A Complete Guide on Affiliate Marketing for Beginners

It looks like magic. Isn't it? Set up a website, add a few affiliate links, and boom — you unlock an income stream that promises to stay and grow with you!

Affiliate marketing has been a promising revenue stream and a lucrative career as many bloggers have been raking in big mullahs with some even making six to seven-figure income every year via affiliate marketing. With that being said, not everyone makes it big with affiliate marketing but the right tips and strategies can push you towards better possibilities.

Before we dive into the ways to get started as a beginner with affiliate marketing, let's try and understand what it actually means. Here we go:

Affiliate Marketing — Understanding the Basics
How to Get Started in Affiliate Marketing Business?

Affiliate Marketing — Understanding the Basics

In simple terms, affiliate marketing refers to the process of earning in the form of commissions, every time you drive a sale by promoting products that may belong to a company, network or channel, overall. With affiliate marketing, the payment only happens when there's a positive sales conversion which constitutes the core of affiliate marketing.

While everyone's been daydreaming about affiliate marketing and how they'll be getting their dream car and dream house with the affiliate income, things aren't as simple as they may seem at the first glance. Before getting to know how to embark on your journey in affiliate marketing, it is important to know where to get started.

There's a lot of research involved here — right from finding the right kind of merchant partners you can bank upon to getting hold of high commission affiliate programs. To make things easy, here's a checklist that will help you embark on your journey as an affiliate marketer. Keep reading!

How to Get Started in Affiliate Marketing Business?

1. Identify Your Niche

Have your own space, and ace it. Every affiliate marketer out there operates in their own specific niches, as you influence the right kind of audience along the way. Marketers who target too many niches at once become irrelevant as their positioning statement falls flat.

So, discovering your target audience is crucial as it lays the foundation for your affiliate marketing journey. Whereas the right niche can make things smooth & easy, targeting the wrong niche can make life tougher for you as an affiliate marketer.

2. Understand The Market Demand

It's important to understand the market demand for your niche. When you embark upon the affiliate marketing journey, it is important to ask yourself questions like:

• Are people really interested in my niche, or will they search for it?
• Is the demand consistent for my niche?
• Is there a lot of competition involved in the category?

Getting answers to these questions will help you figure out what works for consumers and what doesn't. You can make use of tools like Google Trends that showcase how frequently a user searches about a particular topic on a scale from 0 to 100.

Validating the market demand is the stepping stone toward a successful affiliate marketing career. If there's consistent demand for your product or niche, you're more likely to succeed in the long run.

3. Competition — Where Things Get Tricky

If there's a lot of competition in your niche, things can quickly get tricky for you as more competition isn't always better.

In order to understand the level of competition in a particular category/niche, one can use keyword research tools like Kwfinder, Ubersuggest and SEMrush to quantify Google searches and understand the level of competition.

4. Affiliate Programs — Cracking the Right Ones

Niche? Done. Competition? Analysed. Great!

When you've done your homework right, back it up with the right kind of research for the ideal affiliate programs for your niche. This is where whatever you've learnt as an individual comes into play. Picking up the right programs not only increases your chances of being successful but also gives you an opportunity to maximise profits (commissions) alongside.

'Well I understand but what is an Affiliate Marketing Program — in the first place?'

Ah. Let us explain!

Affiliate marketing programs are the platforms that act as the bridge between merchants and affiliates. These programs provide a common platform for both the parties to commence their relationship and grow along the journey.

However, there are a few questions that demand answers here. They are:

• How much commission am I going to make from this program, highly likely?
• Can I relate to the programs and the brands that are a part of it?
• What kind of merchants is on board with the affiliate program?

It is important to understand that identifying the right kind of program is integral to your success. These affiliate programs provide you with the opportunity to build profitable partnerships — something that we shouldn't miss out on.

5. Affiliate Marketing Methods — Choosing the Right Method

How do I showcase the right content to my audience, so that it converts to sales and thus — commissions!

Well, there are different ways through which one can accomplish the goal. However, at this outset — let's talk about the most popular ones.

• Running blogs, creating websites & promoting across marketplaces.
• Running paid ads & Social media.

The mentioned ways may seem limited but they quality as among the most legit ways to do affiliate marketing.

Although many may argue that a website isn't needed to start with affiliate marketing, having one is an absolute no-brainer owing to the kind of flexibility it allows. It can not only land you better programs but also help you be successful by creating multiple revenue models backed by profitability. A domain, hosting and an email address is all that you need to get started with your website.

6. Content Is the Kingdom — Own It

The phrase 'Content is the king' never gets old for obvious reasons — as it addresses the elephant in the room, the fact that there's no substitute for great content. However, consistency is that key that makes us understand that it ain't the king, but the whole kingdom. No rules, no algorithm &  nothing — confines great content as the whole of the internet becomes the stage for a great piece of content.

Being consistent and coming up with great content is what is going to make you stay relevant in the long term. There should be something that keeps people hooked on to your website, product or niche and content seems to be that missing piece of the puzzle for affiliate marketers and blog owners.

You need not go bonkers with your vocabulary to produce a great piece of content. It can be something as simple as this article that may do the trick for you. This is because, at the end of the day, it is all about delivering value in some way or the other. But what kind of content makes things easy for an affiliate marketer? Now, that you've got the right niche and a beautiful website — it is time you crack the content game!

Here's how one can zero down upon the right kind of content:

Product Reviews: Writing product reviews about different products and services from your niche, qualify as one of the most effective strategies to ace the game of affiliate marketing. Brands are constantly looking for product reviews that convert customers, so writing content around the same can be a wise decision for obvious reasons.

When done well, this can quickly turn your website into a revenue generation machine. So, better be serious about it!

Blog Posts: Much like product reviews, blog posts are a great way to convert your visitors into potential customers for your affiliate products. By addressing common problems or issues faced by your target market, you can position yourself to make crucial recommendations in the future to your visitors — which can eventually convert into sales.

List of Affiliate Networks to find best Affiliate Programs

Affiliate networks help you to find the most suitable affiliate program related to your content. Here are the best affiliate networks you should be using.

StartupTalkyAlan Joseph

Conclusion

Consistency and Quality is the key to both content and affiliate marketing as a whole. Maintaining a constant quality that makes readers trust you plus endorsing the right products and niches, would go a long way in making your affiliate marketing journey — fruitful and rewarding.

There are other mediums too, through which you can start as an affiliate marketer whether it be google and Facebook ads, emails, social media, groups, professional networks or sites like YouTube and Twitter where you as an affiliate marketer, can build an audience over the time and convert it later on, by influencing them to purchase your products and services, thus — driving sales.

However, it is important not to expand into many mediums all at once as the consistency is a product of focus, dedication and timing — things that'll determine your journey as an affiliate marketer in the times to come.

FAQs

How do I start affiliate marketing as a beginner?

Identify your niche, understand market demand, and choose the right affiliate program.

Is it easy to become an affiliate marketer?

Getting into affiliate marketing is easy but excelling in it is not easy.

How much money can you make as an affiliate marketer?

You can make $150 to $300 per day, some experienced marketers also make $1000 a day.