Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular ways of earning an income online. You can generate an income whether you're a content creator, blogger or someone looking for a side hustle. Over the last 10 years the affiliate marketing industry has grown significantly, due to it having a low bar of entry and many opportunities.
With affiliate marketing you can earn an income from your audience by recommending products or services that suites your target market.
The aim of this guide is to help show you what affiliate marketing is, how to get started, the benefits and how to have long-term success.
Whether your looking to earn a little extra income on the side or looking to build a full-time income. I'm going to give you the knowledge you need in this comprehensive guide.
Grab a coffee and lets dive into it.
Table of Contents
At the base of it, affiliate marketing is pretty simplistic. You recommend a product or service to your audience and if they purchase, you earn a commission.
There are typically 3 people involved when we look at affiliate marketing. You have the affiliate (which is you), the advertiser and finally the customer. As an affiliate you're job is to send targeted traffic to your advertiser to help generate them sales.
Lets break down each one of those;
We start with the advertiser, they have a product or service that they want to sell and generate sales. In order to make sales, they need potential customers and this is where the affiliate comes in.
The affiliate will build an audience for that specific type of product through a number of different platforms. They might have a website, a YouTube channel, social media following or even an email list. When an affiliate joins an affiliate program, they get given a special link.
Finally we have the customer, this is someone that has landed on the affiliates website or might follow them on social media. When they click the affiliates link and purchases, the affiliate will earn a commission.
The relationship between the three work in unison together. It benefits the advertiser as they generate more customers, the affiliate earns commission without managing stock and the customer receives a product that will solve their problem.
Knowing how affiliate marketing works is the first step for any new affiliate. How do you expect to do something if you don't know how it works?
Lets say you've found a product you want to promote. You join that companies affiliate program.
Once you've been accepted, you'll be given a unique link known as an affiliate link. This is unique to you.
This link tracks clicks and sales to ensure you get credited for any sales that are made. Commission is then paid into your account and you'll usually have access to some form of reporting to show what has been earned in a certain period.
Its worth noting that some affiliate programs use what is known as link less tracking. This is where you can send traffic direct to the product page, without using a dedicated affiliate link. It is still fully tracked to you though.
You'd typically promote your affiliate link through your website, social media or through a YouTube channel. This is done by creating content that resonates with the audience in your niche.
Its important to find targeted traffic as this is what is going to convert into sales.
The more targeted traffic you generated, the more you'll end up earning. If you want to be successful at affiliate marketing, you'll need to build an audience and then monetize it.
Lets face you, you cannot have affiliate marketing without affiliates. An affiliate would create content to first build an audience and continue growing that audience with more content that resonates with them. This will help to build trust, authority and show expertise. This all makes it easier to then promote products and generate sales.
There is a wide range of content from blog posts, social media posts and even YouTube videos.
As an affiliate is generally building a connection with their audience, its important that they only recommend products they believe in. If they don't then this could cause their audience to no longer trust and follow their advice. At UberNet we're passionate about the products in the network and know that our affiliates audience will love Mind Lab Pro and PerformanceLab. Explains why they have such a high reorder rate.
Affiliates will develop their skills depending on the type of affiliate marketing they'll do. For example if they want to build a website then they might have content creation and SEO skills. If they prefer video then thy might focus on building a YouTube channel.
Its more and more important to develop skills in different areas and not just focusing on promoting on one platform.
One of the most important things when it comes to affiliate marketing is tracking. If the tracking is poor quality then affiliates may not get credited for sales they generate.
Affiliate programs/networks will often use some form of affiliate marketing software to make sure all clicks and sales are tracked to the correct affiliate. The most common way of doing this is through a unique link to each affiliate that has their ID on it.
UberNet uses an industry leading tracking software to ensure that all of your clicks and sales are tracked to you. We don't just rely on the tracking link, we have direct tracking, and even track sales through your visitors IP.
We also have a great hub sale feature, which means if someone clicks on Mind Lab Pro affiliate link but purchases PerformanceLab, you'll still get the commission.
When it comes to attribution, this is basically which affiliate the program assigns the sale to. Affiliate A might initially recommend the product but the customer might purchase from Affiliate B. Who should get the sale?
This is know as first click and last click attribution.
At UberNet we work on a first click model, we believe this is one of the best models as it rewards affiliates for promoting the brand and helping to build up its awareness.
Whereas last click tends to just be affiliates trying to get sales through coupon sites or branded domains. Which is against our terms and conditions.
We believe that you should continue getting rewarded for bringing loyal customers to the brands. So you get commission on reorders as well, not only that but since the offers have a subscription model you get commission for as long as the customer is subscribed.
The great thing about our brands is that our customers love them, which means we have a reorder rate of over 30%.
When it comes to affiliate marketing there are three different types. Knowing which type you'd prefer to do is going to determine the type of content that you wish to create.
The three types are;
I'm going to go through each one in more detail below;
In simple terms when you do unattached affiliate marketing, it means you're promotions are not attached or related to the niche of the product. You are not associated to a specific topic and promote multiple offers to a wide audience. A common method of this is to do paid ads to drive traffic to a landing page or email offer.
This method can be very profitable but as it requires paid most of the time, it can take some time to see a positive ROI. It also tends to be harder to convert traffic as you haven't built trust with your audience.
As the name suggests related affiliate marketing is promoting products that you're audience are looking for, so your promotions are going to be much more targeted. Since you're able to target your audience, conversions are going to be much higher.
An example of this would be someone that is interested in fitness, might promote a range of health supplements.
The most common ways of doing affiliate marketing through this method is going to be Content/SEO, YouTube, Email Marketing and Social Media.
Involved affiliate marketing is very similar to related affiliate marketing. Instead of just posting about a specific topic and recommending products, you'll be focusing more on specific products IE writing a product review, recording an unboxing video or sharing experiences on using the product.
This first hand and personal insights is a great way of building trust and credibility, resulting in more conversions.
I would recommend combining Related and Involved affiliate marketing. Your going to see high conversions from doing product reviews and product focused content. This tends to be higher up the buyers cycle.
At the same time you want to create niche related content, as this is going to be what helps to build your audience and your trust and credibility within your chosen niche.
As an example, you might have a Mind Lab Pro review, Best Nootropics and unboxing content. You'd also want informational content on the topic of Nootropics as well, IE what they are, the benefits and info on individual types of Nootropics.
The great thing about affiliate marketing is that anyone can become a marketer, its very versatile. If you enjoy writing, you could create a blog. Enjoy being on camera, why not create a YouTube channel.
There is a low bar to entry when it comes becoming an affiliate. As long as you have a computer/phone, internet and an interest in the niche then you can do very well.
Whether your a student, stay at home parent, retired or employed and looking for a side hustle, its a great way of making money online.
Affiliate marketing is a great way of earning an income online, whether you want it to become your main income or a side hustle. The fact that you can earn passive income whilst you sleep.
So why would I recommend becoming an affiliate, instead of looking at other methods online to make money.
As I already mentioned, it is possible to earn a passive income. You'll obviously put in a good amount of time and energy into your affiliate campaigns but unlike a regular job, your going to be earning commission whenever someone purchases the products or services that you recommend.
This could be at anytime in the day, whilst your a sleep or at the weekends. One of the best feelings I've had is being on holiday by the pool and getting sales notifications.
A great thing about UberNet is that we pay commission on reorders as well. So you can continue getting commission from the same customers. (This is true passive income!)
A big appealing side of it for me is that I don't need to deal with customer support. I've done e-commerce in the past and client work, one of the most tiring elements of it is dealing with customer enquiries.
As an affiliate you do not need to deal with these kinds of questions.
However, to be successful you want to build an audience. You'll need to build relationships with your audience, as they will ultimately become customers.
Lets be real…
You're looking to get into affiliate marketing because you want to generate more income. There is therefore a good chance that you do not have a big pot of money to invest.
To start as an affiliate marketer, you don't need much of an investment.
You don't need to deal with purchasing initial stock or pay suppliers etc.
You can do affiliate marketing without spending a thing. Getting a free blog that's hosted on WordPress or creating a YouTube channel and just using your phone and computer.
I would however still think of it as a business….
You should plan to invest a little bit. If you plan on creating a website then get a domain name and hosting. Looking to start YouTube, make sure you have decent audio, editing software etc.
I'll be honest, one of the things I love the most about being an affiliate is the flexibility it provides. I used to hate going into the office, now I don't have to.
I have a young son that goes to school, so as an affiliate it gives me the flexibility to be able to fetch him and do a bit more work later on in the day.
Being able to work at home (or on a beach) and have the flexibility to work when and for how long I want makes for a great work/life balance.
I've gone through what affiliate marketing is, how it works and why to do it. Next up, lets go through how you can get started. Obviously each step is a big subject in itself.
The aim of this guide is to give you an introduction to those steps, hopefully making it a little easier to understand what is needed to become successful.
The first step and one of the most important is choosing your niche. This is important as you want to pick a niche that people are interested in and also has ways to monetize it.
I've always recommended new affiliates pick a niche on something they're interested in and know something about it. Or at least be willing to become an expert in it.
This is for several reasons.
You're typically going to be creating a lot of content and this is going to be much easier if you know a bit about the topic. Not only that but you'll be able to write in a more authentic way.
If you know the topic, you know the pain points or problems. This will make it easier for you to address these in your content and help build trust.
Since the HCU (Helpful Content Updates), its important to also diversify your traffic and show that you're more of an expert (or expert in training) on the niche of your website.
Next up is content….
Content is going to be different depending on how you plan on promoting offers. For example it could be written content on a website, video content on a YouTube channel or simply images for Pinterest. One thing that is important is that its quality content.
What defines something as quality?
The content should be factual, satisfy the readers intent and keep them engaged.
It is worth bearing in mind that creating content never stops, you want to continue creating fresh content and update previous content.
Its worth having some content live before applying for affiliate programs, this gives the affiliate managers an understanding on how you plan to promote their offers. Increasing the chances of you getting approved.
You'll struggle to make any commission if you don't join affiliate programs. The next thing you'll want to do is find some based on the niche that you're promotion.
I'm sure I don't need to tell you, but you should join https://UberNet.com if your looking for Nootropics affiliate program or a health supplement affiliate program.
When looking for an affiliate program to join, there are a few things I like to do.
The first is simply searching for the niche and adding affiliate program next to it. This should give you some companies that are in your niche that also have an affiliate program.
You could also check your competitors websites and see what offers they're promoting. If they have them in the top 3 of their lists then that's a good indication that they earn decent revenue from it.
Finally you could join an affiliate network such as AWIN or ShareaSale.
Things you need to consider when looking for affiliate programs are;
Now more than ever its important that you build a brand around your niche. Ideally you want to build a personal brand. A personal brand is defining and promoting yourself as an expert or authority within your chosen niche.
Now in simplest terms you want to get to the point where people are searching for you. Lets say you've built an affiliate website, people searching for your websites name is a great indication that you are an expert within that chosen field.
A great way of doing this is by working on multiple platforms and diversifying traffic sources. Prior to the HCU update from Google, we would typically recommend focusing on one platform and then look to expand. Now this is not the case….
You want to look at your affiliate marketing as a business. Therefore you might have a website and combine this with YouTube, Podcast and even some social media such as Pinterest or Instagram. The platforms you use is going to be dependant on the niche that you're in.
This is going to result in more traffic, more income generation and more brand exposure.
Affiliate marketing is a great way of making an income online, but there are also a number of common mistakes new affiliates make. Remember though, mistakes are a good thing. We learn from mistakes so we don't make them again..
I have made so many mistakes in my time as an affiliate. Below are some of mine.
Avoid these common mistakes, so you can create a successful affiliate marketing business that generates income and helps you achieve your online goals.
