How To Get Started With Affiliate Marketing For Beginners

Are you ready to get started with affiliate marketing? This is one of the fastest and easiest ways to make money online.

Despite this reality, I see a lot of beginner affiliate marketers struggle. They end up making costly mistakes because they don't have the formula for success.

If you've been racking your brain about how to get started with affiliate marketing, you've come to the right place.

Are you ready to learn six strategies that have allowed me to make millions of dollars as an affiliate marketer?

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Can you really make money with affiliate marketing?

The short answer is yes, but it depends on a lot of different factors. Affiliate marketing is a multibillion-dollar industry that creates income for thousands of online entrepreneurs each year. Whether you're looking for some extra money on the side, or have the desire to quit your day job altogether, affiliate marketing has massive passive income potential.

However, don't be fooled by “get rich quick scheme” websites that try to sell you on the idea that you can make money overnight. Successful affiliate marketers invest hard work and effort into building the foundation of their business. The question is, “What is affiliate marketing?” In simple terms, it's the process of earning a commission by promoting someone else's product or service.

There are many different affiliate programs on the market. These programs give people the ability to join, for free, and promote their products. The best thing about affiliate marketing is that you don't have to create a product or be an expert at something.

Basically, all you are doing is sharing a product or service with people that you know. When someone clicks on your affiliate link and buys whatever it is that you're promoting, you get paid. It's a win-win for everyone involved. If you are a beginner, here are six strategies for how to get started with affiliate marketing.

1. Identify A Niche

Before you can even think about starting an affiliate business, you need to identify the niche that you are going to target. Ideally, it will be something related to an interest, a hobby or a passion of yours. It's a lot easier to work on something that you love.

Secondly, there should be a large enough demand for the niche that you choose. If there isn't enough interest in your product, then naturally your niche isn't going to make a lot of money. Lastly, you want to consider whether or not there are affiliate programs available in your niche of interest. If you can't find programs, you won't make sales.

2. Build Your Platform

This platform could be several different things. For example, you could start writing articles on your blog. Similarly, you could film YouTube videos and post them on your channel, or you could start a podcast and put it on iTunes. You could also promote something on social media. You can do all three of these things if you like. However, in the beginning, I recommend that you choose one primary platform to create content around.

3. Find A Commissionable Product

The best way to find a commissionable product is to find a great affiliate program. You want to make sure that the program that you choose is reliable and efficient. According to a combined study by Forrester and Rakuten Marketing, 83% of brands and product owners prefer to recruit affiliates for their products using affiliate networks. You don't want to promote products just for the sake of making money.

Let's say that you want to build your business around the fitness niche. You would start by finding a product within the market. It could be a fitness training program that sells for $100. Most good affiliate programs pay people a 50% commission. This means that you would earn $50 from every sale that is made.

There are so many affiliate programs in the market today, some of which include Amazon Associates, ClickBank, and JVZoo. Do your due diligence and find one that aligns most with your niche, brand, and personal interest.

4. Create High-Quality Content

Once you've identified the product that you want to promote, you want to start creating content. This could be in the form of articles, YouTube videos, or podcast episodes. With these types of content, you want to make them relevant to the product that you are going to promote.

For example, you could write an in-depth blog post reviewing a product and share your personal experience using it. In the review, you could create a call to action and a link to the affiliate product which will allow people to learn more about it. You could also do a comparison article. Of course, you don't just want to have one piece of content. Rather, you want to create multiple pieces.

The more content you create, the more successful you will be. Not every piece of content is going to get found by people. However, the more you put out there, the higher the chances are. The key is making your content relevant to your affiliate product. I love to create a blog, a YouTube channel and a podcast. Once you create this type of content, it's evergreen, meaning that it's there forever.

I believe that every piece of content that you create is like a seed that you plant in the ground. The more seeds that you plant, the more that those seeds will grow. Some pieces of content will sprout and grow into massive trees that will produce results for you on a consistent basis. I've published over 1,000 pieces of content on my YouTube channel, more than 1,500 on my blog, and over 1,000 on my podcast. A lot of that content is consistently attracting people to me and funneling into my products.

Keep in mind that your content has to be high-quality and valuable.

This is called “value-added marketing.” You have to genuinely care about people and their needs. I never create or promote anything that is not going to benefit or change people's lives. When you have a passion for something, it comes through in the content that you create. As a result, people will be more likely to check out what you have to offer.

I'm not the best marketer out there, but my competitive advantage is that I care immensely. I'm always growing, learning and sharing things that have personally benefitted me so that others can benefit as well. Because I have this mindset, people naturally want to learn more about my products.

5. Build An Email List

If you want to take things one step further, you can actually funnel people from your content into an email list. At the end of your content, you can mention something of value that people can get, for free, by opting into your list.

For example, let's say that you've got a fitness website and a YouTube channel. You could say, “If you are interested in learning more about how you can lose weight, I've created a great eBook for you that will teach you five foods to avoid when trying to lose weight.”

When you have an email list, it becomes a lot easier to do affiliate marketing. An email list affords you the ability to follow-up with people and creates long-lasting relationships, based on trust and respect.

6. Create More Value For The Customer

Once you have a solid list of products that you are promoting, and you are making great commissions from them, now you want to increase your conversions. You do this by creating even more value for the customer than what they are actually paying for. This means finding ways that you can make a product even better than it already is.

This is why I like to create bonuses.

Going back to the fitness training program example. You could create an eBook of your favorite recipes for fat loss. If someone decides to buy this product through your affiliate link, you can mention to them that you've created a great bonus that you will give to them, for free. Now the consumer is getting even more value because you are providing them with an irresistible offer.

Now is the time to get started with affiliate marketing.

As you can see, there is a proven strategy when it comes to affiliate marketing for beginners. Don't let the process overwhelm you. Like I said above, affiliate marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to generate passive income online. I've made millions of dollars promoting other people's products and so can you. Once you have the formula for success locked down, you will be off to the races.

The question is… what's holding you back from starting your affiliate marketing business? The answer is… nothing!