Affiliate marketing is a skill-based method of making money online that anyone can learn. It is one of those areas in the online world that does not require any degree or formal education.
Want to learn about what affiliate marketing is?
Keep reading to learn all about this popular passive income method.
My affiliate marketing journey started in 2015 when I came across this topic on a forum. I was surprised to find out that something so simple and powerful was not taught in colleges or so rarely talked about.
With this guide, I aim to help you understand affiliate marketing so that you can apply this technique to make money in whatever field you’re in.
But why should you listen to me?
Because I’ve been doing affiliate marketing since 2015 and have been passionately practicing it, talking about it, and making life-changing money all the while.
But please don't trust me blindly.
Here’s a screenshot from one of the affiliate programs I promote:
The above work took about two years to complete.
However, the real question is:
How did I achieve this result? Can you do it too?
The key here is your passion for learning and your desire to live a free life.
I have achieved all of this by spending 10-12 hours a day doing something I love. There has not been a single day in my networking career where I felt stressed or didn't want to do something.
The only thing that made me different was that I didn't cheat. Those 6-8 hours of work were pure dedication, and from my 10 years of experience I can say:
Anyone with a reasonable IQ can make $1000-3000 in 6-8 months by practicing 2-3 hours a day.
How to do this?
Well, as we continue through this free course, we’re going to talk about the ins and outs of affiliate marketing and more technical details, but for now, let’s learn the basics.
Over the past 10 years, SidelinePlay has inspired hundreds of thousands of people around the world to earn passive income through blogging and affiliate marketing.
This would not have been possible if I had risked quitting my day job to pursue my passion. When I think about this, I realize how amazing my life changed when I mustered up the courage to start my own business. I feel like this is something you and others should try once in a while to transcend our limitations.
The only caveat is that this isn’t something you find in academic books or discuss over drinks with friends. This is one of those skills you teach yourself by reading guides like this one or watching YouTube videos like this one.
Through this affiliate marketing guide, I want to provide you with all the details about:
- Affiliate Marketing Basics
- How Affiliate Marketing Works
- How to Get Started with Affiliate Marketing
- Affiliate Marketing Terminology
This is your must-have guide that you should bookmark along with all your link articles to master the art of affiliate marketing.
If you prefer to read everything in book form, you can also purchase our Affiliate Marketing Handbook from our store.
Okay, let's get started.
What is affiliate marketing? How does it work?
Affiliate marketing is one of the oldest forms of digital marketing where you can recommend any online product to someone and when that person buys that product based on your recommendation, you will receive a commission.
Every major company like Amazon, Apple, and Google has an affiliate program that is free for any individual around the world to join. If you don’t know this, then pay close attention to the rest of this guide, my friend; you are about to discover one of the most exciting aspects of making money from home.
Companies that offer an affiliate marketing program may call it by other names, such as a "referral program" or "partner program."
Depending on the product you promote, commissions can range from $1 to $10,000.
Here are 4 simple steps to affiliate marketing:
- You join an affiliate program ( here’s a list to start )
- You choose the products you want to promote (you will be given a unique affiliate link)
- You share the link via social media, blogs, YouTube videos, Facebook ads, or any other means
- When someone buys, you’ll earn a generous affiliate commission.
The infographic below will help you understand the affiliate marketing lifecycle:
In simple terms:
Any company that sells products online will offer an affiliate program, and it's free to join. Joining is as simple as creating an online profile.
You just need to sign up for the program and get your unique tracking link. Now you can use this unique tracking affiliate link to recommend that company’s website whenever you write an article about their product. If your readers/traffic buy anything by clicking on your affiliate link, you will get a commission.
Is it really as simple as it sounds?
Yes and no!
Yes, for two reasons:
- Join the Affiliate Program
- Get paid
It’s easy. Thanks to advances in digital marketing and services like PayPal and Payoneer , it’s all automated.
What's difficult is how much you want this.
To be successful in affiliate marketing, you need to train regularly (daily). Imagine learning to play cricket, and the only way to improve is to show up on the field every day.
On the other hand, as we take on more and more responsibilities in our lives (work, kids, parents, spouse, weekend parties), we find it hard to find time to learn new skills.
Here comes the question:
How badly do you need this?
If your needs fall into the “uncertain” section, take a 360-degree look at your life and ask yourself what you stand to lose and what you might gain.
If investing 1-2 hours a day for a few months can give you lifelong financial freedom, then it doesn’t sound like a bad deal.
Besides, it’s a proven method that works!
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See also:
- Best Travel Affiliate Programs for Travel Bloggers [Best List]
- Top Affiliate Networks to Find Affiliate Programs [Super List]
How to Start Affiliate Marketing for Beginners:
There are many ways you can get started with affiliate marketing.
You can choose from the following options:
- Start a blog in your target market and use it to promote your products. This is the cheapest and easiest way to start an affiliate marketing business. For example: start a blog about women's shoes, work from home products, etc.
- Buy traffic from PPC sites like Google, Facebook, and Quora and direct that traffic to affiliate products or services. This is called PPC marketing and those who have taken a course on basic digital marketing should understand this better. As for the rest, take your time and you will understand this.
- Create a YouTube channel and promote your products.
- Build an email list by creating a mini website.
- Start a podcast and recommend products.
Here are the steps to start affiliate marketing through blogging:
This is just a rough highlight, as we progress through this free course you will learn everything in more depth and detail to create your own affiliate marketing system.
- Start a blog
- Choose a profitable industry and then choose a niche for your blog
- Choose the affiliate products you can promote
- Create content around these products
- Drive traffic to your website/affiliate posts
- Use an email marketing service to get your visitors’ emails
- Creating email sequences to automate your funnel (we’ll talk more about this shortly)
- Focus on driving more traffic and repeat the process.
Blogging is one of the most effective ways to get started with affiliate marketing because it requires minimal investment and you can learn all about it in a short time. From now on, what matters is how much energy, time, and wisdom you put into growing your affiliate business.
Affiliate Marketing Terms:
Here are some common terms associated with affiliate marketing:
- Affiliate: Publishers like you and me who use affiliate program links for promotion and sales.
- Affiliate Marketing Marketplaces: There are many marketplaces like Shareasale , CJ , and Clickbank . They act as a central database of affiliate marketing programs in different niches.
- Affiliate Software: Software used by companies to create affiliate programs for their products.
- For example: FirstPromoter .
- Affiliate Link: A special tracking link provided by your affiliate program that is used to track the progress of your affiliate promotion.
- Affiliate ID: Similar to an affiliate link, but many affiliate programs provide a unique ID that you can add to any page of your product website.
- Payment options: Different affiliate programs offer different payment options.
- For example: check, wire transfer, PayPal, etc.
- Affiliate Manager/OPM: Many companies have dedicated affiliate managers who help publishers earn more revenue by providing them with optimization tips.
- Commission Percentage/Amount: The amount or percentage of affiliate revenue you receive from each sale.
- 2-Tier Affiliate Marketing: This is a great way to make money with an affiliate program. With this method, you refer other people to the affiliate program and when the sub-affiliate makes a sale, you receive a commission (similar to MLM or multi-level marketing). This type of income is also called sub-affiliate commission.
- Landing Pages: Unique product sales or demonstration pages used to increase sales. Most items you want to promote will have many landing pages, and you can run A/B tests to see which pages convert the best.
- Custom Affiliate Income/Accounts: Unlike generic affiliate accounts, many companies offer custom affiliate income to the people who bring in the most affiliate sales.
- Link Timing: Most affiliate tracking links are ugly. Using link timing techniques (like URL shorteners, Thirsty Affiliates , etc.) you can turn ugly links into ones that readers can read and understand.
- Custom coupons: Many programs allow affiliates to create custom coupons, which are also used to track sales. Custom discount coupons can also help you increase affiliate sales.
For companies that offer affiliate marketing programs, this is one of the best ways to get free promotion, thereby saving a lot of money on advertising.
For example, whenever you see a coupon or discount link, most of the time these are affiliate links and when you make a purchase, the webmaster earns money.
Every affiliate program has a set of terms of service.
For example, payment terms, cookie policy, etc.
Let me explain the cookie policy as it is an intermediate topic but will give you an idea of the possibilities of affiliate marketing.
Many affiliate products offer a 30-150 day cookie period, which means that if a visitor clicks on your affiliate link and goes to the affiliate product, now you will earn an affiliate commission even if they don’t buy anything right away, but visit the site again within the next 30-150 days.
How do I find and join a new affiliate program?
Finding a new affiliate program is challenging, but if you do it right, you will increase your chances of earning huge income.
Here are a few ways to find new affiliate programs:
- Affiliate Networks and Marketing Platforms: There are affiliate networks and marketplaces that can help you find new affiliate programs.
- Affiliatizer: This is a chrome plugin that helps you find new affiliate programs.
- Competitor Analysis: Analyze the top websites in the niche you are targeting and make a list of affiliate products they promote. This will help you find high-value and profitable affiliate products.
I also publish a list of affiliate programs that are worth a look:
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Affiliate Marketing: FAQs
At this point, you should understand what affiliate marketing is and how it works.
Now, let me answer some common questions webmasters and marketers have about affiliate marketing:
How much can you make as an affiliate marketer? “Unlimited.”
There are affiliate marketers who make millions of dollars per month from affiliate marketing. I personally make over $30,000 per month from affiliate marketing. Below you can see a screenshot of my income from one of the affiliate programs:
The key here is how you approach the whole process. Do you use a blog or do you use PPC to market your affiliate products. The method I have been using for the past 10 years is through a blog. This is by far the most effective method.
Is having a blog important for affiliate marketing? Not necessarily, but blogs are indeed the best promotional tool. Having said that, you can always use methods such as PPC or advertising to promote products.
This is another popular way to grow in affiliate marketing. For me, the best way to make the most of affiliate marketing opportunities is to have a blog.Learn how to start a blog here .
How much does it cost to join an affiliate program? There is no fee to join an affiliate program, but your total cost will depend on the promotion techniques you use. For example, blog posts cost nothing, but PPC marketing, email marketing, and advertising will cost you a variety of fees.
What qualifications do I need to become an affiliate marketer? You don’t actually need any qualifications to become an affiliate marketer, but having good copywriting skills and marketing skills will be an added advantage.
Is affiliate marketing harmful or illegal? No, it is neither harmful nor illegal because you are simply using the affiliate links provided to you and not directly linking to any website. However, in some jurisdictions, you should disclose that you may be compensated for endorsing a product. Read our affiliate disclosure guide to learn more.
What are some profitable niches for affiliate marketing?
Anything to do with money: like making money online, how to save, how to invest, and making money from home.
Relationships: business relationships, finding a romantic partner, getting along better with your spouse
Health: Pain relief, weight loss, sexual health, fitness, nutrition
Learn new skills: online courses, coaching, teaching
Cryptocurrency
Wearable Gadgets
Personal Finance
Pet Care
travel
Web Hosting (Too Much Competition)
How to find affiliate links for any product?
Of course, not all companies offer affiliate programs, but for those that do, you can check their website for information about them. When searching, be sure to check the company's FAQ page if it has one.
Another way to find this information is to do a simple Google search. For example, you could type the following phrase into a Google search: "(product name) + affiliate program ." ( Replace "product name" with the name of the product you are promoting.) There is an interesting chrome plugin available called Affilitizer that makes this process easy.
This will take you to the login page. Many companies use affiliate marketplaces like ShareASale , CJ , or Clickbank . These marketplaces are free to use and you can create a free account.
How do I find new products to promote?
The above affiliate marketplaces are the best places to start your affiliate marketing research. You can browse your niche and see the best performing affiliate programs.
Alternatively, you can follow bloggers in your niche to see what products they are promoting and what methods they are using.
Affiliate Marketing and AdSense: Can We Use Both?
You can use both at the same time, as affiliate marketing does not violate any AdSense TOS. In fact, affiliate marketing works better for me than Adsense, which is one of the reasons why you see fewer AdSense ads on SidelinePlay.
How to get started with affiliate marketing?
Here at ShoutMeLoud, I and many guest authors present some of the best guides to help you gain insight into how to get started as well as some of the pros and cons.
Read: How to Start an Affiliate Marketing Business
Here’s a list from our affiliate marketing archives to help you get started:
I also highly recommend purchasing SidelinePlay’s affiliate marketing eBook . It’s a comprehensive guide on how to get started with affiliate marketing.
I hope this beginner’s guide to affiliate marketing helped you get started. If you have any additional questions, feel free to ask me in the comments section below.
If you found this article useful, please share it with your friends!
Disclosure: Some of the links in this article contain affiliate links, which means we may earn a commission if you click through to visit us, at no extra cost to you. See how SidelinePlay is funded, why it’s important, and how you can support us.
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