Welcome all affiliate marketing beginners! In this article, we are going to cover several things you need to know about starting in affiliate marketing and the key points that are extremely important to remember when choosing an affiliate marketing program.
It’s definitely an entire new world with many different components, but anyone that is curious on how to get started can be successful in the marketing business if you know and understand the basic fundamentals and how to implement the best strategy to earn commissions.
The process might seem overwhelming at first, but don’t let it consume you. You are a beginner marketer, but we are here to get your feet wet and introduce you to your new online marketing business and help you understand how this system works.
Affiliate Marketing Programs for Beginners: The first thing you need to do is do some research!
Don’t worry about picking your topic, or product, just yet. Start off with a relatively basic search for “affiliate marketing for beginners” and pay very close attention to the terminology that is used. Learn the differences between “affiliate marketing” and “affiliate programs”. Your knowledge and understanding of these things will help you along the way as you begin your journey into affiliate marketing. An affiliate program is an automated electronic program that involves a web advertiser such as Amazon, Shopify, or any major company that offers sales for online products.
You come in; being the wonderful webmaster that you are, place the company’s advertisements on your website or blog. The ads that the affiliate programs generate are customarily and uniquely linked for you to place on your website and will redirect the customer to their company page where they are able to make the purchase. These are referred to as affiliate links. When the customer uses your unique link, the company makes note of this and gives you a percentage of those sales.
There are numerous affiliate marketing programs for beginners that will pay you different percentages and commissions, so know as much as you can about them before you sign up. Alternatively, the affiliate market is the entire network that makes up the programs, advertisers, and websites that you and other marketers create that displays those advertisements. Simple enough, right?
Dig Deeper and Narrow It Down
The second step is a little more involved, but is also is also the most informative. You’ve already done a little research on how the market actually works, so now you need do dig a little deeper. You will need to pick a topic or “niche” that you are going to market! Make sure it’s something that you are interested in and are passionate about. After all, you are going to be blogging about it, or even better, making videos and posting reviews related to it.
The more involved you get with this, the better. Your advertisements and reviews are taken more seriously because you have put a “personal touch” to it and you become a more trustable source. You are able to connect with your audience on a more personable level and they feel safer using your advertisement link after you’ve convinced them that it’s worth their hard earned money to purchase what you’re advertising.
When picking your niche, it’s easy to pick a broad category, like electronics, but electronics come in all different sizes, shapes, and functionalities. So, in that case you need to narrow it down a little. Do some more research and decide on a specific product, like a camera, and pick a model that fits your lifestyle. Look up reviews from other people that have used it and make lists of the pros and cons of it. Doing this will even help you later when you make your own review videos. Gather as much knowledge as you can and implement that knowledge into a website.
Products
Do you need to own the product? No. You are simply promoting something that belongs to someone else. They make money and you make money. Once you get the hang of it, you can add categories to your product and offer things like accessories, such as tripods or different types of lenses that are available to suit the needs of people that are in the realm of a different market. But don’t worry about all that just yet, you’ll get there.
Be aware that your niche needs to be something that can be marketable without too much competition. In other words, don’t promote a “bad” product. The first thing you should do is check Google for the “search volume” for the idea you have in mind for your niche. They are the biggest search engine in the world where a lot of traffic is going to come from. Finding out just how many people are searching for your niche idea and related keywords or search phrases on Google is great starting point for beginning marketers. It determines if your idea is profitable or not. Although keyword research isn’t the bigger picture, it’s actually a smaller piece of a bigger process, it shows instant demand.
Keywords and Traffic
Once you search for key terms, write them down in a notebook and keep a record of these keywords to use in the future. When you’re writing a blog post or article to put on your website, use these key works to direct more traffic to yourself.
If people are already using those key terms Google gave you, it’s like they’ve given all the answers to a test! Online traffic will be able to find your website more easily and if you’re lucky enough and have put in the effort, Google will find a place for you on page #1!
Infrastructure, Platform and Hosting
With that being said, it’s time to get familiar with all of the different websites that are available to host your website or blog. Your website is the most crucial part because this is where you will display all of your hard work and effort in creating those advertisements we’ve been talking about! These are called “platforms”.
It is very important to pay close attention to the differentials of these as there are many to choose from and choosing the right one can be intimidating… Some platforms require a membership fee to host your website, and also make you pay for your domain name without offering any perks in return.
Our Recommendation: The Best Affiliate Marketing Program for Beginners
However, there is an alternative platform that will help guide you and give you access to all you need to know about affiliate marketing. This site is called wealthyaffiliate.com. Wealthy affiliate is definitely the best affiliate marketing program for beginners. It is an exclusive platform, unlike the rest. It is all-in-one online community that lets you give it a try for free for 7 days. During your trial period, you will have access to video tutorials and a network of other members to answer any questions you may have along the way, as well as free website hosting that includes spam protection, terms and conditions, a disclosure page and a privacy policy.
As a premium member, you will have access to customer feedback and support, website functionality support and many other helpful things that are hard to obtain from any other website. After you have created a Wealthy Affiliate account, you can create your free WordPress website and begin to join different affiliate programs.
It takes a lot of hard work and effort, but if you’re willing to put your heart into it, there is no cap as to how much you can make and the possibilities that will become available to you. The more you establish yourself and learn how affiliate marketing works and all of its dynamics, you can branch out and try other niche’s and join affiliate programs that will pay you a higher percentage based on the density of your audience!
Amazon Affiliate Marketing
Another great of many affiliate marketing programs for beginners to keep in mind would be Amazon Associates. They were one of the first programs to be launched over 12 years ago so it’s safe to say they know what they are doing. It’s free to join, but keep in mind that it’s better to have a good established audience and website to advertise on before you apply.
Amazon is one of those “easily recognizable” names so it’d be a breeze to snag customers and provide them the convenience of referring them to a trustable website where they can do their shopping. And when they do, you can earn up to 10% in referral fees. While they are shopping, amazon often adds a “frequently bought together” section to convince customers they need accessories to the product you just led them to. If they buy any of those things, or basically anything else for that matter, you earn a commission off of those products too! How cool is that?
FlexOffers
Flexoffers is another of the large affiliate marketing networks that is quite large and their payouts happen a lot quicker than most programs. While they don’t offer anything “extraordinary”, they do provide a solid foundation of tools to facilitate you and help you promote your campaign. Flexoffers also lets you choose from a vast array of affiliate programs to promote using various formats to deliver your content.
I could go on and on about the different types affiliate marketing programs for beginners that are available, but there are literally tens of thousands of different affiliate programs to choose from with copious amounts of categories and sub-categories, which makes life a little easier when it comes to finding exactly what would fit into your niche. It’s all about what YOU want to do, how far you want it to go and how much effort you put into getting where you aspire to be. In affiliate marketing online, the possibilities are endless!
