10 Tips To Get Started In Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is when you direct potential customers to a particular website selling a product for which you get a commission on each and every sale. You don’t have to create, own or stock the product and once the customer buys it, the product owner organizes the delivery or fulfillment of the product. Your job as an affiliate is to connect a prospective customer with a product or service that they’re looking to buy.
A lot of people want to get started in affiliate marketing because they think it’s a quick way to earn money online. And a lot of people give up on affiliate marketing because they soon realized that it isn’t as quick as they first thought. Having said that, many affiliate marketers do earn a great income. But they didn’t do it overnight. It took a lot of hard work and commitment.
How To Get Started In Affiliate Marketing
1. Choose Your Audience
Before you start to look for affiliate marketing programs with products you can sell, you have to identify your target audience or niche. In order to effectively market any affiliate products, there has to be a need and desire for them from potential customers. Just because somebody has created a product doesn’t mean that people will want to buy it.
What “pain points” or problems do the audience in your chosen niche want to solve? The affiliate products you promote should offer the solutions they’re looking for. You can find a huge number of products to sell from affiliate marketing companies like Amazon, CJAffiliate, ClickBank and JVZoo.
2. Start Small
You won’t make millions overnight. Start small and keep increasing your online presence. Create and provide high-value content on your website and social media. There are affiliate programs that do not require a website, but your own website allows you to focus on being authentic so that you come across as being trustworthy and knowledgeable. The top affiliate marketing companies will provide you with marketing materials that you can use, free reports or resources that can give away to attract customers, target customer research and range of different up-sells and down-sells.
FREE Checklist: Affiliate Marketing For Beginners
3. Build An Email List
Focus on building an email list from your website and social media accounts. You can send out emails to your list at any time. This is the most effective way you’ll have traffic and people buying the products and services you recommend.
4. Be Consistent
If you work on your affiliate business during your free time, you still need to be consistent with your online presence. You don’t have to write a blog every day of the week or spend eye-watering amounts of money on advertising every month. The main issue is to be consistent. You can blog once a week, post on social media daily and actively build your email list.
5. Treat It Like A Business
This is another huge key when you get started in affiliate marketing. Even if you only work it part-time you need to treat it like a real business and not something you play around with. It’s okay to play around at the beginning to see if it’s right for you and it’s a good way to learn. But sooner or later, if you want to create a real online business you’ll have to treat it that way.
6. Only Promote A Few Products
This is really important in the beginning and much easier to keep up with until you learn the ropes. Don’t jump in and offer a dozen products. Pick a few in the same niche that you truly love and promote those. You can add more as you gain knowledge and experience, but start small. This will also keep you from getting overwhelmed.
7. Offer Products At Different Price Points
Many people want to pick high-end and high priced items to promote. The higher the price of a product, the more commission you’ll earn. Yes, you should offer a few of those, but you should also offer a variety of price points. Perhaps you can offer some $7 and $10 products, a few in the $20 to $30 range and maybe one or two at a $97 price point. This way people won’t think you are just trying to make money by offering only high priced deals. In fact, many people of your potential customers may not be able to afford the higher priced products and need a cheaper alternative. Try to cater to many people’s income level.
Once you get established and find you really enjoy being an affiliate, you can add some of the products that range from $100 and even up to $1000 or more. Trying to be a high-end affiliate in the beginning isn’t a good idea because you need to earn the trust of your audience first.
8. Think ‘Telling’ Not ‘Selling’
You don’t have to have an outgoing personality to be a successful affiliate, but you do need to be friendly, helpful, honest, and care about the things you promote. Think of it as more about ‘telling’ rather than ‘selling’. When you put it in the context of helping people find what they need or want, you take the pressure off yourself to be constantly selling. This will allow your efforts to flow from authenticity rather than appearing overeager in trying to make money.
9. Passive Income
Don’t forget about offering membership programs too. This will grow your passive income over time. If people join a membership program under you, you will earn money each month for as long as they remain a member. This is a great way to boost your income and have something steady come in while you’re building your affiliate business.
10. Be Yourself
Let your audience see you as a regular person, not a hard sell sales-person. It’s how they’ll learn to trust your opinion. It’s what will make then open and read your emails. It will bring them back to your website and it’s what will motivate them to click on your affiliate links to make a purchase.
Free Checklist: How To Get Started In Affiliate Marketing
When you get started in affiliate marketing, it’s a great way to start your own online business. Companies are happy to pay commissions to people just like you, in return for selling their products and services. But, like any other business, it takes time, effort and work. To learn more about how to start affiliate marketing for beginners, download my free Affiliate Marketing For Beginners PDF Checklist.
