How to start Affiliate marketing: a beginner's Guide
Before starting ask yourself some questions
1. Why do I want to start Affiliate marketing?
2. Will I enjoy affiliate marketing?
3. Will I give up if I don't earn much?
Introduction to Affiliate Marketing
According to Glassdoor, In 2023, the average salary of an affiliate marketer ranges from $58k to $158k, including "additional pay" options like cash bonus, commission, tips etc.
But remember, Many successful Affiliate marketers earn 10 times more than that. Example—Pat Flynn, He's a successful affiliate marketer with a blog at Smart Passive Income. He earns almost $145,000 per month, his 80% income comes from Affiliate Marketing.
Affiliate marketing is a popular online marketing strategy that allows marketers or businesses to earn a commission by promoting products or services from other companies. As an affiliate marketer, you connect customers with products or services they need and are interested in.
The process is:
1. First, you have to join an affiliate program amd recieve a unique affiliate link.
2. You have to promote the products or services through various ways like your personal website, blog, social media, in your YouTube videos.
3. When someone clicks the affiliate link and make a purchase, you earn a commision on that sale.
There are many benefits of affiliate marketing, such as the marketer don't need to create or own the products. Everyone who involves in the affiliate marketing get benefits—The merchant gets more customers and increase sales, the marketer earns a commision and the customer buys products or services they need.
Understanding the Affiliate Marketing Process
In this section, we're going to explore the process of affiliate marketing, the parties involved and the tracking and commission system.
There are three main parties in the affiliate marketing process: Affiliates, Merchants and Customers. Each one plays an important role in the full process. There are two systems which are important components in the process. Tracking and Commission.
Affiliates:
Affiliates, also know as marketer or publisher are individuals or buisness who promotes products or services. They increase their online popularity with websites, blogs, social media platforms or YouTube channels to attract customers and make them purchase it. They get a unique affiliate link, when a customer clicks on it and make the purchase. Affiliates earn commission for each successful purchase or referral.
Merchants:
Most merchants are companies, but there are some individuals. Merchants are the individuals or companies who own the products or services being promoted. They set up affiliate programs for affiliates who can increase the sales of their products or services. Merchants provide affiliates with banners, links and product information. They track each affiliate to check if their sales is increasing or not.
Customers:
Customers are the users who purchase the product or services being promoted by the affiliates. They come to the affiliate's content, click on the affiliate link and make a purchase on the merchant's website. Customers benefit from the product they buy, which they need.
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Image by pikisuperstar on Freepik
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How Tracking and Commission Systems Work:
Tracking:
Tracking systems are important for affiliate marketing as they accurately attribute referrals to specific affiliates. When an affiliate joins an affiliate program, they are assigned a tracking link or affiliate ID. The link contains a special code that identifies affiliate as the main source of the referral.
When any customer clicks the affiliate tracking link, a cookie will be placed the customer's browser. The cookies contain the affiliate's ID and the product information.The cookie remains for typically 30 days. During this time if any purchase is made by the customer on the merchant's website, it will be attributed to the affiliate who referred them.
Commission Systems:
Affiliates earn a commision for each successful sale or action generated through the affiliate links. Some programs offer a percentage-based commission, while others offer a fixed commission for specific actions.
Commission payments are typically tracked and managed through affiliate networks or third-party platforms. These platforms handle tracking, reporting and commission payments.
Tracking and commission systems are really not necessary to learn but you must learn the main process and the parties involved in affiliate marketing. Learning it will give you a better understanding of affiliate marketing.
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Finding Your Niche and Target Audience
For a successful and profitable affiliate buisness, finding the right niche and understanding your target audience is important. Choosing the right niche, understanding your audience's needs, you can create content that will build trust with them. A trustful relationship with you and your audience will increase the sales.
Identifying Your Niche and Area of Interest for Affiliate Marketing:
- Identify your interest : Start by identifying your interest, hobbies and areas that you're familiar with. Consider the topics that you have knowledge in it. Choosing a suitable niche for you is important for a enjoyable affiliate marketing journey.
- Research the market demand: Once you have list of niche ideas, research the market demand and competition for those niches. Search for a niche that have a good amount of audience and doesn't have high competition. A balance between demand and competition will offer more opportunities.
Remember, if you have a website, social media or YouTube channel with already a chosen niche, you don't need to change your niche.
Understanding Your Target Audience and Their Needs:
- Research your audience: Identify your audience and research to understand their preferences and problems. Use tools like surveys, social media analytics or keywords research to see what your audience is looking for and interested in.
- Adress problems: Consider the problems your audience faces in your niche. Your content and affiliate promotion should focus on providing solutions your audience's needs.
- Build trust with your audience: If you connect with your audience more personally, it will create a loyal fan-base and build trust with the audience. By creating a loyal fan-base and a trustful audience you can make your audience more receptive to your affiliate recommendations.
- Engaging with your audience: Engage and interact with your audience through social media, comments. Interacting with your audience will help you understand their preferences and you can adjust your content as they say,
- Analyze your promotion: As you create more content and promote affiliate products, analyze the success of your promotions and make strategies based on what resonates the best with your audience.
In conclusion, finding your niche and target audience is important to select which products to promote through affiliate marketing. One thing, If you already have a website, social media account or a YouTube channel with already a chosen niche and have loyal fan-base you don't need to change your niche. But it is important to research your audience.
Choosing the Right Affiliate Programs
Now next step is to choose an affiliate program with fair commissions and with good user reviews. The affiliate program you choose will directly impact how much you will earn, when you will get paid etc. So here is a step-by-step guide to choose the right Affiliate program.
For more details: Top 5 best Affiliate Programs
Research Reputable Affiliate Programs:
Look for Brands or Companies that are popular and most affiliate marketers use. Working with a popular brand ensures that your audience are getting high-quality products you're promoting.
Check affiliate networks like ShareASale, CJ Affiliate and Rakuten Marketing. These networks house multiple affiliate programs, making it easier for an affiliate to discover and join multiple programs.
If you know someone who does affiliate marketing, ask him about the program, how is it? Is it beginner friendly or not? Read reviews from other affiliate marketers in the Internet. After you've got some positive thoughts about any program, you can ensure that it is genuine.
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Compare Commission Rates and Payment Structures:
Compare the commission rates that different affiliate programs offer. Some programs offer a percentage of the sale ammount, while others provide fixed commission amount per sale or any action. Compare how much you can earn from different affiliate programs, then decide which program to choose.
Cookie duration means the time period during which an affiliate will receive credit for a referral. A longer cookie duration means you'll receive commissions for sales made within that time period. So it is better to look for programs with longer cookie duration.
Check the payment threshold, which is the minimum amount you need to earn before receiving commissions. Review the available payment methods, such as PayPal, direct deposit or checks, to ensure they are convenient for you.
Examples of Affiliate Programs:
Remember to choose affiliate program based on your audience preferences, your chosen niche and the products you want to promote.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we've learned What is Affiliate marketing? The process of affiliate marketing and It's main parties, Finding a niche and identifying your target audience and Choosing affiliate program.
This is just a starting point for beginners who are going to start Affiliate marketing. So this post doesn't contain all the tips to grow affiliate buisness. Remember never stop exploring more about Affiliate marketing. Make your affiliate buisness successful one day.
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