Have you been searching the web for information on affiliate marketing and wondering what this is and whether it still works in 2019?
If you have come to this website then chances are that you’re interested in learning more about how this business model works and whether or not it’s worth your time and effort.
Kudos for doing your research on this topic beforehand so that you know what you’re getting yourself into before you hand over your hard earned money to a potential affiliate marketing scam.
I’m sure that you guys may have plenty of questions about this and I intend on answering each and everyone one of them within the following post.
However, if I fail to do so and you still have questions about this topic, I highly encourage you to leave them for me in the comments below and I’ll get back to you ASAP with a detailed reply.
Without any further chatter from me, I’ll be getting right into things and showing you guys how all of this works as well as showing you how YOU can get started for free.
You’ll definitely want to stick around and read this article in its entirety so you don’t miss out on any of the info I’m about to share with you guys today.
What Is Affiliate Marketing?
Before we get started today it’s highly imperative that you guys have at least a basic understanding of what this business model is before you can make money with it.
Makes sense, doesn’t it?
In a nutshell, affiliate marketing is where you’ll promote other peoples products and services on your website in exchange for an affiliate commission.
There are actually thousands of online merchants out there that will pay you nicely for bringing them more customers and helping them gain additional exposure to their products and services online.
This involves joining something called an affiliate program and reviewing products and services on your website that you are the most passionate about.
I was introduced to this business model back in 2012 but didn’t really take any action and do anything with it until early 2013.
It did take me quite some time to wrap my head around how this works, but after lots of trial and error, I was able to earn my first affiliate commission 4 months later.
6 months later I was earning close to $1,000 a month and from then, my income continued to grow.
I’ll be going into much more detail on the history of this business model and showing you everything you need to know to get started here.
Some Affiliate Marketing Background History
This business model originated back as far as 1996 as a way for online retailers to increase their revenue without going over their spending budget or hiring a bunch of employees.
Can you guys guess which online merchant was the first one to launch their affiliate program?
If you guessed Amazon, then kudos to you as this would be the correct answer.
Amazon launched it’s very own affiliate program back in 1996 and it wasn’t long before everyone else started to follow suit and jump on the bandwagon as well.
To this day, there are well over 10,000 affiliate programs out there that you can join that will pay you anywhere from 4% to 75% commission or more to promote their products/ services on your website.
What started out as a tool to help marketers expand their reach online & increase their revenue, has evolved into a way for anyone to create their own brand, build an audience, get paid to do something you love.
Now that you have a general idea of what this is all about and have some history on where it originated from it’s time for you guys to learn how this works and what you’ll need to get started with it.
Sound good?
Let’s continue moving forward, shall we?
What Will You Need To Get Started?
One of the many things that I particularly love about this particular business model is the fact that you can get started for free and you don’t need any previous marketing or sales experience to become successful.
All you need is your own website and a hosting plan and you’re good to go.
Outside of that, you also need the right training that will show you how to set this up and get you started in the right direction.
However, there are many other things that you’ll need to factor in, that won’t cost you any of your hard earned money, but you’ll need to be equipped with them before getting started.
They are as follows
- The Right Mindset Training
- The Ability To Work Hard
- Thinking More Long Term
- Learning a new life-changing skill
- Working for months without getting paid
These are just a few of the most vital things that are required of you if you want to have any chance of making it within this industry.
Step 1 Pick Your Passion
What are you guys passionate about?
Are you into health and fitness or perhaps you’re a hardcore gamer like me and you’re wondering how to turn this passion into a full time or part time business doing something you love?
Do you have any hobbies or interests?
Here are just a few that I can think of off the top of my head below
- How to perfect your golf swing
- Photography
- Dating & romance
- Weight loss & healthy eating
- Virtual Reality
- Computers & accessories
There are literally 100s of 1,000s of niches for you to choose from as the sky is the limit and because of this, people tend to become extremely overwhelmed pretty quickly.
This is why it’s highly imperative for you to narrow this down so that it becomes less overwhelming and not as broad of a topic.
I happen to be a pretty passionate gamer myself and have been playing video games ever since I was a kid so I tend to be very knowledgable in this department.
Instead of going with video games, I narrowed this down to a specific sector of this massive niche and chose to go with gaming headsets.
Not only is this much less competitive than if I was to go with video games (which could literally cover anything
& everything)
It’s also a much more targeted niche which will allow me to find my targeted audience much easier than if I hadn’t narrowed this down.
This will lead to much less frustration and make it so much easier for you to continue moving forward without any roadblocks along the way.
Are you guys still following me so far, or have I lost you already?
Step 2 Build A Website Around This Passion
Once you have determined what topic you would like to go with it’s time to start building your website around this idea of yours.
Building a website is nowhere near as complicated as it was 10 years ago as technology constantly evolves and they keep coming out with software that simplifies this process.
If you can click a mouse and follow simple instructions then you can have your very own website live on the internet with only a few clicks.
Over the past 6 years, I have built several websites without having to touch a single line of code that I was very successful with so don’t let this stand in your way.
Having your own website is an absolute necessity and without it, your chances of having any type of success with affiliate marketing is less likely.
Step 3 Writing Content Based On This Passion
Now that you have decided on a niche (hobby or interest) and built your initial website, it’s time to start writing out your content based on the passion you chose in the previous section.
Depending on the niche that you have decided to go with, this would determine the types of content that you’ll be creating on your website.
I personally have multiple content strategies that I use to mix it up and keep things interesting but here are my top 4 strategies that I use on a day to day basis
- Product Reviews
- Personal development posts
- Best of list posts (7 ways to stay in shape in 2019)
- Question & Answer posts
Unfortunately, this is another stumbling block that many people encounter along the way and this is due to the fact that this requires you to do a whole lot of writing which they aren’t really comfortable with.
Why?
This is a really great question and doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense to be completely honest with you.
We all do a great deal of writing on a daily basis without even realizing it!!
How many of you out there currently do at least 1 or more of the following activities listed below?
- Sending/ answering emails
- Texting our friends and family
- Updating your social media status
Guess what?
If you’re comfortable doing at least 1 or more of the things I listed above then building a website isn’t all that different.
About the only difference, I can see is that you’ll be communicating with your audience when building a website where when texting your friends you would only be talking to them alone.
Writing is also a skill that can take you quite some time before you master it and get good at it but the more you practice, the better you will be at this.
Step 4 Getting Your Content Ranked In The Search Engines
Once you have a content strategy down and you have learned how to write thorough effective content its time to start building your audience.
After a few weeks or more of consistent content creation, your website will start showing up for some of the most popular keyword searches that people are typing into actively typing into Google.
Ideally, your content should serve a purpose whether it answers a question, solves a problem, or comes in the form of a product review.
Your content needs to serve a purpose if you want to have any type of success in the online world and if it doesn’t then why even write it?
Once you start getting indexed in the SERPS (Search Engine Result Page) people will organically start finding your content and clicking on your website to read what you have to say.
This is when you’ll start to build a relationship with them which will eventually lead to them trusting your recommendations and looking up to you as an authority figure within your chosen niche.
Step 5 Earning Affiliate Commissions
Now that you’re starting to generate visitors to your site and are receiving a good deal of traffic to your site, it’s time to turn those visitors into revenue.
Sadly, this is the step that most people don’t make it to and this is due to the simple fact that they focus more on how much money they’re going to make than writing helpful content that answers peoples questions.
Like I said earlier, once you start to build a relationship with your readers and they start to trust you, they will listen to what you have to say and buy a product based on your recommendation from you.
Now keep in mind this can take quite some time for this to happen but once you gain their trust your earning potential is unlimited.
When I first started out here 6 years ago it took me nearly a year before I was earning any type of decent income with affiliate marketing but with lots of hard work I was able to make this happen.
Where Is The Best Place To Learn Affiliate Marketing?
There are actually many, many places you can go in the online space that claims to show you the proper way to build an affiliate marketing website.
However, due to my previous experience with this, I know that close to 85% of so called make money online programs are a scam and are only after 1 thing.
Do you guys know what that 1 thing would be?
They are only after your money and have no intention to help you out or show you the first thing about building an affiliate marketing business.
After falling victim to these type of scams, I eventually discovered an affiliate marketing training center that actually cared about you and wasn’t out to take your money and run.
The name of this wonderful community is called Wealthy Affiliate and I’m forever grateful that I found them when I did.
Without the right training and the proper help and support thats needed to get all of this setup, these 5 steps that I’ve listed above are pretty much worthless.
If you have ever shown any type of interest in making money online and learning how to build a website based on a hobby of yours then you should definitely check out everything WA has to offer you.
They make it super easy and affordable to get started by offering their free starter membership which gives you access to your first 10 lessons as well as all the tools to build your first website.
Not to mention the fact that I’ll also be there to help you out and answer any questions you have as you’re first getting started.
Other than that, I really hope this detailed post has provided you with all the info you need to determine what affiliate marketing is all about and whether this would make a good fit for you.
Questions, comments, or something you would like to add? I’d love to hear all about it and answer any further questions you may have.
Leave them for me in the comments below and I’ll get back with you ASAP with a detailed reply.
Cheers
~Scott~