Affiliate Marketing is a great choice for an online business, but many people wrongly assume it is an easy option to earning money online. The premise is very simple, but the execution of the business will determine how successful you are.
In this post I am going to go through 5 Qualities for Success in Affiliate Marketing that I have found very useful to building my online business up. Let’s start with what is Affiliate Marketing first…
What is Affiliate Marketing?
If you would like a full explanation of what affiliate marketing, then read my post “How Does Affiliate Marketing Really Work“.
But in short, with affiliate marketing you have 3 parties. You (the affiliate), a product/service (company selling it) and the potential buyer (consumer).
Signing up with an affiliate program allows you to promote a product or service on your blog or through social media and if the buyer purchases it, you get a commission. The affiliate program gives you a unique link that tells them it was you who introduced them and then you get paid.
The actual process for Affiliate Marketing is simple, someone clicks your link and you benefit from a percentage of the sale. But, people think this will happen really quickly, as in a couple of days or weeks and that is simply not the case.
It would be great if it could, but the truth about it is the time needed to build up trust with the search engines and the readers who will be visiting your blog.
These 5 qualities we will be discussing are all aimed at both being successful but also understanding what is required and the time needed to see it through.
Let’s get on with the 5 Qualities for Success in Affiliate Marketing.
A Willingness to Invest Time & Effort
Let’s be honest, any true affiliate marketer will tell you that it will take a lot of time and effort to build a business up to a
point where you are earning a living from it. The key word there is Business.
Any business owner will tell you that you need to build a strategy, a business plan and invest in the time and effort in the beginning to get it started and out there in the public domain.
Affiliate Marketing is a passive income stream, but that doesn’t mean you sit back and do nothing.
The statement that it is passive, gives many an impression that you can sit back and watch the money come in. But the only reason it is passive, is you do not need to present to oversee the sale.
Without traffic to your website, you will not see any of these sales and that is where you need to invest time in research, creating content, connecting with others in your niche, monitoring traffic and which strategies work and which don’t.
Creating quality content requires time and effort, constantly reviewing it to see whether your readers like it or not, does it help them, does it answer a question?
Do not expect Affiliate Marketing to be a quick win or an easy route to earning money at the start. Don’t get me wrong, when you do nail a strategy and it starts earning money it could continue to earn you money for years to come, with minimal tweaking – but you consistently need to find ways of keeping your business fresh and up-to-date with the competition.
A Constant Desire to Learn
This one came from an Affiliate Marketing expert who has 15 years’ experience, never stop learning!
Think about how quick technology changes, any given business industry is constantly improving things, and this means there are new things to learn.
New techniques, new strategies, new systems. Google gave just updated their webmaster tools, so this meant I needed to get my head around it to get the best out of the platform and the data it represents.
There is also the fact that there are other elements that you will need to learn to be successful:
- Website Design
- Content Creation
- Online Marketing
- Social Media Marketing
- SEO & PPC Marketing
There are many factors to an online business and it is key that you keep learning to become an authority in your niche.
I found a platform that has a step-by-step guide to building an online business with affiliate marketing and I have found them integral to my online business.
Wealthy Affiliate is a training platform with awesome tools to help build a business with a community of experts in affiliate marketing.
But whilst they will give you the tools, you need to utilise the 5 qualities to make it a success!
Self-Determination
Are you determined to become successful? Can you keep determined that the content you provide will be useful to the reader and help them with a problem or help them decide to make a purchase (with your affiliate link).
Consumers are very wary when it comes to things online and want to feel that there is a real person behind the website. If 
you write poor content but loads of it – you will have a lot of content, but it doesn’t help you grow your business as the readers switch.
You need to make sure the content you write is the best you can do with helpful information that helps the reader.
It is also worth noting that when you are writing, you should be writing for one person. Write it as though you were talking to one person, that is the art of blogging and helping people. They want to feel like they have wrote it for you!
But it can also be easy to just sell – writing content that says “buy this”.
This doesn’t help them, they are searching online because they want to know whether it is the right product to buy for their circumstances, is there a better alternative. If they knew they were going to buy something, they would have already bought it.
Be determined that your business will offer the best advice, the best support and the best products to buy. Strive to help people, first and foremost and the sales will follow. Never go and try and do it the other way around
Self-Discipline
The single most important fact about Affiliate Marketing is: If you play at it, you will never be successful!
The only way that you will turn it into a full-time earning career is to run it like a business. If you are going to start it as a side gig for now, then you need to be strict about how much time you set aside each week to achieve your goals.
Many Affiliate Marketers started their business on the side of a full-time job, including myself.
The only way you can do it is to have a schedule – time to complete training, time to do keyword research, time to write an article, time to market on social media, etc.
It will be tough at first, but one you achieve your goals you will get a lot more time to spend on your business and enjoy a better work life balance and see the family more.
The other side to consider with self-discipline is self-control with distractions.
Think about how many times yourself or someone you know spends on their phone or social media.
Social Media is a fantastic tool to growing your business, but it is also one of the biggest distractions taking you away from doing tasks on your business, like creating that article you were going to write or that video you were going to record promoting your latest product review, instead you spend an hour going through Pinterest or going on Facebook.
It might be a good idea to write down a list of distractions, those that you can avoid and those you cannot avoid. For example, your day job and your family (I have a 6-year-old) would be classed as distractions that you cannot avoid. It’s called life.
But social media, catching up on a tv show could be called avoidable distractions.
Some Optimism
The last quality, Optimism is perhaps the most important and the most difficult to keep in mind.
A lot of people are searching online for ways to earn money from home and they can get carried away with the many ways of doing it (at first glance). There are many ‘Get Rich Quick” schemes out there that are predominantly scams and can really affect the confidence people have of finding a way to earn money online.
Then many find something called Affiliate Marketing – It is a great way of earning money online and is billed as a ‘Passive Income’ method.
But the reason you need optimism with any online business is you will not see the rewards straightaway. With one of my online businesses I did not see a return for 6 months, what if I had given up after 3 months as I hadn’t earned anything in that time. It is key that you believe in yourself and your business.
Think of why you want to earn money online, not just to earn money. I am talking about the lifestyle that this income can bring – I wanted to spend more time with my family, as well as get rid of the money worries I had.
In Summary
Done right, Affiliate Marketing is a very sound business model and can be very rewarding.
Helping others learn Affiliate Marketing and get started in affiliate marketing and all about the right tools in affiliate marketing is awesome and something I am very passionate about.
Harnessing these 5 qualities for Affiliate Marketing Online has been key to building up a profitable business and that is why I recommend them to anyone wanting to get started or struggling with their online business regardless of whether it is an affiliate marketing business or not.
Are you struggling to find a rhythm with your affiliate marketing business? Do you want to ensure you start on the right foot? I can help and I offer it willingly, if you want to get the best training out there for affiliate marketing with expert help and support. Then I highly recommend you read my Wealthy Affiliate Review – See what fantastic tools and training they offer.
If you have any questions about affiliate marketing or need any help or support, just let me know. Drop me a comment below and I’ll get you an answer.
Succeed, succeed, it’s so over rated really…..
Untill you run into it yourself. I think people don’t pay attention t the future and how working from home can really help you and sustain you with a good income. I think some people only look at the now and don’t think 5 years ahead pertaining what will be effective then. It is truly a blessing for mr. I just made my own ministry.
Hi Linda,
thanks for taking the time to read my post and leave a comment.
There are many types of success and only you are capable of telling me whether you have achieved something to say it was a success. But, having the ability to plan out a strategy and actually achieve something from it is what will become a huge success and one that takes it to another level. A 5 year plan is a very sound model in business, as long as you can have the ability to change it if needed.
But you are right, working from home has many benefits including reduced stress levels and more family time, which I would consider a big success.
It sounds like you are someone who can plan ahead effectively which is a great asset.
All the best
John
These are some awseome tips that I think are crucial to anyone wanting to succeed in affiliate marketing.
While it can make you a good income online — you’ll need like you say a good work ethic, a way to motivate yourself through the tough times, and lastly patience for your work to bare fruit.
I feel to many people try to make money within a few days or weeks then simply give up when they see it actually requires “work”.
Hey Michael,
thanks for taking the time to check out my post. Anything worth doing is worth doing well. But you have a great point, a lot of people want to earn money, but they don’t want to put the effort in. They think Passive Income means you flick a switch and watch the money go up!! It is possible for an income to become like that, but like any business you need to put the groundwork in first build a foundation and customer base, then you can start to see your work bear fruit.
Unfortunately that is why most businesses do not get past their first year, as they were too ambitious with when they would start breaking even, etc.
Nothing in this world is easy, everything requires a great work ethic, time, patience, perseverance and a chance to review.
thanks again Michael
This is really cool. It has always been a dream and goal of mine to quit my regular day job and make a full time income from online. But like with anything worth having, that is easier said than done. It just that I don’t know jack about affiliate marketing and there are so many scammers out there trying to take whatever they can from you. So i really just been dragging my feet about my goals but your article motivated me. Do you have any recommendations on where I can learn the ropes of internet marketing?
Hey Garrett,
thanks for taking the time to check out my post, I am glad you found it useful. I feel your pain, I have been where you are struggling to make it work and earning money online.
If you really want a supportive training platform that will help you achieve your goals with great step-by-step tutorials and videos to show you how to do things, then I would recommend you check out Wealthy Affiliate.
I go into detail in my Wealthy Affiliate Review, but their training and affiliate marketing tools are awesome and can take anyone willing to invest the time to the point where they have their own online business. I will also be on hand to help you at any point.
I wish you success in your future online business, follow the training and use the help and support and you will find it easy to stay motivated.
Good Luck
John
Hello,
Thank you for posting this.
I really like your website. Its so clean!
And i especially like your CTA. it’s so catchy.
All your points were spot on. Discipline, I think to be one of the most difficult aspects.
Its so easy to give up and many days i have to force myself to get work done on hopes that one day all the effort will be
worth it. The constant desire to learn is also a huge factor.
Thanks again and best wishes,
Sunny
Hi Sonny,
thanks for checking out our blog. Having the discipline needed is an important aspect of making a success out of Affiliate Marketing, or anything life really. Many people give up when they are just about the make a break through… they just walk away.
Another important aspect that comes with those that are successful, is that they are willing to accept failure. Failure is a part of everything. it could be a small failure, or you walk away from a niche and start another, but being able to learn from those failures is important too.
Glad you liked our post, and found it useful
John
Thank you very much for this useful article.
Through this article, I learned to have quality personally to be successful in the world of affiliate marketing.
To be honest, I didn’t feel confident that what I had done could work or success. However, because of your article I tried to look in a mirror related to myself, especially self-determination in me which is still lacking.
And speaking of affiliate marketing, do you think the product is one of the qualities that you must have too?
Hey Asmadi,
a bit of self reflection is important at times. You need to tell yourself you can do this!!
Any niche can be profitable, so it isn’t about having the right product. It is about putting the right product in right of the right audience. That is why you choose a niche with products you already know. Because that means you are one of the target audiences for that product range. It is easier to identify a target audience, when you know the product.
All the best
John