Affiliate Marketing Step-by-Step
Becoming an affiliate marketer is not hard. However, practicing affiliate marketing the right way is a completely different story.
There are hundreds... and even thousands of people trying to tell you that affiliate marketing is the best way to make money online. What you must understand is that most of them have something to sell. I do myself have something to sell. But not here... not in this blog post. I will only refer you to the best places & tools... the ones that I use myself.
So if you are reading this right now, it's probably because you are searching for answers, right there behind the screen of your computer, tablet, or even phone.
Let me explain the steps to start your affiliate marketing business
GET THE BASIC KNOWLEDGE
I will never say it enough... It's crucial to get the basic knowledge of affiliate marketing before doing anything else. You learn how to drive before buying your first car.. it's the same thing here. I can refer you to 3 choices... the best 3 I've tried myself.
3-Day Business Breakthrough Challenge
15-Day Business Builder Challenge
NICHE
The niche you choose determines the type of products you will promote in order to earn commissions. Choose it wisely, but also remember that you are not married to a particular niche. Successful marketers grow and adapt to changes in tastes and market trends, so you need to be flexible.
It's not because an affiliate marketer is doing well promoting how to make money online that it is good for you. Think of something that you love, that you are passionate about, then seek on the web if there are some affiliate programs offered for your niche. Trust me, there are affiliate programs for almost everything you can think of. From travel to luxury watches, there is something for you out there.
What are you passionate about? Fashion? Sports? Health? Fitness? Wealth? Decide first what is your passion.... what you know... Be authentic!
If you are not sure, just take a look around you. What are you buying for yourself? If you are trying to promote something that you don't know, people will feel it and you will have no success.
Once you determine your niche, ask yourself if you can add value to it. As an affiliate marketer, the most important secret to success is to create value. Don't think of it as a profitable business. Instead, think of yourself as a useful encyclopedia for your audience.
Unfortunately, a large portion of beginner members does not exceed this point. Remember, your first niche market will not be the last. It is just a stepping stone. Do not think too much. You can change the niche as many times as you want in the future.
A WEBSITE/BLOG
This website will become your online business place. It will be your home of content, the face of your business, and your main tool for generating revenue from it.
One thing you should understand now is that you have to pay to have a decent blog. This is not a huge sum of money, but then again, this is still money you have to pay. There is no way to solve this problem. A good blog will charge at least $40 to $50 per year, and this is only for hosting. It may be more, but definitely not less than this.
Hosting & Domain Name
You will 2 things to get your blog up and running:
A domain name (mynewbusiness.com)
Hosting
Your domain name is the official identity of your website. Don't be too specific with your domain name. What I mean is that if you choose a specific name for your niche, how will you be able to diversify your offer? For example, my blog is about making money online and affiliate marketing, I chose WealthyLifeProject because it gives me a large number of different activities, sub-niches, etc. Also, avoid names that are difficult to pronounce and very long names. Nobody wants to type toyotacheapbrakepartsonline.com.
Get your domain name at Namecheap
Hosting is where your website/blog will reside. Paid ones offer a certain level of service level agreement promising that your website will be online 24/7 without interruption. Be careful of the free web hosting services, some can disappear overnight with your business.
You can go with Bluehost for your hosting services which is very cheap with good service.
TRAFFIC
To learn how to drive traffic to your website, you need to understand how it works. Tracking your traffic is an essential step which you will do using Google Analytics. Google Analytics gives you insight into how your site performs, specifically how many visitors it gets, why most visitors come to your blog, and stats like how long they spend on each page/post.
Visit Google Analytics and create your account.
Next, visit Google Search Console and create your free account too. This will tell Google that your site exists.
KEYWORD RESEARCH
Now that your domain name is found, your hosting is running and Google knows about your website, it's time to create content.
But where do you start to create good content? The key is to focus on keywords research. Keywords are the words that people are searching on search engines. The goal of your blog/website is to help people find you. To be able to do that, you can use some free tools to help you determine what keywords to use in your blog content.
google search bar (see what is proposed when you type your niche)
Enter your topic or niche and see what are the searched words, sentences, used by people to find what they are searching for. Use those words, sentences, questions in your blog posts.
AFFILIATE LINKS
To receive a commission, the company that is offering the product or service you are trying to promote for them must know that you are selling for them. To achieve that you must get your affiliate links from that company.
Check for companies that have affiliate programs and apply to become an affiliate marketer for them.
You can also join an affiliate network that offers numerous products and services that you can promote, as long as it's related to your niche.
AFFILIATE NETWORKS
There are several affiliate networks that you can use to find products or services to promote. Those networks will offer many different categories of products and services. Make sure to stay in your niche.
CONTENT
The fuel for your affiliate blog is your content. Whether visual, written, or audio, content is unanimously the most powerful aspect of your website. It is where your persuasive power lies, where you convert visitors into sales.
Once you've set up your website, found an appropriate keyword-based topic, and gotten your affiliate links, it is time to hunker down and write tons of content. This is where most marketers lose steam, and their dreams of earning millions of dollars every year remain as dreams.
Don't give up! It can take months before your website/blog starts to get traffic. It's totally normal. Continue to create content...don't stop! It's the key to success.
Always focus on creating value... don't focus on money first. It will come.
PROMOTING
Check my blog post How to promote affiliate links to get some ideas on how you can promote your affiliate links on the web, mostly for FREE. In your first year, focus on organic traffic. Paid traffic is an art, and you can lose a lot of money
CHECKLISTS
If you are ready to go, you can download my eBook The Ultimate Affiliate Marketer Checklists Library for FREE. It will help you to understand some basics things and also will show you HOW TO DO AFFILIATE MARKETING
CONCLUSION
1- Take a cheap online training on how to do affiliate marketing. You should at least learn the basics. Go to my page https://wealthylifeproject.com/bio to see if it's for you.
Find a niche (product or service) that you are familiar with and that can resolve the problems that your ideal audience might have.
2- Make sure to have a website/blog (ex: Bluehost)
3- Make sure to have a domain name (ex: Namecheap)
4- Get your affiliate links either directly by becoming an affiliate marketer with a company, or by using an affiliate marketing network.
5- Do some keyword research to understand what you audience is searching for on the web.
6- Post content with your affiliate links (videos, texts, podcasts, etc). Use the major social media platforms to promote your product or service. You can also use paid traffic (ads) either on Bing, Google or Facebook.... But I don't recommend this when you are just starting.
I have written my own eBook called Affiliate Marketing For Beginners - The Ultimate Step-By-Step Guide that you can download for FREE
Remi Cote is a blogger specializing in the world of affiliate marketing and how to make money online as well as 30 years of experience in the IT industry.
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