Thursday, December 26th, 2024
Imagine if you could earn money, a commission from home on a popular in demand brand-name product, this by placing a link or an image, or writing a review on your blog. Or you can send it out to your email list. This in a nutshell, is what “Affiliate Marketing” is!
OK… so it’s not quite that simple. But it doesn’t need to be much more complicated than that.
Lets Begin With A Few Definitions
An advertiser or a merchant, is the company who is selling a product or service.
An affiliate marketer (you), at times referred to as a publisher or a partner, is a company or person who assists in the promotion of the product.
You earn a preset commission for doing so, for your effort, once a product is sold.
In between, the middleman, is the account management service or Affiliate Network, that connects the advertiser or product owner with the affiliates, and keeps track of the sales and commissions as well.
If you want to become an affiliate, you first need to choose an Affiliate Network, then a product you want to sell that matches your niche.
If you happen to choose the product first, the advertiser or product owner may direct you to the Affiliate Network service they work with, or they might have their own in house program.
If you choose the Affiliate Network service first, they will provide you with a list of merchants they do business with and represent.
Becoming An Affiliate Marketer
To find out if a product or a company offers an affiliate program, go to their website and check their menu bar, or the bottom of their site. Look for the word “affiliate.”
Click on that link, read about their program and requirements, and fill out their application if they have one, or they may refer you to their Affiliate Network.
Some companies require specific types of websites or blogs, they want their links placed on. They will email you all you need to know to get started.
If you don’t know what product you want to promote, or if you want to promote several, it’s recommended you browse the participating merchants on the Affiliate Networks website.
Which Products To Promote
Try to market products or ideas that you are familiar with, or passionate about. Ones that fit your particular niche.
It will be much easier to market to your visitors, if you can add value or a solution to the link you want them to click on.
Personal recommendations, reviews or stories on your blog will get you better results, than just a banner or a solo text link.
Give them a reason to click on the “Click Here” button.
Welcome to the world of Affiliate Marketing! Good luck with your new venture!
31 Tips For Beginners To Become A Super Affiliate
Tip #1.) – Niche Affiliate Marketing – Choose A Product
When picking a product to promote, you should not just look at the payout.
Of course, you want a product that will be worthwhile promoting money-wise, but it also needs to be a good fit for your audience. It needs to convert.
And most of all, it must do all the things it says on the box. If you promote junk products, your reputation as an affiliate marketer can become tarnished.
Tip #2.) – Niche Affiliate Marketing – Facebook Groups
Start a Facebook group for your niche audience. Groups are a powerful free way to grow and nurture a community of like-minded people.
Just remember to share content daily and interact with your group members? comments. The aim is to build that all-important bond of trust and keep them engaged!
Just be genuine and when you have something cool to offer them, post it to your group. You can see massive conversions from a well-nurtured Facebook group.
Tip #3.) – Niche Affiliate Marketing – Instagram
Are you using Instagram to grow your audience? Instagram is one of the top social networks online so if you?re not using it, you?re missing out.
Instagram is a purely visual-based platform, so you need to be feeding your audience photos or images related to your niche regularly ? daily if possible.
Tip #4.) – Niche Affiliate Marketing – Use Videos
How can you add credibility to your brand or business? How can you attract more attention to you and your products? The answer is with VIDEO!
Make and add videos to your website and your social profiles. Unique, interesting video content is the best.
Make sure you watermark every video you make! If it gets shared around and goes viral, you want everyone to know that it came from you.
The internet loves videos and by using it, it will help build your relationship with your audience and give you an upper hand over your competition.
Tip #5.) – Niche Affiliate Marketing – Use YouTube
You don?t have to be a Youtuber to be successful on Youtube. If you?re not using Youtube for your affiliate marketing however, you?re missing out on a massive source of free targeted traffic.
So go ahead and start a Youtube channel today. Upload videos frequently.
If you don?t want to be on camera yourself, that?s fine. Pay someone to make the videos for you, or use Common Creative videos.
You can also use software like Content Samurai, to create videos quickly and easily.
Youtube is an ideal platform for affiliates to build a big audience and create a bond of trust.
Tip #6.) – Niche Affiliate Marketing – Cloak Your Links
You don?t want to look like a shady amateur affiliate marketer, so use links that come directly off your domain!
You really need to be tracking your links somehow as well, and not just hiding your long affiliate links.
You can do this using a link tracking tool like clickmagick or linktrackr, or Pretty Links for your WordPress blog, that tracks and redirects links from your domain name.
Tracking is an absolute must if using paid ads, and it helps you look more professional as well, by disguising your obvious affiliate link.
It also offers a layer of protection from people bypassing your affiliate link.
Also, if you ever need to swap out the link, you can easily do so without disrupting the link you?ve published.
Tip #7.) – Niche Affiliate Marketing – Write A Review
Why should people buy from you and not from your competitor? It can become an extremely competitive game if you?re promoting a popular product.
You have to win over your prospect, and one of the best ways is to do a review of the product you?re promoting.
Make sure it?s sincere and in-depth and unbiased. Present both “pros” and “cons.”
You can do a blog post about it or a video review or both.
Reviews are extremely powerful!
Tip #8.) – Niche Affiliate Marketing – Add A Bonus
How can you get a leg up on the competition? One of the biggest conversion boosters is to offer a bonus with whatever you?re promoting.
It?s a winner if it?s completely unique. It can be any type of product that is of value to your customer.
If you combine the power of a review and bonus together, you?ve got the recipe for a highly successful affiliate marketing campaign.
Tip #9.) – Niche Affiliate Marketing – Brand First
The biggest mistake affiliates make is that they send cold traffic ? as in, buy ads ? to their raw affiliate link, and don?t bother promoting themselves or their brand first.
While it is possible to make sales of an affiliate product, by sending traffic directly to your affiliate link, you are missing out on the opportunity to build your brand and audience.
What’s recommended is you sending cold traffic to a page that has some branding and/or audience building power for yourself first.
It might seem counter-intuitive to add that extra step, but it will help your conversions and your business over the long run.
Tip #10.) – Niche Affiliate Marketing – Get In Touch
Do you know the creator of the product you?re promoting? It?s a great idea to get in touch personally with the creator of the product.
Business-to-business relationships are extremely valuable online. Get in touch with the creator of the product and make yourself known.
They might be able to give you some tips for promoting, and who knows, you could even end up doing an interview with them and use that for content for your audience.
Tip #11.) – Niche Affiliate Marketing – List Building
Is email marketing dead? Thankfully NO it isn?t! Email marketing or ?list building? is still one of the most powerful ways to sell affiliate products online.
If you?re not collecting emails and building a list, you?re missing out on a reliable way to make sales.
There are dozens of easy-to-use email marketing systems like Aweber, GetResponse, etc. that are fine for affiliate marketing.
The easiest way to start building an email list, is to set up a simple 1-page “squeeze” website.
Offer something for free, slap an opt-in box on it to collect email addresses; and put the download link in the first follow-up email. Simple as that.
Tip #12.) – Niche Affiliate Marketing – Forums
Yes, Facebook groups are hard to beat at the moment for social hangouts.
But there however still very niche specific forums/message boards, that have been around for decades and still have an active community.
Do a search on Google for forums related to your niche and start interacting there. There are a variety of “buyer” people out there on the various different platforms!
Tip #13.) – Niche Affiliate Marketing – Paid PPC Ads
When you want traffic on command, there is no faster way than to buy it. The big paid ad networks are Google, Facebook and Youtube.
You can get all the traffic you need from them, but they will cost you money.
Bing ads and Yahoo ads however, are other networks you shouldn’t ignore.
Keep in mind though, that these big networks have a lot of competition, so what’s recommended is you completely understand how paid ads work.
Make sure you start small when you jump into these platforms.
Tip #14.) – Niche Affiliate Marketing – Smaller Ad Networks
Don?t overlook the smaller ad networks – in particular, niche-specific ad networks. There is most likely a small ad network that tailors to your niche.
These will typically be less crowded, so you should be able to get cheaper clicks.
One place to check out is Buysellads.com for a variety of niches to advertise in.
Tip #15.) – Niche Affiliate Marketing- Start With Small Paid Ads
There’s absolutely no one who likes throwing money down the drain! So avoid wasting money on ads by testing them first!
Always start small, with a few ads. Keep a sharp eye on them ? several times a day – and stop the poor performing ads.
Keep the winning ads and try to replicate them, by using different targeting/keywords.
Tip #16.) – Niche Affiliate Marketing – Products Here Today Gone Tomorrow
Affiliates beware! Some products will be here today and gone tomorrow instantly without notice!
This is obviously bad news for affiliates, so keep this in mind when selecting a product and setting up campaigns.
If you post links that will be around online forever, you should use a link cloaking tool so you can change the link out, if you find that the product no longer exists.
You can then redirect that link to a different product or page, that works or pays more.
Tip #17.) – Niche Affiliate Marketing – Have Your Own Blog
Own your own blog or website. Do you have one? It?s all good to post on Facebook and Youtube etc., but what about your own web property, like a blog?
This is a sure-fire way to stay in business if Facebook or Youtube ever decides to shut your account down.
Plus, having your own website goes towards your credibility as a marketer.
Get a domain name, hosting and install WordPress. It?ll cost about $50 to get started.
Now, you?ll have your own piece of the web.
Tip #18.) – Niche Affiliate Marketing – Influencer Marketing
Need an extra boost of traffic fast? Check your favorite social media platform and compile a list of ?Influencers? in your niche.
Ones that you could potentially set up a deal with to promote your blog, sales funnel or affiliate link.
“Influencer marketing” is an easy way to get a burst of highly targeted eyeballs on your links fast, at a relatively cheap price.
Tip #19.) – Niche Affiliate Marketing – Compare Products
Does your #1 selling product have competing products? Most likely yes. Chances are that your customers are also checking out those other competing products.
It?s very effective if you do a “comparison” blog post or a video, of the best selling top similar products. This will help your customer to become more educated about the products.
And sometimes, they just need a little bit of a friendly push to decide which product to buy.
Tip #20.) – Niche Affiliate Marketing – Outsource
It?s difficult to create content for your audience all the time. Yet your audience craves your content on a daily basis. So how do you keep up?
You outsource! Almost any job can be outsourced.
You only have 24 hours in a day, and you also want to have a life off the computer, so you need to outsource.
Check sites like Fiverr or Upwork to get jobs done for you. Big, small and anything in between.
Tip #21.) – Niche Affiliate Marketing – Page Load Speed
Does your blog load fast as in a split-second? Did you know that slow loading websites kill conversions?
If you are doing any type of affiliate campaign like a review or list building, you have to make sure your pages load super-fast.
This is actually more important than what most marketers think!
Tip #22.) – Niche Affiliate Marketing – YouTube Ads
Youtube ads! Yes, you know you can advertise on Youtube as well, right? Did you know you can do some extremely precise targeting with it?
You can get right down and select certain channels, and even certain videos to have your ads displayed on.
But like all paid traffic, it?s best you do some testing and learn all you can before diving in.
Tip #23.) – Niche Affiliate Marketing – Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
What?s better than free, quality targeted traffic that is actually looking to buy your product? Well, absolutely nothing.
Sounds like a pipe dream but it is possible to get Google and the other major search engines to send you consistent, high quality buyer-intent traffic, for free.
If you can optimize your web page for your chosen search term, Google may rank your page on the first page of their search results.
This is known as SEO; or Search Engine Optimization.
There is quite a bit to SEO to learn, and there is obviously stiff competition for the #1 spot on Google for your selected keyword.
But the traffic is there in abundance, and it?s all free.
Tip #24.) – Niche Affiliate Marketing – Learn From Failure
Have you given it your “all” but still can?t manage to make a profit from your niche? Maybe it?s too competitive, or too small and doesn’t have enough customers?
It?s hard to know when to cut your losses and move on to another niche. But sometimes it?s necessary to let it go.
Don?t worry, because you will know what to do better the next time around.
Remember, Edison failed thousands of times before he successfully created the light bulb!
Tip #25.) – Niche Affiliate Marketing – Native Ads
What exactly are native ads, and do they actually work? For many niche affiliate marketers, they are the #1 go-to method for advertising.
Native ads are those ads you often see at the bottom of a website, underneath an article paragraph, which looks like a regular link or image to another article.
That?s the magic of native ads. They don?t look like ads.
The key is to send them to an article on your blog, that is actually a cleverly written ad, with your affiliate links throughout it.
Tip #26.) – Niche Affiliate Marketing – Place Links At The Top And Bottom
What’s know is that most people are lazy with short attention spans! Your customers are lazy. They often don?t want to scroll down the page or read you entire article.
So here?s a secret.
Put your affiliate links at the top and at the bottom of your blog post, review page, email, Facebook post, etc.
Make them big and easy to see. You?ll be surprised at how many more clicks you get on your links when you do this.
Tip #27.) – Niche Affiliate Marketing – Spy On Your Competitors
Sometimes you need to spy on your competitors to remain on top of your game. There are always new products coming online, that you can promote in your niche.
Your competitors are always coming up with new and interesting, surprising and at times gimmicky yet effective ways to promote.
It?s always a good idea to try new things, especially if sales are slowing down. You should look at what other affiliates are doing in different niches, and then try them yourself.
You will be pleasantly surprised, and find some things you?ll be able to do with your own campaigns.
Tip #28.) – Niche Affiliate Marketing – Repurposing
You?re writing a ton of content on a daily basis on your blog, but are you getting the most out of it?
Why not take your blog post and make a video with it, or vice versa. Turn it into an email that you add to your autoresponder.
Another idea is to turn your post into a PDF or Powerpoint, and upload them to file sharing sites.
But it doesn’t stop there.
After you have written say 10 articles on your blog, you can compile them into an ebook and sell it.
This is known as “repurposing” your content. It?s all about working smarter and getting the most out of your time and energy!
Tip #29.) – Niche Affiliate Marketing – Become An Expert In Your Niche
How much do you really know about your niche? Are you an expert? If you?re not, you need to be, or use content created by an expert.
Hiring a writer or using Private Label Rights a.k.a. ?PLR? content, is the best recommended way to do so.
Your customers are looking to you for your expert knowledge and opinion, regarding which product to use.
They want to know the good, the bad and the ugly about the product or service that you?re recommending.
The more you can inform them, give them the pros and cons the more they?ll trust you. The more they trust you, the more they?ll buy.
Tip #30.) – Niche Affiliate Marketing – Always Be Testing
Affiliate marketing is a lot like a science experiment. It really comes down to testing! You want the best possible conversions for your advertising dollar, effort and time spent.
It?s a process of trying and testing different elements in your campaigns, and finding the winning formula without getting discouraged.
The things to test are your ad copy, your landing page, your ad image, your keywords, your on-page layout, your blog articles, your headlines, your bonuses, your review style, etc.
If you don?t see sales right away, it doesn’t mean it?s a dud product or a dud ad. It just means you?ve found a combination that didn?t work.
Realize you?re getting closer to success with every experiment.
Tip #31.) – Niche Affiliate Marketing – Retargeting
What happens once you get someone to click on your link, or they read your blog post or review but they still don?t buy?!
It?s not the end of the world because you can actually follow them around the web, with a retargeting ad campaign!
Facebook, Google and most other large networks will give you a tracking code to put on your web page, so it?s just a matter setting up a retargeting campaign.
There are services that will simplify the process, like Adroll, that you can use.
“Retargeted” traffic is one of the best ROI traffic you can get!
CLICK Here For My No#1 Affiliate Marketing Recommendation
