Affiliate marketing helps millions of independent producers, business owners, and online media generate monthly cash.
The same may be said for highly regarded websites like the New York Times, Forbes, and NerdWallet.
Additionally, firms in the US spent $8.2 billion on affiliate marketing initiatives in 2017 according to Statista. That's increased by 76% only in the last six years.
But adding a few affiliate links on your blog won't get you a piece of the $1 billion pie.
In truth, the majority of newbies who try affiliate marketing fall short of the financial success that innumerable articles and videos on the internet promise.
Continue reading to learn how to succeed in affiliate marketing sooner and how to avoid typical pitfalls that keep newbies back.
Here is our advice for getting started with affiliate marketing correctly:
- Do some speciality research.
- Pick the appropriate platform.
- Choose profitable affiliate campaigns.
- Drive traffic to your affiliate site by creating optimized affiliate content.
- Make a straightforward affiliate marketing funnel.
- Monitor and boost your affiliate sales.
But first, here are certain essentials of affiliate marketing you should be aware of.
How does affiliate marketing work?
In the affiliate marketing business model, businesses trade leads and sales for income shares with publishers and content producers. It functions similarly to how a salesperson is compensated with a commission after making a transaction.
You can increase your income by increasing sales. Cents on the dollar to hundreds of dollars per referral are possible for affiliate commissions. If done correctly, affiliate marketing may enable you to supplement your present income or increase the revenue stream of an already established content business.
Here's an overview of how affiliate marketing works:
- You post a link to an affiliate site on your blog, website, or social media post.
- A client uses your affiliate link.
- The consumer is taken to the advertiser's website.
- Through a cookie, the customer's referral by you is tracked.
- A customer purchases something.
- An affiliate network gives you credit for the purchase and pays you a commission.
- Payments are displayed in your affiliate dashboard.
- You are compensated by the affiliate network (!).
Successful affiliate marketers come in all shapes and sizes. They range from solopreneurs to groups at reputable news organizations and internet sites.
Additionally, affiliate marketing carries no risk because you are not accountable for the product or service's delivery. Being a successful affiliate marketer does not require you to have a marketing degree or any other special training. Almost anyone can create affiliate income if they have access to the correct tools.
The capacity of an affiliate to engage an audience and draw in the correct kind of traffic is crucial to their success in today's world. To accomplish that on your own, you must create high-quality content that is conversion-optimized.
And building affiliate links is the first step in the entire process.
Affiliation Links: What Are They?
Affiliate links are the major tool used in affiliate marketing. Affiliate links have a special URL that is issued to you and are trackable. So that they may provide you with a commission if a certain consumer makes a purchase, they assist marketers in knowing which customers you specifically referred to them.
The format of a typical affiliate link is shown in the following example:
The most crucial thing for a newcomer to understand is that the consumer who converts must use your specific affiliate link for you to receive a commission.
Then there is the method by which you receive commissions. There are primarily two methods for generating affiliate revenue:
- Every time a member of your audience performs an action, you are paid (CPA). The action could involve making a purchase, starting a free trial, or submitting a contact form, depending on the program.
- CPC (Cost Per Click): Even if a visitor doesn't take any action, you still get paid for clicks the advertiser deems to be of high quality.
Some affiliate networks may even pay you for both leads and conversions. Different affiliate programs will provide various payment schemes. How to choose reputable affiliate programs will be covered later in this tutorial.
Here are a few more essential affiliate marketing phrases you should know while you're here. You can choose affiliate programs with a high earning potential by using them as well:
- Cookies: When a consumer clicks an affiliate link, a little file called a cookie is stored on their device. They assist companies and affiliate networks in keeping track of your referrals so they can pay you a reward in the future.
- There are usually expiration dates on cookies. A typical affiliate link's duration is between 15 and 30 days, however, they can last anywhere from 24 hours to a year or more. Because customers may revisit purchase days or weeks after they initially click on an affiliate link, cookie duration is important to affiliate marketers.
- Affiliate networks are third-party platforms where brands often set up their affiliate programs. These platforms connect affiliate marketers with brands. There are several affiliate networks, but Impact, Flexoffers, Clickbank, PartnerStack, and Rakuten are among the most well-known.
Is affiliate advertising profitable?
Your earning potential as an affiliate marketer is limitless. Who among us can make that claim?
How much money you make relies on you, the area you choose, and your capacity to maximize both your content and revenue sources. But that doesn't necessarily mean that most affiliate marketers succeed in making millions of dollars online.
PayScale estimates that the typical affiliate marketer makes between $3,000 and $6,000 per month (or $36K and $72K yearly).
Additionally, the richest 1% of earners bring in tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars per month. They typically have devoted teams, are full-time affiliate marketers, and have years of experience.
But to build a lasting business, you don't have to push yourself to the limit. The best thing about affiliate marketing is that it may start out by supplementing your regular 9–5 income.
And if you have the time and effort, completely replace it.
How to begin with affiliate marketing in 7 easy steps
Your income potential in affiliate marketing is mostly reliant on the niche you select, which is the biggest open secret in the industry. That is, the kind of customers you wish to attract and the kinds of goods they require.
The top 1% of earners also earn tens of thousands of dollars per month, if not hundreds of thousands. They frequently have loyal teams, work as affiliate marketers full-time, and have years of experience.
However, you don't have to push yourself to the limit if you want to create a successful company. The best part about affiliate marketing is that it might initially complement your income from a traditional 9 to 5 job.
Replace it entirely if you have the time and resources to do so.
7 simple steps to getting started with affiliate marketing
Your affiliate marketing earning potential is based on the niche you choose or the types of people and products you hope to draw in.
- Step 1: Based on research, select a niche
When trends fade more quickly than they emerge, such as fidget spinners, rushing to grasp the latest fads might be problematic.
To ensure that your affiliate business has a high earning potential and will be profitable for years to come, conducting specialized research is the greatest thing you can do.
In the process, you'll assess the level of competition, discover the affiliate programs that are offered in your niche, and develop a sustainable affiliate marketing strategy and content plan.
Following is a description of the niche research procedure:
There are several free niche research tools available that can get you started if you're seeking niche ideas. Just a quick list of the top three speciality research tools:
- Google Trends: Geographically sorted trending themes and queries
- Find out what queries people are typing into Google with Answer Socrates.
- Exploding Topics is a curated Google Trends substitute.
Having said that, if you're starting affiliate marketing on a shoestring or no budget, I suggest pursuing a subject you're enthusiastic about. When you write 50 or more articles on the subject, you won't feel discouraged or despise your niche.
However, just having a topic you enjoy doesn't cut it; it also needs to be profitable.
Once more, using tools like Google Trends will help you confirm that any themes you find are legitimate and not just passing fads. Most likely, you'll want to select an evergreen specialty that generates revenue all year long.
To find your point of entrance into the market, it's also critical to study the competition.
Web hosting is one of the most lucrative affiliate topics, therefore you might want to start a blog about it, but for new bloggers, the resources and content necessary to compete may be beyond their means.
Look for niches with a medium level of competition, where there are a few well-established competitors, but where you can better service a smaller audience, stand out, and grow later.
For instance, you may start with "salon website builder" and concentrate on instructing specialists in the beauty business rather than "web hosting" for everyone. By establishing a speciality, you can create a close-knit community around your company and potentially improve your Google ranking.
- Step 2: Select the appropriate platform
It's time to choose where to host your affiliate material and the kind of content you want to produce now that you have a niche in mind.
When starting out, affiliates have two basic options: a website or a YouTube channel.
An audience that respects your recommendations can be reached by promoting affiliate products on YouTube, where you can also increase your audience and establish your brand.
However, starting with only a YouTube channel has certain drawbacks.
- Producing a video takes longer than writing. which restricts the volume of content you can produce when your project first begins.
- Video outsourcing is more difficult. You will need to participate in each video if you are the channel's face, in particular.
- a challenge to expand your email list. There isn't a built-in method for gathering email subscribers on YouTube. However, one of the best methods for affiliate marketing is email.
- YouTube channels typically earn less from affiliate marketing. Simply put, obtaining affiliate link hits from a video is more difficult than getting them from a properly designed blog piece.
In the end, having both a website and a YouTube channel is fantastic. A great technique to increase conversion on an affiliate website is by including videos. However, if you're a complete novice, starting an affiliate marketing campaign with a blog will probably be simpler for you.
WHEN SHOULD YOU USE YOUTUBE?When you're trying to get into an extremely competitive niche, YouTube is perhaps a better option. For instance, if you wish to teach your audience about email marketing or advertise credit cards. There is less competition because video is a more difficult medium to master, so you can rely more on your personality to establish rapport and stand out.
- Step 3: Choose effective affiliate programs
Participating in affiliate programs is simple. However, one of the most common affiliate marketing rookie errors is spreading yourself too thin.
You should start with a small selection of affiliate programs that offer respectable commissions, stable demand, and strong conversion rates.
Choosing a quality affiliate program may be done in three main ways:
Assess earning possibilities first
The range of payments offered by affiliate schemes varies substantially. Some programs pay a couple of cents for each conversion. Others shell out several hundred dollars for only one lead.
Programs with lesser payments are generally more enticing because they are simpler to join and advertise, but more sales are needed to generate the same amount of cash.
The following three methods will help your affiliate math "work out":
- Low commissions yet high volume. Most Amazon associate websites are included in this. You must bring in $100,000 for Amazon in order to receive $5,000 per month in 5% commissions. If the typical consumer buys $100, it will take 1,000 orders to make $5,000. Typically, you need a lot of traffic to succeed here.
- High commissions on low volume. For instance, luxury affiliate programs (expensive watches or high-end clothing) and affiliate programs for photography (expensive camera gear). Both are more specialized, yet they both need fewer conversions to hit a revenue target.
- large commissions, large volume, and fierce rivalry. Good examples include SaaS affiliate programs (such as web hosting and email marketing tools) and financial affiliate programs (such as credit cards and bank accounts). You could find it difficult to compete because these programs are so profitable.
Check the cookie duration for the affiliate program while you're at it. Longer cookie lifetimes (more than 30 days) allow you more time to influence your audience's purchasing behavior.
Customers who have already made up their minds to buy can still benefit from shorter cookie terms. Make sure that your content addresses customers later in the purchase journey if you decide to work with programs with shorter cookie durations.
I'll go into more detail about how affiliate marketing relates to the buyer's journey in a moment.
Assess the opposition next.
Competition can be a positive indicator. There's a good probability you can succeed where others are succeeding in the niche. Google the kinds of search terms you'd like your website to appear for to identify rivals quickly and easily.
Then, find out which affiliate programs your rivals are heavily marketing on those pages. Find out how to join the program and the terms they offer.
If your rivals are further ahead than you are, this is one of the best methods for vetting affiliate programs.
AVOID AN ABUNDANCE OF COMPETITION.Even though having little to no competition may sound positive, it usually means the niche is unprofitable. Or, even worse, they have already tried, fallen short, and given up. However, if there are obviously other people profiting in a niche, that suggests that you can as well.
Assess the reputation and brand alignment
At the same time that you advertise the goods and services of other companies, you are developing your own brand and image. Choose who you represent carefully. Working with companies that don't support your brand breeds audience mistrust and eventually detracts from it.
Additionally, you want to make sure that the brand you're endorsing is likely to convert. Considering their sales pages, mobile-friendly design, and other internet reviews is necessary for this. Consider the factors you would take into account as a consumer while purchasing the goods.
You've chosen a few affiliate networks in your thoroughly researched topic, and it's time to start producing content.
Create affiliate-friendly content
If you don't have compelling content that brings in conversions, none of the other procedures are worthwhile.
It takes more than simply adding links to an existing blog article to create content for affiliate marketing. Through persuasive language and engaging design, you need to assist your audience in making a decision about a product or service immediately on your website.
High-converting affiliate marketing content examples include:
Product reviews: Before making a purchase choice, over 97% of consumers read internet reviews, hence these are common among affiliate marketers.
Reviews of products: Roundups that are focused on a certain theme or category direct users to pertinent products and diversify your earnings away from a single link.
Comparisons of products These are similar to product reviews in that they compare comparable products side by side to highlight their advantages and disadvantages. Comparing products is a great way to help audiences get started.
Web resources Compilations of your favourite tools and resources can be found on resource sites. While resource pages that concentrate on providing solutions to your audience's problems won't have the highest conversion rates, they will help establish you as an authority in the eyes of your audience and compile all of your affiliate links in one location.
Tutorials offer the chance to explain in a simple, step-by-step fashion how a product functions. When a customer can clearly see how a product will benefit them, they are more likely to believe it and purchase it.
Ebooks: Some subjects don't necessarily make for attractive blog posts, emails, or other forms of communication. Ebooks can help in this situation. They offer you the chance to delve deeply into a subject. The booklet can additionally be used as a lead magnet to expand your email list.
Other terms for affiliate content include commerce content. Whatever you call it, make sure to always include an affiliate notice that lets your audience know you might get paid if they use your links to make purchases.
Once a content format has been decided upon, it is time to optimize the website for conversion.
For new affiliates, conversion 101
Here are some of the most significant methods for accomplishing that without using several difficult plugins.
Button placement: Whether your call to action is to sign up, subscribe, or learn more, effective button placement and design are crucial to generating responses from visitors. The location of buttons should be obvious, with CTAs like "Read more reviews," "Check the price," and "See more photos" that pique curiosity.
Here's an illustration of a product review with a noticeable button above the browser's fold:
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People who are persuaded to scroll to the top and click through to the affiliate offer will find it simple to do so thanks to early buttons in the text. |
Callouts, also referred to as text boxes, are used to visually distinguish essential content from the rest of the blog. You might use them for persuading quotations or data points that affect the buying decisions of your visitors.
A sample is provided below:
Social proof that this product performs well is provided by both the number of installs and positive reviews.
Graphs, charts, and comparison tables: Visual summaries of information are equally as crucial as high-quality textual content. Use graphs and charts to provide users with a quick overview of important details.
Here is an illustration from a website that compares smart watches for children:
Images: Emotion is frequently a factor in people's purchasing decisions. Images that support a specific emotion expressed in your article encourage viewers to convert. Even better if you can add images showing the outcomes a product has enabled you to achieve.
For instance, the author demonstrates using each product in this makeup review:
Banners: Although eye-catching and noticeable, banners are often completely overlooked by viewers due to a condition known as "banner blindness." The key conversion drivers for your page will be stylish text links and buttons, so you can add them.
Popups: Despite the debate surrounding them due to their potential for annoyance, popups are a very successful way to convert readers. Each popup is a chance to re-engage viewers using tactics like promo coupons and limited-time deals.
- Step 5: Promote your affiliate site.
It's time to direct traffic to your well-chosen offer right now. Social media sites, SEO blog entries, and email lists can all be used for this.
The important thing is that you want to either get in front of people who are ready to buy or get their email addresses to inform and educate readers before encouraging a purchase.
Some of the top free traffic sources for affiliate marketing are listed below:
A little time and effort are needed to make social media platforms like Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest, and Reddit effective as free traffic sources for affiliate marketing.
However, the most prosperous affiliates also spend money on SEO traffic growth.
You can reach customers who are searching on Google just before making a purchase by focusing on buyer intent keywords. This method makes it far simpler to persuade people to click on your affiliate links and pay you commissions than it is to try to sell something to a potential customer.
Email-based affiliate marketing is another resource for free traffic that we can't emphasize enough.
Emails' direct nature allows for the delivery of customized messages right to the inbox of your prospects. They gain more knowledge about the product and move closer to making a purchase as a result.
Email is a terrific way to share limited-time offers, reinforce your audience's top suggestions, and curate frequent product lists.
- Build a straightforward affiliate marketing funnel in step 6
An affiliate marketing funnel is a methodical procedure that leads individuals from the beginning of their purchasing transaction to the point at which they become recurring customers.
If you need to introduce your brand and product to an audience that isn't ready to buy (like the majority of visits from Pinterest or other "inspiration"-based channels), funnels are essential.
By employing a funnel, you can keep the reader engaged throughout the entire buying process. In spite of the fact that they joined you weeks or months before they're prepared to make a buy.
The buyer's journey can be represented as follows:
There are three major stages in the buying process:
- Awareness: The potential customer is aware of and understands their issue
- Consideration: The prospect thinks about potential fixes for their issue.
- Conversion: The prospect decides to buy and subsequently becomes a customer.
Here's how to put a straightforward funnel into practice so you can turn leads from cold visitors into paying clients.
FLOWER OR NO FLOWER?Especially with low-ticket products that have clear value propositions, it is easy to bring customers directly to the affiliate website using a single piece of content. For high-ticket affiliate networks where clients need more time to learn before making a purchase, funnels are a particularly effective method.
Stage 1: Gathering leads via email affiliate marketing
When a visitor arrives on your website, use free offer opt-ins to get them to join your email list. A resource library, email course, downloadable PDF guide, or other gated information can all be examples of this.
Even though learning how to use email might seem frightening, it's a wise early investment.
For step-by-step instructions on how to get started, read our companion page about affiliate marketing through emails.
Second stage: sending prospects to affiliate landing sites
Having a prospect on your email list gives you better control over their buyer's journey, allowing you to assist them when necessary and fill in the gaps. You now have the chance to offer information that is relevant to their current location in their journey.
The prospect can gain the confidence to buy by reading emails from you about yourself, the outcomes a product enabled you to achieve, customer testimonials, tutorials, and instructions.
Link to your affiliate landing page once they're prepared. These are yet another opportunity for you to engage your audience, nudge them toward the purchasing stage, and foster trust before your prospect reaches the advertiser's sales page.
Step three; Streamline your funnel.
The fact that marketing funnels help you identify areas for process improvement makes them highly valuable. A funnel allows you to identify the precise point at which someone abandons their route.
Once you are aware of that, make adjustments to give the next user that enters the funnel a better experience.
Stage 4: Secure repeat business by routinely emailing your list
The customers who have progressed through the funnel are still good candidates for additional offers.
Your email list now gives you the chance to send subscribers extra email content that will take them on a new buyer's journey and help them progress via a different product's sales funnel.
- 7. Monitor and boost your affiliate revenue
It's finally time to discuss tracking.
One of the key elements of an effective affiliate marketing strategy is proper tracking.
The choice is between taking a step back and flipping on a light switch and stumbling around in the dark for your keys.
You can generate more money, faster, and with fewer pieces of content by giving yourself visibility into what's working and what isn't in your affiliate marketing plan.
And there is no better moment to build up a structure that will grow with you than when your affiliate website is just getting started. Here are the two key methods for advancing your tracking-based affiliate strategy:
Put basic affiliate tracking in place first.
Two methods of affiliate tracking exist:
- A network's tracking services, which include crediting your sales and informing you of the things individuals purchased after clicking on your links,
- Finding out which pages, affiliate links, text, and visual components are converting is something that you have to undertake on your own.
You can utilize SubID tracking to manage the second scenario. SubIDs are extra pieces of information you add to your affiliate link, and they ultimately appear next to every conversion that originates from that specific link.
A SubID is typically a query parameter that you can add to already-existing affiliate links. SubIDs fit into your affiliate links as shown below:
SubIDs function similarly to the utm_campaign option in Google Analytics.
Read our article on SubID tracking for affiliates for more details on SubIDs. Although it's a little technical, you'll be glad you set it up from the start.
You may completely automate this process instead of doing it manually by using an affiliate marketing solution like Affiliate.
then begin running some tests.
The first step after setting up tracking is to decide which blog post you wish to test. High-traffic posts, posts with new traffic, and posts with high intent but low RPM (revenue per thousand visits) all need to be taken into account.
Run tests on your chosen blog article to gauge its effectiveness and identify areas for improvement. Here are some suggestions for experiments you might conduct with your affiliate content:
-Comparability tables should be included,
-Call-to-action buttons' text should be changed.
-Adding hyperlinks to alternative affiliate products
-Cleaning up the site by deleting any links that aren't generating any conversions
-Examining various link texts
Using distinct SubIDs, you may determine which conversion-enhancing tactics work. In addition to determining whether the new additions are producing more clicks and money, you need also look at how much the material is making in relation to the audience size.
Again, you can automate this process using a platform like ours rather than manually piecing data from several sources together in laborious spreadsheets:
Once you get the hang of it, one of the best methods to invest in and flip websites is to run successful testing.
If you use these two methods correctly from the start, you will be far ahead of the majority of affiliate marketers in existence today.
Mistakes in affiliate marketing to avoid
Once you have a firm grasp of affiliate marketing's overall principles, be careful not to err on the details.
Your success will depend on a number of seemingly trivial tiny decisions that you make. Here are some frequent affiliate marketing blunders to steer clear of:
- extending your introduction. You just have a few seconds to grab your audience's attention whether you're writing material or making videos. Make sure you are making it apparent what they will gain by sticking with you and keep your introductions brief and sweet.
- focusing on the incorrect stage of the purchasing cycle. No matter how hard you attempt to sell, if your audience doesn't grasp the offer, they won't convert. Where necessary, your content should offer education and be appropriate for where your consumer is in the purchasing cycle.
- lacking a crystal-clear top suggestion. Product comparisons and roundups have a great conversion rate, but customers want a clear recommendation. Let them know your preference to make it simpler for them to decide.
- not recommending and connecting to substitute affiliate goods. Consumers are becoming increasingly doubtful. Promoting a product as the panacea for all ills will cause concern. Instead, be truthful in your assessments and recognize the advantages of other options. Even better would be if you could generate income by employing affiliate links for rival goods.
- failing to monitor affiliate metrics. The best affiliate marketers approach their marketing like the business that it is: a company. Utilizing tracking enables revenue optimization based on data-driven insights as opposed to intuition or conjecture.
If you stay away from these blunders, you'll be performing better than 90% of rookie affiliate marketers that turn off their readers before the first click.
Information on affiliate marketing that you should know
The past year has seen a significant change in consumer behaviour. In order to be current, accurate, and privacy-compliant, affiliate marketing must keep up with changing technical and legal requirements.
The hardest step is starting, so don't let your efforts go to waste. To create a viable company plan and secure your earnings, keep in mind these trends in affiliate marketing.
- 1. Brands seek partners rather than merely affiliates
Although affiliate marketing hasn't always had the best reputation, it still holds a lot of promise for both brands and publishers with a little bit of a makeover.
Rebranding from "affiliate marketing" to "partnership marketing" represents this change.
Instead of focusing on the number of interactions, brands and organizations are shifting toward quality partnerships. Thousands of influencers and content producers would formerly promote brands and their products. More discrimination is being used now to pick the best candidates to represent and advance them.
Brands will prefer those who can connect with their audiences on a genuine level while promoting their image. Brands are seeking creators who will rely on the loyalty of their audience to represent them in an honest and ethical manner.
With engagement indicators, such as an email list with strong click-through rates or a social media account with a lively comments section, you can prove this to brands. This provides you the power to bargain for greater commission rates.
- 2. The need for diversification is greater than ever.
Success in the affiliate industry is rarely dependent on a single revenue stream. Diversifying your revenue sources and participating in a number of programs are prerequisites for earning a substantial affiliate income. Rate reductions and program changes will significantly reduce your anticipated earnings if you only participate in one program.
Exactly the same thing occurred to Amazon associates in early 2021 as it did in the early stages of the pandemic.
Programs that hardly ever interact one-on-one with their affiliates provide them very little recourse when something goes wrong. Even though services like Amazon can be useful and profitable, finding alternatives protects against drastic income loss and increases your present earning potential.
- 3. Your moat is multi-channel.
Results obtained through a single platform are trumped by a multi-channel strategy.
You may get the best of both worlds by combining "owned" platforms like your website, blog, and email list with "rented" platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest.
Social networking is crucial for growing your following and reaching new people. The second most used search engine worldwide is YouTube alone. Successful social media content directs your target market to your "owned" internet property, mainly your website.
As an affiliate marketer, you must reach out to and establish a relationship with your target audience through a variety of channels in order to generate sales and return customers. Rented platforms are excellent for building a following, but building traffic to owned media is crucial to protecting your company against changes to social media platforms in the future.
Ready to move forward?
Future-proofing your affiliate marketing business heavily relies on diversification and multi-channel strategies.
In order to maximize their business, the majority of successful affiliates wind up juggling various logins and platforms.
You can use Affiliate to access a single hub for all information pertaining to your affiliate programs rather than logging into what seems like a million complicated dashboards.
You can quickly assess the effectiveness of your affiliate marketing material by using the Affiliate dashboard. Keep track of your sales, locate your best content, and learn about optimization all in one location.