Affiliate Marketing: Easy Beginner’s Guide [2024]

Why you should learn affiliate marketing?

Because it’s easy to do, and it makes you money while you sleep!

It’s really that simple.

I’m not going to waste your time convincing you that this is a good idea.

The truth is, if you’re looking for ways to make money online, then affiliate marketing is the way to go.

You don’t have to spend a dime on education, or even go through any formal training… you can learn everything there is to know about affiliate marketing from the comfort of your own home!

It’s easy, fun, and rewarding!

And if that doesn’t convince you? Consider this…

Affiliate marketing is also the simplest way for beginners to make money online.

It gives you access to a multi-billion dollar powerhouse of an industry with little risk and very high returns.

You don’t need fancy software or expensive equipment. All you need is an internet connection and some free time!

If you want to work from home or travel around the world while making money on the side… then affiliate marketing is the answer.

In fact, affiliate marketing isn’t just a way to make money… it’s an amazing way to live life!

So don’t wait any longer – it’s time to start living the life you’ve always wanted. You’ll thank yourself later!

To help you get started, I’ve put together this easy affiliate marketing for beginners guide. I’ll explain what affiliate marketing is, how it works and how you can start making money with it in a few easy steps.

Ready to start earning money? Then read on!

What Is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a way of earning money by promoting other people’s products or services.

The product or service owner pays you a commission when someone buys their product through your link.

As an affiliate marketer, you can promote any product or service that you believe others would benefit from.

Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular ways to make money online because it’s so easy for beginners… you don’t need a lot of capital or technical skills to get started.

How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

Here’s how affiliate marketing works:

You find something you’d like to sell. Maybe it’s a product that’s really useful for your audience, or maybe it’s a service that will help them do something better.

Then you put up a link on your site, blog, or social network so people can buy it from the company who makes it. If people click through your link and buy what they were looking at, the company will give you some money!

That’s affiliate marketing. Yes, it really is that simple!

What Exactly Does An Affiliate Marketer Do?

As an affiliate marketer, or ‘affiliate’ you’re responsible for generating traffic, or potential customers, to a company’s website and its sales funnels.

You do this by writing articles or reviews about the company’s products or services. You can also create videos that showcase their products in action.

You can then post these on your site, or share them on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

You can also run adverts on Google Ads (formerly Google Adwords) to drive people straight to the company’s website and funnels.

Ultimately, the goal as an affiliate marketer is to convince your readers… and potential customers… that the product is worth their time and money.

This means you need to help them learn more about the products you’re recommending, so that they can decide whether or not to buy from this company, too.

If you do your job well, then your readers will be convinced that this is a good product, and they’ll click through to make a purchase.

Once they do, you’ll earn a commission for sending traffic to that website!

To learn more about how to drive traffic to a sales funnel, be sure to read our guide:

• How To Drive Traffic To Your Sales Funnel [Easy Guide]

Benefits Of Affiliate Marketing

Here are a few benefits of affiliate marketing:

Easy To Start

Affiliate marketing is very easy to get started. You just need to find a product or service that you can recommend.

You don’t have to create or manage any products yourself, unlike with ecommerce or dropshipping.

All you need is an audience… then you can make money by promoting someone else’s products.

No Upfront Costs

The beauty of affiliate marketing is that you don’t have any upfront costs. You don’t have to buy any products yourself or invest in a fancy ecommerce store.

All you need is a blog, website, or a social media account with some traffic and followers.

If a visitor clicks on one of your affiliate links and buys something, you’ll get paid a commission.

Freedom To Work When And Where

With affiliate marketing, you have the freedom to pick when and where you want to work.

Want to work from home sitting in your pajamas? Sure, you can do that.

Or maybe you want to work from the beach in your shorts and flip-flops? You can do that too!

All you need is a laptop and an internet connection… there are no restrictions when it comes to location.

Unlimited Earning Potential

Another benefit of affiliate marketing is its unlimited earning potential… even if you’re just starting out!

With the right strategy and hard work, you can earn millions of dollars through affiliate marketing… especially if you already have a large audience… or you’re able to create amazing content that goes viral.

The possibilities are endless when it comes to making money online with affiliate marketing, so long as you know how to do it right.

Diversify Your Income Streams

Affiliate marketing is a great way to diversify your income streams because it doesn’t rely on one source of income.

Instead, it relies on multiple sources of revenue coming from different companies at once.

This means that if one company starts to change their affiliate terms, you don’t have to worry about losing your income because there are other companies that you can promote instead.

How Do Affiliates Get Paid?

The exact payment method varies from one affiliate marketing program to another.

Some programs use a pay-per-sale model, where affiliates earn money for each sale they make.

Other programs operate on a cost per lead basis. Here, affiliates are only paid when someone completes a lead form or subscribe to the merchant’s newsletter.

And, then there are programs that use a pay-per-action model. Here, affiliates are paid every time someone clicks on one of their ads or completes an action that’s been defined by the merchant.

In general, pay-per-sale programs are most common.

When you become an affiliate, your merchant will provide you with a tracking link that you can use in your marketing materials, on your website and in emails to potential customers.

When someone clicks that link and makes a purchase at the merchant’s site, you’ll earn a commission on that sale.

This can typically be between 5% and 40% of the purchase price, but also sometimes much higher. Your commission will vary, depending on the product and niche that you are in.

Examples Of Affiliate Marketing Programs

There are many affiliate programs out there, so I not going to list them all here… I’ll leave that for another post.

Instead, I’ll give you two examples of the most popular affiliate programs that you can get started with today:

Amazon Associates Program

Amazon Associates Program is one of the most popular affiliate programs out there because it has a huge selection of products and it’s easy to use.

If you sign up for an Amazon Associate account, you can display Amazon ads on your blog or website and earn commissions on any sales that are generated from those ads.

You can also earn commissions by writing reviews for books and other merchandise sold through Amazon.

Typical commission rates vary from between 1% and 10% but you can get 20% on Amazon Games.

eBay Partner Network

eBay Partner Network is another one of the biggest and most popular affiliate marketing programs out there.

Members can earn commissions by promoting eBay products and services through their own websites, blogs and social media accounts.

When someone clicks on one of your links and buys something from eBay, you will receive a commission on the sale.

The amount you get paid varies depending on the product category, but it’s usually between 3% and 10%.

Some people make a full-time income by promoting just one or two products on their website. While others have hundreds of active items listed in their eBay Partner Network account.

How To Start Affiliate Marketing For Beginners (Step By Step)

So here’s the good stuff…

Here’s how you can start affiliate marketing as a beginner in a few easy steps:

1. Pick A Niche

When you start your affiliate marketing career, you will need to pick a niche. This is an important step because it can determine your success or failure.

If you pick the wrong niche, then it could be very hard for you to make money as an affiliate marketer.

There are a lot of different ways you can approach this, but the best way is to pick something that you are passionate about.

The work will be easier if you love what you’re promoting.

If you don’t care about the products or services that you promote, it will be hard for you to convince other people to buy them from you as well.

There are tons of different niches you can choose from and the best way to determine which one is right for you is by doing some research.

To find a niche, you’ll want to check out Google Trends and see what people are searching for the most.

You can also use tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, or Google Keyword Planner to see what keywords are bringing traffic to other websites in your industry.

Once you’ve found a few niches that interest you, take some time to learn about them and see if they’re something that would work for your business.

2. Choose A Product

The second step to starting an affiliate marketing business is choosing a product or service.

This can be difficult if you’re new to the world of affiliate marketing.

It can also be a little scary, because if you choose the wrong product, it will take longer to make money and you could even lose money.

I recommend that you start with niche products or services that you’re familiar with or like.

For example, if you love fashion, then pick a fashion-related product like shoes or clothes.

Or, if you’re into sports, pick something related to sports like tickets or sports equipment.

Just remember, that in order to choose a good product, there are several things that you need to consider:

Is there a demand for this product?

If not, then it might be hard for you to sell anything in this area.

What type of people would buy this product?

For example, if someone wants to buy dog toys, then is there also the opportunity to the same people will want to buy other dog-related products. This means you could also promote dog food, or even other pet accessories?

Is this product easy to sell?

Some products are easier than others when it comes down to sales and marketing them online. So whatever you choose, make sure that it’s something that you can easily sell and promote.

3. Find A Company That Sells The Product

Next, you need to find a company who sells the products or services that you want to promote.

This is usually done by searching for companies on Google, Bing, or your favorite search engine.

For example, if you wanted to promote affiliate marketing courses, then you would search for “Affiliate Marketing Course” in Google.

When searching for companies, try to find ones that have good reviews and are well established.

It is always better to choose a company with a good reputation over one that has no history or experience.

Once you have found a company that sells what you want to promote, it is time to sign up for their affiliate program if they have one available.

You can usually find information about a company’s affiliate marketing program by looking at the footer menu.

You will see a link to its affiliate program if they have one available.

If they do not have an affiliate program, you can still sign up for their regular newsletter and get updates on their website.

This way you can stay updated on new products that are being sold as well as promotions and deals that will help you earn more money with your blog or website.

4. Join The Affiliate Program With That Company

The next step is to join the affiliate program with the company you want to promote.

Some companies have an detailed application process that can take a few days to process.

Others simply require that you sign up for their affiliate program by filling out a form with your name, email address and site URL.

Once you’re accepted into the program, you can start promoting their products or services on your blog or website!

Alternative Option: Join An Affiliate Network

If you don’t want to spend all your time researching a niche, product or company before creating an affiliate marketing campaign, then one alternative is to join an existing network of affiliates.

The biggest affiliate networks include ClickBank, Commission Junction, and ShareASale.

You can search through their catalogs of products and find something that interests you. Then, you can join the network and start promoting their products.

Affiliate networks simplify the process of finding a product to promote by doing much of the work for you.

They’ve already done the research to find products that are likely to be successful, and they’ve created a structure for affiliates to promote them.

All you have to do is sign up for free and start promoting!

5. Create Content For That Product

If you want to start affiliate marketing, you need to be able to create content for that product. And, you need a platform to publish that content.

You don’t have to be an expert in the field… you just have to show that you know what you’re talking about and have researched the product.

If you can’t find any good content about your product, then simply create something better yourself!

For a platform, you can use a blog or website, but many marketers also choose to use social media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram and Facebook.

I always recommend starting with a website because it gives you more control over your content and allows you to create an email list.

A website is also a great source of free organic traffic from search engines like Google. In addition, it’s a marketing asset that you can use for years to come.

You can start a website for free on hosting services such as WordPress.com, Weebly, or Wix, which offer free domain names, hosting and templates.

However, I strongly recommend that if you’re serious about affiliate marketing, you create your own website using WordPress.org.

If you’re an entrepreneur or looking to start your own affiliate business, it’s important to know that WordPress.org is different from WordPress.com.

WordPress.org is the most popular open-source blogging and website platform in the world. It powers over 43% of the world’s websites and over 65% of websites with a content management system (CMS).

On the other hand, WordPress.com is a hosting service that offers a simple way to create a website or blog.

WordPress.com is great for getting started. But if you want to build a website that gives you complete control and ownership over your content, and better design and functionality, then you should use WordPress.org.

Using WordPress.org also means you’ll never have to worry that the company hosting your website might go out of business, or changes its terms and shuts down your site without warning.

The downside is that you have to pay for hosting, but this is not expensive… and it’s worth it to invest in a website that will make money for years to come.

Keys To Creating Effective Affiliate Content

The first step to creating effective affiliate content is to have a digital marketing strategy. To do this you need to understand your audience. You need to know what they want and how they want it delivered.

So, before you even think about creating any content, make sure that you know who your target audience is.

Ask yourself:

• What are their interests?
• Where do they hang out online?
• What topics do they like reading about?
• And so on…

Once you know who your target audience is, then it becomes easy for you to create content that appeals directly to them.

Examples of the different types of content you can create include:

• Product Reviews – where you review your product or service.
• How-to Guides And Tutorials – guides where you explain how to use your product or service in detail.
• Case Studies – where you highlight the benefits of using your product or service.

For each type of content you can create blog posts or articles, videos, infographics, eBooks, podcasts and more.

Try to make sure that all your written copy is as compelling as possible… you want your readers to take action… so make sure you write to sell.

If you’ve never written to sell, then we have an easy beginner’s guide to copywriting to help you here too.

Just remember, publishing high-quality content can help you establish yourself as an expert in your field and build a following of leads for your affiliate marketing business.

6. Add Your Affiliate Links

Once you’ve created your content, it’s time to add your affiliate links from your affiliate partner.

Some companies allow you to add banners or other graphics as well as text links that lead visitors directly to the products or services from the affiliate program you’ve joined.

Your affiliate partner will give you specific instructions on how to add their link, so make sure you follow those instructions carefully.

This is important because you want to make sure that every time someone clicks on one of your links you get rewarded with your commission.

7. Optimize Your Content For Search Engines

In order to get more traffic or visitors to your affiliate content, the next step is to make sure that your content is optimized for search engines like Google.

This means you need to make your content easy to read and understand for both humans and search engine robots.

Your main goal here is to help people solve their problems with your content and the products your recommend.

You can do this by using simple language and by explaining things in a way that people (and Google) can understand easily.

Just remember, that to get loved by Google and rank higher in its search engine, your content needs to have good search engine optimization, or SEO.

This involves using keywords and keyphrases in your content.

You also need to make sure that the keywords you use are relevant to the topic of your post and are what people are searching for.

To learn more about SEO, we’ve also written an easy SEO Beginners Guide to help you get started here.

8. Promote Your Content

Once you’ve optimized your content for search engines, it’s time to promote it.

You can:

• Link to your content in a social media post and encourage people to check it out.
• Share the post on relevant communities or groups.
• Email your subscriber list (or create one if you don’t have one yet) and let them know about the content by linking to it from your email.

You can also include your affiliate links directly on your social media posts too.

For example, if you’re promoting a piece of content on Pinterest, add your affiliate link for the product directly into your description.

Just make sure to double check your unique tracking ID… so when someone clicks through from your post and makes a purchase, you’ll get credit for it!

9. Build Relationships

Building relationships is one of the most important parts of affiliate marketing. Without a solid relationship, you can’t expect to make any money.

So, here are some ways you build relationships:

Be Personable In Your Content

The best way to make money in affiliate marketing is be personable with your audience.

The more you can relate to them and interact with them, the more likely they’ll be to click on your links and buy what you’re promoting.

Get Involved In Social Media

Social media is one of the easiest ways to meet people who would be interested in what you’re promoting.

In addition, social media allows you to share valuable content that helps establish yourself as an expert in your field.

This helps build credibility and trust with your audience, which leads to more sales down the road… and possibly better commissions!.

If you’re not active on social media sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, then start getting involved in them today.

You should also consider using tools like Hootsuite or Sprout Social to schedule posts across multiple networks so that you don’t have to spend all day updating your accounts manually.

Start Using Email Marketing

Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to build relationships with your audience and provide value over time.

It’s also a great opportunity to share your affiliate links with your audience and get them to click through to the products you’re promoting.

The best way to do this is by sending out a weekly or monthly newsletter that highlights the latest blog posts, product reviews, and other news related to your niche.

This allows you to keep your subscribers updated on what’s happening with you and your business.

It also helps to build stronger relationships with them by showing that they’re important enough for you to take the time to send them a message each week.

Email marketing is a key building block for a sales funnel… something you’ll want to learn about too… so you can put your affiliate marketing business on autopilot as you move forward.

If you’ve never used emails to sell, we have an easy beginners guide to email marketing to help you get started with that too.

10. Track Your Progress

In order to succeed with affiliate marketing, you need to track how well your campaigns are doing.

You can do this in your online affiliate account dashboard from your affiliate partner.

Here, you will be able to see how much money you are making.

You will also see how many clicks on your website have been made from your affiliate links, and how much of a commission you will receive for those clicks.

You can then use this information to make adjustments to your campaigns if needed.

If you’re serious about affiliate marketing, I suggest you also start learning how to use the web analytics service from Google called Google Analytics.

Google Analytics is a free web analytics tool that allows you to track your website traffic. It provides data about your audience, their behavior, and the performance of your website.

The software enables you to see how people come to your site, what they do once they get there, and what they click on.

You can also use this data to figure out which pages are the most popular and which ones need improvement.

To get started, you will need a Google account in order to use Google Analytics for your affiliate marketing business.

Once you have created an account, you will be able to add Google Analytics as a tracking code on each page on your website.

By analyzing your Google Analytics reports, you can figure out ways to increase your sales and motivate people to buy more often.

And that’s it! You’re now an affiliate marketer!

That’s how easy it is to get started in affiliate marketing.

Just remember to choose a niche that you are passionate about and stay focused on writing high-quality content.

If you follow the steps above, you will be well on your way to becoming a successful affiliate marketer.

Conclusion

If you want to make money online, you have to learn affiliate marketing.

Why?

Because you can make money in your sleep!

You can build a passive income that will fund your dream life…

… And when you know how to do it right, you can be your own boss and have more freedom than ever before.

And this is not some scam system, either. It’s real, and it works!

I know… there’s no denying it… affiliate marketing can be intimidating.

But here’s the thing…

If you want to make money, you have to start somewhere.

And affiliate marketing is one of the easiest places to start!

You can start right now with no formal education or training… all it takes is an internet connection and some free time.

You don’t need fancy software or expensive equipment… of course they’ll help… you just need some basic knowledge of how affiliate marketing works.

And, now you have that from this guide.

So, if you’re tired of working for someone else…

… tired of the 9-to-5 grind…

… and ready to take control of your future and start living the life of your dreams, then affiliate marketing might just be the right fit for you.

So what are you waiting for? Start building your passive income today!

Affiliate Marketing FAQs

Here are some frequently asked questions about affiliate marketing that newcomers often ask me: