Affiliate marketing is a great way to make money online. With a bit of know-how and the right affiliate programs, the earning potential is enormous. This article covers everything you need to know about affiliate marketing for beginners, including what it is and how you can get started quickly and easily.

E-commerce is one of the world’s fastest-growing industries and has serious potential to become the new global norm when it comes to buying and selling products and services. In 2017, global e-commerce transactions generated about $29.27 trillion.

As expected, this huge industry has given birth to other industries and sub-sectors. One of the most popular and rapidly-growing sub-sectors is affiliate marketing. Let’s take a look at what affiliate marketing is, how it works, and how you can successfully set up an affiliate marketing business.

1. What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is when you promote someone else’s products and services in exchange for a commission. In simple terms, affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based marketing system in which a company pays you a fixed or flexible commission based on the number of customers who purchase their product or service through your platform. You can do this by placing an affiliate link on your website, social media account, or email signature. When somebody clicks that link and makes a purchase with the company associated with it, you receive some incentives like cash back or reward points.

It is a form of marketing whereby the companies do not need to create their promotional materials or employ sales executives. Instead, this is ‘outsourced’ to affiliate marketers who promote the brand or product. This can be done by creating posts on social media or a blog, promoting on a website, or reaching out to people directly via email or social platforms. Some affiliates also attend in-person events to market products or services.

Affiliate marketing is a popular way to make money online, and it is easy to get started. Affiliate marketing in 2024 is not much different from when it began back in 1989 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affiliate_marketing). It is also one of the most popular methods for individuals to earn passive income online. It is a relatively simple concept, effectively you are promoting another company’s product or service. You don’t need any experience or special skills, and you can usually start promoting products within minutes, with no initial investment. There are lots of affiliate marketing programs available, and beginners can learn the basics quickly.

Many companies have affiliate programs as they recognize it is an excellent way to market, reach new customers, and boost their revenues. Affiliate programs are available from big, well-known brands such as UGG, Superdry, and Amazon and smaller, lesser-known companies and new businesses.

2. How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

Affiliate sales are tracked through a useful bit of internet technology commonly known as “cookies.” Whenever a customer clicks on the unique links provided to you by an affiliate program, the data tells the merchant who is responsible for the sale and calculates his commission based on several factors. This allows the merchant to attribute the sale to the right affiliate partner and pay commission.

Most of the time there are three parties in the affiliate marketing process.

Merchant: The business looking to sell their product or service (e.g Amazon Associates or Plus500

The Affiliate: The person with content, whether it be a blog or a large Instagram following.

Consumer: The person who links the “affiliate link” and purchases via the affiliate.

In effect, the merchant gives the affiliate a link, which is placed on the affiliate’s content. When a consumer clicks and buys via the link a commission is given to the affiliate.One thing that has changed over the years with affiliate marketing, is where you now find affiliate links. In the early 2000’s the most common place for affiliate links was in bloggs but with emergence of the influencers market many influencers have started to monetize their following through affiliate marketing and you can often see the links in the influences bio.

3. What are the different types of affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing comes in a few different forms, but the most common is when you place an affiliate link on your website. A WP-commerce plugin that includes many affiliates is WooCommerce. Many blog writers make money through affiliate marketing by linking to products they like and recommend.

Affiliate marketing also comes in the form of banners, text links, or ads on social media platforms that can be placed alongside posts to click and buy products if they are interested.

Social media is a popular method for affiliate marketing. This is because anyone can use their social media platforms for affiliate marketing. Influencer marketing is an excellent example of the use of social media for affiliate marketing. Influencers with a significant following can earn good money by placing affiliate links in their posts. However, while influencers are often approached by brands for this purpose, individuals can sign up for affiliate schemes and begin promoting that way.

Another popular form of affiliate marketing is list building and email marketing, where companies offer to share their content with subscribers in exchange for sending them emails or mailing lists.

Shopping services such as price comparison sites and review portals are also a form of affiliate marketing. When customers purchase through these sites, the site gets a pre-agreed rate of commission, like a ‘finders fee.’

4. How much commission can you earn from affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is an excellent way to make money passively. When people buy a product and use your link or banner, it’s called “clicking through.” You will get paid for any click-throughs. The amount you can earn per sale depends on the individual affiliate program. The average affiliate schemes pay between 5% and 30% commission. However, it is possible to make less or more than this.

Some affiliate schemes pay commission for each sale. Others will pay the commission rate for each item a customer buys at the checkout, even though only one of these was advertised via your link. Some more lucrative affiliate programs keep on paying long after the initial purchase. These tend to be ongoing subscriptions, such as software packages, for which you will continue to get paid monthly for as long as the customer continues to use the service.

Serious affiliate marketers tend to look for high-ticket items or ongoing subscriptions and target these to maximize their revenue. Others, who use affiliate marketing as an additional revenue stream, often prefer to advertise only the products they would genuinely use and recommend. This way, they can keep their content authentic and build up a small income from affiliate marketing at the same time.

As a beginner affiliate marketer, it is important to consider what you want to achieve from affiliate marketing and how you want to approach it. Will it be your primary income source or an additional revenue stream? Some people make a few hundred dollars a month from affiliate marketing, while others earn tens of thousands in the same period!

5. Steps to Setting Up a Successful Affiliate Program for Beginners

The world of affiliate marketing can at times seem confusing and vast. Here are seven basic steps to setting up a successful affiliate program as a beginner:

There are so many different ways to advertise your affiliate programs these days. The most popular platforms are through blogs, social media platforms like Instagram, and YouTube channels. These allow you to reach out to a wider audience at once and advertise your affiliate’s products and services.

Choose the platform which best fits your unique set of skills and brings out your strengths. Note that no matter which platform you choose you are legally required to inform your audience that you are being paid to advertise your merchant’s goods and services.

Choose a Niche

With over an estimated 600 million blogs on the internet and over 37 million YouTube channels currently registered on the platform seems almost impossible to attract a loyal following of readers or viewers. One of the tricks, however, is finding a highly specialized niche and providing your audience with quality content concerning the topic.

Try to narrow down your scope. Don’t let your platform seem myopic or monotonous but have a strong identity that will allow you to attract a dedicated audience. For instance, instead of just being a healthcare blog, why not focus on health supplements. Further, narrow your idea down to providing content surrounding natural herbal supplements. If you already have a blog or a niche following on social media, it’s always good to start by searching for affiliate programs that fit your existing content and style. This way, your links will fit naturally and be more authentic. If you haven’t going any content or niches in mind, here are some of the standout best niches for affiliate marketing.

Create Engaging Content

Once you have your niche you must create exciting yet informative content to attract readers and keep them on your platform. The rules for creating engaging content on a blog differs significantly from that of a YouTube channel or Instagram page. Yet there are a few common tips to keep in mind:

Know your audience. Always do audience research and know which particular demographic your content caters to. Then adjust your content to better connect with your audience. This is much easier than before to do. With many people monetizing their social media, Facebook offer service such as FaceBook for Business that give you a quick and clear insight into your audience.

Catch their attention early on. It is very important to catch the attention of your reader or viewers early on. Give them a taste of the great content you have in store for them in the first few sentences of your post or 30 seconds of your video.

Show passion. Informative doesn’t mean boring. There are ways to deliver quality content to your audience and still keep things exciting. Mastering this art is one of the most important skills in affiliate marketing. A good tip is to pick the affiliate program depending on your content, rather than creating content around a specific affiliate program. This way readers can see genuine interest and will generate a much higher engagement.

Pay attention to headlines and keyword research. SEO, keyword research, and engaging headlines are a vital part of any marketing campaign. Not only does this increase your Google ranking, but it also helps you target the right audience.

Diversify your content. Creating an identity is very important, but be careful not to make your platform seem too narrow-minded. Create content on topics related to your niche and attract an even wider audience.

Choose the Right Affiliate Program to Partner With

Now you have a platform, a niche, and the know-how to create engaging content. The next step is finding the right affiliate program to partner with. The affiliate program you partner with depends on your niche and your target audience. Almost all industries offer affiliate programs including Trading, Gambling, Fashion, Travel and even Cryptocurrency.

If you wish to cater to mainly businesses, then a high-paying but low-volume affiliate program is probably your best bet. However, if your aim is to create content for consumers, find low-paying but high-volume programs to partner with. There is a third option, high-paying, high-volume affiliate programs, but these are usually for expert affiliate marketers and are usually out of the range of beginners. Directories, like the affiliate monkey, are a perfect resource for beginner affiliate markets and will help you find the best affiliate program to get started with. You use sites like this to compare affiliate programs and search for programs across diverse sectors from currency trading and gambling to fashion, travel, fitness, and E-commerce. If you are unsure what affiliate program to choose and wondering what factors to consider, this article may help Affiliate Programs: Which is best for you?

Drive Traffic to Your Platform

This means increasing your average number of unique and regular visitors or viewers. There are several ways you can drive traffic to your platform, here are a few of the more popular options:

Generate paid traffic using PPC ads.

Invest in interesting headlines, SEO, and keyword research.

Build an email list.

Promote your posts on social media.

Maximise Your Clicks and Conversions

The first conversion is a customer clicking on your link. The second conversion is them buying the product from the merchant’s platform. The second conversion is mostly out of your control, but you can directly influence the first conversion.

There are several important things you have to pay attention to if you want to maximize the number of clicks and conversions your affiliate link receives:

Space your link placements throughout the post.
Make sure your link fits the context of the sentence.
Use callouts like buttons, tables, and boxes to catch the attention of your audience quickly.
Tailor your content to mobile devices.
Minimize distracting content.

6. Affiliate Pricing Models

7. Drive Traffic to Your Platform

Driving traffic to your platform means increasing the number of unique and regular visitors or viewers. There are various effective methods to achieve this goal. One approach is to generate paid traffic through Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising campaigns, commonly done via platforms like Google Ads or social media advertising such as Facebook Ads.

PPC allows you to create targeted ads that appear when users search for specific keywords or display them to a predefined audience, with the advantage of paying only when someone clicks on your ad, directing them to your platform.

Another crucial aspect is investing in intriguing headlines, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), and keyword research. Crafting compelling headlines grabs the attention of potential visitors and encourages them to click through. SEO involves optimising your platform’s content for search engines like Google, using relevant keywords, improving website structure, and enhancing user experience. Keyword research helps you identify the terms and phrases your target audience uses when searching online, allowing you to incorporate them into your content for improved visibility in search engine results.

Building an email list is a longer-term strategy for driving traffic and nurturing relationships. Encourage platform visitors to subscribe to your newsletter or updates by offering valuable content, incentives, or freebies. Email marketing enables you to directly reach your subscribers with new content, promotions, or announcements, which can result in repeat traffic to your platform.

8. Maximize Your Clicks and Conversions

There are several important things you have to pay attention to if you want to maximize the number of clicks and conversions your affiliate link receives:

Space your link placements throughout the post.
Make sure your link fits the context of the sentence.
Use callouts like buttons, tables, and boxes to catch the attention of your audience quickly.
Tailor your content to mobile devices.
Minimize distracting content.

9. Affiliate Pricing Models

The biggest question on everyone’s mind is ‘how do I get paid’? There are only three methods within the affiliate world. Those are Cost per Acquisition (CPA), Revenue Share (Rev Share), Pay Per Click (PPC), and Pay Per Lead (PPL):

Cost per Acquisition (CPA): In this model, affiliates receive a commission when a referred customer takes a specific action, usually making a purchase. The affiliate earns a fixed amount or a percentage of the sale as a commission. CPA is a popular choice for e-commerce and product-focused affiliates, as it guarantees income when a sale is made.

Revenue Share (Rev Share): Under the revenue share model, affiliates earn a percentage of the total revenue generated by the customers they referred. This can be a one-time commission or recurring commissions for subscription-based services. Rev Share is often seen in industries like web hosting, online courses, and software subscriptions.

Pay Per Click (PPC): In the PPC model, affiliates earn a commission based on the number of clicks generated through their referral links, regardless of whether those clicks result in sales or leads. Advertisers pay affiliates for each click on their affiliate links. PPC is commonly used in affiliate programs that focus on driving traffic and clicks to websites.

Pay Per Lead (PPL): PPL is a model where affiliates are compensated for generating leads for the advertiser. These leads could be sign-ups, inquiries, or other desired actions that indicate potential customer interest. PPL is prevalent in industries like insurance, finance, and education, where collecting leads is valuable for businesses.

10. Common Mistakes Affiliates Make

The first step in running a successful affiliate campaign is picking with the product or service you would like to promote. A big mistake many affiliates make is simply picking the program with the highest CPA. Other important factors should be considered when picking which affiliate program to promote are cookie lifespan (This is the time frame in which the sale will count as yours) A final common mistake beginners make is not picking a niche. It is extremely important to understand your audience and pick the affiliate program that will best suit them.

Below is a list of 2 additional common mistakes affiliates make:

Focusing on conversions and sales over helping your audience: One of the most common mistakes that we, at The Affiliate Monkey, notice among many affiliates, is their emphasis on driving sales and conversions. To tell the truth, adopting this approach and methodology is likely to result in you creating poor-quality content, leading to disappointing results. We believe that to see the best results in your affiliate marketing efforts, your primary focus should be on creating high-value content. Your writing efforts should focus on your audience’s best interests. How can I do this? Well, you can start by researching the affiliate marketing industry and then look into your audience’s frustrations, desires, wants, and needs. Write content for your audience and not around your audience.

Affiliates not understanding what you are selling: Many affiliates fail to put in the time to understand the product that they are promoting. Don’t be that affiliate! There are numerous ways and resources that you can use to educate yourself and stay up-to-date with the latest trends in affiliate marketing. You can sign up to news aggregation, and discussion websites like Reddit or even sign up for relevant affiliate marketing newsletters and forums. You can also use tools like SEMrush and Google Keyword Planner to stay up-to-date with your competitors and see what’s trending. There are many tools to assist you in your affiliate marketing journey, it’s just up to you to put in the work.

11. Types of Affiliate Products

As a budding affiliate marketer, it’s important to know the types of products you can promote and earn a decent amount of money. Typically, a large part of your income from affiliate marketing will come from core products. Virtually everyone from your audience needs this product, and you can also earn a good commission from it.

As you forge your path in the world of affiliate marketing, you can have additional products to supplement your affiliate earnings. Below are the core earners:

Digital Downloads: Digital downloads are online products or resources such as eBooks or PDF that your readers can instantly access. Aside from documents, digital downloads can be a web link, video, or audio file.

Services: It can be professional, hosted, or online services. For services, affiliate marketers should focus on those generally accessible to their audience regardless of location. In addition, it should be services you have experienced and are entirely confident about. Examples include virtual assistants, content marketers, web developers, UI/UX, etc.

Online Courses: Due to their massive popularity these days, they have their category as an affiliate product. Prominent platforms such as Coursera and Udemy have tons of online courses. They usually come with extra incentives such as lifetime mentorship, an exclusive community, etc. Those with high price tags typically attract a higher commission.

Ecommerce Platforms: Your best bet will be distinguished products of high quality for affiliates who want to promote physical products via their blog. Companies can give you their products for free in exchange for a review.

12. Types of Affiliate Products

Promoting affiliate sales with coupons and deals is one of the best affiliate marketing strategies. Before shopping for any product, customers often check various coupon and deal sites for discounts. Coupons are popular because they offer consumers great savings.

Coupons work best in highly competitive markets, such as food, beauty, travel, or gadgets. If you want your coupon affiliate marketing strategy to succeed, work with a few high-quality sites.

13. Engage Niche Influencers

With time, influencer marketing has transformed from a buzzword into a serious business. Brands are constantly learning how to make the most of this referral source. The majority of brands work with social influencers and bloggers in their niches. There is a greater sense of authenticity between influencers and their followers. You can effectively gain the trust of your audience and persuade them to use your products or services.

You may not receive a lot of traffic from influencers. However, their target audience is more likely to be interested in your offer. In this way, affiliate partnerships with influencers can increase your conversion rates. Most influencers expect monetary compensation, but many also accept free products or a revenue share.

Conclusion

Affiliate marketing is a great way to make passive income online. Even beginners who are relatively new to e-commerce and affiliate marketing can quickly pick up the tricks of the trade and build a loyal following through hard work, patience, and following the right strategy. The internet is a global marketplace, are you ready to dive in? For more tips, visit our homepage and compare hundreds of affiliate programs and see which affiliate program fits you best. We have covered all you need to know about affiliate marketing for beginners to get you started earning money quickly online. All you need to do now is find the best affiliate program for you and decide how you want to market the products or services. With the right approach, you could significantly boost your income with affiliate marketing in a short space of time.

Sources:

Best Ecommerce Affiliate Programs – The Affiliate Monkey

Affiliate Marketing in 2021: FREE Guide for Beginners (smartblogger.com)

Affiliate Marketing in 2021: What It Is and How You Can Get Started (bigcommerce.com)

How To Start Affiliate Marketing In 2021: Beginner’s Guide (semrush.com)

The 8 Best Affiliate Marketing Programs for Beginners in 2021 (larryludwig.com)

Can You Really Make Money with Affiliate Marketing? (thebalancesmb.com)