It only feels like yesterday… The moment and excitement about earning my first affiliate commission… What was even more interesting, was that the sale had happened whilst I was sleeping! To wake up and see an email saying “You’ve Got Commissions” was an amazing feeling.
That’s one of the cool things about affiliate marketing is that you can be making sales, even when tucked up in bed…
Hi, I’m John and I want to thank you for taking the time to check out my guide on Affiliate Marketing for Beginners.
Affiliate Marketing is a fantastic way for beginners to get started online. Being able to earn money from a hobby or passion is what most people dream about. But that doesn’t mean that it’s as easy as many people believe it might be.
Let me try and put you at ease about a few things…
First, I’m a real guy who has found a way of making money online in a realistic way. No, I’m not making a fortune with affiliate marketing. I am still learning every day. But I do still have enough info to help others get the best start and learn from some of my mistakes.
Then there is all the techie stuff that relates to websites too. This should not even be a factor these days. Building and running a website isn’t very hard these days.
You don’t need to know anything about coding or HTML. WordPress is so easy, anyone can use it. Trust me, it’s as easy as operating Facebook these days.
But I do need you to be completely realistic about when you start setting yourself some goals around this stuff… It’s going to require you to put a lot of time and effort in.
I mean if you seriously want to build up a passive income with affiliate marketing and give yourself more time at home with the family. Or, to travel the world. Or, chill on the sofa.
Whatever the reasons for your wanting to learn about this amazing opportunity, you need to understand that it will not be something that happens overnight.
Affiliate Marketing can give you financial freedom. More time with the family, etc. Whatever you desire.
But you need to build the foundations before you can start to relax.
If you’re still thinking this is a get-rich-quick opportunity… You’ll be sorely disappointed as they don’t exist…
That email about my affiliate commissions was a great moment, and it also helped prove that this affiliate marketing works! But it also shows that you need to put a lot of effort into earning that first paycheck. but once you reach that point, and it proves this whole thing works, it helps you double down to earning more…
We know affiliate marketers who are earning 4-figure and even 6-figure incomes from affiliate marketing every month. But they all started from the same place you are now… Wondering if it works and how to get started.
Don’t worry if you haven’t many any money online yet, that’s what our guide is there for. To help you learn affiliate marketing for beginners and we’ll also throw in some top tips to help you speed up the process too.
Here’s Our Step-by-Step Affiliate Marketing for Beginners Guide. Our promise is you’ll be walking away with your own fully functional website, ready to make money. But… That is only guaranteed if you follow our guide closely and TAKE ACTION from what we have laid out…
Agreed?
Before we get into our full guide, let’s ensure we have a good understanding of affiliate marketing… Some of you may not have heard of it before, or have been caught out by a scammer (like we were) trying to tell you affiliate marketing was something different. So, let’s cover some common questions about affiliate marketing first… (If you want to skip to the guide, click here)
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, which means we may receive a commission if you click a link and purchase something that we have recommended. While clicking these links won’t cost you any extra money, they will help us keep this site up and running. Thank you for your support!
Table of Contents
What's Affiliate Marketing Anyway?
More and more people are becoming aware of affiliate marketing. This makes sense, as more of us are online than ever before. But back in 2016, I had never heard of the term “affiliate marketing” and yet I had been involved in the whole process, but as a customer.
But when you break the process down, it becomes a “refer a friend” type of process. An easy example is Uber. I’m sure most of us have heard of Uber. When you refer a friend to try Uber or become an Uber driver. You get rewarded by Uber with a coupon code to use on your next trip.
That’s a form of affiliate marketing. So anytime someone refers Uber to a friend or family member, both the person and Uber benefit. You get a discount, and Uber only pays out when someone uses it.
Marketing campaigns are expensive, but this way it is targeted.
Let’s Show You Another Example…
Heard of Amazon? They have an affiliate program called Amazon Associates. They started with just a bookstore and didn’t have a huge budget for marketing. So, they started a “refer a friend” scheme…
Now they boast a huge empire, no longer specialising in just books as you can pretty much buy anything you want from them. But they still have this affiliate scheme in place.
Affiliate Marketing is a method of marketing that benefits both the merchant (Amazon) and you (the Affiliate). So, there should be no concerns about whether affiliate marketing might be a fad, or won’t last. Trust me… Several businesses wished they had started offering an affiliate program earlier.
We’ll get into how it all works shortly. But I think the thing you need to know about why affiliate marketing works online is down to the way we shop these days.
People are buying stuff online more than they have ever done in the past. But there are also a lot more items that they can browse through online, and this just means that they value opinions from others more too.
If you are looking for a new kitchen appliance, or a new TV, or are someone who is into fashion and wants to know what is on trend. You search online for the “best” of something and look at opinions.
These are typically offered by affiliates, who give you their opinion based on value, quality, price, etc.
They aren’t looking for an expert’s opinion, otherwise, they would do a very specific search and probably go direct. They are looking for just a normal person’s opinion, which is your opportunity.
But don’t think that affiliate marketing is just about products. Most people are looking for help. So, it might be they are looking to lose weight. These are people looking for exercise regimes that would suit them.
There are so many angles and opportunities with affiliate marketing, which would be hard to list in one blog post.
I’ll give you a couple of examples in the next session. But hopefully, you have a good idea now of what affiliate marketing is, let’s show you how it works…
How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?
I’ve noticed that in a few too many guides for beginners, they focus primarily on the products side. As in you can promote products on Amazon in your given niche and make money.
Which in essence, is one way of doing affiliate marketing. But when you have gained experience within the affiliate marketing world, you’ll actually find that it is as flexible as we are.
Some niches do steer more towards products, like a tech blog about the latest tech will naturally talk about that tech and promote it. But we’re not all geared up that way.
So, it might be that you feel more natural talking about weight loss, or maybe a food blog, or travelling the world, or you can offer help and advice when it comes to mental health. What can you promote in that field, does affiliate marketing still work for you?
The simple answer is yes…
Affiliate Marketing can work for (pretty much) any niche. Let’s take you through a few examples to show you… First take a look at this flow chart, which goes through the basic steps…
Example #1 - Blog Promoting Products
This is the example that most people associate affiliate marketing with. A blog that focuses on creating content all around a certain niche (i.e., Tech, Hiking, Fashion, Kitchenware, etc.)
So, this affiliate would typically be focused on writing product reviews based on their niche and including affiliate links within their content. When someone landed on their blog and decided to click on their affiliate link, it would take them to the merchant page (Amazon, as an example) and if they bought the product, the affiliate would be compensated.
But that doesn’t stop them using another form of affiliate marketing where they place display ads on their website, and if someone clicks on an ad, they would also be compensated too.
Example #2 - A Food Blog
Some may believe that a food blog wouldn’t work with affiliate marketing, as you will be sharing recipes or your ideas for meals, etc. So some may be put off… But a food blog is a great way of expressing yourself, sharing your ideas, and you can still make money through affiliate marketing.
It’s just a different take on it… Display ads would be a good way of earning money from a food blog. But as you grow, people will want to start using the same equipment you are, so then you can include a link to that kitchen aid you are using, so they can follow your steps easier.
You may even start getting sponsored for using a branded kitchen aid, as long as you push it in your videos or blogs – another form of affiliate marketing.
You might even start including a membership or subscription element to your blog, and charge people for exclusive first dibs on a new recipe. The options are endless with a food blog.
Example #3 - A Weight Loss Blog
People are looking for help from those who have experience. They don’t want to see a dietician who will give you an unrealistic regime to lose weight. They want to talk to someone who has been through it. Knows what does work, and more importantly, what doesn’t work. You might be ideally suited to share your weight loss routine.
It might be a meal planner, or a specific exercise you completed. Some might think, there isn’t an opportunity to monetise that sort of blog. But there will be opportunities everywhere.
Display ads works here as well, there will be certain exercise programs or maybe certain products you used that you could promote too.
There are endless opportunities with affiliate marketing and every niche will be slightly different. But never think that there isn’t an opportunity to monetise a blog. But that leads me onto something else. The money side, actually needs to be the last thing you are thinking about really.
Offering helpful and insightful content needs to be your focus. You can have a list of a thousand products or services that you want to promote on your blog. But if your content doesn’t help them, that list is pointless.
Think of it this way… Ever had a pushy sales person knock at your door wanting to sell you something? It immediately puts you off, right? If your website does the same (Buy this it’s cool) without the (why it would benefit you)help, you will fail at affiliate marketing.
If they knew what to buy already, they wouldn’t have searched for help. They clearly need a question answered, or help understanding how it would benefit them before they decide to buy.
Back to that weight loss example. If I’m someone who has tried many different diets and weight loss programs, and it hasn’t worked. But I can see that your blog showcases that you have been successful. I want to know how you did it, what worked, what didn’t and how can you help me.
That works for any niche – help first, and the sales will come. Sell first, and they carry on looking elsewhere.
If you want to understand the best types of content for a blog, then check out this useful guide revealing 50 types of content for a blog. You might also find our product review template for affiliate marketers useful too… If you aren’t really feeling the “building a website”, there are alternative ways of making money from affiliate marketing without a website.
Why Choose Affiliate Marketing?
There are several ways to make money from home (Online Surveys, MLM, freelancing, etc.) but there are a few reasons why we believe affiliate marketing is ideal for beginners. Here are our top four reasons why you should seriously consider Affiliate Marketing:
Affiliate Marketing Has The Potential to Earn You a Full-Time Income From Home
If you can put your time and mind into achieving success with affiliate marketing, then you can easily earn a full-time income from home with just 2 to 4 hours of work per day. Think of it, instead of a typical job where you have to work 9 hours to earn a minimum wage, and don’t get paid any extra regardless of how much effort you put in.
You can get to a place where you do a few hours of work on your blog and let it earn you money 24/7. Affiliate Marketing has the potential for you to write a single blog post and get paid over and over again.
Your website can be working for you whilst you sleep, travel, spend time with the kids, or enjoy more of something you love like a hobby. Which will help you again on your blog.
Affiliate Marketing is about creating a passive income stream, which means you don’t have to handhold the transaction. The merchant does all that.
But it also requires the right mindset and knowing that the more effort you put in at the beginning, the better the results will be further down the road.
You are showing a fantastic mindset just by reading this guide! Take action and you can change your life and start to chase your dreams.
You Decide Your Work Schedule
I’m not going to lie, this isn’t really something you’ll be able to do straightaway. You’ll most likely need to keep the day job on at the moment, until you do start earning a realistic income. But once your affiliate business is off on the right foot, is starting to earn you regularly income. It then becomes the time to decide when it’s time to tell your boss, you’re off!
Once that happens, you get to decide when and where you work. You can work from anywhere (as long as you have WIFI).
I know that does sound appealing, and it is. When you’re comfortable, you’ll have more ideas come to you for your blog.
I still recommend you have somewhere to work at (we have a small home office). As it’s too tempting not to work on your blog. But being able to work for a few hours and then get on with what we want to do is the best thing about affiliate marketing.
There's No Need to Sell Face-to-Face
If you’ve been looking for ways to make money for a while, then I bet you’ve come across something called MLM or Multi-Level Marketing. I wouldn’t say I hate the business model, but I don’t think it’s a very good one.
The reason I say that is it’s basically sales and recruiting, and you need to be a really outgoing and persuasive person for it to benefit you. But they are really good at marketing it as a good starting point for beginners. Taking a few hundred dollars off you, and then failing to tell you that you have a sales quota to achieve, or you have to buy the products yourself.
I’ll get off my soapbox now, but MLM is definitely not something I would recommend.
But on the flipside, Affiliate Marketing is free, doesn’t require you to sell anything (you are helping people) and you don’t have to buy products if you aren’t making sales yet.
It also benefits those of who is are a little introverted and would like our blog posts to do the talking. Which is where your blog website will come in.
You Don't Need Any Experience or Technical Skills to Get Started
Gone are the days where you need to have extensive knowledge and experience in html coding to build a website… In fact, if you’ve got a Facebook account and can write a document in Word, then you have the skills necessary to start an affiliate marketing blog.
WordPress is so easily to work with. So, you bring your knowledge about the niche you want to start in, and I’ll help you build your own WordPress website and help you with affiliate marketing. That’s how it works…
Who's Affiliate Marketing For?
From a certain perspective, you could say that anyone could get started in Affiliate Marketing. It’s not technically very difficult, and we all have a hobby or passion that we could get started with… BUT!!!
I have to point out that there is a key reason why so many people don’t end up earning money with affiliate marketing…
The key reason why so many people don’t end up earning money from affiliate marketing is that they treat it like a job and not a business model.
Affiliate Marketing is not a Get-Rich-Quick Scheme, regardless of what some people spout online. You need to treat this like a business and that means you won’t be earning money for a while.
But people think like it’s their day job – I worked 9 hours, and I should get paid for that amount of effort. But it doesn’t work like that.
I know people who have reached out to me and said I’ve been doing this for 9 months and I’m not making any sales, can you take a look and see what’s going wrong?
So, I’ve gone and looked and their website looked fine… But they hadn’t produced a new piece of content for 6 months… So, I’ve said you need to write more content. But they didn’t want that answer.
There is only one way you are going to make this work and is with constant time and effort. If you want to earn $1,000 a month from your blog. Focus on helping people, and creating more content. Publish a blog post a week, consistently.
There will be weeks when that feels hard. But you have to do it. The main reason why these people fail to reach their goals is that they give up too soon…
It can feel hard when you’re on your own, but I’m here to help you at any point. But you don’t have to have any prior experience to get started with affiliate marketing. We also had an amazing community that helped us get started, which you can learn more about here…
Turn Your Passion into Profits
How to Make Money with Affiliate Marketing for Beginners in 2022 (and Beyond)!
We touched on this earlier, but there are several different ways for you to make money with affiliate marketing. You could promote your affiliate products or services via Email, Solo Ads, PPC (Pay-Per-Click), Social Media, Sales Funnels, etc. The list goes on.
But the one we are going to focus on is Content Marketing, using SEO or Search Engine Optimization.
Don’t worry if you don’t understand any of what I’ve just said. It isn’t that complicated and the main benefit of going this route is that it’s a free way of attracting visitors to your blog. Follow the steps we set out, and you’re in good hands.
For now, you can watch this 5-minute video to learn about SEO if you like…
So, our guide will help you through Content Marketing & getting that content into the search engines. But for now, let’s show you how you are going to make money…
The first step to making money is to sign up with an Affiliate Program. The most common ones are:
- Amazon Associates
- eBay Partners
- ClickBank
- ShareASale
- Awin
- CJ Affiliate by Conversant
- JVZoo
- WarriorPlus
These are all affiliate networks and they give you access to thousands of products for you to promote (for free) as an Affiliate.
I’m guessing you’ve already heard of Amazon and they have one of the biggest affiliate networks in the world. To learn more about the Amazon Associates (Affiliate) program, check out our complete guide to getting started…
Signing up to an affiliate program is usually FREE. If you come across one that is charging a fee, then it might be worth staying clear of it.
Once you are accepted into the affiliate program, you will be given a special link to use, which is called your affiliate link.
To make money from affiliate marketing, you’ll need to get people to make a purchase via your affiliate link.
The process makes it sound so easy (I wish), but there are a few things that you need to factor in…
- You won’t always get accepted straightaway, especially if your blog is relatively new – if that happen, go and create more content and try again later
- You need traffic to your blog to make money – to do that, you need to create content and a lot of it
- Don’t focus on the money aspect, otherwise you’ll keep on thinking about not earning money, rather than what you should be focusing on – creating more content
I know it’s easy for me to say that, but it comes from experience. My first blog attempt didn’t work, as I stopped creating content. The traffic dried up and it was impossible to try and rescue, so I had to start again. But with the determination not to make the same mistake.
My aim is to help you learn from my mistakes, so you avoid some of the pitfalls that come up along the way…
Step-by-Step Guide to Affiliate Marketing for Beginners
Here’s the part you’ve been waiting for, the step-by-step affiliate marketing for beginners guide. Here is where we will give you a brief overview of the process on how to get started with affiliate marketing.
But if you want our personal help, support and guidance for every part of the process, then click here to sign up for our 7-day Online Passive Income Bootcamp. We’ll guide you through how to turn your Passion into Profits…
Step #1: Choose Your Niche
This stage is your brainstorming phase. What are you going to be focusing on for your affiliate marketing blog. Don’t go with too broad a subject either. If you want the best chance of this making you money, start as niche (or narrow) as you can.
A niche is a specific market of what you want to go in. It also helps you identify your target audience. Starting as niche as you can, helps you compete against the other blogs in that area.
A good starting point would be something that you already are interested in, like a hobby. Or something you’re really interested in and have a lot of knowledge to share within that subject. (Here’s a list of 50 Niche ideas to get you thinking)
This will help in a couple of ways…
- You already know something about the subject, and you are part of the target audience for it too
- You will want to learn more about it, as you already enjoy it
Now, if you’re sitting there going “I’m not an expert, I can’t do that” then I’m going to say Relax!!
You don’t need to be an expert to make money online. People aren’t looking for expert help, otherwise, they would go direct and pay the fee.
Some experts have a lot of knowledge, but they don’t know how to leverage it to make money. It’s all about how you market it, and that is why we are here to help you.
As long as you understand your target audience, and can help them with your product recommendations and market it in the right way, you have the tools needed to make money.
As you build up your knowledge, your authority will start to grow. That still doesn’t make you an expert, and that’s ok. Trust is more important online, and that comes with time and experience.
I would also suggest keeping it really niche, and what I mean by that is don’t try and target too big a market, as you will get swallowed up by the competition. They already have the authority on search engines, but still will not be specific enough for your target audience.
That’s your opportunity, to get to the nitty gritty for your target people. They will come to you as you offer them specific help. Then your authority grows, and then you can start expanding out and give the big boys a run for their money.
Brainstorm Time – So, it might be good for you to list a few of your hobbies or interests to see what you could use for your niche. If you’re still struggling, reach out to me and I’ll help you out…
Step #2: The Planning Phase
Hopefully, you have an idea of your niche and target audience. Now, you can focus on planning your business approach.
There are two things we are going to focus on here:
- Time Management
- Your Strategy
Most affiliate marketers will tell you that they started part-time. This means that you will already have a job, family commitments, things to do in the evenings, friends to meet, etc.
I’m not suggesting that you give up anything that’s important to you, as it will only end up grinding at you, and make you want to give up this new “project”. But what I will suggest to you is that there will be some time in your week, that is probably not best utilised.
Especially if you want to have more time to meet up with friends and family. So, if you want to make this work you will want to spend at least 2 to 4 hours a day on your new affiliate marketing business.
I know you’re probably thinking that isn’t possible John, are you kidding me?
But let me ask you a question… How long do you typically spend a day on social media or looking for a way to make money online?
When you think about it that way, you could probably find 2 hours quite easily by reducing the amount of time you are scrolling through Facebook…
If you want the time to do what you want and not have to work those long hours at the day job, you will find the time to make this happen!
As for the strategy, I recommend Content Marketing. This basically means creating a lot of blog posts (like this one) for your blog, or even creating videos to share on your blog and YouTube, to get people to come to your website, where your affiliate links will be waiting.
With this strategy, you are going to need to plan time to:
- Research the blog post topic
- Come up with an enticing blog post title – get people to click on it
- Find or take relevant images
- Keyword research
- Writing the blog post
- promoting your blog post on social media (make use of all those other people scrolling)
Ideally, you’ll be writing at least one blog post a week, so you need to consider what you will do each day, etc.
Step #3: Build a Website
This is often why people get put off, but please don’t be… It’s so easy these days to build a website!! It’s often harder to pick a good website name, than it is to actually build the website.
With our recommended website builder, it takes 4 steps to build your own WordPress website. You can see me build a website using SiteRubix, in the video below:
Disclosure – SiteRubix is provided by Wealthy Affiliate. It’s a training platform for affiliates. Wealthy Affiliate compensates Smart Passive Income Success when you purchase through their respective links, so my services to you are free of charge! In fact, if you have any trouble setting up your website with this tutorial, just contact me and I’ll help you out (free!)
Step #4: Find Some Affiliate Products to Promote
The key here is to ensure you are staying relevant to your target audience. Having a relevant product that might cost less but is more likely to get bought will always outdo an expensive product that has nothing to do with your niche.
This again depends on your target audience. If they are on a budget, promoting expensive products only is not going to be a good strategy.
But the same could be true if your target audience does have a budget but you have to focus on value. Have your target audience in mind at all times.
Then we can focus on doing affiliate product research. I think the best place to do this is through Amazon. As you grow and expand, you will find there are better affiliate programs out there, with better payouts.
But for starters, it’s easy to join Amazon and they have tons and tons of products for you to go through. Use the categories to dry and drill down, which can also help if you are still stuck for a niche.
Also, use their Best Sellers, Most Wished For sections to get an idea of what people are interested in. You ideally want an evergreen product, something that isn’t a fad.
Alternatively, you can use Google. Just type your niche + affiliate program, and you will find tons of affiliate programs related for you to check out.
Step #5: Drive Targeted Traffic to your Website
There is little point having affiliate products to promote, without someone to show it too. So, let’s talk abut driving targeted traffic to your website.
There are lots of different ways to generate this traffic, but they can be broken down into two main methods:
- Free Traffic
- Paid Traffic
We focus more on the free traffic methods, as they don’t cost us anything. Although it is the longer route. But there is no risk. We focus on creating content and making sure it’s search engine friendly so it appears in Google or Bing/Yahoo. Then we also share it via Social Media.
Paid Traffic requires a budget, and does hold a level of risk. I feel it is a strategy to follow once you know your free strategy works.
Having said that, using paid traffic can speed up the process a little. If you have the budget to do the trial and error that it requires. For now, you could always check out my guide on Targeted Facebook Ads to see what you are up against.
If you have a post that is ranking well in the search engines and is bringing you regular sales, spending some of that money to bring in more sales makes sense.
Paying blindly for something that I don’t know is working, isn’t a good decision in my mind, anyway.
This step just requires you to create content regularly and make sure it is SEO-friendly. Which you can do with a free WordPress plugin like All-in-One SEO or Yoast. Sharing it on Social Media and engaging with the community within your niche.
All will cost you time, but won’t cost you money. Which is the best strategy for beginners…
Step #6: Make Money
Have you noticed that we’ve just gone through all of those steps and yet this is the last one? The reason for that, is that affiliate marketing is about the long game.
This isn’t a month-long project. It’s a business model that requires your dedication without an end date.
But as long as you’ve done all of these steps and stay consistent, you should start seeing a highly relevant audience landing on your blog. Once you have that in place, and you’re promoting relevant affiliate products or services. Then, you will start making money!!
All in all, Affiliate Marketing can be broken down into these four steps…
- Choose an Interest – Something that will keep you hooked, something that you have loads of content ideas for, don’t chase shiny objects that you don’t know anything about
- Build a Website – Your own website that you have control over will help you centralise your affiliate offers. Some affiliate programs will not accept you if you don’t have a website. Get one here…
- Attract Visitors – By creating great content that helps your target audience and answers questions or solves problems, you will soon start attracting people to your website.
- Earn Revenue – If you can do this effectively, you will start to see an income through your affiliate links.
How Much Money Can I Make From Affiliate Marketing?
Here’s one of the most common questions we get asked… “How Much Can Money Can I Make with Affiliate Marketing?”
There are a few answers… Yes, it’s possible to make money and the income potential is huge!
There are affiliate marketers like Pat Flynn, who is earning more than 2 million dollars from affiliate marketing.
But the reality is that most of us won’t reach that goal. But still, I know affiliate marketers who are earning $10,000 a month. I think we would all be quite happy with that more realistic total in our bank accounts.
But I think screenshots of real people making money from Affiliate Marketing are much better than just focusing on the super successful…
Here are some Success Stories from the Community We Recommend – Wealthy Affiliate…
These are just a few of the success stories out of the community and training platform that we are ourselves using to host our blog and earn money through. These are all realistic targets for you to go after.
But you need to have realistic timescales, as these success stories didn’t all happen overnight.
From experience, you can start to make your first few sales within 3 to 4 months. You could be earning a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars within 1 to 2 years.
So, the question needs to be… Are you willing to spend 1 to 2 years of your life building a passive income business so that you don’t need to work a normal job again?
It should be an easy decision to make, right?
But it’s easier said than done. You are going to have to invest a lot of time and effort if you want to achieve that within 2 years!!
There is no promise or guarantee I can make, as this is just an educated guess as to timescales. There’s a lot to factor in…
But there are some hints and tips we can give you to try and improve your chances of success!!
Top Tips to Double or Even Triple Your Success Rate with Affiliate Marketing!
So, here it is… the most common reason for people failing at Affiliate Marketing is the fact they give up. They don’t put enough effort in for long enough to see the results. It’s not usually the quality they put in, that’s fine. but they walk away too soon.
That’s it. So, here are some top tips that you need to follow if you want this to work for you…
It's a Business Model - Treat it like a Business
You’re only going to see the results if you treat this seriously. This is a business model, meaning that it’ll work if you stick to the plan – create loads of content. It’ll also require you to put time into planning, into creating, and then into promoting that content.
At the start, you cannot expect to earn a full-time income if you plan on only playing at this thing. This is the hardest thing to get into your head. But trust me, it’s the key to success!!
A Business requires a plan, to help you achieve your goals. This means that you need to set out to work hard for the next year or two, without taking your foot off the gas. Tweaks to your plan are fine, but the time and effort you put in are going to be key to you sitting there in a years time with something to be proud of, and that is earning you some income.
From that point then, you can work out how you are going to scale that income.
Consistency is Key
Doing anything well, requires lots of practice and staying consistent. Think about going the gym…
How many people start the gym just after new year. They tell themselves that this is the year they are going to keep going the gym all year, and get trim or a six-pack, or whatever their goal is…
But what happens in February or March? Most of them don’t turn up, they’ve already given up. But the one person who is dedicated to achieving their goals is still there in December. Has achieved some or all of their goals and can say “I did it”.
You need to be that person, only with your blog website. It’s February, as I write this… Are you going to still be committed in the Summer when the weather’s nice? Are you going to still be committed in December?
You need to be that person who is… If you want to truly have financial freedom, where you can travel the world (as the restrictions are starting to lift). Or have the time to do whatever you want? (My goal is to earn enough, so I can follow the F1 around for an entire season)
It’s the only way you are going to achieve it – remaining consistent. Time is probably an issue if you are working full-time, it was for me. But what you can do is manage your expectations accordingly. If you can only post once a week, then it may take a little longer, but stay consistent.
Don’t post once a day for a week, and then leave it 6 weeks before you publish a post, as that is worse. Your audience and the search engines will expect a routine with your posts…
You've Got to Be Patient
It is hard to accept this one sometimes, but I think the number of programs out there giving out unrealistic timescales doesn’t help. I bet you’ve seen a program or two, claiming that you can earn money overnight. But if you’ve ever handed over the money for them, you soon realise that they don’t work!
But you need patience with any business model, but it’s harder with this as there is no way of knowing if it is working until it is working.
It takes time for the search engines to trust your new site and content. It then takes time for your audience to trust your insights. But you’ve got to believe in yourself and remain patient.
It took me 7 months to earn my first commission. 7 long months of being patient, but it was so worth it.
Find a Mentor - Someone to Support you...
Our final piece of advice is to get yourself a mentor. Someone who you can reach out to at any point to get help, advice. Someone who can assure you that you’re on the right track.
But how can you find a mentor without paying an expensive fee?
Well, I’ve got your back… I offer my help to you, through my 7-Day Online Passive Income Bootcamp. Get a more detailed plan on how to get started with affiliate marketing and direct access to my help at every step. It’ll also help you get access to a huge community of like-minded affiliate marketers to network with and get the support you need…
Turn Your Passion into Profits
Conclusion - Are You Ready to Make Money Online?
Affiliate Marketing is by far the best option for making money online from home, in our opinion. Affiliate Marketing isn’t going anywhere and more people are accessing the internet, bringing more opportunities for affiliate marketers.
More and more people are buying online and are relying on opinions to help make the right purchasing decisions…
Are You Ready To…?
- Do Something Once & Get Paid Over and Over Again
- Make Money Whilst You Sleep
- Work When & Where You Want To
- Have More Time With the Family or With A Hobby
- Plus Many Other Benefits
I’ve tried to cover as much as I can in this guide and we hope you’ve found it useful. If you have any questions or comments to add to our guide, then please write them in the comments section below and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.
I hope you’re really considering Affiliate Marketing and can start working on achieving your goals. If you need any help, please just let me know…
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Thanks for the very helpful article. I just barely got into affiliate marketing. And I think this article is very helpful for anyone who’s interested in getting started. However it can be a difficult process especially if not know what one is doing. I’m going to be saving this article that’s for sure. I think it will help me in the long run.
Hi Kiersti,
thanks for checking out our guide, glad you found it useful. I think anything can be difficult if you don’t know which way to go with it. That’s why we offer our help to anyone looking to get started, and always champion WA due to their extensive training which is ideal for beginners.
Thanks
John
Hey John, I love how you have broken down this affiliate marketing guide for even the newest of affiliates to understand and get started on the right foot. I especially loved that you gave examples of different niches so that people can see that the possibilities are truly endless.
Any product that has an affiliate program can make anyone money, as long as they are following a proven blueprint and taking massive action along the journey.
I also love that you emphasize that this is a business and it needs to be treated as such. Far too often, I see people get started with affiliate marketing and don’t take it seriously. If they did, they would be far ahead earning passive income for years!
Keep on spreading this important knowledge because more and more people keep looking for a better way out of the traditional jobs. This will serve as a practical guide and offer a genuine alternative.
Hi Jason,
thanks for checking out my guide… and thanks for the thoughtful comments!
The cost of living is making more people consider an alternative way of supplementing, or even replacing their income and I agree, it’s one of the best ways of being able to make money. But it does require a certain mindset to achieve it. My hope is my guide helps…
Thanks
John
Thank you for explaining this. Affiliate marketing seems to be one of the best ways to make money while you sleep and it was explained well here.
Just like with any business I know that you will need to do all the work that is needed. I can see that the earning potential is huge.
Hi Thabo,
thanks for checking out my guide… Anything in life requires time and effort (and a lot of perseverance) to achieve it. But if you really want it, you will put the work in to achieve it. But why not do it with a hobby or passion that you already enjoy…
thanks
John
This is a very helpful and honest article. I’m relatively new to affiliate marketing (I have been doing it for a mere 4 months), but I have enough experience to be able to tell that you know the subject extremely well.
My niche is gourmet/specialty coffee, which is close enough to the food niche. In fact, food and beverage are often part of the same product category for e-commerce companies such as Amazon. I’m already making some money, so definitely making money within this product category is possible.
Perhaps the most important point you make is that this is NOT a get rich quick scheme. It takes a lot of work, and at first there’s little feedback in terms of results to let you know you are on the right track. Another good point is that it’s not a “set and forget” scheme either. New content needs to be continually added to maintain the effectiveness of the affiliate marketing efforts.
Do you have any suggestions for transitioning from newbie to the intermediate level. I know that I have to keep working at it, but I still don’t feel like I know enough to take things to the next level.
Hey George,
thanks for taking the time to read our blog! It’s surprising how big the coffee market is, really when you start actually looking at it in any great detail. I’m glad you are already benefitting from affiliate marketing, and you’ve clearly been on a good strategy to be making money already!
As for your query… I personally feel that is a mindset thing, as you will be the one that determines whether you are still a newbie or not. You’ve clearly got a strategy that is working, so focus more on what is working for you.
I would say that becoming a more experience affiliate marketer, means that you know what works for your business and what isn’t. When you can do that, you can stop wasting resources on stuff that isn’t going to help you achieve your goals.
It also means that you can work more on what does work. You’re getting traffic, so that helps you understand more about who is coming to your blog, so you can tailor your content more towards them.
If you are doing that extra bits already, then you may already be there. This business isn’t about being an expert, it’s about becoming an authority and that is based on opinions.
Hope that helps George?
John
Hi John, thanks a lot for your helpful blog. You are right that this is basically a type of business, therefore, we cannot expect to get paid right at the beginning like a 9-5 job where we receive payment weekly, fortnightly or monthly. It does need time to build up and earn money. I need to remind myself of that sometimes when I lose motivation. Thanks again!
Hey Grace,
it can be easy to feel down when you’re still not sure if it’s working, as you are going in blind until you start getting traffic. But if you ever need any help or advice to ensure you are on the right path, just let me know!
Thanks
John