There are many people, who are still struggling to find a way to become an affiliate marketer. Now, in this difficult phase where people’s lives are at stake and many companies are laying off their employees, affiliate marketing or eCommerce business is like a boon for them.
It not only gives you the option to work from home but give chance to earn a handsome income. But for the newbie, there are lots of questions that come into their mind like…
- Can I do affiliate marketing like a pro in 2021?
- Where should I start?
- How to start?
- How much money do I need to invest to start affiliate marketing?
- I don’t know anything about affiliate marketing and have no exposure to the online world. Do I still have a chance to succeed?
Or any other questions they might be having…
In today’s article, I will try to answer all your questions and concerns about affiliate marketing and eCommerce business or dropshipping business.
Before starting, let me tell you that if you do not take any action after reading this article, then you will remain where you are and the person who takes action will overtake you. Just by reading the article does not make money, after reading the article, you have to follow that leg and take action, only then you can get success.
Also, keep in mind that this is not an easy recipe for success. You need to have patience, stay persistent and keep adding the required ingredients to make it a tasty dish.
Ok, enough talk … let’s start and try to answer your questions…
What is Affiliate Marketing?
In simple words, Affiliate Marketing is nothing but selling someone else’s product and getting a commission in return. It is like you are working for someone on a commission basis without getting any monthly salary. You make a sale and you earn a commission but this commission could go very high. One can even earn $1000 or $3000 per sale as well.
There are lots of companies looking for affiliate marketers to promote and sell their products and in return, they pay them flat commission or percentage. Some companies accept AMs (affiliate marketers) from all over the world and some are limited to their own countries.
How to Start and Can I do Affiliate Marketing?
Well, find a company, start promoting their product and earn commission …. Seems easy … but, actually it is not! But yes, you can do it if you are persistent and have patience.
Starting an affiliate marketing or becoming an affiliate marketer is not that difficult but the difficult part is its promotions. But first, let’s discuss, how to start affiliate marketing?
The very 1st step is to find a company whose product you think, you can promote or knows about. It is called a niche selection. There are numbers of companies available online whose products can be sold online but it’s up to you to decide which one to promote.
Take it this way … a person good at golf will find it difficult to win in chess.
Why so? Because you should know what you are selling and should have good knowledge about that particular product. It will then be easier for you to write about that product or service and will be able to convince people to buy that.
So, does that mean, that I won’t be able to sell a product if I am not good at anything? Well, not exactly, if you are not good at anything, you still can sell products but with the help of other skilled people. But then you have to increase your budget.
Note: Never start any business in a hurry. Take some time to research and once satisfied, only then start the business.
You can start by joining Clickbank as they have millions of products to sell but be careful while choosing the product to sell. There are numbers of categories available at ClickBank (figure 1)
Figure 1
So, if you are good at computers, choose a product from that category or if you are good at sports, choose a product from that category.
Remember, this is just a first step, don’t think much about other things at the moment, just concentrate on selecting a product to promote, and please avoid things that distract you for the moment like your mobile or social media or any other platform.
Just think that you are preparing for your competition exam and stick to what is required … Again, there are several things that you need to look into while selecting a product to promote on Clickbank but let’s concentrate on selecting a niche first… rest of the things, we will discuss in another article.
Your affiliate link will be like this (figure – 2)
Figure 2
You will have to replace XXXXX with your userid and you are good to go…
Not only ClickBank but many other independent companies hire affiliate marketers. for example, hosting companies like hostinger, GoDaddy, Bluehost, HostGator, etc … just go to any company’s website and look for affiliate program at the bottom… figure 3
Figure 3
Once the company/niche/product is finalized, just go and signup for their affiliate program. Few companies will accept directly without approval but with few companies, one needs to be approved. The companies basically check if you will be able to market their products and generate sales.
Those companies will look if you have your own website and will also ask what other means, you will use to promote their product. I would suggest going with companies that don’t need the approval to become an affiliate marketer with them.
How do you choose the right company to promote?
This is the next question that may come to your mind…
Ok, you must know that every company has a reputation in the online world. People have given reviews online which decides their trust factor. There are sites like TrustPilot which shares user’s experiences as reviews. You can find if the company chosen has a good or bad review.
You can also search online using google using the term (company name reviews) and you will find many reviews related to that company.
If you see that the reviews are above 4.5 stars then the company is good to go. Just visit their website and read their payment terms. Many companies pay every fortnightly and some pay after a month. Better do some research and then finally join it.
What resources do I need to start affiliate marketing?
Ok, let’s note down the things you need to start.
- Your very own website like this one or a landing page
- Hosting (Obviously, if you are going to have your own website, you need a hosting)
- A product to promote
- A budget for advertising
- Last but not the least, marketing skills
The above 4 are not hard to manage but the 5th point is the most critical part of the journey. If you don’t know how to promote your product, you will die struggling. If you want to win in this business, you need to learn the methods to promote your products on your own or better hire someone skilled in the field.
Don’t afraid of putting money into the marketing. The better the marketing, the better the results. Even if you spend $100 and make only $10 or maybe nothing at all in the beginning, don’t worry … just keep rinsing, try different ways or methods with different people.
If you are confident about the product you have chosen, then just change the strategies to promote but not the product.
Now the question comes, how much money you need to start affiliate marketing?
Well, you can start with just $20-$40 and this money will be used to buy a domain and hosting for a year. Yes… really, you can start with such a low amount but then you will have to do everything on your own like promotions, etc. there are several platforms where you can start your promotions for a fee like article sites, FB, Instagram, etc. will discuss that in detail later or in a different article.
Note: Don’t try to complete every task in a day. You are starting a business and it will take time to grow.
Make a list of things you can do or maybe a timetable like we had in school. We study different subjects in a single day and learned many things in the process. Keep in mind that we cleared every class in 1 year and this is not a huge time if you are planning to make your business a huge hit.
Don’t be greedy. Don’t run behind the money. Don’t try to earn all the money in a single day or a week. People fail because they just want to earn money as soon as they join affiliate marketing but that is the wrong tactic. You need to focus more on marketing instead of anything else in this business.
You need to know how to attract customers? How to scale up your business? How to convert visitors into subscribers and then to buyers? Once you learn, you will definitely win the game.
So, first, start writing articles for your blog based on the product you have chosen to promote. If you are unable to think in the beginning, don’t worry… you can hire professional article writers for just $5 here or here. Both are good and less expensive places to get articles.
Once you have around 10 good articles on your blog, it’s time to promote your blog. Keep in mind that every article of yours should have your affiliate link as anchors and make your words clickable. Like I have above for articles. Both words (here) have my affiliate links under them and this is what you have to do.
But don’t just insert links. Make visitors excite to click the link.
For example, suppose you are selling a course online and you have written an article giving it a mixed review. Now you need to insert a link, how would you do that? Check the below line…
After learning from this course (insert affiliate link under course), I earned my first $1000…..
Now, people who want to earn money will definitely want to see the course that made you earn your first $1000. Even if they don’t click the buy button on the course, you have a visitor on your blog. Later, you can use remarketing techniques to follow that visitor. (you need to learn this technique to improve your marketing)
Note: just keep in mind… Never ever spam anyone with your affiliate links. Don’t just start sharing your links in FB groups, or bulk email a link. That way you will destroy your online reputation and obviously will get banned from many platforms in no time.
Just do ethical marketing to bring the results and keep your online reputation in perfect shape.
I don’t know anything about affiliate marketing and have no exposure to the online world. Do I still have a chance to succeed?
Frankly speaking, there are three types of people who can win.
- First, those who are good drivers.
- Second, those who have the ability to hire a good driver.
- Third, those who have the ability to be good drivers.
Now, you need to decide in which category you fall. If you don’t fall in any category, then just quit here and do whatever you are doing and stop dreaming about earning money.
Stop reading articles to articles. It will do nothing but confuse you with multiple information online. Listen to your heart and start with a list of activities. Remember, we discussed creating time table as we did in school or you can start from this free course.
Read it, understand it and implement what is suggested. Process step by step and don’t try to jump if you really want to make money online.
If you have any questions and concerns, do ask me in the comment section below…
And please if you liked the article, do share as much as you can to make other people learn the things in the journey.
