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Starting Affiliate Marketing

affiliate marketing notepad

Starting affiliate marketing involves several steps:

Step 1: Decide what you want to promote. It should be something you understand and are passionate about.

Step 2: Research and compile a list of affiliate merchants. Check out the merchants websites. What’s their commission rate? Do they they offer reoccurring commissions? Do they provide quality promotional materials? What’s their overall competitiveness?

Step 3: Decide where you are going to promote your affiliates. To do this you will need a landing page. You can sign-up for a single landing page with an online sales funnel builder service, e.g. clickfunnels. Alternatively, you can create your own website. WordPress is a good option because it has lots of support plugins for affiliate marketers.

You can also promote affiliates on social media platforms using paid ads.

Step 4: How to promote your affiliates. The most effective way to promote affiliates is through lead capture. You create a single landing page with a sign up form. Ask the visitor to sign up to your mailing list. (You can offer a free eBook in return for their sign up). Once they have signed up, you can send them your affiliate link using an autoresponder email. Once on your email list, you can send follow up emails and other offers containing your affiliate links.

The process of affiliate marketing

The process of affiliate marketing

Top affiliate programs

  • A popular affiliate program is Amazon Affiliates. It’s easy to set up. However, the commission is low – as little as 4% – as oppose to other companies who can pay 50% or more. To make serious money with Amazon Affiliates, you would need to promote high-ticket items.
  • ClickBank is a popular choice for digital products.
  • JVZoo  is a good place to start, if you’re a beginner. It offers a good user experience. On average, you can earn 50% per sale.
  • Conversant (formerly Commission Junction). This is a large network of companies offering affiliates. Once you’ve signed up, you will need to make individual applications to the companies whose products or services you want to promote.
  • You can also search for individual companies offering affiliates. This will be displayed on their website.

Picking the right affiliate to promote

Affiliate marketing tips and best practices

  • Write an article about the affiliate product in your blog or news column. I suggest you try the product, then you can write a pros and cons review, preferably with a comparison product. You can also create videos and add images of yourself trying out the product.
  • Do not promote an affiliate whose page does not convert. If the affiliate isn’t getting visitors to their site, and the product is poor or overpriced, you’ll be wasting your time.
  • You need to know your audience and do your research. You can make serious money from affiliate marketing if you are prepared to pay to promote them, usually through pay-per-click advertising.
  • Promote your affiliates through social media, podcasts, webinars, and your email list.
  • Read Google’s Console pages regarding duplicate content to ensure that you do not fall foul to Google’s Panda algorithm, which has a negative impact on the classic link-placing affiliate model. You will need to add a nofollow tag in the URL of every affiliate link you want to promote.
  • Promote by guest posting on blogs and forums.
  • You are required, by law, to have a disclosure policy on your website stating that you promote affiliates.
  • Do a product giveaway or contest.
  • Measure your affiliate performance using web analytic tools.
  • Promote select quality products.
  • Choose more than one affiliate program.

Picking the right affiliate program to maximize conversions

Other affiliate business models

  • You can start your own affiliate program to encourage others to promote your business. You can pay them a commission for every sale or lead they bring you.
  • You can open a gift store that will send your visitors on to the websites of your affiliates.