Getting started in Affiliate Marketing is relatively easy but making it successful is another matter. I have come up with 10 tips that any new or potential affiliate marketer need to know to make sure they reach their goals.
1. Have the Right Expectations
One of the first things you notice when you start getting more experience in affiliate marketing is, the number of new marketers thinking they will be earning a full-time income straightaway… A couple of hours a week will not get you income within a few weeks.
Let me be quite clear with this – Affiliate Marketing is not a quick and easy way to grow a business. You can definitely achieve your financial goals, but you will need to be realistic with your timescales and the amount of work you will need to invest. The more time you spend doesn’t always equate to earning quicker too. There are a number of factors but having expectations around the 6 to 12 months as a minimum is a reasonably sound model.
Many scam products out there will have you believe you will be earning a fortune overnight, sorry I have yet to find one that actually does what it says.
2. Get Used to WordPress
WordPress is a really popular CMS (Content Management System), with over 50% of the websites out there using it. It is
versatile and easy to use, but there is a learning curve with it. Getting started with WordPress is easy, but you need to get used to using it to give you online business the best chance of success.
Having said all that, compared to other website builders, once you know the basics you will find that it is really easy to use and that gives you time to focus on the key elements of your online business.
Related Post: Create Your Own Blog Website
3. Keyword Research is Essential
At this point, you might not know what Keyword Research is. Well, know this it is one of the most integral bits of research you will do in your business. Posting content without the right keyword research will mean you are not targeting a specific audience. Not a great way of converting sales. SEO & Keyword Research go hand in hand. Getting to the top of the search results means you are more likely to get traffic to your website.
Learning Keyword Research is an integral part of becoming an Affiliate Marketer. Learn more with my helpful post “What is Keyword Research in SEO?”.
4. You Need to Learn Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
There are two key aspects you should focus on when creating content for your affiliate marketing business. One is you
readers, the second one is the search engines. If it is a quality article that helps resolve a question or a problem, it will be seen positively by both your readers and Google. This will help your article get ranked higher up in the search results. Getting to page one is every website owners target, as not many people search past page two.
Learning how to optimise your website for the search engines is crucial to any success you want to achieve.
Related Post: What is SEO & PPC Marketing?
5. Don’t Focus on Traffic/Conversions Straightaway
I wouldn’t even worry too much about this for at least 3 months. I often see new affiliate marketers spending all their time on Google Analytics looking at a handful of visitors and wondering why they aren’t buying into your promotions. New website will not get ranked that well during this period, once you pass the 3-month mark and you are adding regular quality content to your website, you will see that it will start to pay off in the end.
Just focus on creating content, and then you can start building up traffic and sales over time. Time spent reviewing analytics can always be better spent elsewhere.
6. Provide Value
Do not just have posts on your site with the sole purpose of selling something. Offering helpful guides, how-to guides and other useful information posts in your niche will lead to a better experience for someone visiting your site.
Most of us are put off by stuff that is too salesy. You will also find that too many affiliate links can also lead to poorer rankings in the search engines.
There will of course be posts that have that purpose, all I am saying is do not make every article one.
Remember, most people who are searching for those keywords we talked about are because they are looking for help with something – they are not always in the buying stage of the purchase lifecycle…
7. Target People Late in the Buying Cycle
Having helpful posts, how-to guides is important for the value side of your website, but they also need to help lead people who are further down the buying cycle to find products that will help too.
You will have people who are just searching, you will have people who want to know more about a product. You will then have people who are ready to buy but want to make sure it is the right product.
A good Affiliate Marketing website will cover all 3 bases effectively. That is where reviews come into place. These can be the posts that have the affiliate links, all of the other posts can be targeting at just generally helping your niche.
8. Focusing on Digital Products
Depending on your niche, focusing on digital products will give you a better return for your time. Digital products would be training programs, software, online services (web hosting), etc. The commissions and profit margins are much higher.
I am not saying not to promote physical products but targeting both will do you better in the long-run.
They will both need the same amount of effort, but the digital ones will yield higher profit margins.
9. Sell Your Own Product
Selling your own products will again have a higher benefit for you, as you are receiving all of the bounty, rather than just a percentage of it. Depending on your niche, you could easily create an eBook or training program and offer it out. You can also utilise affiliate marketers to sell it for you.
10. Don’t Give UP!
The most common reason for affiliate marketers failing, is that they give up too soon. I see people saying affiliate marketing doesn’t work, or why is it not working and then you review their website and they haven’t posted anything on their website for 6 months…
You need to remain consistent and think about the end goal. One of the things I have noticed is we tend to focus too much on the financial side rather than the benefits that a home business would bring. Mine is about seeing more of my family, rather than how much it brought in this month. Having something else to focus one as well as earning money will definitely help.
Affiliate Marketing takes much longer and needs double the effort you think it will need. An hour a week, will not cut it. Many have given up just before the point where the search engines were going to take notice. Go the distance and you will have something that you can be proud of and hits all of your goals – financial and non-financial.
11. It is Ok to Quit…
I know this goes against everything I have just said, but it is entirely true. Affiliate Marketing is not for everyone and it is ok to say it isn’t and Quit.
The people who succeed are the ones that love learning new skills and techniques, love writing content, love researching stuff in their niche.
But if you find that you hate all of that, then it probably isn’t for you. I love doing what I do, hence I have seen small success and am building up for the big successes.
It is hard, it is tough. But it is all worth it. If you know you have what it takes to be successful, then go and get that success. It is waiting for the right person to come and do it.
Related Post: Learn Affiliate Marketing & Start Today
There you have 10 tips on How Do I Become an Affiliate Marketer. I hope you have found them useful, I would love to hear what you think about them below in the comments. If you have any questions about affiliate marketing or any of the topics we have covered today, then please write them in the comments and I will come back to you as soon as I can. thanks
