Guide to making affiliate marketing for beginners

Affiliate marketing is becoming a solid direction for many entrepreneurs, bloggers and content creators. This idea is an attractive way to make money online . However, you should not jump in without any plan or do not know what affiliate marketing is.

In this article, we will give you a course on affiliate marketing basics and get started with getting started as an affiliate. Come on, let's find out!

What is affiliate marketing?

Simply put, affiliate marketing is a method for you to make money online by promoting products, services, websites or businesses and getting a commission for every successful sale.

One of the most common examples is the referral link, where, as a publisher, place a link on your blog / website, then send users to a page. other web. If they buy something, you will get a commission from that trade.

There are many other variations - requiring users to perform a number of actions such as registering, completing a form or receiving an email address. In general, you can expect the use of a unique link of a type of affiliate product or service.

For commissions, it depends on the affiliate program itself . Some give you a percentage of sales, while others provide a fixed amount for each conversion.

You can track conversions in many different ways. Some use links with unique code to track where conversions are coming from. Other ways can provide unique "discount code" that users can use to track conversions.

Affiliate Marketing example

You already have a basic understanding of affiliate marketing. But exactly how does it work?

Here are two examples of how to do affiliate marketing:

Use Ads and Banners to Promote

This is the simplest and most understandable example of promoting affiliate products. Whether you have a blog or a personal website, you can promote affiliate products by using and placing advertising banners.

Visitors interested in the product / service will then click on the ad, then redirect them to the commercial page, where they can buy it. If the sale is successful, you will receive a commission from it.

Include or add links to the content

Another way to promote affiliate products or services is to include links within your content. This works well, especially if you are a blogger or content creator.

One of the common ways is to include links to related products in an article. Similarly, you can create content about specific topics and include affiliate links to products that are useful to readers or users.

Learn about Affiliate Lingo

Before we learn how to get started with affiliate marketing, there are a few terms you should be familiar with.

If you are considering affiliate marketing, knowing the key terms will help you avoid any confusion. Some terms to know are:

Affiliate

Affiliates come in all types or sizes, but generally affiliate creators tend to be bloggers, content sites or creators, related to the commercial industry.

Affiliates are people who introduce products, services or trade marks to visitors.

As we mentioned, they can become affiliate by writing or creating content related to commercial products or services, using banner ads on websites or providing discount codes.

Pay

Compared to other channels, affiliate marketing gives higher ROI because it is based on performance. This means they pay only for real customers instead of visitors.

Therefore, when multiple affiliates are billed in one transaction, it can be quite messy. You may encounter another affiliates claiming a commission for customers brought by other affiliates at the last minute.

A good affiliate program will provide multi-channel allocation to ensure affiliates generate the most value, receive the most payments.

Some common types of payment methods used by vendors are:

CPS (Cost per sale) - You will receive a fixed fee for each sale or a percentage of the value of the product or service.
CPL (Cost per lead) - You will receive a payment for each completed prospect.
CPC (Cost-per-click) - You will receive payment for directing traffic to a seller's website through ad clicks.
CPA (Cost per action) - You will receive a payout when users complete the actions you advertise (fill out a form or survey)

Net

Most affiliate programs are managed and organized through an affiliate network. They are quite useful because they provide a central database with existing vendors, making it easier for affiliates to find opportunities.

It also gives suppliers access to a large group of affiliates, and they often have access to tools such as payment processing, refunds, tracking, reporting, and administration. affiliate management.

Some of the most popular affiliate networks you can join are ShareASales , Clickbank , CJ , and even Amazon . Of course, if you prefer an individual affiliate program, companies like Hostinger offer affiliate programs that you can join.

Pros and cons of doing Affiliate Marketing

Like any affiliate program, there are advantages and disadvantages to using.

While affiliate programs may seem lucrative, especially for bloggers or independent entrepreneurs, you should be aware of the pros and cons before joining an affiliate program.

Advantages of affiliate marketing

Let's start with the pros. If you are considering affiliate marketing, here are some advantages:

Inexpensive / low startup cost . In general, you do not have to pay to join affiliate programs. Most affiliate companies handle products and services, meaning you don't have to worry about inventory or supplies.
Easy to join . The barriers to entry for affiliate programs are very low. You only need to fill out the form, then you can start promoting your product right away, although some programs may be harder to get involved than others.
No need to deal with shipping or returning products . As an affiliate, all you have to focus on is promoting the brand, product or service of the supplier and in fact they are completely handled by the supplier.
No need to create products or services . Again, what you need to focus on as an affiliate is delivery to clients and customers. Suppliers will take care of the rest, because starting your own online store can take a lot of work.
There are no special requirements . As long as you can promote affiliate products or services effectively, you don't need any other training or licenses. (Although it supports the site setting !)
Make money 24/7 . Just like any other online business, you can do affiliate marketing anytime, even when you are fast asleep!

Disadvantages of affiliate marketing

Of course, affiliate marketing is great but not completely perfect. There are a few drawbacks and some of them are:

Building referrals takes time . It will take some time for an affiliate to earn a considerable amount of money to generate enough referrals.
You need to be good at internet marketing . Yes, no professional training is required to become an affiliate. If you want to succeed, you need to be good (or at least know) about Internet Marketing (Internet marketing).
Advertising restricted . Some affiliate programs will enforce advertising restrictions, such as disallowing email marketing or using PPC ads with certain keywords.
There is a requirement to be paid . Some affiliate programs will only offer payouts after you reach a certain amount or sales.

The first step when becoming an affiliate marketer

By now, you should have a good idea of affiliate marketing and its advantages and disadvantages. But how do you make money as an affiliate marketer ?

Compared to other online projects, getting started with affiliate marketing is relatively simple because you don't need much. While still encouraging you to have at least one blog or website, it's not necessary.

To get started as an affiliate marketer, you need to:

Identify fields. You have a better chance of success if you focus on a specific topic.
Look up affiliate products and services relevant to your industry - research the reputation of programs and see if they take care of customers and affiliates.
Find out how you promote your affiliate product or service. The easiest way is definitely through a blog or website. However, you can use other methods such as email lists and product promotion links to subscribers.
Another way is to use social networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
Research and learn some internet marketing strategies for effective ways to share your website, blog or affiliate links.
Because you make money at home, learn about business licenses and regional business laws to make sure your business is legal.

Few examples of good affiliate marketing websites

Affiliate marketing has been around for a long time and there are many successful affiliate websites. Here are three examples we think are great:

Smart Passive Income (Pat Flynn)

For example, website Affiliate marketing - smart passive income

Pat Flynn uses his famous blog ( Smart Passive Income ) and podcast (Smart Passive Podcast) to promote affiliate products and services.

The reason Flynn succeeds is because he only introduces products that he is passionate and familiar with. He believes that affiliate networks should: deliver important value, understand what users want and need, lead and teach them by example, and gain significant trust.

Web Hosting Secret Revealed

Web Hosting Secret Revealed (WHSR) is an example of affiliate websites that focus primarily on web hosting content. It conducts reviews, case studies, interviews and in-depth articles on anything and everything to do with web hosting.

This website is famous for providing in-depth and detailed reviews of web hosting companies. Therefore, users will trust recommendations about its products or services.

Pinch of Yum

Pinch of Yum is a culinary blog and is run by a group of husband-and-wife Lindsay and Bjorne Ostrom. Through this culinary blog, they made up to $ 802,144.55 in 12 months .

They manage such success thanks to advertising, sponsored content and affiliate partnerships with Amazon. Of course, the key ingredient (no pun intended) for their success is high quality blog content.

Epilogue

Jumping into the world of affiliate marketing can be overwhelming for you if you're new to it. But like any other business, you need to work hard if you want to succeed in affiliate marketing.

Remember that it is important to be passionate about and fulfill the field you pursue. If reading is a lifelong hobby, creating a blog about books could be your way. Or if you like games on your computer, creating a gaming website (or even a server ) can be a solid starting point.

With this beginner's affiliate marketing guide, you'll gain a better understanding of affiliate marketing and how to get started, and hopefully, you'll become an expert in this area!