What Is Online Affiliate Marketing?

You’ve probably landed on this page because you want to work online. You’ve been asking yourself what is online affiliate marketing.

If you want to set up an online business, one of the ways you will be able to monetize your website is through affiliate marketing.

So, I’m going to answer your question and explain affiliate marketing. I will also give you some guidance about where you can go to learn what you need to know to be successful.

What Is Online Affiliate Marketing?

Online affiliate marketing allows you to work online and earn money. First choose a niche (a segment of the market for your business). Then choose a domain name related to your niche and set up a website. The next step is to write a large amount of quality content about your niche. After this, you will join one or more affiliate programs (which are free to join) and get your tracking link for your niche product(s). Finally, you should include your affiliate links in your content. When someone clicks on your link to buy a product, you will be paid a commission.

Choosing Your Niche And Domain Name.

When deciding upon your niche, you should begin by writing down all your interests and passions. The more interest or passion you have about a topic, the more you will be able to write well about it.

As an example, my passion is golf. This is a very broad niche so I needed to refine it to a particular segment. Next, I chose women’s golf. This is also too broad.

So, I decided to focus first on “the best golf balls for women”. The domain name I chose is What’s In The Golf Bag, Girls? – whatsinthegolfbaggirls.com was available.

I began my website by writing about the best golf balls for women, writing reviews and informational articles. From there, I branched out into other golf equipment, the history of women’s golf, the history of the golf ball and even more.

As a guide for you, some of the most profitable niches for online affiliate marketing are Health & Fitness, Technology, Lifestyle/Relationships, Pet Care, Money Making.

So that you understand the process of refining your niche, here is a great infographic based on weight loss. With sincere thanks to Mick Meaney of Profit Co-Pilot.

Writing Quality Content.

Okay, so you’ve decided upon your niche and set up your website on a great domain. Now what do you do?

Begin by writing some quality content about your niche. You will not be able to immediately monetize your website. You need to develop some authority in the niche you have chosen.

Therefore, you must publish many blog posts about different aspects of your niche. When you begin writing content for your website, you should make your posts informational and interesting.

In this way you will begin to build your credibility as an informational source. Ultimately, this will lead to you promoting particular products.

At this point you may write reviews of some products and informational posts about others.

However, because you are writing for the online market, you will need to understand search engine optimization (SEO). No-one will find your posts unless they are first found by the main search engines.

Google has the greatest portion of the online searches, followed by Bing and Yahoo.

Understanding SEO and how keywords influence the search will be vital to your success. Go here to discover more about keywords.

About Affiliate Programs.

Monetization occurs when you receive a commission on products purchased through your affiliate links. So, here is what you need to know about affiliate programs.

Many large companies, such as Amazon, run their own affiliate programs. Then there are Affiliate Networks. You can join a Network and get access to a great number of different companies.

Clickbank is the most well-known Affiliate Network for technology products. Then there are a huge number of other Networks representing many companies in different fields.

To name but a few: Share-A-Sale, CJ.com, Impact, Link Connector, Awin, Rakuten. You can find affiliate programs and networks by going to Google and entering yourniche+affiliate+programs.

A word of advice, though, as a new affiliate marketer, you should probably avoid joining Amazon Associates. There are very stringent rules to maintaining your Associate Membership and the commission rates are exceedingly low.

You will do better by joining one of the many other more lucrative affiliate programs.

Online Affiliate Marketing – An Explanation.

Now, to give you an overview of what is online affiliate marketing, here is an infographic that explains the process simply.

By now, you should have a basic understanding of what is online affiliate marketing. Are you still interested and want to learn more about how you can make money online? Go here for a FREE TRIAL of my #1 recommended training course.

Wealthy Affiliate is an amazing training course. It will teach you all about this business. Everything I have mentioned in this article is covered in the training in depth.

In addition to the many lessons and tasks included in Wealthy Affiliate membership, there is a huge community of online entrepreneurs to assist and mentor you.

When you come across stumbling blocks or have questions, there is always someone available to help you.

You won’t find a better program anywhere.

Final Thoughts On What Is Online Affiliate Marketing?

Online affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to build a business and earn money online. In a nutshell:

• Choose your niche and a great domain name.
• Build your website.
• Write some quality content about your niche.
• Build credibility and authority for your website.
• Join one or more affiliate programs or networks appropriate to your niche.
• Promote product(s) using personally identifiable tracking links.
• Receive a commission payment when a customer purchases through your link.

If this sounds like the way forward for you, what are you waiting for?

There is no time like the present for getting started with your online affiliate marketing business. Find out more on the training available to you by clicking on the image below.