There’s nothing better than making money from home. But that’s a dream that, more and more often, American’s are having difficulty achieving. It’s hard to know what’s a scam and what isn’t, and you don’t want to invest time and money into something when it’s not going to give you results.
That’s where affiliate marketing comes into play.
Affiliate marketing is a way to make passive income off of a blog or other social media website without having to spend a dime.
But affiliate marketing isn’t easy, and it takes a lot of work, in the beginning, to get there. But it’s possible to earn money from home without having to worry about getting scammed by multi-level marketing schemes.
Read on to learn more about affiliate marketing for beginners and how you can get started making money today.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a simple concept to understand. It’s when an online retailer, like Amazon, pays commission to another website for traffic and sales that they generate to their website.
Think of it like this: you write a blog post and leave an affiliate link in there for your readers to click on. When your readers click on that link and buy something from that website, the company pays you a commission for bringing that sale to them.
How to Get Started
It’s unfortunate, but success with affiliate marketing isn’t as simple as putting a few links out there and expecting people to click on them when they want to buy something. You have to build an audience, and inside of that audience, you have to have trust. Most people do this through blogging.
So, how do you get started building an audience?
Pick a Niche
As with any business endeavor, you have to decide who your target audience is.
It might seem like a smart idea to try and target as many people as possible, make your proverbial “net” as wide as you can, but that’s actually not the case. In order to succeed in affiliate marketing, you have to pick a specific niche and market to those people.
If you already have your niche, you’re set to start. But if you’re unsure, don’t fret. There are ways to figure out what niche you would be best suited for.
First, ask yourself what you’re passionate about. If you make your job something you love, you never feel like you’re working.
Do you like makeup? Quilting? Cars? Whatever your hobbies or interests are, you can set up a website around that.
Once you have an idea of what you want to do, sit down and think about what sort of topics you could write about for them. The niche you select has to be wide enough that you can write 100 blog posts (or more) about it.
If your website lacks in content, you’re not going to convince people to buy what you’re recommending for them.
Also, you don’t want to select a niche that is already overrun with other affiliate marketers. Sure, this niche is popular, but there isn’t much space for new people to earn money alongside the already established bloggers.
Affiliate Programs
Now that you’ve selected your niche, let’s talk about how to become an affiliate. This can be a lengthy process, so don’t be afraid to dig in and do your research.
When you do this research, keep in mind what kinds of merchants use the program. Make sure that other people in your niche are using it and that they’re successful.
Check how much money you’ll make from each sale. Look at how much each commission will earn you and ensure that the companies aren’t being restrictive about how you can advertise their products.
And the most important part of this process is determining whether or not you want to associate yourself with the product. After all, you want to work hard at building trust with your readers. The last thing you want to do is break that trust by promoting a faulty product or a service that doesn’t operate the way it should.
You have to believe in the product as much as you want to sell it. Otherwise, your sales pitch means nothing and you’ll lose your audience fast.
Build a Site
You have an idea and an affiliate program. Now you have to put these two things into action.
If you don’t have a website, it’s time to build one. Before the rise of blogging, it was difficult to create a website. You needed to understand complicated coding and you had to stay updated on the ever-changing landscape of the internet.
Nowadays, platforms like WordPress and Tumblr have made it much easier to create an amazing looking blog with a few clicks.
A Word About Domains
We mentioned earlier that you wouldn’t have to spend any money to get started with affiliate marketing, and that’s true. You don’t have to buy a domain in order to blog and generate links to an affiliate site.
However, when you have your own domain (this is a .com website that is unique to you) your website has a lot of credibilities. People will trust it and be more likely to listen to what you have to say.
Content Creation
Once you have bought your domain, created your blog, and made it look beautiful, all you have to do now is create content that catches a reader’s attention and brings them to your website.
Make sure that your content belongs in your niche and is engaging enough that your readers want to keep coming back to you. While you’re doing your content creation, consider using some SEO techniques to ensure that your content reaches your viewers.
Some ideas for content you could include on your blog are:
- Product reviews
- Troubleshooting
- Answering common questions
In your content, you should include your affiliate links where necessary and promote the products for your customers to see.
It’s that simple!
Affiliate Marketing for Beginners
From here, all you have to do is continue these steps to grow your audience and generate sales so you can earn that commission. It sounds simple, and in theory, it is, but affiliate marketing for beginners means that you have to create new, engaging, relevant content on a continuous basis and fit your links in there for other people to see and use.
It involves being able to sell and find innovating ways to bring people to your blog. But it is possible and it’s rewarding to be able to earn income off of your blog.
For more information about developing and promoting your website, visit us today.