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There is a considerable rise in the demands of online jobs in the year 2020. The coronavirus outbreak forced everyone to stay inside their homes, and we are getting more familiar with the “work from home” concept. So if you are one of the victims of this unexpected situation and want to learn about online money making ideas, then read about how to start affiliate marketing.
In this article, you will get information on the best way to make money online i.e., Affiliate Marketing.
Via affiliate marketing, you could make money 24/7 with a 3 to 4 hours work.
Which means you could make money even while sleeping.
This can be an excellent side job option, or you can also replace your regular job with it.
So let’s get deep into the topic and see how to start affiliate marketing business in 2020.
What is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is an online marketing process where an affiliate promotes products for others to get a commission.
Here you as an affiliate simply research on the products you enjoy or have the interest to enjoy.
Then you will have to experience the products and review or promote the products on your website.
Each sale of the products through your recommendation will then earn you a piece of the profit.
The sales are tackled by affiliate links from one website to the other.
How does affiliate marketing business work?
According to Pat Flynn’s Smart Passive Income, Affiliate marketing is the method of getting a commission by endorsing a company’s product or other people.
Your search for a product you prefer, endorse it to various people, and get a profit for every purchase that others make.
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Thus, affiliate marketing involves 4 major parties: merchant/product creator, publisher, customer, and network.
Therefore to know how to start your own affiliate marketing business, you need to have a clear idea of its major 4 pillars.
Seller
A seller is also known as the brand, the vendor, or the retailer.
This party is responsible for creating items for sale.
It can be a big enterprise or a single individual company or a startup.
Anyone can be a merchant in the affiliate marketing program.
What they produce can be physical-goods, for example, household goods.
It can also be a service, for example, personal hygiene or beauty services.
The seller needs not to be actively present in marketing.
But they can surely advise how to start affiliate marketing and about how to market their goods.
The merchant also decides the amount of profit he gets from affiliate marketing and gives commission to the affiliate accordingly.
For example, a seller can be an eCommerce merchant who starts a dropshipping business and wants a new audience.
Thus they can pay affiliate websites for promoting their products.
The seller can also be a SaaS company, which leverages affiliates to help them sell their marketing software.
The affiliate or publisher
The affiliate also can be an individual or an entire company.
An affiliate can earn a few hundred dollars per month as a commission or get tens of millions of dollars.
It is all dependent on the marketing strategies he/they apply.
The work of an affiliate is to promote one or multiple goods and convince potential customers to buy them.
And if the customer finally buys the goods, the affiliate will get a portion of the revenue.
The affiliate can apply various methods of promotion.
He can write a review blog about the merchant’s goods.
Also, the affiliate can dedicate his entire website for finding cool products related to specific topics.
Thus how to start affiliate marketing only addresses those who can be interested in buying the goods he is marketing.
The customer
The customer is the ultimate running machine in affiliate marketing.
If the customer does not buy, there will be no sales and no commission for an affiliate marketer.
Thus an affiliate marketer needs to utilize every possible mode of promotion to impress the potential customer.
It can be social media, or digital billboards, or by creating SEO optimized marketing blogs.
Different affiliates prefer different approaches.
Some let to know their customers that they are part of affiliate marketing, and some don’t.
However, the customer need not pay extra to purchase affiliate products as the cost of affiliate marketing is already included in the retail price.
The customer will complete the purchasing process and get the products as usual.
They will be unaffected by the affiliate marketing process in which they are the most significant part.
The network
The network is also very important in affiliate marketing, just like the other 3 pillars.
It is like an intermediary between the sellers and the affiliates.
An affiliate can, of course, technically promote someone’s goods or service and arrange direct revenue.
But working with a network like ClickBank or Commission Junction to handle the payment and product delivery gives you a more serious note on affiliate marketing.
Affiliate can use a network to communicate with sellers.
The network can also act as a database for a lot of products.
Then the affiliate can choose out of them the products he wants to promote.
The biggest network for affiliate marketing so far is Amazon.
In Amazon, an affiliate can promote consumer goods like books, tools, household items, toys, and more.
Amazon has an affiliate program named Amazon Associates that will let you promote any product that is available on their platform.
For promotion, an affiliate has to generate a custom affiliate link to Amazon products.
Then if anyone purchases products from Amazon through your link, you will get the commission.
How to get affiliate links on Amazon?
To get your like you will have to follow these steps to know how to start affiliate marketing.
- Log in to the Amazon Associate account.
- Click on the Products Linking in the top and select product links.
- Then add the ASIN of the goods you want to promote or search it in the bar.
- And click the Go button.
- Then click the get link button on the right side of the result.
- You can also get direct links from the products page if you use the Amazon Associates SiteStripe.
- Lastly, use this generated link on your website and promote it as you want
How to start an affiliate marketing business in 2020?
Now that you get a clear idea about what you will have to do to become an affiliate marketer, it’s time to focus on the actual topic.
Probably the questions like where to start affiliate marketing or what do I need to start affiliate marketing is coming into your head now.
Don’t worry.
You will get a step by step direction of your journey here.
Apply the following 6 steps one by one, and you will become an affiliate marketer soon.
Choose your niche area
Before creating your website, you will have to decide which niche you are going to target.
Without proper planning, you cannot get success here.
You need to be clear about your website’s main approach and whom to target with it.
Before selecting your niche thus you will have to ask yourself these questions-
What topics am I passionate to talk about?
You should choose the area where you have a genuine passion for.
Then the chances of writing quality content become high.
This is because you already know something about the area you are passionate about.
Then you can talk freely and confidently about it.
And the customers will always like to hear or read a confident speaker or writer.
So always choose the niche where you have information and confidence to write.
Is there money in my selected niche?
Along with passion, you cannot neglect the monetary factor.
After all, you are doing all these to make money at the end of the day.
So you can either choose a profitable niche that you are passionate about or generate your passion for a profitable niche.
You can always gain your knowledge and information about the topic and then write about it.
For example, the kitchenFaucetDivas is prominently a website made for profit, and not for passion.
However, of course, the matter will be different if someone there is passionate about kitchen faucets.
Can I write about 25 to 50 blogs in the selected area?
You should choose something where you can easily write 25 to 50 blog posts, at least.
The number of your content will enhance your authority as an affiliate.
This is important to make your website SEO perfect, reliable, and authoritative for the user.
If your website does not have enough content about your selected topic, then the seller or the customer will not take you seriously.
So you will have to create quality content continuously before approaching for affiliate marketing.
Is there scope or room for me in that particular niche area?
You will also have to look for an area where competition is low and potential is high.
Do not go for popular areas as they have already had popular marketers there.
They have already made their names in that field.
So you may not get the attention or space to show your content there.
So choose your niche area wisely.
Is there enough market demand for the products in this niche?
Your niche area may drive a lot of traffic into your website, but are they getting conversed well?
Without the customer’s interest in buying the goods, your affiliate marketing business will not be going to stand even after having millions of traffic.
Is an affiliate program available for the niche?
Also, you need to look that if your selected niche area is applicable for affiliate programs or not.
No affiliate program is equal to no sales i.e., no commission.
If your niche ticks all these categories, then you are on the right path.
Go on.
Research on affiliate programs
Once you choose your perfect area, you will have to research the affiliate networks or programs.
You will get basic knowledge while searching for your niche.
But now you will have to give a detailed look at it.
You need to ask the following questions to yourself-
What sorts of merchants use this affiliate network/program?
You need to check that the sellers from your interested area are available in this network or not.
The more sellers you gate from a similar field, the more advertising scope of your increase.
How much commission will they give me?
The commission rate is the main thing in affiliate marketing.
Evaluate between different networks and sellers and work for them who offer you more commission.
For ClickBank users, the products should get over a 50% commission.
For CPA or cost per action programs, the commission must be over $1.
And for physical goods, you can look for commissions over $40.
Do I want to be connected with their products or services?
You need to research thoroughly and be sure about the quality and reliability of the goods you are promoting.
At first, you need to believe and know everything about the goods or services you are promoting.
Otherwise, you cannot sound confident to your audience.
Make sure the seller you are working with is trustworthy as your audience is relying on you.
Keep yourself away from the companies that cannot assure certified results.
What kind of support am I getting from a particular affiliate program?
You also need to know the customer support methods of the affiliate network or program you are choosing.
In your search for the easiest affiliate marketing methods, do not underestimate the need for a reliable network.
You can Google about it or discuss it with your fellow affiliates who work using the same network.
Get clear information on how you can seek help if you face any trouble.
Do it, as you are going to need it at some point.
Build your website
Now that you have gathered all information, it’s time to utilize it into actual action.
The next step is to build a website.
You are fortunate that now building a website is much easier than before.
WordPress is the easiest way to build a website.
You do not need any technical knowledge for the setting of most of its parts.
The WordPress CMS is also very easy and handy to use.
To create your site, you need to follow these steps-
Buy a domain name
The domain name is the address of your website.
Thus a domain name is the first thing you need to create to start your affiliate marketing.
Also, remember that there are millions of websites with millions of domain names on the internet.
So it is very normal that the name you choose may already exist online.
So consider having 4 or 5 names at hand.
You can easily create your domain name now with the help of GoDaddy and NameCheap.
Set up hosting
Just like the domain name is your address, the hosting is the house in that address.
It is like a small piece of land in the wide world of the internet.
Here all your webpages are going to live.
Hosting is not very costly or difficult nowadays.
You can completely rely on reputable providers like GoDaddy, BlueHost, or HostGator.
Try to purchase your domain name and hosting from the same company.
And in case if you choose different companies, then you will have to link them together.
Install WordPress
WordPress is best as a content management system (CMS).
It is very easy to use, especially for beginners.
The good hosting providers also get a one-click install option in WordPress.
Thus it will not take more than a few minutes to install WordPress on your site.
Install your preferred theme
The theme is very important to create an ambiance for good reading.
WordPress gives you numerous themes for styling your site.
There are thousands of themes from where you can choose your suitable one.
AffiloTheme is a good choice and completely suitable for affiliate marketers.
You can also try the site named Theme Forest for more exciting themes.
You can change the theme of your website anytime you want.
Create your content
While creating your content, you need to keep in mind that the content is relevant to your niche area.
The content needs to be engaging and informative so that your audience keeps coming back to you.
Your content also has to be search engine friendly.
Produce excellent quality content
Here you will get a detailed discussion on how your content should be for a successful affiliate marketing.
It is the most time consuming but rewarding part of affiliate marketing.
Your goal while creating content will be to establish an authority site in your niche.
Thus produce continuous unique, and high-quality content on your site.
Good content consists of:
Products reviews
This is the most useful way to make money in affiliate marketing.
Here you will have to write reviews on the products you want to review.
You can even compare the same goods from different companies.
And then you can softly direct your audience to the goods you are promoting.
You can emphasize the plus points of the goods and compare it with its components.
Then you will have put the link of the product and give a call for action.
And if they click and by the products out of your suggestion, then you will get the affiliate commission.
The Wire Cutter is a famous review site.
They write about the various goods and help their readers to decide what goods to choose from.
You can address common everyday problems and try to give solutions to your readers.
For this, you will have to do some keyword research and find out what topics are trending right now.
It means what sort of queries people have nowadays.
Then you try to figure out their solutions and write them on your blogs.
In this way, you will make a genuine audience base.
Then you can target this audience and promote the products relevant to the solutions you offer them.
Informational products
Often affiliates use these tactics to boost their affiliate business.
Here they offer their audience free informational products through their websites.
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The products like e-books, a mini-course, or an email series are popular among them.
Here generally, the readers have to provide their email address to purchase the products.
Thus you get the emails of your audience and can promote the goods afterward via email marketing.
Also, by reading your free e-books and informative articles, your audience may naturally develop an interest in the goods you offer.
Evergreen content
You can select the safest method i.e., choosing the content that will never go out of trend.
Again you will have to do a lot of keyword research for this to narrow down the options.
Building a site on wedding tips and decorations will be as relevant next year as this year.
Topics like makeup tutorials, beauty product reviews will never go out of trend.
Your audience base will eventually grow with time here.
Build your audience base
Here are some ideas for you to grow your audience base.
Because the increase of audience will not only generate consistent traffic in your site but also increase your sales rate.
Social media is the most prominent phenomenon in the twenty-first century.
So you can also utilize the power of social media for your benefit.
For this, you will have to promote your content on your social media handles like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Pinterest.
You can share the link of your website on your bio.
You can share posts related to your recent content and share its link.
Also, you can ask relevant questions and urge interested followers to visit your site for solutions.
You can create a separate page on the name of your website.
Thus you will get the public who are interested in your niche.
Do guest posts on high traffic blogs
As you are a beginner and searching for ways to increase your loyal audience, you can post on other websites.
Choose the website with a high traffic rate and insist on them to let you write blogs for them.
Thus you will get a chance to show your talent in front of a broad audience.
This will eventually lead to more traffic on your site.
Make an email list
Email marketing is still very effective for affiliate marketing.
You can get emails by a lead magnet or simply insist your audience sign up for future updates.
Then you can update them about your new content and affiliate offers through emails.
Do not force them, but make a soft pledge with them to provide a quality product.
And once you gain the trust of your audience, they will not mind purchasing products from your suggestions.
Use SEO techniques
SEO is very important for getting organic traffic.
You do not have to pay money or make any extra effort for this.
For writing search engine optimized content, you need to use relevant keywords in your content.
You can also use keyword phrases with a question because, generally, people search with a question.
Thus whenever they search a question about your niche in a search engine, your blog post will pop up in front of them.
And more organic traffic means more scope for converting them into sales.
Do paid advertising
If you try all these methods and are still unsatisfied with your audience base, you can go for paid advertising anytime.
This will boost your traffic in a rapid more.
You can use Google AdWords for this purpose.
You can pay to advertise yourself on social media, or do banner ads on other websites to increase your audience.
Promote affiliate offers to get a commission
Now finally, it is the area you are looking for.
Now that you have made your audience base strong, you can finally try to convince them to buy products from your suggestions.
Here your business is going to take its leap.
Some affiliates try to escape the previous 5 steps and jump in here.
But this will not work.
Following these steps, one by one, will make you strong and trustworthy in how to start an affiliate marketing business field.
Below are the methods you can use to promote your affiliate product to your audience.
Promotions via product reviews
Make an honest review of the product you are suggesting.
An honest review is a real review.
Always remember that your audience trusts you and relying on your opinion.
So do not mislead them for your sole benefit.
Do not only talk about the advantages of the product but also about the shortcomings too.
Your audience will then only value your opinion.
Then add the link (with your affiliate ID) of the page where your audience can purchase the product if they are interested.
And if they do, then congratulations, you make your first sale successfully.
Banner ads
You can use the banner of the products you want to promote on your webpage.
Don’t worry as you will not have to do any effort to make those banners.
The product manufacturer will provide you everything.
All you have to do is to insert that banner in one of your highly traffic-getting webpages.
A banner ad in the right location can give you great affiliate sales naturally.
In-text content links
In-text links are the most common method of promoting products in affiliate marketing.
How often you read a blog post with a product or service link along with it?
Here the affiliate skilfully puts the link of the product or service when he is talking about similar topics.
And if the reader clicks and purchases through that affiliate link, then the affiliate gets the commission.
It is a more natural and common way of affiliate promotion than banner ads.
Email promotions
You get an idea of email marketing already in this article.
You just need to be sure that you make a pure bond with your audience before sending a direct promotional email.
If they do not trust you or know you much, then they will simply ignore your email.
But if you follow the previous 5 steps by heart, you will get a loyal bunch of audiences who will not mind doing stuff according to your wish.
Discounts or giveaway offers
Discounts on products or direct giveaway will make a sensation in the audience’s mind.
We, as human beings, always try to look for offers.
Thus discounts can hasten your sales.
Especially if you are an Amazon Associate and the side is a big holiday sale, then you can promote the discounts on your site.
But before promoting affiliate offers, get completely aware of the terms and conditions of the affiliate program.
Different sellers prefer different ways of marketing their products.
Some may like to promote through in-text links and review posts and not by banner ads.
Some may like banner posts but not email marketing.
So discuss with the merchant that how they want their product to promote by you.
Another important thing is to put a disclaimer on your site, which advises your readers that this site may contain links to promote affiliate products.
This is a basic courtesy to your readers and also mandatory in many affiliate programs.
For example, in the U.S., the FTC makes it compulsory for affiliates to disclose themselves in front of their audience.
Repeat this good work again and again, and you will see a definite future in this marketing area.
As time passes, your knowledge will grow; you will get more experience and more opportunities for earning profits.
How affiliate marketers get paid?
Now the question arises that how to start an affiliate marketing and get paid from it?
There are 3 methods by which you can make money here.
Pay according to sale
This is the standard and most used affiliate marketing payment structure.
Here the seller gives the affiliate a certain share of the sale of the item in percentage if a consumer purchases it via the affiliate’s link.
Here you will have to make your audience invest their money, and only then can you get a commission.
Pay per lead
It is a bit complex system.
Here the merchant compensates the affiliate as per their lead conversion.
Here, the affiliates have to convince the visitor to visit the merchant’s website and make a purchase of the item.
This can be filling the required info on a contact form, signing up for a newsletter, signing up for a free trial, or downloading any file or software.
Pay per click
This program aims to incentivize the affiliate to redirect traffic from their website to the merchant’s website.
Here the affiliate has to engage the reader to that extent that he immediately moves from his site to the merchant’s site.
Here the affiliate is paid based on the increase in the web traffic.
The benefits of becoming an affiliate marketer in 2020:
Work from home
Work from home in 2020 is the most demanding thing.
Where others are losing their jobs due to the prolonged lockdowns and losses due to the covid19 pandemic, you can make a steady income without even changing your pajamas.
Moreover, if you love the comfort of home and keep yourself away from office politics, try it.
You will be able to launch campaigns and receive revenue from the product the seller creates all from your loving nest.
Cost-effective
You can build a website and do reviews and blog posts almost free nowadays.
Yes, you will have to buy a good domain name and hosting to get noticed on the internet.
But this cost is nothing in comparison to building a startup or any business.
You don’t need to learn blogging through any paid training.
Use Google and YouTube for free suggestions anytime.
Here you don’t need to create the product.
The seller will create it and advise you on the ways of marketing it.
You will have to do as directed here.
This is the business without any investment.
In failure, you will not lose anything, but in success, you can become one of the nation’s top influencers.
Passive income
Here you don’t need to work all day.
And even if you are not writing a blog now, your previous blogs are enough to commission daily.
Of course, it needs time and effort at the initial stage.
But once you successfully establish it, then you can get handsome monthly revenue without even posting anything.
You can also earn while gaming, sleeping, or simply partying.
Your income will not be limited to your working hours.
No customer support
Here your profession is not dependent on customer satisfaction like the merchants.
Here your job is to link the consumer with the seller.
Then the seller will handle the rest.
Thus you will learn how to start affiliate marketing is the most hassle-free way of earning money online.
You do your job of converting readers into customers and get your share of money without any responsibility for customer satisfaction.
However, you should always give preference to the customer’s satisfaction with your goodwill.
Convenient and flexible
Here you are the boss of your company.
You can work anytime, skip your work anytime.
Here you will set your goals and adjust it.
Here you get complete independence on which topic to choose, which product to promote.
Also, here you can diversify your portfolio anytime or focus on simple and straightforward campaigns.
Here are neither any company restrictions nor any ill-performing terms for you.
Performance-based rewards
In a 9 to 5 job, no matter how much effort you put than your fellow employee, you will get the same salary.
But in affiliate marketing, the quality of your performance is everything.
Quality content will be noticed and praised by readers.
Your one affiliate blog can earn you double than your one month’s regular job salary.
Can you imagine it!
You’re a four-hour effort can give you two months’ salary directly!
This is the power of affiliate marketing.
What strategies should you imply in the 2020 affiliate marketing business?
Promote products from various merchants
Do not get relied on one merchant only.
This will restrict your commissions, conversion rates, and income.
You need to promote a wide range of products from different merchants in your niche area.
This will diversify your commissions, and give you steady revenue in your affiliate website.
Only recommend the extremely familiar products
This will be your primary motto.
Before recommending a product to your readers, you should always personally experience it.
Also, never force anyone to buy it.
Just give your recommendations.
And if you are honest in your work, then your benefit will come back to you again and again.
Constantly check your conversion rate
Ultimately your conversion rate matters in how to start affiliate marketing.
Millions of visitors with low conversions will not make you rich.
Thus you will have to check your landing page optimization, test your call for action techniques, and modify your conversion rate strategy from time to time.
Focus on your traffic source
You should check the source of your traffic, age, gender, location, time on page, time of day, device, and bounce rate.
You can use Google Analytics for this.
This will let you know which type of traffic is leading towards you, and converting the most through your posts.
Next time, you can target the specific age group or gender to get more traffic and more conversions.
The bottom line
I hope your queries on how to start affiliate marketing in 2020 are all fulfilled.
So do not spend this year on idle thinking.
Utilize this time for creative work.
It can probably change your mind about corporate jobs.
It can change your life by giving you more time and money at the same time.
