Affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based marketing in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought by the affiliate's own marketing efforts. Source: Wikipedia
Anyone who has ever tried to make money online heard about affiliate marketing. Why?
Because probably it?s the most popular way of earning money on the Internet.
So, if you?re asking yourself whether affiliate marketing is for newbies or not, the answer is yes ? it?s perfect for newbies.
But of course it doesn?t mean that it?s easy and you will quickly start earning money. It?s possible, but usually it doesn?t work like this.
You need to gain the right skills in order to become a successful affiliate marketer otherwise you will make mistakes and you won?t make money which may lead to discouragement in the long run.
If you want to create a passive income online then affiliate marketing can help you achieve this goal.
Of course there are other ways of creating a passive income on the Internet, but affiliate marketing is what newbies and not only choose most often.
Why is affiliate marketing great for newbies?
There are at least 4 reasons why affiliate marketing is the perfect choice for all those who are just starting out online.
#1. You don?t need to have your own product. How many people starting out online have their own products? Not many! Creating something of your own, say, an online training or just an ebook may take you some time especially if you?ve never done it before.
#2. You don?t have to worry about storage, packaging and shipping. This is handled by the seller. All you have to do is drive traffic to an offer, find the right audience for the product you?re trying to sell.
#3. You don?t have to provide customer support. Again, this is done by the seller.
#4. You can start immediately. All you have to do is choose the right product and you can start promoting it using the chosen medium, e.g. a blog or a video.
How to get started as an affiliate marketer?
First of all you need to choose a niche and then within that niche you will have to find products and affiliate programs.
For example, if you chose an internet marketing niche, then you could promote plugins, autoresponders, keyword research tools, online trainings, hosting and more.
If you chose a fitness niche, you could promote weight loss products, books about healthy foods, training equipment and more.
Once you decide on your niche, then just look for the right products and affiliate programs.
Probably the most popular place where you can find both physical products and digital products is Amazon.
Another place which sells mostly digital products is Clickbank.
But you shouldn?t limit yourself to just these two companies.
There are a lot of other companies that offer great affiliate programs.
Decide how you want to promote affiliate products online.
There are different ways to promote affiliate products online.
The best solution is to choose one or two methods and stick to them for a longer period of time.
Personally I would choose blogging. Others prefer video marketing. But you can always do both.
Your task as a blogger is to create quality content within which you can promote your affiliate products.
The process is simple.
- Decide what you want to write about; what you want to promote. For example it could be a blog post about sleeping issues in which you will promote a product helping to sleep better.
- Find a long tail keyword that is not very competitive so that it won?t be so difficult to rank for it. In order to find such a keyword you can use a keyword research tool, e.g. Jaaxy or any other that you wish ? there are many of them on the market.
- Use the keyword in the title of your blog post ? it will help your blog post rank higher in Google, e.g. What Can You Do to Sleep Better at Night: 7 Tips. Your keyword in this case is ?what can you do to sleep better at night?.
- Write a good blog post around this keyword, try to make it at least 1500-word long. Longer blog posts tend to rank higher in Google.
- Use images and maybe videos in the body of your blog post in order to make it more interesting.
- Put a link to the product you promote somewhere at the end of the blog post and maybe somewhere in the body of it.
- Publish and share it wherever you can, e.g. on social media.
I know that now it may sound like a lot of work, but once you do it a few times it will become easy.
If you want to learn more about how to build a successful online business as an affiliate marketer with a blog, then click here.
And if you?re interested in video marketing more, then click here.
Remember that you can also promote affiliate products using paid advertising not only SEO.
SEO is great, but it takes a long time, so if you want to achieve results much faster then you should consider investing some money in paid advertising, e.g. on Facebook.
Is affiliate marketing difficult?
Yes, it can be difficult especially when you choose a product or service that not many people are interested in.
You can make money online selling almost anything in any niche, but there are always better and worse choices.
Health and make money online niches are very popular and you can make a lot of money in these two niches as an affiliate marketer, but it doesn?t mean that you can?t make money in other niches. Yes, you can.
Another important thing is the price of the product or service you?re promoting.
It?s easier to sell a cheaper product, but the commissions are lower compared to the more expensive products.
The more expensive products will bring you higher commissions, but it may be more difficult to sell them.
You need to decide what you want to do.
If you?re a newbie maybe you should try with cheaper products first.
Although some experienced internet marketers say that selling a cheap product is as difficult as selling a more expensive one that?s why you shouldn?t be wasting your time on cheap stuff. The choice is yours!
What is the best wordpress theme for affiliate marketing?
If you?re just starting out online and would like to become an affiliate marketer and make money through your blog then it?s always important to start off on the right foot.
Choose the correct blogging platform, choose a good WordPress theme and install the most essential plugins.
Of course you can change the WordPress theme or a blogging platform at any time during your blogging journey, but why bother?
Make the right choice at the very beginning and don?t waste your time later.
The Rise Theme is probably one of the best WordPress themes for affiliate marketers and online business in general.
It was built specifically for those who want to make money selling other people?s products (affiliate marketing), selling their own products or build a list.
The theme was created in collaboration with an affiliate marketer who?s been online for a long long time and knows what a good blog for making money should look like.
- simple and clear design
- social sharing buttons (including floating social sharing bar)
- lead generation widgets
- automatic image optimization
- customizable header
- 600+ fonts to choose from ...
These are just some of the many features of this and other themes by Thrive Themes.
If you want to learn more about the Rise theme, click here.
And one of the most essential plugins, in my opinion, is Thrive Content Builder.
If you have a blog you need to create content - this will enable you to drive traffic to your blog and make sales or build an email list.
Thrive Content Builder will make the process of content creation much easier for you that?s why it is essential to install it on your blog.
To learn more about the Thrive Content Builder plugin, click here.
Conclusion
Is there a better way to make money online than affiliate marketing?
Yes, having your own products is always better. Why?
Because you keep 100% of the profits for each sale of your product and you can decide when you want to withdraw it from the market or keep selling.
In the case of affiliate programs you always have to split the profits with the company and you never know when the company may decide to close their affiliate program ? unfortunately it happens sometimes.
Nevertheless there are many advantages of being an affiliate marketer which I have already mentioned in this blog post.
Undoubtedly one of them is that anyone, doesn?t matter their experience, can start selling online right away.
So, if you?re a newbie, don?t worry ? affiliate marketing is also for you.
You just need to be patient, willing to learn and determined to achieve success.
If you don?t quit you will not fail.
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