On a global level, the affiliate marketing industry is worth over $17 billion in 2024. Through this marketing approach, brands can engage existing customers as well as attract new customers via referrals. This is why around 80% of American brands have introduced affiliate programs.
The industry is worth tapping into if you’re looking for a side hustle. Influencers and millionaire affiliate marketers are making millions of dollars this way. As a beginner, you may struggle to earn a handsome amount. But with the right strategy, it won’t take you long to create a stable income stream.
You may wonder how to make money with affiliate marketing for beginners. There are six steps to getting started with affiliate marketing for beginners. So, let’s find out how how to make money with affiliate marketing:
1. Affiliate Marketing Fundamentals
Building passive income is important for your wealth creation journey. And affiliate marketing can help you build passive income. But first, you need to understand its basics.
When you run a business, you have to produce or source products, ship them to customers, and offer customer service. But with affiliate marketing, you can eliminate these steps. Instead, you can promote and sell products from other manufacturers for a commission.
All you need to do is to recommend products. Make sure your product recommendations are genuine and made with integrity. Then you will receive commission month after month when someone buys via your recommendation link.
Doesn’t it seem easy?
Yes, it can become a profitable income stream. But as a beginner, you need to work upfront. You need to set up your blog, generate content, and attract your target audience.
Creating a few random posts on Facebook or Instagram won’t do. It’s because people don’t have buyer intent when browsing social media. What you need is evergreen content that brings regular visitors.
Thus, starting a blog or YouTube channel can be a good idea. With organic outreach, you can achieve this goal.
But first, it’s crucial to choose a good, competitive niche. Then list down companies that lead the niche market. You can check out their affiliate programs and register with the most suitable ones.
Remember that brands have a budget for affiliate marketers. They are willing to pay commissions to marketers that help them increase sales. So, master the skills that can help you in the journey. Then you can hit your income goal sooner than you expect.
2. Set Up Your Website
Creating a website is the next important step. But don’t worry about it.
You can buy a domain and hosting at reasonable rates. Make sure the provider is reputable and delivers good customer service. Bluehost, WPX, and HostGator are some of the industry leaders.
You can use WordPress content management system. It’s good for SEO and is easy to use for newbies.
Now, you would need an attractive theme for your website. We recommend you start with a free WordPress theme and install it. Further, you can add more options by installing plugins. The best thing is that the process is easy and doesn’t need you to code.
Do you want to know what are the best plugins for WordPress?
- Yoast SEO: For website SEO
- WP Rocket: To speed up webpages
- Sucuri: To increase website security
- ThirstyAffiliates: To track and organize affiliate links
- Wglot: To make the website multilingual
- ShortPixel: Compressing images
- Monarch: For making content shareable on social media
- UpdraftPlus: To create regular data backups
Moreover, you need to monitor your website’s performance. So, get Google Search Console and Google Analytics. These can help you monitor traffic and analyze the behavior and demographics of visitors.
Now your website structure is ready. So, you can move to the next step – writing content for the homepage and About Us pages. It doesn’t have to be complex. Write something that resonates with the audience.
3. Content Creation for Affiliate Marketing
When it comes to affiliate marketing, you need to take a content-first approach.
It’s not a good idea to randomly choose products you can promote. Rather, do your research. And by research, we mean looking for suitable topics and finding keywords.
When internet users browse products on a search engine, they may have a purchase intent or looking for information. So, guide them with the help of informational content. You can write in-depth product reviews. Also, comparison articles that compare the pros and cons of different options can be valuable.
Let’s say someone wants to buy furniture for the living room. So, you can write about sofa set ideas to capture their attention.
Before creating an article, plan the niches you want to write about. Keyword research tools such as Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, and SEMRush can help you shortlist specific keywords for each article. Now, do a Google search to review top-ranking articles for those keywords. Find out what kind of content they have written. Then come up with informative and unique content to rank your articles.
Choosing Keywords with Low Competition, High Traffic
Targeting suitable keywords can be a challenge. But you need a strategy to make the process effective.
Aim for keywords that have low competition and high traffic. For this purpose, check the KD (keyword difficulty) of keywords. It tells you whether your article is likely to get a good ranking. Here is a table for SEMRush that can guide you:
- 0-14 – Very easy to rank
- 15-29 – Easy
- 30-49 – Possible
- 50-69 – Difficult
- 70-84 – Hard
- 85-100 – Very Hard
As a beginner, it’s best to target KD of up to 49. With good content, your article can appear on the first page of SERP.
Next comes traffic volume. The ideal approach is to choose keywords of 100-1,000 volume. These keywords can bring you enough traffic. You can convert these visitors into customers through informational content.
4. Writing Affiliate Articles
After planning, you can begin writing articles. For content creation, it’s important to take a systematic approach. This way, you can create plenty of articles and rank them on search engines.
First, identify what kind of information your readers want. They may want to know about the features of products, pricing, durability, etc. So, add this information in a clear and concise way. The information should be genuine and help them make buying decisions.
Do you know about On-page SEO? It’s a good idea to learn its basics and write articles accordingly. Let us quickly guide you about factors that affect your SEO score.
First, you need an intriguing title or topic. It should capture attention and entice users to open the article. It should include your main keyword.
The article should be high quality and easy to read. It should have a proper structure with subheadings. Make sure you use your main keyword in the introduction, a subheading, and in the conclusion. But instead of keyword stuffing, add synonyms of the keyword and other suitable keywords.
Your articles should include internal and external links. They build credibility. Adding royalty-free images throughout the article also makes a good impression!
Lastly, don’t forget to add affiliate links to your articles. Let’s discuss some affiliate programs you can join to get affiliate links.
5. Join Affiliate Programs
Do you know how to make money with affiliate marketing? You can do so by getting registered with affiliate programs.
Joining suitable affiliate programs needs some planning on your part.
It doesn’t make sense to join a program the minute you launch your website. First, focus on building traffic. After that, you can join a program. This way, you can leverage website traffic to generate affiliate revenue.
Next, you may wonder how many affiliate programs should I join?
Affiliate marketers start with 1-2 programs. As your website grows, you can register with more of these. But it solely depends on your strategy.
To choose a program, look for those that offer products in your niche. You can also browse other affiliate websites that have top-ranked articles in the niche. Then find out which programs they are using. Also, don’t forget to check commission rates before signing up.
Joining a program is easy. You can fill out the application form with details about your website. If the website meets their minimum traffic criteria, they will approve your application and you will get a dedicated account.
Now do product research and start adding suitable affiliate links to articles. Further, you can monitor the performance of links and articles via your dashboard.
Make sure your affiliate account is connected to your PayPal account. So you can withdraw earned profits with ease.
It may be a good idea to begin your journey with Amazon Associates. Despite low commission rates, the platform is good for beginners. With more experience, you can switch to affiliate programs that specific brands offer.
The Best Affiliate Marketing Programs for Beginners
So, there are three main categories of affiliate programs: high ticket, recurring, and volume.
High-ticket programs include high-priced items. In the e-commerce world, you will find companies that offer attractive payouts. For example, Shopify, Villiers Jets, WP Engine, and Frontpoint Home Security are some of these. Or with Kinsta cloud hosting, you can earn $500/sale + 10% monthly payouts for every sale.
The second option is Recurring programs. Many subscription software offer this type of affiliate marketing programs.
Let’s take the example of VPN programs. Surfshark offers 40% of revenue share in commissions. Or with Pure VPN’s affiliate program, you can enjoy up to 35% of recurring commissions. The amount may be small, but it adds up with recurring payments in the long run.
The third option is Volume-based affiliate programs.
You may have come across affiliate blogs that promote physical products. This may include camping gear, travel gear, exercise equipment, and whatnot.
Such programs usually have 5-10% commissions on new sales. Since the amount is small, affiliate marketers rely on volume to increase income. There are so many options in the physical product space. So, marketers can promote more and more of them – backpacks, hiking gear, cycling equipment, etc.
Conclusion
So, these are some of the tips for beginners who want to make money with affiliate marketing.
You may wonder, can affiliate marketing make you a millionaire? Let me tell you the industry has the potential to bring in thousands of dollars a month. But you need to start on a small scale. With a clear strategy and effort, you can achieve your monetary goals and move ahead on your journey to becoming a millionaire.
As a beginner, you can start with volume products. For example, household items, kitchen appliances, or outdoor furniture. Then, create plenty of content and rank it using SEO best practices.