Affiliate Marketing Guide For Beginners


Affiliate marketing is one of the highest paying remote skills in the world. This industry is worth over $12 billion globally. It's a low-cost industry that offers real earning opportunities for marketers.


80% of advertisers are now dedicating budgets for affiliate services because it increases product exposure and conversion rate.


With affiliate marketing, you stand a chance to make six figures from the comfort of your couch, but it isn't an easy nut to crack.


We've put up this guide to reveal our advertising strategy for generating wealth from affiliate marketing. 

In this guide, you'll learn:



What is Affiliate Marketing?


Affiliate marketing is a commission-based marketing strategy leveraged by affiliate networks and individuals to gain high conversions and increase revenue. 

Affiliates promote the product and services of a person or company—affiliate network—in exchange for an agreed commission.


How Affiliate Marketing Works 


You might be wondering how affiliates earn their money. 

Here's a detailed description of how affiliate marketing works.

First, you choose the product or service from an affiliate network. I'd suggest you start with one product as a beginner.

Second, the affiliate network or product owners give you a link or referral code. A prospect has to click-through your link to the product page for purchase before you earn your commission. 

These links contain cookies that notify the product owners whenever a sale comes from you.


Lastly, you receive a net commission for all your sales from the affiliate network or product owners.



The Four Parties of Affiliate Marketing 


The four main parties involved in the affiliate marketing chain includes:


The Merchant/Owner of the product


The Merchant might be an individual or a company. The merchants are the investors of the affiliate products. 


Affiliate Network


The affiliate network is the intermediary between an affiliate and a merchant. It is an online marketplace for affiliate marketers and merchants. 


 Affiliate networks make it easier for marketers to receive their commissions from the products they promote.


Affiliates 


The affiliate might be a blogger, social media influencer or email marketer promoting the merchant products for a commission.


Consumers/Buyer


Consumers make the end of the affiliate marketing chain. They are the people who buy a product or service from a company using an affiliate link to the product page.



Pros and Cons of Affiliate Marketing 

Let's see the positive and negative sides of affiliate marketing.

Pros of Affiliate Marketing 


Flexible working schedule

You choose a convenient time to work as an affiliate marketer without scares of receiving queries from a cranky boss. 


The remote feature of affiliate marketing makes it a comfortable profession for people who enjoy working from the comfort of their homes.


Side Hustle Job

Affiliate marketing is a good side hustle job if you wish to maintain your profession. 


You're in control of your work hours and overall schedule. You can also work with different affiliate networks or promote products and services from niches. 


Passive Source of Income

One of the eye-snatching benefits of becoming an affiliate marketer is the "make money while you sleep" possibility. 


As long as you remain connected to an affiliate network—there is no breach in agreement—you can continuously earn commissions from customers who buy a product through your affiliate link.


Easy to Start

Most affiliate networks don't request past working experience or portfolio before acceptance. The registration process is easy.


Access to a Wider Market

Affiliate networks and companies leverage affiliate marketing because they want their products and services to reach customers effectively.



Cons Of Affiliate Marketing 


High Competition

Because affiliate marketing is an easy-to-start profession, there is a high chance of experiencing high market competition from other affiliate marketers.


Working as a Third Party

Affiliate marketers only earn commissions from the products or services they sell. Most affiliate marketers put in much effort to convert prospects to buyers for just a little commission.


7 Skills Needed In Affiliate Marketing 

Affiliate marketing is a performance-based marketing. Your conversion rate determines how much you earn.

You need to equip yourself with basic marketing skills to become a high earning affiliate.

The skills needed for a successful affiliate marketing campaign:

  1. Problem-solving skill
  2. Social media managing skill
  3. Copywriting skill 
  4. Data analysis skill
  5. Content creation
  6. Email marketing
  7. Ad creation


Problem Solving Skill

This is one of the most important skills you'll need as an affiliate. A problem-solver finds the burning desire of a demographic and offers a solution.

In affiliate marketing, the solution you offer is the product or service of your affiliate network. 


Social Media Managing and Influencing

One of the channels for promoting affiliate products is social media. The mainstream dependence on social media channels keeps increasing exponentially.

According to Statista, there are over 4 billion active social media users worldwide. Facebook and Instagram are among the top 3 biggest social channels.

So building a strong social presence is a valuable skill as an affiliate.

Share helpful and engaging content on your social page, be consistent and maintain relationships with followers.

With this, you won't worry about getting buyers for your affiliate product.



Copywriting skill

A copywriter uses written words to grab the attention of prospects and make them take specific actions.

Affiliate marketing involves scripting persuasive copies for ads, blog posts and video scripts that reels people like a magnet to your affiliate product.

You need the skill of a copywriter to create good sales copies and ads for your affiliate product or service.



Data Analysis 

Data analysis for marketing involves studying digital data to discover marketing insights like customer behaviours and high Converting channels. 

Affiliate marketing involves leveraging personal social media pages, email lists or paid ads for product and service promotion.

The data gained from analytic tools provide marketing insights for promoting a product.

The data analysis process involves 



Content Creation 

Content creation is making valuable content to connect to a target audience.

Content marketing is a strategy for building trust and authority between you and customers. 

One of the most successful affiliate marketers is content creators because of the loyal audience they've managed to build overnight.



Email Marketing 

Email marketing is one of the oldest but most effective marketing strategies in the digital space.

The conversion rates of email marketing is higher because you're communicating to a streamlined audience. 

Report shows that email marketing is the biggest ROI for marketers.



Ad Creation 

This is one of the most useful skills of an affiliate marketer.

Ads project a product to a wider audience compared to your social media pages, or email list, but many ads are flying around the web today.

One way to stand out and capture people's attention is paid ads.



Roadmap For a Successful Affiliate Marketing Career 

Now you know what affiliate marketing is about, how it works and the skills needed in this industry.

It's high time we show you what a money-making affiliate marketer does.

With the increasing number of affiliates, the success rate of affiliate marketers Is beginning to decline, this roadmap is a blueprint for a successful affiliate marketing career.


Stage 1: Choose the Right network 

There are numerous affiliate networks with different commission rates, payment systems and preferred channels.

Always conduct deep research, see reviews and marketing techniques before joining any affiliate network. 

Picking the right network makes conversion easier for you.


Stage 2: Pick a Suitable Commission System 

Pick the right commission system that works best for you.

In affiliate marketing, there are three employable commission models. They include:

Pay Per Sale (PPS)

PPS is an affiliate system where an affiliate gets paid a commission from the number of sales generated from the affiliate's marketing channels or ads.


Pay Per Lead (PPL)

A lead is a potential customer likely to purchase from a company.

PPL is an affiliate payment model where advertisers, marketers and companies pay affiliates for the leads directed from the mainstream media, to their sales funnel. 


Pay Per Click (PPC)

Pay-per-click is a paid ad system for website Visibility on the search engine—SEO optimisation.

An affiliate gets a commission for every click from target audiences.


Stage 3: Start with the Niche/ Product you Know

The basics of affiliate marketing are promotion. It is much easier to promote a product or service you love and care about than any other product. 

Affiliates struggle with this, content creators, ad creators and copywriters running affiliate marketing, experience creative blocks after exhausting the little ideas they know about a topic or product. 


Stage 4: Consumer Research 

Every good product or service is a solution to the worries of a group of people, know your audience better.


Stage 5: Product Research 

Product research is the process of gathering manufacturing information, features and customer data about a product or service.

This step is paramount to the success of any affiliate product you market. An affiliate needs to know the nitty-gritty of an affiliated product before recommending it to prospects. 


Stage 6: Decide the Channels for Promotion 

Some of the marketing channels for affiliate marketing are blogs, podcast, video channels like youtube and TikTok, paid ads and other social media platforms.

As a beginner, you'll have a hard time marketing on all channels, pick the best possible channel and stay committed there. 

Select the platforms with the highest target audiences.


Stage 7: Create Valuable Contents Consistently 

Create valuable content that resonates with your audience before you can sell to them.

Prospects make buying decisions because of the value they get first-hand. 


Stage 8: Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

SEO Is the practice of auditing your website pages to organically rank high on search engines. 

As an affiliate marketer, you need to get your content at the front of your audience before you can sell to them.


SEO practices include:


Stage 9: Get Clicks on Your Affiliate Link

Creating great content and optimizing your website on search engines isn't enough to get your sales, tell your audience to take action—in this context, purchase your link. 

Avoid spamming affiliate links all over your content, you'll appear desperate and untrustworthy. 

Place affiliate links at strategic sections of your copy. The best way to do this is to read, listen or watch your content and note the best time to recommend an affiliate product.


Stage 10: Convert Clicks and Earn

As an affiliate, you're in control of the entire marketing process until now. The checkout depends on the marketing strategy of your affiliate network or merchant.

But this shouldn't be a problem for you if you don't skip step 1 of our successful affiliate marketing roadmap. 



Conclusion 

The testimonies you see from affiliate marketing experts are real, this is one of the most lucrative passive income Industries on the internet. 

But it's a tough nut to crack, you have to dedicate your time and effort to earn big as an affiliate. 

This article is the vehicle to becoming a money-ripping affiliate, your commitment is the fuel to sky-rocket your affiliate career.







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