How to become an affiliate marketer: A step-by-step guide

The affiliate marketing industry is booming, with a projected global spend of $17.5 billion in 2020. Affiliate marketers are intermediaries who get commission by promoting and selling other people’s products or services. As an affiliate marketer, you promote brands that offer you a commission when someone clicks on your link and buys something from their store.

You may be thinking— how can I become an affiliate marketer? Is it even possible? After all, this seems like something only tech-savvy folks can do. However, you will be surprised to know that anyone can join the affiliate marketing world and begin making money right away. But first, let’s get into the details of what exactly affiliate marketing is, its scope and benefits, as well as what you should know before becoming one to avoid any misgivings down the road.

What is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a great way to make passive income online. It is a marketing partnership between a merchant and a publisher (affiliate). As an affiliate marketer, you promote merchants’ products and earn a commission when a sale is made.

To do this, you need to create a detailed sales page that has all the information about the product and its uses. The merchants will give you a special “affiliate link” that you can use to promote their products. When a visitor clicks on your link and buys the product, you get a percentage of the sale as your commission.

Affiliate marketing is one of the simplest and most common ways of making money online. It is suitable for all types of people, whether you are a stay-at-home parent, a student, or someone looking to earn extra cash while working a full-time job. It does not require any special skill or expertise, just that you know how to create a compelling sales page with useful information about the product you are promoting.

Why affiliate marketing?

There are many reasons why you should consider affiliate marketing. A few of the most important ones are listed below:

•  Build your audience: If you are just getting started as an affiliate marketer, you would be able to build a large audience of people who are interested in your product. Keeping them engaged would help your audience grow in no time.
•  Earn passive income: With affiliate marketing, you can earn passive income, which can be a great source of income if you are looking to replace your full-time income.
•  Low startup costs: Affiliate marketing has very low startup costs. You can set up your affiliate marketing business with just a computer and an internet connection.
•  No special skill required: All you need to do is create useful content about the product you are promoting. The rest of the work, including marketing and selling the product, is done by the merchant.
•  Low risk: If you pick the right product to promote, your chances of earning commission are very high. In fact, you are more likely to lose the commission than earn it.
•  You own the customer: When you promote your affiliate product, you own the customer. This means you have the power to keep them engaged with your product and even improve your relationship with them over time.
•  Customer satisfaction: As an affiliate marketer, you are responsible for customer satisfaction. This means you need to provide them with the right information about the product, respond to their queries, and even resolve their issues.
•  Control your earnings: All you need to do is find the right product to promote and then create a sales page to sell it. You can set your target earnings and the amount of time you want to spend on promoting it.
•  No inventory: Unlike the owner of an ecommerce store, you don’t need to worry about inventory. All you need to do is refer people to your product and earn a commission when a sale is made.

Becoming an affiliate marketer—how to?

Before becoming an affiliate marketer, it is important to understand the basics of online marketing and how affiliate marketing works. This can help you understand how to become an affiliate marketer and earn money from it. Here are a few things you should know before becoming an affiliate marketer:

•  Choose a product/service: When you become an affiliate marketer, your job is to drive traffic to your merchant’s website and sell their products. When people click on your links and buy the products, you get a commission. While there are many products to choose from, make sure you select something that is in your niche. This way, you’ll be able to engage with your potential customers better and sell more.
•  Create a sales page: A sales page can be anything from a basic Squib sales letter to a video with an affiliate link. The only thing that your visitor needs is a compelling reason to click on your link and purchase the product from the merchant’s website.
•  Choose the right affiliate network: Affiliate networks are platforms that provide a link between you and the merchant. They also offer tools to help you advertise the product. You can choose from a wide range of affiliate networks and start promoting the product right away.
•  Start promoting and get paid!

Find the right product to promote

When you decide to become an affiliate marketer, the first thing you need to do is find the right product to promote. To do this, you need to understand the following:

•  Your audience: You can’t sell something to someone who is not interested in it. You need to identify your target audience first so that you can find something that they would be interested in buying.
• Product category: Every product has a category. For example, if you are selling laptops, they would be categorized under computers. You can also choose from other categories, like electronics, travel, health and fitness, etc.
•  Product type: Different products have different types. For example, computers can be desktop, laptop, or hybrid.
•  Merchant rating: You can get a general idea about the product by looking at its merchant rating. A product with a higher rating is more likely to be authentic and worth your time.

Pick a platform and create your account

The next step is to pick a platform from where you can start promoting your products and creating your affiliate account. Here are a few popular affiliate networks you can start with:

•  Amazon Associates: It is a popular affiliate marketing platform and has been around for more than 20 years. If you are in the US, UK, or DE, you can sign up for it.
•  ClickBank: This affiliate marketing network has a very simple sign up process. You can sign up for it even if you are not a resident of the US.
•  Rakuten Marketing: It is one of the most well-known affiliate networks. You can pick from a range of products and services, including travel, health, finance, and more.
•  Shopify: This is one of the best platforms for ecommerce affiliate marketers.
•  Squib: This is a newbie-friendly platform that has very low overhead costs and great tools to help you grow your business.
•  Teespring: This platform is ideal for anyone who wants to start selling products with little effort. All you need to do is choose a product, create a custom design for it, and then drive traffic to your sales page. Once a sale is made, Teespring takes care of the rest.

Start promoting and get paid!

Now that you have created your account and selected the product to promote, it’s time to start promoting it. You can do that by completing the following:

•  Pick a marketing strategy: There are a lot of ways to promote your product, including social media engagement, paid ads, guest posts, content marketing, etc. You can create a marketing strategy based on your strengths, weaknesses, and the product you are promoting.
•  Create a sales page: A sales page is a marketing strategy all by itself. You can follow the same guidelines, but be sure to add your own personal touch.
•  Keep track of your progress: As an affiliate marketer, you need to keep a track of your progress. This will help you understand your strengths, weaknesses, and the areas you need to improve on.
•  Expand your reach: Once you have a few sales under your belt, it’s time to think about expanding your reach and getting more customers. You can do that by creating multiple sales pages and promoting your products on different platforms.

Affiliate marketing is a great way to earn money by promoting other people’s products. All you need to do is find a product that interests you and your audience, create a sales page about it with useful information