make money online

Why Affiliate Marketing is the Answer

Online, you will find there are plenty of different ways for you to make money online.  Some will be scams; some will not end up being able to actually lead to a laptop lifestyle and then there are some that are a fantastic idea.

It still amazes me that a few years ago, when I was looking for an opportunity online that I had never heard of affiliate marketing before than point.

Yet, it is now our top recommended business opportunity online because it is one of the simplest premises in the world.  You can get started with little investment and it also means you get to choose a subject that you already love.

MLM requires to invest heavily at the start and has such a low success rate.  Binary options requires a level of playing the stock markets and other guru-type programs end up costing you thousands with nothing to show for it at the end.

But with Affiliate Marketing and the right training, you will be learning how to utilise free traffic methods to promote products and services in a niche that you know something about.  You will help people learn about that niche and that will lead to you being able to make money online.

Affiliate Marketing doesn’t require any special skills other than the ability to learn and then to put what you learn into action.

Yes, it requires hard work, but nothing is given in this life for free.  Anyone who states that you are able to earn money by doing nothing is not your friend.

Affiliate Marketing can lead to a point where you are earning money on autopilot, but not without putting in the groundwork.  Not without laying down the foundation.  It also requires upkeep too.

I am not saying this route is easy, but it is simple.  If you are ready to learn how to build your own passive income business online, and earn the right to live a laptop lifestyle then we can help you get started with the 4 steps below

Our 4 Simple Steps to a Laptop Lifestyle

We can help you start on your route to a laptop lifestyle, but we need a few commitments from you… You will need to sign up to the below commitments:

• You are Willing to Learn
• You are Willing to Take Action
• You are Willing to Not Give Up!

Affiliate Marketing takes patience above all things, and the main reason why people fail in affiliate marketing is the fact that they give up.  Earning money from Affiliate Marketing could happen within a month, a few months or a year.  This all depends on how much time you are able to put into it.  It took me 6 months, but as I had a full-time job and a family to work around with my online business it was actually quite a good achievement considering the niche I chose.  But the main thing you need to understand is the main factors with success is time and effort.  We will show you a proven step-by-step guide to building an affiliate marketing business, but you are the one that is going to need to take action from it.

Before we get into the 4 steps, we want to ensure you fully understand how affiliate marketing works.  That way you know!

How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

Ever heard of Amazon?  I would be extremely surprised if you haven’t.  The world’s largest marketplace has an affiliate program.  This is the example we are going to use to show you how you are going to make money online.  There are thousands of affiliate programs, but Amazon is by far the best starting point for an affiliate marketer just starting out.

We are also going to use coffee machines, as our subject or niche too.

Affiliate Marketing is where you are able to promote products or services related to a niche of your choice and earn a commission from any sales that are made via your affiliate link.

Sounds weird, right?  Let’s use the examples to make it simpler to understand.

I am a potential customer who is looking for the best coffee machine for my needs.  That means I need to do a bit of research into what is the best coffee machine for me.  So, I go to Google and type in a search or keyword.  The image below shows the results that came up, below the ads:

I land on a blog called expertreviews and they have written a blog post about the best coffee machines for use at home.

They have also written some great hints and tips to help narrow down which is the best coffee machine, whether I want a manual espresso machine, a bean to cup machine, a pod machine or a filter coffee machine.

Probably a few things I hadn’t really given much thought to regards the right machine for me.

But what this blog also includes is affiliate links to Amazon:

If I was ready to buy the above manual espresso coffee machine, then all I needed to do was click buy now and this would take me to the exact Amazon page I needed to be able to complete the transaction.

Think of the benefits for this website having affiliate links.  They don’t need to handle payments, as Amazon is doing that.

• They don’t need to worry about being online when the reader is on the page.
• All they needed to do was provide the really insightful post in the first place.

But here is the added benefit – That website will receive a commission every time someone lands on this page and follows one of their affiliate links to Amazon.

Amazon’s commission rate is lower than others, but as it is a trusted platform people will buy from them without a second thought increasing your conversions.

That coffee machine I was looking at was £549 in the black Friday sale.  If I did buy that, the expert reviews website owner would earn 4%.  Which is £21.96.

I know you might not think that is a lot, but there is no limit on how many people could click that link and that is just one product.

10 customers, it becomes £219.60.  100 customers, it becomes £2,196.00.

Plus, like we said as you expand you can include other affiliate programs with much higher commission rates, your income can increase a lot.

But to earn money through affiliate marketing, you have to start somewhere.  This is where these 4 steps come in.

Choose a Niche (Your Hobby)

What is your affiliate marketing business going to be based on.  This is your first big decision, but it might not be as difficult as you might think.  This is because we are going to suggest you pick something that you already know something about.  You already enjoy talking about this subject and you will enjoy helping other people and engaging with other people about.  That is why we suggest you start with choosing one of your hobbies.

If we go back to why people fail, it is because they give up too early.  But that also comes down to them picking a niche based on them thinking it is a profitable niche.

Let me tell you, that any niche can be profitable.  But the key difference between choosing something you love compared to a subject you don’t know – you get bored of the one you don’t know; you don’t know what to write about and your content dries up – guess what?

No content, no sales!

That is why we say, pick a hobby and then narrow it down to a niche.  If you want the best chance to succeed, you need to target a narrow section of the market and not start too broad.

That is because of the amount of competition out there, if you just chose dogs as a niche, then that is way too broad and you are not identifying and targeting a specific target audience.

Now, if we went with dogs but targeted the healthy dog nutrition niche.  That is a specific target audience, with products and services you can also target too.

So, if I was looking for healthy dog food then hitting your website all about dog nutrition would tell me you know what you are talking about, as you are providing me insightful information about how to keep my dog healthy and the best food to be feeding my dog and I am more inclined to follow your affiliate links and buy stuff that earns you money.

If you start with a hobby, you are onto a great start as you will have some knowledge that you can share with others and are more interested in learning more to expand your knowledge and in turn, helping others too.

Does that make sense?  I hope it does and if you want help narrowing down your niche, drop a note in the comments section and I will be more than happy to help you.

This can be used for any subject, but just make sure you narrow it down as best you can.

Key Points:

• Narrow down your subject to a niche
• Identify a target audience
• Identify their needs
• How can you help that target audience in reference to your niche?

Build a Website

You need a foundation to your affiliate marketing business and that is a website.  If you are truly in this for the long haul where you are going to be earning big money through affiliate marketing, you need a website. There are some that state you don’t need a website; you can promote through social media.  However, people are starting to not trust social media as much as they used to, and some social media platforms do not really like affiliate links.  So, you might start promoting on social media, but find that you cannot post your links. Hence, you cannot make money.

The other argument is that if you send people blindly to affiliate links, it is proven not to always work.  This is because you have missed the important link – the helping part.

Consider, if I already knew what to buy, I would go straight to the retailer and buy it.  The reason affiliate marketing is successful, is because people want to research and learn more before making a purchasing decision.  That is the fundamental part of online shopping.  They want help, not blind affiliate links.

By having a website, you can create a web where you are taking people from social media to your website where they can learn and then buy through your affiliate links when they are ready.  That is where the customer purchase lifecycle comes in, as you can create content for different steps of the lifecycle and capture customers that you can take through all the steps until they are ready to make a purchase.

That is why you need a website.  It is yours and you can build a brand around it that will earn you money for years to come.

Building a website these days is relatively easy, but our top recommendation for Affiliate Marketing is WordPress.  It is really easy to get your head around and is preferred by the search engines which is a huge bonus when it comes to the next stage of getting traffic.

If you feel like you are ready to build a website, then we recommend the SiteRubix hosting.

SiteRubix is brought to you by the guys behind Wealthy Affiliate.  Wealthy Affiliate is a complete training program for affiliate marketers.  It is the platform we started with a few years ago, and we have not looked back.  We will be going into more detail later, but their WordPress hosting is second to none.  If you want to build a free website with SiteRubix, and get access to free training from Wealthy Affiliate – Then use the free tool below to see if your chosen website name is available.

Gain an Audience (Traffic)

Now, if you have been following the steps you will have your very own WordPress website online and gained access to free training within Wealthy Affiliate where you will be learning how affiliate marketing works and how to gain an audience…

If you want to earn money, you need to work on this step first.  Making money does not come until you start getting traffic through to your website.

Wealthy Affiliate and our recommendation is you target free methods of gaining traffic.  The main one we will be talking you through is called Search Engine Optimisation or SEO.

It sounds complicated, but it basically means creating content and posting it on your website, and then telling the search engines about it so they rank it in their search results.

That blog post earlier from expert reviews would have done the same.

By creating helpful content that helps the readers, and then using a free SEO plugin on your website (already provided by Wealthy Affiliate) you can then get your blog post up to the top of the search results too against your target keyword.

It all sounds overly complicated, but in essence it isn’t.  I am writing this blog post now, I will then publish to my website (already done by the time you are reading it) and then I will follow the few steps given to me by the guys at Wealthy Affiliate that tells the search engines “Hey, I have written a blog post that I think is helpful… can you rank it in your search engines please?”

It then appears for people to find.  You will follow the exact same steps.

You will learn about keyword research, creating content, SEO and engaging the audience to gain traffic.

As your website is new, it will take a bit of time for the search engines to take notice.  But as long as you are creating helpful content that has identified a target audience and has helped answer their questions, then you are onto a winning formula.

When you first start noticing people are visiting your website, it is a fantastic feeling.  Once you start seeing that traffic, it is time to step it up and start adding affiliate links

Earn Money!

Notice how we have left this to the last step.  You need to understand that this is not a get-rich-quick scheme.  That the focus needs to be on helping people and not making money.

Helping People Makes you Money, focusing on the Money Doesn’t!

If you had a website on day one that was filled with affiliate links and not much helpful content, do you think Google would take notice?

I know I wouldn’t as a reader.  That is how clever the search engines have become; they read your content and see how helpful it is.  The methods that worked ten years ago, will not work today.

Search Engines want to find the best answers to questions and put them at the top of the search results.  If you provide a better answer then an established brand, then you can easily get to the top of the search results.  But the key thing is that Quality is really important.

Your content needs to help, be detailed and have a point.  As soon as you start selling, then you are not helping and that will result in lower rankings.

I know you can do this, but your focus needs to be on helping!!

How Long Will It Take to Make Money?

OK, this is the question that always comes up.  There are loads of factors including:

• Which niche you choose
• How much time can you invest each week?
• How much effort you put in – both learning and doing
• How much do you want that laptop lifestyle?

I go back to my point earlier, the main reason why affiliate marketers fail is because they walk away too soon.

No one can really tell you how long it will take.  There are members of Wealthy Affiliate who earned money within a month or two.  There are others that didn’t earn anything for a year but are then earning a 4-figure salary every month from affiliate marketing.

The main thing you need to consider is that as long as you follow the training we recommend, put in the time and effort that you can and don’t give up – you will earn money from affiliate marketing!

The only reason you won’t, is because you walk away before you do.

To put it into context, I had a full-time job and a family to work around.  I was only able to work after my son and wife had gone to bed.  I would grab an hour each evening.  One night I would go through a lesson in Wealthy Affiliate and the next night I would put into action what I had learned the night before.  I would write a blog post the next evening, and then get back to learning.  It took me 6 months to earn my first commission.  But I see so many people walk away before that point, and I feel so sorry for them because they feel like they have failed.  But they didn’t, they gave up.  There is a huge difference.

On the other end of the scale, Wealthy Affiliate has super affiliates who are earning huge sums every month.  But they will tell you the same thing that I am telling you.  You need to put the effort in, if you want to achieve what they have.

Jerry worked in a restaurant every day all day, but he worked every spare second he could to escape that existence – he is now a Super Affiliate, and he is well on his way of becoming super successful with his training courses, etc.  A special young man.  But he will tell you to “Hustle”.  I am sure he needs to trademark the hashtag, hustle.  But he will always tell you that you need to work hard to be able to play hard.

If you want this, are you going to go and get it?

Where Can I Get Help?

The important thing to know is that you do not need to feel like you are on your own.  You will not be doing this on your own, in the slightest.  I remember when I first got started and joined Wealthy Affiliate.  I thought I might feel like I was on my own.  Nope, that was simply not the case.  I joined a fantastic network of people that has grown to over 1.4 million members.  The network is always active with people online ready to help beginners start their journey.  You also get access to the platform owners, Kyle & Carson.  Kyle was the one who helped me narrow down my first niche, and you will always see them active in the community.

The one thing you will take away from their training is that helping people is the core attribute to success – They live to this mentality, by helping people.

You will not find a better platform to get started.  I used to describe it as a training platform, but that hardly does it justice.  It offers all the training, tools and support you will need to become a successful affiliate marketer.  You will have access to support at any point from their easy to use dashboard.

But here is something else you will get if you decide to join Wealthy Affiliate and start your journey towards achieving a laptop lifestyle… You will get my personal guidance through starting your affiliate marketing business.  Any questions, you will be able to access me directly through Wealthy Affiliate.  If I don’t know the answer, I will know someone who will, and I will help you get started!!

Wealthy Affiliate is a pay-it-forward platform which means everyone is here to help you.

The only decision you have to make is, are you ready to get started?

Are You Ready to Get Started?

That, I will leave up to you.  Affiliate Marketing is by far the best option for someone looking to make money online, it is beginner friendly with training like Wealthy Affiliate’s.

Want help choosing a niche, or anything to do with WordPress or anything at all you will get help and support within Wealthy Affiliate.

I will just leave you with this, if you truly want a way to earn money online, leave the day job behind and live a laptop lifestyle like in all those flashy videos online then affiliate marketing can help you achieve that.  But don’t lose sight of the fact that it requires hard work to achieve that lifestyle.

You will need to work hard around your current job to achieve this, but guess what?

Any website you land on that says you can earn money overnight is lying to you.  They are a scam and only after your money.

Affiliate Marketing is a genuine route to earning money online.  It is a proven.   We are making money from affiliate marketing online.  But it all starts with working hard to get to that point.

If you are still reading this, then I know you are someone who can make this work for you!!

All you need to do is click the button below and get started with a free Wealthy Affiliate Starter Membership and see where that takes you…

If you want to research a little more into Wealthy Affiliate, I totally understand and here is a link to our Wealthy Affiliate review – But if you click the button above you will begin your affiliate marketing journey now and get our support thrown in!

Thanks for checking out our post.  If you are currently living a laptop lifestyle, have any experience with Wealthy Affiliate and want to share or have any questions at all – then please write them in the comments below and we will get back to you as soon as we can 😉