Affiliate Marketing 101
In yesterdays post I mentioned I’d go through each topic in a bit more depth, so we start today with Affiliate Marketing. This is where I personally started my journey in online marketing.
Yesterdays post can be found here -
Sadly it's a big subject and I can never fully explain it all here, but I'll at least try to explain the basics and how to get started.
First of all, let’s quickly cover the very basics for those who may not know what it is. Affiliate Marketing is where you promote products or services that belonging to other people. When you sign up for an affiliate program you’ll get your own unique links to the online sales page. These links act as a way for the website owner to track who sent the visitor and who gets credit for the sale. The link will typically include your unique affiliate ID.
It’s then your job to get that link out there on the net and get people to click on it and buy. When someone clicks the link and buys something, you get credited with the sale and earn a commission. Commissions vary quite a lot depending on what you're promoting.
You can easily find affiliate networks simply by Googling "affiliate networks" and signing up. You can also choose a niche you want get into and Google that. For instance if you Google "affiliate shoes" you'll see a list of all shoe suppliers that accept affiliates. This is great for women with a large social media following who can recommend the latest cool shoes. This goes for just about any niche. You can find affiliate program for just about any product you can think of.
So go and find some and sign up.
Getting your link out there.
If you have a website or Blog already, it's an easy job to write posts about what you're selling and add your affiliate links.
Other methods include creating a Facebook Fan Page solely for your product, or a Pinterest board. Both of these methods let you create a social media page concentrated solely on your chosen product.
I know lots of guys who have multiple Facebook Fan Pages dedicated to different products. No need to only promote one product, but you do need to make sure that you always keep it relevant. If you start mixing it up and create a page about cool womens shoes, please don't start promoting weight loss products on the same page. Stick to your niche.
Just remember that you need to find the ideal audience of people who want the product you're selling. This is perfect for Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, as you can easily create a page purely about the product target and only existing relevant hashtags or related groups.
How I started.
The first network I joined was in the health niche and I promoted natural healthy supplements. I had no clue how to setup a website so went to YouTube and taught myself Wordpress. My first site revolved around Acai Berry Supplements, which was no more than a five page site with good information and some buy buttons that took people to the sales page.
I promoted it in relevant forums and websites, plus Facebook advertising which was a bit easier back then. Nowadays Facebook Advertising is a bit more strict, so read the terms and conditions about what you can and can't do.
Setting up a website is the best way to go about it, and is actually very easy and quite inexpensive. A domain name costs about $10 per year and you can get hosting for as little as $4-$5 per month. The big advantage is that you own the site and you can send all your social media traffic to the one site.
That's the main tactic really. Be everywhere and always send your traffic to the one relevant site.
Getting started the easy way.
If you don't want to be bothered with creating a website (but you should), then go create accounts for your product on the social media channels I mention above and get posting good quality relevant content. Instgram and Pinterest are the easiest to start with because the users actually search for the hastags or keywords that you include in your pages and titles.
It's only then a matter of keeping on posting and not getting frustrated if after one or two weeks you still haven't made a sale. Keep at it and once you build up your audience it will be worth it.
Affiliate networks.
The most popular mainstream ones to join as a newbie are probably Clickbank, Share a Sale, and Commission Junction, but feel free to sign up for any network or product that floats your boat.
Please don0r start with high ticket products. Pick something relatively cheap with an easy sale to get started and learn the ropes. Do not go trying to sell a product that costs $100. Start small and work your way up. Preferably start with something no more than $10-$20.
Maybe start really small with Amazon Associates, which Ill cover in the next post in this series.
Hope that helps you a bit and provides enough motivation to get going.
Stay tuned for the next episode !
Thanks.
