In the following steps, we will explain how to Become an Affiliate Marketer in 6 Steps, this is one of many questions that many who are starting out always ask themselves and it is what you, as a beginner interested in this type of business model, will always ask yourself.
Affiliate Marketing is like starting a business. As we explained in Affiliate Marketing 101 [link] which is one of the clear advantages is that you won’t have to struggle with inventory or storage, and you won’t need employees, and the most important thing is that after all, you will be able to manage and set up your business online.
Like everything, there are certain steps that you will have to follow and you will discover how to use Affiliate Marketing to generate passive income, the most important thing is to prepare yourself and learn to master a marketing technique for your business.
In this article, we will explain step by step how to start to learn how to do Affiliate Marketing, and it can help you during your beginning. Whether you decide to go it alone or team up with other people or offer your Affiliate marketing services, learning these steps will prepare you to better understand how it really works and be prepared for what lies ahead.
1- Choose a Niche.
The niche is going to be one of the factors that determine your success in this career and you can generate money. Each Affiliate chooses a niche in which they will try to influence their audience.
One of the mistakes we make when starting out is that we want to influence many niches, but we are making the mistake and risk spreading it too far and in the end, our efforts will not be effective.
The most important thing is to choose something that interests us and we like and thus be able to transmit and influence our potential buyers. Choosing our niche is one of the most crucial parts when starting Affiliate Marketing. If for some reason we choose the wrong niche, it will cost us more work to sell it, compared to if we choose the right niche, all this will be easier.
And the question that many of us ask ourselves is, what is the right niche for me as an Affiliate?
We have to start by doing a self-assessment about the right brand or product and make sure it is something we like and will enjoy. Let’s start with these questions?
What do we like?
What are we passionate about?
Will people look for our product in that niche?
Is there a demand for that product in that niche?
How is the competition in my niche?
What are the affiliate programs and know if they will work in the niche we choose?
Many times it makes sense to choose something that we already know and know, but sometimes it doesn’t work the most appropriate thing is to choose something that we are really passionate about, but we also have to understand that we have to find a product that is not necessarily something that we are passionate about or is fun, most of the time it will be about Profit, how much we are going to earn promoting that product?. And these questions will help us find out if the product we are considering is something that we really want to promote regularly.
“ If we ever think that a product will not help improve people’s lives, there is no point in selling it. This is going to be very critical to your long-term success as an affiliate. Many times, we have to analyze and take the time to investigate, test the products that we are really thinking of promoting, and thus we can conclude if it is the right one for our audience, if we analyze all this, we can build a successful business. ”
2- Evaluate the Demand Market.
When starting out, it is important to assess the market demand in our niche. By doing so, you will help us identify the products that consumers are interested in buying. With this evaluation, we can start promoting products that convert into sales and we can generate commissions.
One of the best options when starting to search is by browsing Google Trends. Google Trends will guide us to understand how many times users are searching for that product in that niche. Or if you are looking for a specific niche, here we can see statistically how is the demand for a product in that specific niche. There it will also show us and break it down regionally and suggest other related topics.
Whatever the Niche or the product that you want to promote, you have to start with seeing and understanding the graphs of this product and that niche, and see if the sales and searches for this specific product or this Niche are consistent. This is one of the ways in which you can determine the Niche and the product that interests you in order to promote and sell. Since you will choose if the product you are looking to promote you are going to do it only on holidays, for example, Christmas, or it is going to be a product that is consumed or can be promoted all year round.
Google Trends will help you determine the supply and demand for your product in that specific niche.
3- Find the Right Affiliate Program for you
After you have chosen the niche that interests you and identifies you, now is the time to find the program that will help you promote the products in the niche that interests you. This is where little by little you are going to take steps and go further in your studies of How to become an affiliate marketer.
Here you will find how companies manage their internal affiliate programs, although it is more common to find an affiliate network (network affiliates) and through these networks, the company or merchant) can promote their products on your behalf.
Affiliate Marketing Programs, These are sites that will act as intermediaries between the Affiliate and the Merchants, it can be said that they are like the gateway, in which a relationship will begin as we mentioned before, between the Merchant and the Affiliates, interested in promoting their product or brand. This is going to be the way you can find Products and Brands to promote.
For example, if you want to promote Nike Brand products, you have to start by searching for “Nike affiliate programs”, and there you can find where this Brand is running its affiliate program.
During this search, it really is going to be very essential that you have to consider before starting with any program or product to promote.
Affiliate Networks:
Affiliate Network is a group of companies in which you as an affiliate will be able to find and see the different products these networks offer for promotion, you will also find all the information about the product to be promoted and the different tools that these vendors will offer to affiliates to be able to promote your product and thus be able to encourage affiliates interested in your product to be able to promote your product more successfully since this is going to be a more direct relationship between Merchant and Affiliate.
Important points to consider when starting your search and choosing a product:
• How much will be the commission that you will have when promoting your product
• What type of support will you receive from the Merchant to promote their product?
• If you are really interested in being associated with the brand and the program that you are going to sell.
Following these steps will help you understand more about the Brand and the product you are interested in selling and will determine your success as an affiliate. Keep in mind that Affiliate Networks are going to be the bridge that will help you find profitable products and companies that generate money for you.
Find the Right Product to Promote.
In the beginning, it will be a bit difficult to decide on the product and affiliate network, since many times we will get carried away by the different high commissions that each product or program offers and we will want to promote different products and programs at the same time or on the same website.
As a beginner, it is best to choose a single niche to promote and even for our website. It will be much less complicated and it will allow us to know and learn more about that niche, especially if it is something new for you and that you are interested in learning.
Besides that, it will help your visitors to your website not to confuse them, if your website is about weight loss products, but you are covering kitchen products, or electronics that are not related to the topic of weight loss products on your website, what you are going to cause is to confuse your visitors to your website.
The best way, as described above, is to start your research and comparison with Google Trends which will help you choose and decide on the right product to promote.
Another way to be able to decide on a product or niche is by searching the different Affiliate Networks, where you can see and compare in each niche, the products that are constantly at the top in that program. You can also search different blog websites and check the articles in that specific niche and then you will be able to find out the products and methods they are using to promote their products.
As we discussed above, if you as an affiliate do not believe in that product or program, do not recommend or promote it. Find the right product that you would like and are happy to promote, and your audience benefits from that product. Just because you like something and it makes you happy to promote it doesn’t mean you have to use every product or program you recommend or promote, you just have to trust the product and that your buyers will benefit from that product. Of course, if you use that product and you know that it has helped you, and you want other people to benefit as well, that is going to be the best way you can transmit it to your visitors.
If you are going to recommend something that you yourself are not satisfied with or like, you are only going to affect the reputation of your visitors to your website and towards the same product or company.
The Commission.
During your search you will realize the very big difference in commissions of different products that each one offers, sometimes it will depend a lot on the quality of each product and the commission of each product it offers to its affiliates. And many times the high commission is what will tempt us to want to promote that product, but before deciding on x product we have to analyze the supply, demand, and quality of that product and we have to take Conversion into account. If you are looking for a product with high commission, but low conversion, then promoting these products is not going to benefit you and maybe it is not going to be the best.
During this process, you will also understand how the commission works and how you will be able to generate money from that product that you are going to promote, you will see many different forms of compensation from each Vendor and it will depend a lot on how the company that owns the product will compensate their affiliates for their work of generating traffic to their product and, most importantly, the sales that they bring to their product.
Each company will have a different program to compensate their affiliates, depending on your sales and form of marketing, some companies will agree to give you a higher percentage of commissions, depending on your sales, and of course, this will be an agreement between the company and you as an affiliate directly.
4- Analyze your Competitors
The next steps are to determine whether or not you have competitors, either in the product you plan to promote or the niche directly. Of course, you will see a lot of competition in the niche you choose, but there are many ways to get around this.
One way to find out and learn more about your competitors is to search for words with a word search engine like ubersuggest or ahrefs. These tools will help you to see how competitive they are in Google searches and they are really very easy to use since, with a few clicks, you will be able to find suggestions in your niche and how competitive they are.
In another blog, we will explain how each tool works, but these are some very good options to be able to search for words of your product and see how competitive your niche is, of the product that you are going to promote.
Unlike Ubersuggest, Ahrefs offers you more options since you will be able to specify the search word more, either in the niche or in the product or more related to the title of your product to promote.
But, these two tools will help you at the beginning of your day to be able to decide and see the competition in your niche more clearly.
Other very good options, either when you have chosen or during your search, go directly to the affiliate networks platforms such as maxweb or Clickbank, where you will start with the search for your product and niche to promote. These platforms will help you to choose, compare, find and see how competitive each product in each niche is.
There you can see the different measures and the gravity of each product and thus be able to compare how much demand there is for each product.
When you combine all these tools, you will get a closer look at how well the niche you are going to choose is doing and see how competitive a certain product or niche is. If there is a lot of competition in your niche, then you will take into account that it will possibly cost you more work to stand out, I would not say that you will not be successful, it will simply cost you more work to stand out successfully in that niche, for the same competition. Because we also have to take into account supply and demand, it may be more competitive, but there is also a lot of demand, so we have to balance this and decide if we want to start in that niche.
5 -Decide for a Platform.
Although most of the time it is not necessary to have or create a website or blog to promote your affiliate product, it can be one of the best options, since when you start promoting a product, at the end of the day, you are keeping all your information in a platform that is not yours, compared to your own Website.
Each process has its learning steps, any of the options you start you will have to learn to use that platform, whether you decide to start with Clickfunnels, WordPress or Wix, for example. Each one has its pros and cons and of course, the price is also going to be an option when deciding on any platform. There are many platforms and each one will vary in cost, many of the platforms offer you free service, of course with some limitations since it is FREE to start with, but little by little you can subscribe to the different payment options and be able to receive more benefits of that platform.
Now, if you really decide to have your own Website, WordPress is the best option, since it is free, although it is one of the best options, learning how to use each of the tools that you are going to use, that can take a little of time to learn, it is not complicated, it is very easy, but like everything it has its tricks since this platform works with plugins and themes and each one has a learning process.
6- Choose your Marketing Methods.
After you have already chosen the product, and the niche to promote now comes the option to choose, how are you going to promote that product or that niche, there really are many options, the best and most important thing at the beginning is to focus on one method, dominate it and run it.
There are a few options here, although as I mentioned there really are a lot of options.
- You can create a blog website related to the niche or product to be promoted or even create a Marketplace website where you are going to promote products related to your niche.
- Create the content on Social Networks, be it photos or videos. Whether you do it organically (FREE) or pay for advertising (paid ads)
- Create videos either on TikTok, Facebook, or Youtube, promoting your product directly.
There are really many options that we can describe in another blog, but for now, we want to give you a shorter and quicker idea, especially for those people who are just starting out and really have no idea how to start.
Here are a few Marketing Methods:
• PPC
• Social media
• SEO
• Blogging
• How-To Videos
• Coupons
• Email Marketing
• Webinars
• Reviews
- PPC (Pay-per-Click) Paid Advertising, consists of launching promotions with the aim of generating clicks, and so every time a person clicks on your PPC ad, the advertiser (affiliate) pays and the platform where you are launching The promotion earns money, but also you as an affiliate, since the purpose of launching and paying PPC is to promote your product and generate sales from that promotion.
- Social media. The different Social Networks will connect you with billions of people around the world, who most of the time are ready to learn more about their favorite brand and ready to buy. With this option, affiliates have to be smart in learning how to use the different options to promote their products whether on Facebook, Google, Instagram, Twitter, etc, since each option is different, and whether you start creating content organically ( free) or really launch yourself to promote your product with payment for advertising.
- Blogging. Blogging is believed to be one of the best options when starting Affiliate Marketing, especially using your advertising methods with different brands at the same time. When you start a Blog, it will help you establish yourself and be an expert in the industry you choose since you will be a very useful and informative source of information, and in this way, you will create a community of people who will follow you. to continue learning about your content.
- Coupons. We all like to receive offers on our favorite products or brands, and statistically, most of us are always looking for the best deals before deciding to buy any product. And for all companies, this is one of your best strategies to be able to attract your customers, and not just attract them, but make them come back to buy and they can be loyal to your brand and your products if they are constantly receiving coupons from offers.
- SEO. (Search Engine Optimization) This option will be very important, as it will help us prepare our website pages to be found by the right people who are interested in our brand, niche or products. And the best way to do it is by strategically creating keywords and popular words to increase our chance of our products being found and seen, so we can attract those people who are searching for our product or brand directly and can receive what they are looking for.
Every day, search traffic is increasing more and more, not only young people are connected to the Internet but also many adults have benefited from this Internet fever, being able to search and compare any product or brand before deciding on any brand. or product.
- Videos of how to do it. Videos have had exponential growth on the internet since users are consuming them on different social media platforms with live broadcasts or (live streams). Statistically, each person spends around 84 minutes a day watching videos online on any of their favorite social networks.
As a Marketing Affiliate, it is a great advantage, since it gives us one more option to be able to promote and advertise our products, and these reach more audiences since many people interact more when watching a video of our favorite brand or products. Since you can promote a product live and be able to make demonstrations in which people can interact directly live, either learning more about your brand or product and right there they can make their direct purchase.
Email Marketing
Many Affiliates believe that Email Marketing does not work or that it is already expired, the reality is that Email Marketing is one of the best options to interact when promoting a product or brand. The simple and simple reason is that this person has already seen your product, already knows it, simply and simply was not ready at that time to buy it.
Now, what person doesn’t have an email? It is believed that there are more than 3.9 billion email users every day around the world, and with the increase of more users in this digital age, it will really continue to grow more and more. Email is one more option that will allow us to send our content more directly to those people who for some reason found our product during their search, subscribed, but were not ready to buy at that time, and this gives us a great advantage. to be able to send you our most personalized content and directly to your email.
- Reviews. Who among us buys a product based on a product suggestion? We could say that most of the time this is the way we base our online purchases, whether we saw a video related to the product and it convinced us or at the suggestion of a family member or friend. Or also reading about the information of that same product by checking the characteristics and information of that same product.
It is estimated that more than 90% of people read or look at the review and suggestions of the product before buying, the truth is that most of the time we trust that review and thus base our purchase, and likewise, as we said, also based on the suggestion of friends and family.
That is why it is very important that as Affiliate Marketing we learn to manage the review pages that are on the internet such as Google and Yelp, since they will provide customers with answers and at the same time they will be rewarded for leaving their testimonials. related to your visit or purchase of a product, either directly in the store or during your online purchase.
Webinars. With the revolution of the Internet, Webinars are one more way to be able to promote or give direct information about a product or brand to its different clients or also to attract new clients, since a Webinar can be considered as a direct promotion to be able to connect with your audience and be able to provide them with more direct information related to your different offers or promotions.
A very big advantage of Webinars is that this technique can help us generate thousands of Emails since many people register or register to receive information related to the promotion and thus be able to maintain a form of contact with the people who attend the webinar and the most important thing is that also after the webinar is over, because we have your information, and through your email, we can send you our different, more personalized promotions.
Conclusion.
If you really want to stand out and take advantage of the different advertising techniques and methods as much as possible, we have to learn a technique method to be able to launch our advertising campaigns and thus be able to spread the word.
As we have mentioned, there are many techniques, you can start with one of those that we have mentioned before and be able to start launching a promotion, either on a single advertising platform, call it social networks or simply and simply you can launch your multi-channel promotion, in different social networks at the same time.
We only suggest that it is better to start with a platform, technique, and Method, learn and master it and then try another one, in fact, this is the best option when we start.
This way when you launch your advertising campaign, you can reach your intended audience and scale faster and easier with your Affiliate Marketing.
