If you are thinking of starting an affiliate marketing business, you may have been asking is affiliate marketing easy?
So, this guide will help you understand what affiliate marketing is, how it works, how to get started and why it’s not as easy as it seems!
The concept of affiliate marketing is simple. However, the implementation is not exactly easy. There is much to learn and we will talk about it here.
What is Affiliate Marketing – is it easy?
Affiliate Marketing is a great way to earn a full or part-time income online but it’s not as straight-forward as you may think.
If you want to be successful at Affiliate Marketing, there are things you need to know and understand.
These include website set-up, keywords, content creation, affiliate programs and networks, traffic creation etc. And that’s just for starters!
So, here is a simple infographic that explains the process of affiliate marketing.
Therefore, if you’re thinking of becoming an affiliate marketer, take some time to do your research and get the right training, before jumping in feet first.
You’ll thank yourself later on when your business takes off and you don’t have to worry about how you’re going to pay your bills each month.
Why Become An Affiliate Marketer?
So, what are some reasons people choose affiliate marketing?
There are several reasons why people decide to become affiliates:
- A side hustle, although, working a full-time job while also trying to start up your own business can be tough.
- Building an online business with the aim of replacing JOB income.
- A way to work from home and have time flexibility and spend more time with family or friends.
While I think working from home is one of the most popular reasons for doing this, getting paid for actions not for time, is another.
What You Need To Get Started.
Affiliate marketers create and manage their own independent websites or blogs. They market products that are relevant to their website’s content (niche).
They make money by earning a commission on any sales they generate from promoting these products.
In building your website, you need to focus on three key areas: content creation, website traffic and affiliate programs/networks.
Each of these elements is essential for a successful affiliate website. Here’s how they work together:
- Content Creation (the offer). If you want people to visit your website regularly, then you need to provide them with something of value in exchange for their time and attention.
- Website Traffic (the visitors). People visit websites for all sorts of reasons – information, to purchase products or services – but without traffic, there are no sales or leads.
- Affiliate Programs/Networks (commissions). By joining affiliate programs or networks (which is free), you will receive personally identifiable, trackable links to the products you promote. This is how you earn commission.
And, best of all, you don’t need lots of capital to start your business. Affiliate marketing isn’t about who has more money; it’s about putting your focus on which traffic sources are generating you leads, and sales.
Since it costs nothing to join an affiliate program or network, there’s nothing stopping you from becoming an affiliate marketer today.
Building Content For Your Website.
If you wish to become a successful affiliate marketer, you will need to write a huge amount of content about your niche.
You must write informational blog posts, as well as commercial ones. This is how your website will be recognized by Google and other search engines as an authority in your particular market.
You should always try to write in a conversational style, as if you are talking to a friend. Nevertheless, do keep an eye on SEO and keywords, so that search engines, too, can be satisfied.
Your website will begin to gain authority (with search engines) when you have written a minimum of 100 articles. So, writing regularly – daily if you can – will help you to achieve this goal and more.
Do not fret if you are not a good writer. There many AI (artificial intelligence) tools on the market today that can help you. They can actually plan your blog post and write it for you (based on your description of what you want).
You may need to edit the content before including it on your website, but the heavy lifting will be done for you.
So, there is no reason really for you not to get started on your affiliate marketing journey right now.
About Affiliate Programs And Networks.
All affiliate programs and networks are free to join. If you have to make a payment, then it is not a valid affiliate program and may well be a multi-level-marketing program where you have to enroll others to get paid.
An affiliate program is one that it run by a single company. The most famous of these would be the Amazon Associates Affiliate Program.
An affiliate network is provided by one organization for the benefit of hundreds of companies. It manages the affiliate programs for the companies.
Some of the most well-known affiliate networks are Clickbank, CJ.com, Share-A-Sale, Rakuten, Impact, LinkConnector, to name just a few.
So, no matter what niche you choose for your online business, you will have no problem in finding links for your products.
Generating Traffic For Your Website.
Okay, you’ve set up your website, written some great content, but no-one is reading it. So how do you generate traffic (visitors) to your website?
You need to get found on Page 1 of Google when anyone searches for a particular term. This is not as easy as it sounds, especially when you consider that approximately 4.4 million blog posts are published every day.
Choosing the right keyword or phrase (known as long-tail keywords) is what you must do. This must be incorporated into the headline of your article as well as its content. This is known as organic (or free) traffic.
We have written a full article about this and you can find it right here.
There are other ways of generating traffic and driving it to your website.
These include:
- Social media marketing – promoting your blog post on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etc.
- Social media advertising – this is paid advertising in which you can also promote your articles.
- PPC (pay-per-click) advertising – paid advertising on Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.
- Classified Ads (both free and paid) on Classified ads websites.
- Email marketing to your website subscribers.
Training In Affiliate Marketing.
Thank you for staying with “is affiliate marketing easy” to the end. By now, you will have learned that while the process is simple, it is not easy to become an affiliate marketer.
In learning about how to set up your website, writing content with intent, joining affiliate programs and networks, understanding SEO and generating website traffic, you will need some training.
Our #1 Recommendation for training in affiliate marketing is Wealthy Affiliate.
On the Wealthy Affiliate platform you can learn everything you need to know to set up your affiliate marketing business. In addition, you can learn it all working at your own pace.
Best of all, is that there is a FREE TRIAL. You can begin with a free Starter Membership to see if this is the journey you wish to travel.
If it is, you can either stay as a Starter Member (with limited access to the platform), or upgrade to Premium Membership at $49 per month. The choice is yours!
