Have you ever wanted to know how to become an affiliate marketer?
Affiliate marketing has been around since 1996 and people from all walks of life are making a living from doing this.
Now I know you might be wondering what exactly it is that an affiliate marketer does?
In the following blog post I am going to show you exactly what you will need to be a successful affiliate marketer.
What You Need To Get Started
1.Some Training- before you can be successful at anything you need to get trained so that you understand how the whole process works.
2. you will need to choose a niche- something you are passionate about and want to promote.
3. Your very own website- to be successful everyone needs a website. You can get your very own Free website here and use it to promote anything you want.
4. An affiliate program for the product- whatever niche you decide that you want to promote, you need to join an affiliate program for it. There are millions of different affiliate programs for a variety of different niches and they are all free to join.
5. Some knowledge about your niche- It’s always a good idea to have lots of information about your niche. This is why I said to pick something you are passionate about so it will be easy to write about it.
Make Money Selling Other Peoples Products
This is why I love affiliate marketing so much!!
You don’t have to own the product to be able to sell it, how awesome is that?
Using some of the things I mentioned above, I am going to show you how you can make good money from selling a product that you are passionate about, and that is available to purchase online.
Let’s get started, OK?
There are literally millions of different products available for purchase online. The merchants who are selling these products are always in need of different ways to increase their sales, and bring in more customers.
This is where you can help them out, you might say how can I help them increase their sales? read on and you will be amazed.
Let’s say that you are a huge gamer, and you love video games. You might have a favorite video game that you absolutely love.
Why not take your passion for video games online and share it with the world. I will show you exactly how you can do this in a few easy to follow steps.
- Start a website offering a review of the product and telling everyone how great it is.
- Joining an affiliate program for the product.
- Writing articles about the product, and submitting them to the various article directories with a link pointing back to your review site.
- Social sharing your articles, and your website reviews of the product to the many different social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.
I will break this whole process down for you and show you how it works
When you join an affiliate program you are assigned a special ID number that will keep track of your sales, and the number of clicks you get.
Once you sign up and get your unique affiliate ID you can put the links to these products on your website.
When somebody reads your review of the product and likes it they will more than likely want more information on it.
When they click on your link and purchase the product that you recommended you will get a percentage of that sale.
Pretty cool isn’t it?
How To Find Affiliate Programs For The Products You Want To Promote
Affiliate programs are everywhere, you just have to look for them. The most popular affiliate program is the amazon.com affiliate program. Most websites have their affiliate program at the bottom of their website in the footer.
Another way to find affiliate programs is to do a search in Google for it. Just type in the name of the company and put affiliate program after it.
How Much Does It Cost To Join An Affiliate Program?
It costs nothing to join an affiliate program, merchants are trying to increase their sales volume, so they offer these tools to you for Free.
If you are going to be bringing these merchants more business and more traffic then why would they charge you to do so? Any affiliate program that does try and charge you to join is a scam and you should avoid them.
Is There Any Training On How To Become An Affiliate Marketer?
Yes there is my friend, I wouldn’t tell you about an amazing opportunity like this, and not offer you any training on it.
Wealthy Affiliate has been teaching people how to get a successful affiliate marketing business up and running for over 8 years now.
If you truly are serious about getting started in this business and would like to learn everything you can about it, you should definitely check them out.
I think we have covered the basics of getting started in affiliate marketing. If you should have any additional questions feel free to leave them in the comments below, and I will be more than happy to answer them.
Your friend Scott
Hey Scott,
I’m very interested in joining in the WA community and just have a couple questions. First, as you might have guessed, I’m short on cash but am interested in the video game niche. How would i be able to make this program work for me if I am unable to own or even test a product? Also, if im interested in another niche, but know only the basics about it, would I still be able to work with it as I learn more? All while still not having any substantially money it invest in it?
Thank you for your time Scott and all the effort you’ve put into us,
McKenna
Hi Mckenna,
You can join as a FREE member and gain complete access to everything WA has to offer. You can remain a FREE member for as long as you want until you are ready to take things to the next level. There is a special limited time offer discount if you join in your first 7 days. You will get 59% off your first month which comes out to only $19.
This is totally up to you though Mckenna, I just thought I would let you know about the discount you can get off your first month. The video game niche is a great niche to get into,(I’m actually a huge gamer myself) but it’s also a super competitive one. In order to be successful with it you would need to break this niche down and focus on only a segment of the niche.
For example, You could build a website on gaming headsets alone and have enough to keep you busy for a couple years or more. Wealthy Affiliate will show you how to take something you are passionate about and how to turn it into a full-time business. (In your case, this would be video games) We also have several members who are in the video game niche that you could follow and ask them anything you want.
There is one particular member at WA that’s making a pretty good income from her gaming website. There are companies that will send you sample products so that you can test them out and do a proper review without having to purchase them. You would need to contact these companies and tell them who you are and that you would like to promote their products on your website.
I have always said there’s money to be made in any niche if you are willing to put the right amount of time and effort into it. You don’t need to be an expert, but you do need to know enough about it to get started with it. You can find out just about anything you want to know about something if you do research on it.
When I first started with the niche I’m in I didn’t know everything. The more you work through your niche, the more you’ll learn about it. I understand that you are short on cash but at some point you are going to need to invest in your business if you want it to be profitable. I would suggest that you get started by opening your FREE account here
I will be getting in touch with you within 60 minutes of you joining to welcome you to the community and providing you with my getting started checklist. I will also be there to answer any questions you have and get you started on your first training lesson. I really hope this has helped answer your questions Mckenna and has helped you out. If you have any more questions for me or need my help please let me know.
I really am looking forward to working with you McKenna and helping you build an online business.
Talk to you soon
Your Friend, Scott
Dear Scott,
Just found your article when Googling. I read your reply to McKenna. I’m not a Video game lover, but at the same time I never avoid it. I have what I believe great source of audio products that may possibly be affiliated to it. How can I sell thru the aid of WA, should I carry it or proceed to the OEM of this product and ask to be their affiliate. Any comments from you will be highly appreciated. Look forward.
Hi Alex,
I’m glad you were able to find me on Google!
You can actually go about this both ways. If you have access to these products you could either sell them through Amazon directly or you could apply to be an affiliate for this company. To be honest with you, I think that being an affiliate is a whole lot less stressful and the best option for you just starting out.
They take care of all customer service issues, refunds, and shipping for you. The only thing you do is market the product and bring customers to their website. You will be paid a commission ranging anywhere from 4% up to 75% (Depending on the affiliate program).
There is step by step instructions on how to setup your affiliate website, build your basic foundation, and show you how to apply for an affiliate program and start making some money within the training at Wealthy Affiliate. You will be walked through this entire process and I will be there to help you every step of the way.
I recommend that you get the ball rolling by signing up for your Free Starter Membership. This way you can get your feet wet and become familiar with what you’ll be doing before investing any money.
I really am looking forward to working with you Alex and I hope this has helped answer your question. If you have any other questions please let me know.
I hope to hear from you soon
Cheers
Your Friend, Scott
Hello Scott,
I have read everything and am very interested in doing this or something similar. I have 2 small boys at home and really feel like I need to spend more time with them and my family and work from home. I feel like that is where I will be the happiest. However, I don’t know if what I want to do is possible. I love to test out new products and give my reviews on them. Would I be able to have a website where every time I test out a new product,I can write the review online for people to see? I have 3 pets (2 dogs and 1 cat) along with my children and husband, so I feel there is a wide array of products I could test.
Thank you
Jessica
Hi Jessica,
Yes this can be done and there is lots of money that you could make in affiliate marketing by reviewing products on your website. Nearly 70% of people who shop online search for product reviews prior to buying something online. They do this, so that they can get other peoples opinion about the product before they purchase it.
If you can get ranked in Google under the search phases that people are searching for, you will start getting traffic to your website. Once you have traffic there’s lots of ways you can make money off that traffic. If you write catchy, informative, and thorough reviews of hot products that people are actively searching for. People will buy the product through your recommendation and click your link.
As far as what products you review you would need to categorize these into something called a niche. A niche can be just about anything. Let’s say for example, you love to get your kids the latest and greatest kids tablet that’s on the market today.
You could write reviews on these tablets and go into detail on the specs of the tablet. I would provide your visitors with everything that you would want to know about a tablet before you purchase it. I actually know someone who has tackled the kids tablet niche and at Christmas last year his sales were off the roof.
You need to find similar products that are relevant to each other and promote these products on your website. You are going to learn how this whole process works and how to write effective product reviews as you start the training at Wealthy Affiliate.
I would suggest that you get started by opening your FREE account here!! Once you join I will be getting in touch with you within 60 minutes to help you get your account setup properly and to get you started on your first training lesson. If there’s anything that you don’t understand or if you have any further questions please let me know.
I would be more then happy to answer them for you and help you out. I really am looking forward to working with you Jessica and helping you build an online business from home.
Talk to you soon
Your Friend Scott
Hi Scott:
My true passion is in the area of encouraging and sharing with persons, the importance of healthy living, eating only good and natural foods that will lead to the pathway of good health.
I am still trying, however, to understand just how this subject could bring me the much needed money that I desire after introducing it as a niche topic at my website.
Please tell me just what points have I been missing. Is it that I should become an affiliate for someone special, when all these foods are actually sold EVERYWHERE in the marketplace?
I will not pretend that making money is not my priority at this time, hence my desire to own a feasible business online.
Thank you for simplifying the subject of affiliate marketing for us, and I greatly anticipate your explanation to my puzzling question.
Beverley Hines
Hi Beverly,
You could definitely take your passion for healthy living and natural foods and turn it into a full time business for yourself. This is a pretty competitive niche but with plenty of hard work and consistent action anything is possible. I was just doing some keyword research on a few keywords associated with this niche and there is tons of potential in this niche.
Let me break it down for you in 4 easy steps and show you how all of this works!
Pick a niche (like you have)
Build a website around your niche
Write content, get ranked and get traffic to your website
Turn that traffic into sales. Money in your pocket (Join affiliate programs in your niche)
Here’s the breakdown of these 4 steps
After you have your niche you need to see what keywords people is typing in to Google and actively searching for. This is made possible by doing some in depth keyword research to see how many people are searching for keywords in your niche. (Every time you Google something you are looking for a solution to a problem or you need help with something)
Once you find a couple of keywords you need to write articles around these keywords. You will start getting rankings and this is what will lead to traffic and sales. I’m not going to go into to much more detail but I hope you get get the basic idea about how affiliate marketing works.
You would need to join an affiliate program from someone who is selling products that’s in your niche.After you join you can get special links that have your own unique ID number. You would need to put these links on your website so that you can get paid.
All of this is explained plus so much more as you go through the training at Wealthy Affiliate. I would suggest that you get started today by opening your free account.
I will be sending you my welcome message and detailed instructions on what to do next after you join so be looking for it. I hope this has clarified things for you and gave you a better understanding of affiliate marketing and how it works. If you have anymore questions or need a hand with anything please let me know.
I really am looking forward to working with you Beverly and helping you get your own online business up and running.
Talk to you soon
Your Friend Scott
Hi I am extremely new to online marketing, blog publishing and social media marketing, email blasting, PPC and other internet based jargons which seems so foreign because I have never understood how it works and all its intricate terminologies. Except for the fact that as a college undergraduate, there was an immediate necessity to make big money the honest way, not some get rich quick scam which I also hope to avoid as there are many trappings on the internet these days.
I have been to your blog posting of “how to become an affiliate marketer” which offers a viable alternative to working a traditional day job, climbing the corporate ladder with plenty of office politics and red tape, not having a fulfilling life etc. Saw that you have been actively generating plenty of moola online through various means. I am baffled at the huge array of options of internet marketing tools which anybody could use to kick start their online business which I am also keen to learn more, but lack experience and expertise in the area of online business marketing strategies. This is a relatively new foray into the world of unknowables and my key motivation is simple-MAKE HUMONGOUS MONEY CREDIBLY AND LEGITIMATELY.
Generally speaking, wealthy affiliate program is not exactly like “EMPOWER NETWORK” another online marketing business where I have seen people packed stages during conventions and showing big cheques presented by company founders, hard selling products costing in ranges of $25,$100, $3500 and hoping to create as much residual passive income as possible from cross selling and upselling products through a viral blogging system. Because I was amazed at the diversity and scope of operations from joining as an affiliate of wealthy affiliate- so many applications and ability to connect to other platforms of money generation.
I am not familiar with how an internet business opportunity like wealthy affiliate works so I am writing this urgent message to find out more critical information before embarking on this journey to explore the internet world like never before, with your guidance and enlightenment. Most important thing is to make money not just learning how to create websites and generate leads etc. but long story short how does wealthy affiliate compensation plan works, if there are no products to market and creating numerous army of downlines and marketing promoters to push products,create sales and increase profit margins etc. how does the compensation plan work?
Lastly,I just reviewed the famous Amazon and Ebay affiliate marketing program and they looked very enticing and rewarding ways of getting started in the internet work from home business which has a great remuneration plan that rewards directing traffic to their advertisements and converting traffic into leads, whether they become customers or not. There is a fundamental problem right now-I do not have a single blog or website at all, just a regular web surfer with plenty of interest in almost any topics cool,fun and interesting.
Hence I am looking to WEALTHY AFFILIATE as a starting point to get my website launched as many websites and blogs as possible, monetize them and strategize my future business operations towards driving traffic to Amazon and Ebay advertisements in a scalable and feasible way, without having the shortcomings and danger zones of new internet business startups which happens too often. IS this possible at all? Presuming I want to start big and create a lasting impression on my page viewers, get high retention and rank very very highly on SEO tactics, start generating positive income flow in a rapid process. Where do I go from here- I was overwhelmed by the massive information overload by so many areas of internet marketing specializations and domains to concentrate on to make a site lucrative,specific and commendable. I require plenty of help, and with very little available credit as a student I will not be deterred in any way, profusely seeking help.
My email address is samuel_tan90@hotmail.com, yes I was a 1990 baby and a college student now, I hope you will be able to reply to my deep-seated queries because I am interested to uncover and get started on making my first $1 online ever.
Thank you very much and have a pleasant day!
Best regards,
Samuel Tan
Hi Samuel,
There are so many things that make up the internet marketing industry and if you were to master everything that was available in this industry, You would have a pretty solid business. I have been doing this for a year and a half and I still haven’t even learned half of the terms you mentioned above.
I’m glad you have enjoyed this blog and have gotten some value out of it. The beauty of having an online business is the work you do now will pay off later on down the road and in most cases continue to pay you month after month year after year. This is called residual income and Wealthy Affiliate shows you how to start building this up little by little and how to build this into a full time income for yourself over time.
Wealthy Affiliate is nothing at all like Empower network which is nothing but 1 big pyramid ponzi scheme.
Here are the differences between the 2
If you are looking to start a online business doing something that you are passionate about and growing your business everyday. You can do this with Wealthy Affiliate.
If you want to be a part of a pyramid scheme and rip other people off by selling them the thin air then Empower network is for you. Sorry to put it to you so bluntly but that is the 100% honest truth.
Wealthy Affiliate can show you how to build a very successful online business. There is a vast amount of training on things like blogging, how to build websites, SEO and traffic generation just to name a few. There is also training on PPC, email marketing and social media marketing.
You will also be learning all about affiliate programs as a matter of fact when you join through me and take advantage of my special 7 day offer I am going to be sending you a 3 part video series that talks all about affiliate programs, how to find them, and how to sign up for them. You will also learn how to get paid by using your affiliate links and where you should place them in your content. Definitely be on the look out for that.
When you are starting up an online business your #1 concern should be on trying to help out your readers and offer a solution to what they are searching for. Money should be the last thing you are worried about when you are first starting out. I know we all need money but if you focus on this only you won’t get very far. If you help out your readers/ potential customers out and be real with them they will trust you enough to buy from you. I look at it like this, money is the reward for helping your customers and solving their problems.
They will continue to buy from you more and more if you can reach out to them and solve their problems. You will be learning about all of this and so much more when you start to go through the training and start setting up your website. I will be your personal internet marketing coach. Whenever you need help with something or there is something you don’t understand I will be there to help you out and answer any questions you might have.
I am actually in the process of writing a comprehensive review on the WA compensation plan and I will email you a copy of it when it gets published. This will explain how the program works, how much you can earn promoting it and the different income streams you can create by going through the courses.
When you join WA you will be given 2 free websites to get you started and help you get your business off the ground. I wouldn’t suggest starting more then 1 website because this is going to lead to lots of frustration and you will feel overwhelmed and this will likely lead to you getting burned out. I don’t wanna see this happen to you and that is why I will be here to guide you every step of the way.
You are about to embark on a very exciting journey down the path of Internet marketing and I really can’t wait to guide you down the right path and get you started making your first $1 online Samuel.
I would suggest that you get started down this awesome journey by opening your FREE account and get started by filling out your profile with an image and a description. This is actually a very important part of the signup process because the more information you can provide the community with the better we can help you out. I really am looking forward to working with you Samuel and helping you get started online.
I look forward to connecting with you my friend and I will see you inside of WA
Your Friend Scott
Scott, you break it down so good until it’s scary. My wife and I have been looking for an online work at home business for years and every time we talk with one of the reps we change our minds. This is the first time that we have actually been excited. We have worked all our lives for someone else and tired of waking up at 2:30 in the morning for someone else. Get us started in starting our own business online.
Hi Willie and Rosiland!
There is nothing I would love more then too get you both started down the right path to making money online. There is so much misconception out there about programs that show you how to make money online. 99.9% of these programs has no intentions of helping you at all. The only thing they care about is taking your money and you don’t know anymore about how the process works then you did before they took your money.
I have been helping people get started in their very own work at home business for a little over a year and a half now and I absolutely love it. You won’t find no hype here or any promises that you will make a million dollars in your first week. What you will find is that if you work hard at this business and give it 110% you will start to see results.
I would sign up for your FREE account to get the ball rolling. After you are inside of WA you will wanna get started by filling out your profile with a image and write a little about yourself in the profile description area. I will be sending you my personal greeting within 60 minutes of you joining to welcome you to the community and answer any questions you may have when you are starting out.
I will be your personal mentor and help you get your business setup and running.I can totally relate to having to get up at 2:30 am to work for someone else. I’m so glad that those days are over! If you guys have any questions or need my help please let me know. I really am looking forward to working with both of you guys and helping you out. Let me know if you have anymore questions and I would love to answer them for you.
Your Friend Scott
Wow this is a great breakdown! I totally understood how this online marketing works now thanks! How did you learn all this?
I owe everything to the Wealthy affiliate university, if it wasn’t for them i wouldn’t even know the first thing about how to get started building a business online. I would highly recommend anyone looking to get started in their own work at home business to check them out!!