If you want to learn affiliate marketing…
This post is for you!
Because in this post, I’ll cover how to learn affiliate marketing in 2024.
Furthermore:
I’ll lay it out step-by-step so you know exactly what to do.
Ready?
Let’s go…
What Is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is the process of selling someone else’s product and earning commissions on all referred sales:
Overall, there are 3 parties involved with affiliate marketing:
Merchant
The merchant is the product creator.
This can be an individual, small business, or even a large corporation.
Publisher
The publisher is you (the affiliate) who publishes content online as a way to sell affiliate products.
Customer
Customers find out about the merchants products from content you publish and marketing campaigns you run.
When you promote products as an affiliate, you’re given a special link known as an “affiliate link.”
That affiliate link is unique to you, and when someone clicks your affiliate link and buys, those sales are tracked back to you the referring affiliate.
Every product you promote comes with it’s own unique affiliate link.
Pros And Cons Of Affiliate Marketing
Pros:
Low start up costs
Not much is required to do affiliate marketing.
The main things you need are a domain and web hosting.
Highly scalable
Affiliate marketing is a highly scalable business model.
You can go so far as to scale it into a full time income.
Flexible
You can work on your affiliate business part time, or full time.
You can do it from home, or anywhere in the world, so long as you have an internet connection.
Passive income
Eventually, you can get to a point where you’re earning passive income from your affiliate marketing efforts.
Cons:
High failure rate
The failure rate with affiliate marketing is really high.
Steep learning curve
There’s a lot to learn in the beginning.
There’s so much to learn that most people end up quitting.
Competitive
Affiliate marketing is extremely competitive.
How To Promote Products As An Affiliate Marketer
There are many different ways to promote products as an affiliate.
But the most common way (and the way I know) is by having your own affiliate website.
When it comes to affiliate websites, there are different types of websites.
Let’s take a look at the different types of affiliate websites, so you can see which one best suits you.
1: Product Review Site
A product review site is an awesome way to promote affiliate products.
Writing product reviews is also very popular amongst affiliate’s.
An example of an affiliate review site is BestReviews:
They review all kinds of products, from electronics and appliances, to lawn and garden products.
All of the products they review are affiliate products.
With a review site, you can review a wide variety of products like BestReviews.
Or you can review niche specific products.
Also, you can have a dedicated review site where all you do is review products.
Or you can have a site that reviews products, but also produces how to and informative guides as well.
2: Personal Blog
Personal blogs are another great way to promote products.
The good thing with a personal blog is, everything is centered around you and your interests, so you can be a little more personal.
You can do product reviews of your favorite products, or you can provide general information about any product (or topic) you like.
A great example of a personal blog is NomadicMatt:
Matt loves to travel, and on his blog he gives travel tips and talks about all things travel related.
Matt also recommends products and services he uses, most of which are affiliate products.
He used his blog as a way to document his travels, which also made him a fortune.
That also turned his blog into a full blown business, allowing him to travel full time while his blog generates passive income.
3: Informational Website
An affiliate website with general information is another way to promote affiliate products.
People will come to your site for information that’s relevant to them, and to help them overcome any problems they may be facing.
If you can be the one to solve those problems, you can also be the one who users buy products from too.
For example, check out NerdWallet:
They’re a big affiliate website in the finance niche.
They provide all kinds of helpful information about finance and saving money.
They also do reviews on their site and review credit cards, amongst other finance related products.
When they provide information on their site, a lot of times those posts also include links to affiliate products.
They also include links to their product reviews, where they’re affiliate’s for the products they’re reviewing.
How to Learn Affiliate Marketing in 2024
(The Beginners Guide)
Step 1: Choose A Niche
Basically, a niche is going to determine what your website is about.
It’ll make up the different topics you talk about on your website.
When choosing a niche, always choose one you’re interested in, and one you have basic knowledge of.
You don’t need to be the world’s foremost expert, but it certainly helps if you have basic knowledge.
Check out this post which highlights 60+ of the best affiliate marketing niches that are lucrative.
Step 2: Find And Join Affiliate Programs
An affiliate program is an arrangement where a company pays you for referring customers i.e affiliate marketing. (You refer customers, then generate commissions through their affiliate program.)
There are thousands of different affiliate programs online.
But the best way to find affiliate programs is to join an “affiliate network.”
An affiliate network is a platform that houses many different affiliate programs.
Check out this post that covers the best affiliate networks for beginners.
Otherwise, the absolute best affiliate program to start with is Amazon.
Amazon has over a million products to choose from and promote.
And their product range is so vast, they can cater to pretty much any niche you can think of.
Step 3: Create Your Website
Your website will be your “place of business” on the internet.
You’ll use your website to create content (in the form of blog posts) which is then used to attract your target audience.
That content is also used to sell your affiliate products.
There’s only 3 steps involved to create your own website:
- Buy a domain and setup web hosting
- Install WordPress (What you’ll use to customize your website and create content etc)
- Customize your website
In this post, I walk you through (step by step) how to create an affiliate website.
Step 4: Research Keywords
Keyword research is the process of researching keywords potential customers in your niche type into Google.
You’ll use the data you find when doing keyword research to know what types of posts to create on your website.
Keyword research is the “secret” to understanding your niches problems and struggles.
When you know their problems, you’ll know what content to create, and the products to promote to solve those problems.
Doing keyword research is easy, and in this post I break down how to do keyword research for affiliate marketing.
Step 5: Write blog posts
Blog posts are crucial for affiliate marketing.
Because blog posts are how you’ll attract an audience and sell products to that audience.
When it comes to blog posts, there are only 3 types of posts you need to write:
#1: Product Reviews
Where you review products that relate to your niche.
#2: How To Posts
This type of post is where you teach your audience how to do, or achieve something. (This post you’re reading is an example.)
#3: List Posts
These posts are simply numbered lists of something, with that something being based on a topic that interests your audience.
All posts you create should also include affiliate links wherever possible.
That’s how you’ll tie affiliate products into your content and sell those products.
Check out this post which shows you how to write an affiliate blog post step-by-step.
Step 6: Get Traffic With SEO
SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization.”
It’s the art of optimizing your blog posts so that Google ranks them high in their search results for the keywords you’re targeting.
Take a look at this post to learn SEO for affiliate marketing.
Recap: Learn Affiliate Marketing in 2024
Step 1: Choose a niche to operate in and create content around
Step 2: Find and join affiliate programs so you have products to promote
Step 3: Create a website which will be your “place of business” on the internet
Step 4: Research keywords to see what your audience types into Google
Step 5: Write blog posts that covers the keywords/topics your audience is searching for, and use that content to sell your affiliate products
Step 6: Optimize your blog posts for SEO, so that Google ranks those posts as high as possible in the search results for your target keywords
Conclusion
And there we go.
How to learn affiliate marketing in 2024.
Be sure to check out these affiliate marketing tips too.
And this post that highlights the best landing page builders for affiliate marketing.
Now, over to you…
“Are you ready to start your affiliate marketing journey?”
Let me know in the comments below.
I’d love to hear from you!
