Affiliate Marketing For Beginners: What It Is + How to Succeed

Imagine all you needed to make money online was a website. You don’t have to create your own products or offer a service. Sounds good? Welcome to affiliate marketing.

According to Statista, business spending on affiliate marketing will hit $8.2 billion in the U.S by 2022.

Start today, and you’ll be in a prime position to take advantage of that.

In this guide, you’ll learn:What affiliate marketing isWhy do affiliate marketingHow affiliate marketing worksHow much money you can potentially makeHow to get started with affiliate marketing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-nbsnXtSZIWhat is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is where you promote another company’s product or service in return for a commission on the sales you generate. Commissions are typically a percentage of the sale price, but can occasionally be a fixed amount.Why do affiliate marketing?

Here are two reasons why you should consider doing affiliate marketing:1. Low-cost and low-risk

Starting a business means incurring upfront costs for products, employees, equipment, rent, and so on. This makes it risky and expensive. With affiliate marketing, all you need is a website. Even if it doesn’t work out, all you’ve wasted is time and a little bit of money.2. Easy to scale

A typical salesperson only sells products from one company. As an affiliate marketer, you can promote products from many different companies and earn commissions from all of them.How does affiliate marketing work?

The merchant gives each affiliate a unique link so they can track who was responsible for a sale. The link will usually look something like this:

When someone clicks that link, a small file called a cookie gets stored on their device.

An affiliate cookie does two things:It helps the merchant attribute the sale back to the right person;It (usually) holds an expiration date, so you get paid even if the buyer delays their purchase.

Here’s an example of how this works.

Imagine that a reader visits your post about the best winter jackets. They click on one of your affiliate links, leading them to a product on Amazon.

But they realized they have to pick up their daughter from school. So they leave their house, pick up their daughter, have dinner, and then finally go back to Amazon where they find the product again.

Since they’re already shopping on Amazon, they decide to purchase some ski gear too.

Here’s the good news. Earlier, they clicked on your affiliate link and a cookie was stored on their device. Because Amazon has a 24-hour cookie duration, you get compensated for both the winter jacket and ski gear—even though you didn’t promote the latter.How much money can I make as an affiliate marketer?

The simple answer is that there is no limit. It depends on your niche and the amount of work you put in.

The most successful affiliate marketers make six or seven figures a month.

For example, Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income made over $100,000 in affiliate commissions in December 2017.

Ryan Robinson, another affiliate marketer, reported over $19,000 in affiliate revenue in October 2019. Another successful affiliate website—The Wirecutter—made an estimated $10 million in revenue, and was eventually sold to the New York Times for $30 million.

Keep in mind though that these people have done an excellent job building their brand. It’s taken them years of hard work to reach this level.

If you’re just starting out, your checks might look more like this for a while:

You need to manage your expectations. You won’t earn the big bucks right off the bat, but don’t let this discourage you.

The success of others tells you that with hard work, time, and the right knowledge, you too can potentially reach those levels.How to get started with affiliate marketing

Follow these seven simple steps.Decide on a platformChoose your nicheFind affiliate programs to joinCreate great contentDrive traffic to your affiliate siteGet clicks on your affiliate linksConvert clicks to salesStep #1: Decide on a platform

Theoretically, you can do affiliate marketing on any platform. Even Instagram works.

However, it’s much easier to build an audience and increase your affiliate sales via one of two channels: a blog or YouTube channel.

Starting a blog today is relatively easy and cheap. There are plenty of tutorials online that teach you how to get started. The best part? It’ll likely only cost you a few dollars per month.

Once your site is up, optimize it for search engines so that you have a better chance of ranking. From there, you’re free to add affiliate links in your content. (There is an art to doing this, which we’ll cover later in this guide.)

The other platform is YouTube. Creating and uploading content to YouTube is free, which makes it ideal for many people. Optimize your videos for SEO, and include affiliate links in your description.

One of my favorite examples is on BookTube, where various YouTubers review books:

Note that you’ll need to disclose the fact that you’re including affiliate links. The Federal Trade Commissions (FTC) requires you to be transparent when receiving income from an endorsement.

If you’re using a blog, create a standalone page, or include it in the footer of your website like this:

If you’re doing it on YouTube, include it in your description:

Now, you’ll likely get more clicks from a blog than a YouTube video. For that reason, most of the examples going forward will be for a blog.Step #2: Choose your niche

Let’s be honest: if you’re starting a blog today, you’re facing a ton of competition. Statista estimates that the number of bloggers in the U.S will reach 31.7 million by 2020.

To stand the best chance of success, niche down.