Affiliate marketing is recognized as being the easiest way to start your own online business. You don’t have to create any products of your own and many businesses pay affiliates a commission for sales that they generate for selling their products. Being an affiliate for any type of product or service is just like being a salesperson who works on commission.
You’re called an affiliate because you’re associated with the product or service but you’re not directly part of the product creator’s business.
Here are 10 ways to be successful in affiliate marketing.
FREE Checklist: Affiliate Marketing For Beginners
1. Understand That the Money Will Not Roll in Immediately
Just because you decide to become an affiliate doesn’t mean you’re immediately going to earn money. If you want to make money selling products as an affiliate, you must believe in the product. In addition, you’ll need to explain to your audience how and why they should try the product. Think about how much you’ll earn on each sale so that you can determine how much time and effort you can devote to making that sale.
2. Build Your Email List
You need an email list full of your target audience in order to be successful in affiliate marketing. If you know who your audience is, you can start building your email list even before you have affiliate products to share. Just share a topic/problem-related freebie to get them on the list and then share your knowledge and experience. The products and “finds” can come later.
3. Choose a Niche You Enjoy
Choosing a niche just because it’s popular is a big mistake. Affiliate marketing is not all about the money. In order to succeed as an affiliate marketer, you should choose a niche and audience that you know and enjoy. If you don’t enjoy the topics or can’t relate to the audience and their problems, it will show in your content, solutions, and sales. Research your potential niche options to ensure that you can make enough money with the audience, provide the solutions the audience needs, and enjoy talking about the niche topics. Your enthusiasm is contagious and profitable.
4. Don’t Offer Too Many Products
When you decide to be an affiliate, it’s easy to go overboard choosing products to promote. You don’t want to promote everything that’s available, only the items that your audience needs. Research and pick a very specific product that solves one of their problems or difficulties. Don’t try to promote multiple items that solve the same problem. With too many options, readers have difficulty choosing and ultimately don’t take any action.
5. Do Your Research Research
The most important thing that you can do for your affiliate marketing business is to research everything. Continuously research your audience. Always research the products you want to promote including the creators of the products you want to promote. Your reputation is on the line. If you promote a product that turns out to be a scam or the seller doesn’t live up to their promises, you may lose your credibility. Always do your due diligence.
6. Use Superior Content
As an affiliate marketer, you probably have a blog and social media accounts that need content. You may be tempted to toss something up that isn’t up to your standard. There is no point in putting up inferior content. It only makes you look unprofessional and damages your reputation. If you need quality content, hire a writer or buy PLR and rewrite it yourself. Content strategists can help you plan and manage your content from blog posts, to freebies, and more.
7. Provide Product Reviews
On most corporate websites, where people shop, there are reviews. Customers really do pay attention to reviews. Your audience will appreciate your honest product reviews, even if you do make a percentage of sales. Just be upfront about whether you get money if they buy or not.
8. Use The Right Amount of Affiliate Links
Adding too many affiliate links can make content look like spam. They can also give readers the impression that making a sale is your top priority rather than helping them. Limit the number of affiliate links to the focused solution in emails and articles. When you reference supporting content or examples use straight links. In short, use links sparingly and only when they’re important to the message or content.
9. Choose Products That Are Evergreen or Close to It
It’s fine to get involved in a few trendy promotions. Still, your best bet for being successful in affiliate marketing is finding 4 to 6 reliable, evergreen solutions for your audience that you can use yourself and get behind and promote.
10. Build Relationships & a Community
One of the best things about becoming a profitable affiliate marketer is the friendships you make along the way. Building relationships with your community will make you the ‘go-to’ person for your subject matter. Many affiliate marketers skip this because they don’t want to be ‘public.’ However, if you are open with your audience, you’ll make more money.
Free Checklist: How To Be Successful In Affiliate Marketing
There are many companies that pay you to sell their products online. Success comes from choosing the right niche, staying committed and understanding your audience. One thing to keep in mind when you start affiliate selling is that success isn’t going to happen overnight. You can make unlimited profits, but it will take time. For more information on how to sell other people’s products online, download my free checklist, Affiliate Marketing For Beginners.