You’ve seen the claims on social media. There are thousands of people making money online through affiliate marketing. So many of the claims make it sound as easy as 1-2-3.
- Pick a Niche
- Find a product to promote (that has an affiliate program of course)
- Create Content
- Get Customers
- Make Commission Sales
But here’s the truth. If it were as simple as these 5 steps, why isn’t everyone doing this, at least on the side, to earn extra money? Think about it, how many people do you actually, personally know, that are making money with affiliate marketing? If you’re anything like me.. none. At least not when I first started out.
So what does it actually take to make money with affiliate marketing? What kind of knowledge do you need? Tech skills? Social media following? Let’s look at each of the steps, some of the nuances and, at the end, the best way forward!
1- Pick a Niche
The first step above is actually correct. You need to know your niche. What industry are you knowledgeable and passionate about? It’s always easier and much more sustainable to break into a business you actually like. Most people are probably already working in jobs they don’t particularly love and that leads to burnout. Some popular niches are: health and fitness, wealth and finance, home decor, family and parenting, pets, recipes and food, personal development, lifestyle etc. The list really does go on and a quick Google search will show you pages and blogs about the most profitable niches.
Okay, so far this seems pretty simple. Step 1, CHECK!
2- Find a Product to Promote
You’d think.. this would be simple as well. Unfortunately not every single product and company has an affiliate program. And a lot that do, you have to sign up form on other platforms to become an affiliate. Now, this isn’t necessarily difficult, but it can be time consuming to set up accounts with various different platforms and companies. Additionally, not all affiliate offers are created equal. Being an Amazon Associate (this is the name of their affiliate program) is awesome because let’s face it, what can’t you buy on Amazon these days? but their commission rates are typically fairly low (less than 5%) and there are a lot of low ticket items on Amazon. On the other hand, high ticket offers can be very lucrative but harder to find. Digital products for example, tend to have higher commissions on a higher purchase price, so this can potentially bring in more revenue, but how many people are looking for a particular software in your chosen niche?
People tend to fall into one of two groups at this stage:
- You already have a product you’re passionate about that that’s what’s bringing you to want to become an affiliate
- You have no clue what to promote or where to start looking (Hi! this was me)
If you’re in the first group you may still be good at this point to charge forward, but if you’re in the second camp where I was, you may already be wondering if this is going to work or that maybe you need some help.
3- Create Content
Okay! This is the fun and creative part! You’re at the step now where you get to make a website, Facebook ad, write a blog, create a YouTube channel etc to promote your chosen product. If you’ve chosen the right product and niche this should be the most natural part of this process. You’re just promoting something you love and believe in. Your passion and understanding of why this is world class shines through your on-camera presence and leaps off the page of your blog post. Enough said. let’s move on.
Unless.. you don’t know how to build a website, what goes into a Facebook ad, or where you can even start your own blog. Then this step may start to be a little overwhelming. But you’re determined and resourceful and a little research reveals there are some basic web builders out there and tutorials on how to run an ad campaign.
Step 3 gets a tentative check.
4- Get Customers
An affiliate marketing business is a real business. Make no mistake about it. And if you were to venture a guess about why most small businesses fail what would you say? If you guessed “they couldn’t get enough customers, clients or traffic” you’d be correct. The unfortunate reality is that having a good product, heck, having the best product on the market to sell, doesn’t guarantee people know about it and will buy from you. Believe me I wish it were as simple as “If you build it, they will come” and that by just putting great content out there with a superb product guaranteed people would find it, but this just isn’t the case. The internet is too big. This is where actually learning and understanding what it takes to be a marketer comes in. This is why most people don’t make it in affiliate marketing.
The tech stuff starts to get a little deep at this stage when you start talking tracking parameters, tags, and analytics. Maybe this stuff isn’t truly necessary at the level you are right now? Wrong, if you want affiliate marketing to be a business, and not just bring in a few extra bucks each month this is crucial to your success. Hang tight, we’re going to come back to this..
5- Make Commission Sales
Did you know that most people don’t buy the first time they’re presented with an offer? Would you be surprised to learn it takes multiple visits usually over a period of time before people are actually ready to commit? Even on small ticket sales? Have you heard of a sales funnel? Do you know what an autoresponder is? Actually getting a sale through your affiliate link on the internet is the ultimate goal of every affiliate marketer and thankfully there are amazing tools out there to help you do that! A sales funnel is used to drive traffic from an ad, to some sort of sign-in or opt-in page, or to the offer itself. Email marketing is also a huge part of affiliate and digital marketing in general, and having an autoresponder handle that email volume for you is crucial because it can help re-direct people back to your offer since, as I said, most won’t buy the first time they see it.
So how do you go about bringing all off this together to ensure your success?
It’s actually quite simple! Be an influencer with hundreds of thousands of followers, a web developer and a marketer by trade! Ta-da!
OR…..
You can piece together each of these skills and slowly build out your business. You can become an Amazon Associate for free, start your own YouTube channel and get to promoting your favorite products. It’ll take time to build an audience but you can do it. As I mentioned earlier, there are website builders out there that are click and drag and you can have your very own site up in a weekend. Google ads are free to create and you can pay to drive customers to your website and blog posts. This is what I tried for OVER A YEAR. I thought, I can do this! I’ll google and YouTube what I need help on and the rest will fall into place with a lot of hard work and a little luck. I had a website for my blog, I’d signed up as an affiliate on a few different platforms including Amazon. I did not have a funnel as I figured I didn’t need one, and I didn’t have an autoresponder since my blog site had its own email list capabilities.
Guess how much I made in commissions my first year? $0.00. Zilch, nada, nothing. Yet.. I kept seeing posts about people being wildly successful.
What was I missing?
Turns out, what I missing was education, help, support, and community. Trying to piece together my business and buying the different softwares, services, plugins etc a la carte had me in way over my head. How do you get different products to talk to each other? To link up and track what I needed? I never had a social medial following, I had absolutely zero web developer or programming knowledge or experience, and I had never been in marketing or advertising. My degree is in Psychology and I worked in the insurance industry, not exactly a relatable skill set. I needed someone to hand me a how-to guide and then tell me what products were the best to use.
So here it is! A one stop shop for everything you need to build a successful business online. The first step is to get the FREE intro videos
The next step is to discover a full blown curriculum that actually has a blueprint for online marketing that can be applied to any niche and product.
What about all the techy stuff? This all in one ecosystem has everything you need from the top web builders in the world, premiere funnel builders as easy to use as Microsoft Word, and integration with the best autoresponder in the business. I was BLOWN AWAY with how integrated everything is. I didn’t have to hunt down my own anything, it’s all RIGHT THERE!
And it gets better. There are real live coaches and mentors who have made it, and made it BIG, in this industry to guide you wherever you need help. The amount of training and resources is unmatched and it’s backed even further by a community of like-minded go-getters who are determined to help you succeed as much as themselves.
So don’t get me wrong. You CAN build a successful online affiliate marketing business on your own. In fact, below are the links to the SAME unbelievable funnel builder and autoresponder that’s used in the program.
But, if you have any doubts about the how and where to start. And the what ifs when you have questions and need support. Then know you don’t HAVE to do it on your own. Let’s stand on the shoulders of the giants who have come before us and take advantage of having all of the tools and know-how wrapped up in a bow and handed to us.
The first step, is only a click away!