I know you are tired of hearing it, but there is no better time to start your own online business than right now. The internet has opened up so many opportunities for entrepreneurs and small businesses that were never accessible before. I am going to show you the best way to make money online today with affiliate marketing!

According to Statista, business spending on affiliate marketing will hit $8.2 billion in the U.S alone by 2022.

Passive income -That’s the dream, right? Make money while you sleep.

Since you are here, your DREAM will come true if you spend next 10 minutes with me.

You don't need any previous knowledge about business or marketing, but if you want to be successful in this industry then it is important for you to learn as much as possible by reading and applying what is taught here.

The Ultimate Guide To Affiliate Marketing Made Easy! This blog post will cover everything from what an affiliate marketer does, what is the potential of earning, where to find products and brands to promote (affiliate programs), building your email list from scratch and more - we have it all covered!

Read on for a complete guide on this lucrative opportunity in digital marketing.  So let's dive into it shall we?

What Is Affiliate Marketing?

The definition is

“Affiliate marketing is the process of earning commissions for marketing another person's or company's products”

This is nothing but connector model where in an intermediary (affiliate) connects product creator to customer.

Some of the world renowned brands following connector model are:

Image Source: Google and Pixabay

Similarly, you will be the connector between the customers and solution to their problems i.e. goal/result.

For example, amazon affiliate marketing offers amazon affiliate program which is well known to everyone.

Simple isn’t it? But you got to follow all the strategies discussed here to the T if you want to succeed.

How Affiliate Marketing Really Works?

As I said, there are basically two sides of the affiliate marketing equation that you can choose from, a) become a Product Creator and have others to promote your product in exchange of commission b) become an Affiliate Marketer for one or multiple products you want to promote and earn commission for your marketing / selling efforts.

It’s not as easy as you think to get an affiliate link, promote and make money.

That’s why I’ll walk you through the 8 basic steps that you can take to get started as an affiliate entrepreneur (I want you to set your mindset as an entrepreneur not as just another marketer) in affiliate marketing industry.

So called famous gurus advise to drive traffic to a landing page, collect emails and keep selling products until they buy. This is path to failure if you want to build real and long term affiliate marketing business.

8 Basic Steps To Becoming An Online Affiliate Entrepreneur

Step 1: Find Your Niche

“It’s Better To Be Big Fish In A Small Pond Rather Small Fish In A Big Pond”

It is very important to focus on one specific market, one specific category. If you want to serve everybody then you are serving nobody!!!

For example, topic of weight loss is too wide and there is ton of competition. Rather go narrow as much as possible something like weight loss through ketogenic diet, weight loss for mothers through yoga or belly fat burning for corporate professionals.

Keeping your topics narrow and deep can help you build a more focused audience and help you differentiate from the crowd.

Pro tip: Choose a niche / topic which you are passionate about because if you’re passionate about a topic, you’ll find it much easier to press on when the going gets tough.

Step 2: Find Products In Your Niche

Since you have finalized your niche, it’s the time to find products in that area which you would like to promote.

Beauty of affiliate marketing is that you don’t have to create products, don’t have to deliver or don’t have to service customers. Only thing you have to do is to find world class products which will solve your audience problems.

Pro tip: You are your replica of customer persona. Promote products you have already used and found useful. Then you have moral authority and can easily convince your prospects to buy. Don’t promote anything which yourself not using.

Business is all about integrity. Never promote anything for the sake of high commission.

Step 3: Build Your Home Online

If you don’t have a home online, then you are just another 96% affiliate marketers who are failing.

Online gurus out there recommending that funnel is the way to glory but funnel is just transactional. If you want to build long term affiliate business or that matter any business, then you need to build a home on internet which you own and not depending on any platforms.

This is an important step before driving traffic.

Pro tip: Big giants like Apple, Google and Facebook are rewarding people who are operating as brand and punishing people who are spamming everywhere with affiliate links.

So start building your personal branded website before going in to next step.

Step 4: Create Valuable Content

Now you have your home on internet where you will be inviting your prospects to come and hangout. Isn’t it?

How do you feel when you visited someone and there is no one to greet, no one served you food or drinks?

Similarly, you need to create high-quality content for your audience to consume when they visit your website. Don’t just blindly curate products from Amazon’s best sellers. Go the extra mile to make sure your content solves the visitor’s problem. And that content should fit your affiliate links naturally.

Initially you may start reviewing products you would like to promote in your niche or talk about pain points your audience in your niche facing and how they can solve through products you are promoting or interviews or testimonials of customers who got great results after using those products…

Pro tip: If you’re doing reviews, actually purchase the product and test it. If you don’t have money to buy every single product, you can always start with what you have at home. For example, if you had a tech blog, you could create reviews on the gadgets you own.

Step 5: Choose Platform To Promote

Theoretically, you can do affiliate marketing on any platform. Even Instagram works.

However, for long term sustainability you need to build an audience and increase your affiliate sales via these two channels: a blog and YouTube channel.

Whatever the social media platforms you will use to promote your content as well as products, the thumb rule is always link them back to your website. (There is an art to doing this, which we’ll cover in upcoming post) This is applicable for both organic and paid engagement.

Pro tip: Once your website is up, optimize it for search engines (SEO) so that you have a better chance of ranking and drive unlimited organic traffic. From there, you’re free to add affiliate links in your content to increase the sale.

Step 6: Build Email List

When visitors visit your site, you have to create means to collect emails, so that you can connect with your audience at any time you want and don’t have to hope for them to see your content.

Email is still one of the best marketing channels today, so don’t miss out on it.

This is the best way for you to nurture them in to community or your true fans before offering or promoting your affiliate products.

It’s not about numbers but about how engaged your audience are. Engage with them regularly via valuable contents and sandwich your sales offers once in a while. Don’t make it all sales.

Pro tip: Some of the best techniques to collect emails are

a)     A call to action on top of your website like a Hello Bar when someone visits your website

b)     Exit Pop when visitor intends to leave your website and offer them a free eBook or a special

review video once they enter their email

c)      Sidebar widget with one call to action for visitors

Step 7: Convert Audience To Customers

Educate your audience with LIVE webinars.

Webinars are awesome way to engage with your prospects, help them to understand the solution to their problems and offer your solution which is nothing but affiliate products.

Even you can answer their questions one on one to give that comfort to purchase your offer.

Invite your email list and promote on social media for a week in advance and get people to sign up for the webinar.

If you are just starting out, even you can host a Google meet which is completely free to stream your webinar live to your audience.

Pro tip: Get your product owner to give you a special deal for your audience? If you promise to get their product in front of a couple hundred people, they’ll often happily give you a discount or special bundle to further incentivize people to buy.

Step 8: Scale Your Affiliate Business By Driving Paid Traffic

Once your affiliate business starts to picks up, you should consider Paid Advertising.

Only do this once you start making consistent money through the products you are promoting.

You can use paid advertising to:

1)     Sign Up For Your Webinar

2)    Grow Your Email List

3)    More Conversions

Pro tip: I recently published a guide on unlimited traffic. The strategies discussed over there will help to boost visitors to your home on the internet 😉

How much money can you make as an affiliate marketer?

Affiliate income is not consistent and results are not typical. It’s all depends on your niche, affiliate programs you choose, content creation or value you are providing, your consistency and your commitment.

You’ll to look at income from an annual basis instead of monthly. A decent affiliate can make anywhere from $10,000 a year to $400,000. A super affiliate can make upwards of $1,500,000 a year.

Conclusion

I have not reinvented the wheel here. These are evergreen principles which nobody is talking, and applying them will get you off on the right foot.

While affiliate marketing can be a great way to get started with online business, it is not for everyone. It's important to know that like any other business, you have to invest time and money into your work in order for it to succeed. Just don’t expect life-changing income or the freedom to quit your 9–5 overnight but definitely it will happen overtime.

If you are ready and willing to make some money from home or wherever there is an internet connection available, then now is always a good time to start!

Let me know how things go by leaving me a comment below; I'm excited about hearing more about!

And if you are serious about starting your own affiliate marketing business don’t forget to register below to attend our upcoming FREE Masterclass and I cannot wait to meet you LIVE.