How can I start affiliate marketing?
You can become an affiliate marketer for one or several products of one or different brands at a time. This is a great way to monetize your blog or website by promoting and marketing the products to the website visitors (potential buyers) and make money.
So, to get started, there should be a merchant, an affiliate network, a publisher (you or your company), and the consumer. You may sign up for the Amazon affiliate program that connects you with the companies (merchants) wanting to promote their products or services. A publisher can be a blog, website, smartphone app, e-commerce platform, social media channel, or browser extension that drives substantial traffic to be able to promote and sell products with the help of affiliate marketing.
While there are plenty of affiliate networks connecting publishers and advertisers globally, among the top five are ShareASale, Awin, CJ Affiliate, and Rakuten Marketing.
How to Go About It?
To get started, as a publisher, you must focus on increasing the blog or website traffic and hence:
- You must have a platform, to begin with, that will help you to make money. It can be a video-sharing platform like YouTube, a blog, a website, or even Instagram is a great way to start these days. With 6.7 million people blogging and around 12 million posting on social media, it shouldn’t be a difficult choice to make!
- Select a niche that suits your interests the best, for instance, if you have an eye for fashion, you may choose to focus only on apparel and accessories.
- Next, begin with product videos or reviews based on your niche, through your preferred platform. For instance, you can create a shopping haul video for YouTube for fashion products, a smartphone unboxing with the review, or review a makeup product, and so on.
- Create high-quality content and make sure that the affiliate links fit spontaneously and should not look forced. For instance, while searching for the top affiliate programs, look for the available brands, commission percentage, etc.
- Drive consistent traffic to your website by:
- Building better customer relationship with email marketing that helps you connect to them to promote your content and hence, increase chances of sales. Therefore, start collecting emails.
- Signing up more readers through your blog or website subscriptions and hold webinars in partnership to grow your email list and drive sales faster.
- Paying for traffic boost, for example, join Pay Per Click (PPC) affiliate programs, implement SEO to rank high in search engines, and enhance your earnings.
- Sign up with an affiliate network.
- Select the product you think your audience can relate to.
- Get access to reporting tools and analytics to keep up with your progress on the promotional campaigns.
While it’s good to have a blog or a website to start with affiliate marketing, because that has been the tradition, it’s not mandatory. There are different techniques that can help you start earning from affiliate marketing, for example, solo ads, join and start posting on online communities and forums, through an eBook, YouTube PPC marketing, using content publishing platforms like Medium, social media, and so on.
