Affiliate Marketing Training
Affiliate Marketing Training can be performed in a variety of methods due to the several paths available to actually make money with affiliate marketing. The general overview of affiliate marketing can be found in our infographic. Here, we will begin your affiliate marketing with the basics and then guide you towards more advanced methods that make successful marketers stand out.
Again, basically, you are promoting a selling someone else’s product and gaining a commission for your efforts. The beauty of affiliate marketing is that you can truly get your online business setup in just about no time at all. You are basically connecting someone in need of a product or service with a merchant. Many merchants are happy to pay affiliate marketers to find new customers.
Your first step, of course, will be to do a bit of research to discover what product or service you wish to Re-sell or promote. Search Clickbank, JV Zoo, Commission Junction or any other affiliate network out there.
Look for a product with good sales pages already provided. This helps you sell AND tells you the creator of the product put a lot of effort in the product itself. Additionally, look for a product with residual or recurring commissions. You might as well create ongoing income for doing the very same work versus a one-off sale!
But, find something you really like and are passionate about. This does two things…. it will show in your writing and it will give you ideas on how to one day create your very own product that is perhaps better than anything out there.
Also, check the supply and demand of what you have narrowed down to sell. This is where effective keyword research comes in. Learn what volume of searches are done for the product or service. If there is next to nothing on the search results, there is next to nothing on demand.
Don’t waste your hard efforts on building some serious Internet real estate that no one is interested in. SEMRush is my favorite tool for brainstorming on things to build affiliate sites around. The basis of any affiliate marketing training is solid, fine-tuned keyword research!
Affiliate Marketing Training – Core Principles
There are basically three major areas to building a successful affiliate marketing business online.
- Content
- Web Traffic
- Pre-sell
1. Affiliate Marketing Training Core Component – Content:
Purchase a domain name and setup your webhosting. These items can be both done with the same service or done separately. The speed of your webpages is different for different providers and can make a huge difference within the eyes of the major search engines. So, while you can find cheap domain names or webhosting, I highly recommend the ones I have listed with my Affiliate Marketing Resources area.
I have tested most webhosts out there and these guys rock! Especially, if you will be using WordPress. WordPress is free, flexible and SEO optimized almost out of the gate. The numerous “plug-ins” available will make you look like a seasoned marketer and save you hours, if not days, of coding time and money.
I can’t recommend WordPress Hosting enough! I switched from a cheap shared hosting plan to a WordPress managed plan and my speeds DRASTICALLY increased. I’m so much happy and thereby, so is Google!
Once you have your WordPress setup, you’re ready to begin building content on your site. One of the beauties of WordPress is that the Pages and blog posts organically support each other in the SEO-preferred “silo” effect. I won’t get too deep into that method for now, but just know it’s much more beneficial than a standard HTML-flat file website.
Your WordPress Pages will contain your major information, Sales Pages, Tools, Benefits, Testimonials and so on. All geared towards making you an authority on the product and building trust with your web visitors. You can write these yourself and save or outsource it to an expert using one of the outsourcing venues on within my affiliate marketing toolkit. Just don’t copy and paste something from another website OR the provided sales copy. The search engines will know it and DEVALUE your website immediately.
Build engaging content! Don’t worry, you can change things out. I have always felt that it’s better to have something for the search engines to chew on, than constantly second-guessing yourself and not producing anything. You will learn to create a content marketing strategy to help you focus future efforts and continue making your new affiliate website into a valuable piece of Internet real estate. Later, you can even “flip” or resell your entire website for thousands of dollars (if it’s done right and profitable.) Flipping websites is just like flipping real estate.
2. Affiliate Marketing Training Core Component – Web Traffic:
Okay, so now you have your new affiliate marketing website up and running with fresh UNIQUE content. So, bring on the traffic!
That’s a lot harder than it sounds. Search engines only come around to a website once or twice a month. I hope you’re using this time to create engaging blog posts or more “authority pages” on your site – expanding your Internet real estate, building value and so on.
Learn good SEO techniques in your writing. WordPress handles most of the technical SEO aspects such as On-Page SEO Factors and Off-Page SEO Factors. But, be aware of what these are and you will rank better in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
Eventually, organic search is where it’s at! But, it will take time for the search engines to learn to love your site. Make it enticing with great content and get the “buzz” out on the social media outlets (more on that later).
But, if you want to gain some immediate web traffic (visitors) and possibly make some sales right away, there is always the Pay-Per-Click (PPC) method or Email Marketing. These two methods, with the right tools can make you money out of the gate. With some, you don’t even need a website. But, with most, combined with the affiliate marketing training you will learn here, you will see how much more effective and profitable having your own Internet real estate (affiliate website) under your control can be HUGE.
Most web visitors don’t buy on the very first “view”. It takes an average of five to seven views to capture their attention and create an action (the buy.) This is where autoresponders are like GOLD. Have a form on your affiliate website to capture their email address. Most high-end affiliate products will have an autoresponder series for you to plug in. These messages do the selling for you! Statistically, autoresponders will launch your revenue by at least 75%! Check out my autoresponder reviews page for the best autoresponders available.
3. Affiliate Marketing Training Core Component – Pre-Sell:
There’s an industry term that floats around, endearingly known as the Super-Affiliate. These are the guys that are simply CRUSHING it and making six figures or more selling other people’s products.
What sets them apart? Pre-selling!
Don’t devote your entire website to one single product. While this CAN make you an authority on the product itself, I feel it makes your site smell like an affiliate site. You want to become the authority on the topic. Choose more than one product and discuss the differences between the one, two or three items you’re comparing.
Also, don’t overuse “banner” ads. Again, this appears like you’re there for one sold reason, to SELL. You want to come across as informative. Giving the web visitor a CHOICE. Allowing the visitor the control to make his or her decision on which product to buy. The Pre-sell and how you articulate the information you are providing is what will separate you from the masses and totally skyrocket your conversion rates.
Put yourself in the shoes of the consumer. What do you want to know? How will this product help you or solve a problem?
Preselling is all about selling yourself as an authority or someone that has done the research, saving the visitor a bunch of time and is now, simply conveying information for the visitor to make an educated choice. Build respect. Talk about things that visitors can connect with such as how this helped you in your life with a certain situation with your family. Create a “connection” as a friend or colleague.
Don’t write your content for the sell. That’s what the merchant or vendors website is for. Be the researcher and conveyor of information that is simply guiding web visitors to the merchant website. When you do this right, not only will they respect you and purchase this product, they will believe in you and your opinions and perhaps buy many others that you “promote”.
Your affiliate website shouldn’t appear like an affiliate website at all. It should be a place where visitors come, get to know you, perhaps interact with you as a friend and you are simply making a “recommendation”. This is again, why you should choose a product that is based on a topic that you’re passionate about. You might as well write about something you like. It will show.
Okay, now you have the base core principles. Stay tuned for Part 2 of your affiliate marketing training!