advantages over other products.

If the item is household or lifestyle related, you can buy and use it and then post your review or experience so people will believe in you and help build trust.

Some people use reviews or interviews from celebrities or famous people to promote the products.

Comply SEO (Search Engine Optimization) while preparing the blog post to rank in google.

 

5. Be patience and consistent in driving traffic to your blog

Don't be disappointed if your site isn't getting the expected traffic. Usually, it takes at least 3-4 months to generate traffic. Keep posting your unique posts and fallow SEO.

Here are some tips for driving traffic to your website

a) Link your website to another search engine like Bing to generate traffic.

b) Share (publish) your blog post in "Medium" with the number of interconnected links.

c) Create a page in your Facebook account.

d) Log in to Quora and link your blog post to your responses.

d) Use Pinterest, create number of boards and pins to drive traffic in millions.

e) Use email marketing by creating a mailing list.

f) Don't buy paid traffic because it's not long term or consistent. When you think that now you are an expert at affiliate marketing, you can use it.

 

Once you built trust and drive traffic by regular post, you will get clicks and your affiliate links will convert into sales.

Here are some tips to increase your conversion rate

1. Choose a clear, interesting, and attractive title for your blog post based on keywords.
2. Try placing affiliate links above the fold (the content you see at the start before you scroll down)
3. Use the central part of the blog post to place as many links as possible.
4. Avoid placing an affiliate link in the introductory part of blog posts.
5. Place fewer links at the bottom of your post because the visitor may not scroll down.
6. Only place the links of products compatible with your blog post.
7. Avoid spam contexts
8. Share your personal experience and recommend the product.
9. Use attractive visual banners or buttons to place affiliate links.
10. Affiliate links are long and not good looking, use online link shortening software to make it user friendly.

 

6. Promote innovation and expand the product range via different niche

Use Quora and Google Trends to learn about the latest product trends and what people are interested in. Quora will help you find out what people are interested in in the form of questions and answers, it's a great forum for discussion. Pinterest will help you drive innovation in almost anything.

Diversify the business, explore top selling products, explore new areas of interest, explore high commission and long cookie affiliate programs, create a new niche and earn more.

 

Here is the list of top 20 affiliate programs

1. ClickBank
2. HubSpot
3. SEMRush
4. Bluehost
5. Hostgator
6. CJ Affiliate 
7. Amazon Associates
8. eBay Partner Network
9. ShareASale
10. PartnerStack 
11. Fiverr Affiliates Program
12. Affiliaxe
13. ClickFunnels Affiliate Program
14.  Wix
15. Shopify
16. Travel Payouts
17.  Udemy
18.  Teachable
19. Skillshare
20. Bigcommerce

 

Summary

Hope is your most powerful weapon, and self-confidence is your greatest asset. Always dream big and start at any stage for a better future. Affiliate marketing is a gold mine, start earning without financial investment, you only have to invest your time and energy so there is no risk of loss. Patience and consistency are the key to success for any affiliate.

Start affiliate marketing by looking at your expertise in a specific area and build a website. Promote it on social media and identify compatible affiliate programs to join. Build trust and generate regular mail traffic which helps convert your affiliate links into sales and earn commissions.

Finally, encourage innovation and expand the product line through different niches for your sustainable business and increase your income.

You may find affiliate links in this article. This means that if you click on a link and purchase any of the products on this page, we may receive a commission, at no additional cost to you, It does not affect our knowledge sharing, opinions or reviews. Everything we do is benefit for you as the reader, so all our knowledge sharing, reviews are as honest and unbiased as possible.