What Is Affiliate Marketing and How To Get Started Today
Just about everybody these days is looking for ways to make money online. Just doing a quick internet search will lead you to so many money making opportunities that it will make your head spin.
But the problem you run into is not knowing what is good, what is bad, what is real, and what is fake.
There are basically three things that you should focus on when searching for an online business opportunity.
First, you need to find a way to make money that is legit and real. Don’t get caught up into promises of a quick and easy financial windfall, because if that’s what the guru’s are selling, it’s just another online scam.
Second, you need to find something where you can start earning and generating income every day. I don’t necessarily like to use the phrases “passive income” or “automatic income”, because those two things don’t exist without working hard and constantly learning how to grow your business.
And third, you should try to find something that won’t cost you a small fortune to start, with no little or no overhead at all.
Affiliate marketing is the ticket!
Affiliate Marketing Checks All The Boxes and More
- Real Online Business Opportunity
- Start On A Shoe-String Budget
- Do Not Need To Own Or Create Any Products Of Your Own
- No Selling To Family, Friends, Or Strangers
- Generate Revenue 24 Hours A Day
- Not A Pyramid Scheme Or Multi Level Marketing Program
Why Is Affiliate Marketing So Successful?
Every day of the year, almost four billion people from around the globe are surfing the net looking for help, information, or looking to purchase some kind of product or service.
With so many people spending money and shopping online today compared to just a few years ago, consumers are now choosing to make more frequent online purchases instead of going to a brick and mortar store to do their shopping and ultimately, buying.
You can see from this graph how spending with affiliate marketing has increased from each of the previous years, and continues to rise each and every year.
In just the United States alone, affiliate marketing spending is estimated to increase to almost seven billion dollars by the year 2020, and it’s also expected to continually increase up to 10% year after year.
You can clearly see there are no signs of online shopping slowing down anytime soon.
How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?
In a nutshell, the very basic concept is that you create a simple website that is built around a hobby, an interest, or something that you are passionate about, then attract visitors to your site where you start earning revenue, usually by writing reviews or promoting products from other companies.
Affiliate marketing is a simple four-step process that allows just about anyone to start earning online income with a true online business.
Here are the four simple steps to affiliate marketing:
- Find a niche you would like to promote
- Create a website
- Attract traffic and visitors
- Make money when a sale is made
Now before you start screaming I CAN”T DO THIS, I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO PROMOTE AND I HAVE NO CLUE HOW TO MAKE A WEBSITE!
Don’t worry about it!
Building a website today is nothing like it was years ago when you had to know how to write code or be a computer programmer. Actually, building a website is quite easy now with all the tools that are readily available to you.
For me personally, I had never built a website before either, and I will show you how you can easily create and build your own website, and best of all, you can actually learn to do it for free.
Some people say that you can run an affiliate marketing business without a website, but I really don’t know how you could do that. You need to build a website so your business can virtually be open 24 hours a day. That is how you start earning that money each and every day.
Affiliate Marketing Is The Best For Making Money Online
Affiliate marketing is one of the most profitable ways to make money online while allowing you to work wherever you are.
Because your income is not based on punching the clock and the hours that you actually work, you can literally make money when you are sleeping or on vacation.
Not only can it be very lucrative, but it is also one of the most popular forms of online income because it is especially good for newbies, and it doesn’t take a lot of money to get started.
All you need is a computer and an internet connection to get your business started.
Think about this for a second. Where do you think consumers are finding the information that they are looking for? They are finding it from websites that were created by people just like you and me.
And what makes affiliate marketing so attractive is that there are literally hundreds and hundreds of affiliate programs that you can partner with, and millions of products for you to choose from. And even better, most affiliate programs are not only free to join, they are relatively easy to get approved.
You don’t need to have your own product or service, or stock any inventory. You don’t even need to worry about ordering, shipping, merchant services, or any customer service at all.
Again, these companies that have affiliate programs are more than happy to pay you a commission for helping to promote their products and services.
Who Is Affiliate Marketing For?
Just about anyone can learn to start and build an online business around just about any topic or interest they want, while having the ability to create various streams of income.
Are you a complete newbie that has no idea about affiliate marketing and clueless where to begin? Or do you already have an existing blog and looking for ways to increase the amount of visitors to your website?
If that sounds like you, perfect!
With the right right training and tools, you can start your business, then decide if you want to run your business in your spare time, while doing it at your own pace, or go all in full time. It’s completely your choice to scale and grow it as you see fit.
But again, keep in mind that affiliate marketing is NOT a see results quickly type of business, but it really is a simple process to get started, and has a huge income potential, if you learn to do it right.
- Entrepreneurs - Looking To Start An Online Business With Little Or No Risk
- Retirees - Bored & Looking For Some Supplemental Income In Their Spare Time
- Disabled - People That Are Having Trouble Getting Out Of The House, But Would Like To Work
- Stay At Home Moms or Dads - Just Wanting Extra Spending Money For Vacations or Home Improvements
- College Students - Would Like Earn Extra Income During The School Year & In The Summer
- Unemployed - Recently Laid Off Work Or Having Trouble Finding A Steady Job
- Someone Looking To Sell A Product Or Service - Learn How To Monetize A Website And Sell Any Product
- Existing Online Business - Looking For A Way To Bring More Traffic To Your Website
Benefits Of Affiliate Marketing
Like so many others, I chose to focus on affiliate marketing as my online business. Besides the obvious freedom and flexibility that comes with operating a home-based business, there are many other benefits to operating an affiliate marketing business.
- Unlimited Earning Potential: No more asking your boss for another raise because you think you are underpaid. Being an internet marketer can give you complete control on how much money you would like to make. You can create multiple income streams from affiliate marketing.
- No Huge Overhead Costs: No expensive rent to pay or take out business loans. You can start with very little money and on a shoe string budget. All you need is an internet connection, a desktop or laptop computer, tablet, or smart phone.
- Total Flexibility: Are you an early bird or a night owl? You decide when and where you want to work. Your business will never close and you will be open for business 24 hours a day.
- You Don’t Need Your Own Product: Being an affiliate marketers gives you the opportunity to promote hundreds of thousands of products from other companies. You don’t have to carry any inventory or worry about shipping and returns.
- You Don’t Need Your Own Product: Being an affiliate marketers gives you the opportunity to promote hundreds of thousands of products from other companies. You don’t have to carry any inventory or worry about shipping and returns.
- A Proven History Of Success: Affiliate marketing is a preferred choice for entrepreneurs because it is easy to start, and it continues to gain popularity every year, and it’s a proven way to begin making money online.
- No More Rush Hour Traffic & Long Commute Times: It is now estimated that most people are spending nearly an hour each day inside of their vehicle, traveling back and forth to work. No more traffic or road rage. Your commute time now is just the amount of time it takes you to stroll to your home office.
Turn Your Ideas And Hobbies Into Profits
Your online business can be built around literally any idea, passion, hobby, or topic that you can think of.
For an example, maybe you like to do woodworking in your spare time, so why not try to make some money with your hobby too? You can write reviews and promote different tools that you like and use, or create blueprints for projects like bird houses, doll houses, etc.
You get my point.
Practically any thing that you enjoy doing and have a genuine interest in can turn into a profitable online business.
For Most Affiliate Marketers, Amazon Is Where It Started
I’m sure you’ve been on Amazon’s website before and have seen the enormous amount of products they offer. They have just about anything under the sun and more.
For an example, using the woodworking niche again, you can see from this screenshot how many different items came up when I typed in “woodworking tools” into the search bar. You could literally fill up a website with so much content, just based on this one woodworking niche.
The great thing about the Amazon Associates program is that once someone clicks on your Amazon affiliate link, you will get a commission on EVERY THING they buy for the next 24 hours. So maybe after they buy some tools that you recommended, or maybe they want to buy an air fryer or TV stand, or whatever. You will get the commissions on those items too.
How sweet is that?
If you could ask every successful internet marketer about the start of their online business, most of them would say that they made their first dollar with the Amazon affiliate program. And amazon certainly is not the only place where you can find an unlimited amount of products to promote.
Just about every company has an affiliate program or affiliate network that you can join, then get your free affiliate link and start promoting.
A few other popular affiliate programs are:
Selling With Affiliate Marketing
Do you like cold calling, going door to door and selling?
No?
Good, because you don’t have to!
Affiliate marketing has nothing to do with network marketing or MLM where you have to do any “selling” or trying to convince family, friends, or complete strangers to buy something from you or join your down-line network.
The whole concept of affiliate marketing is to help others, and you are helping them by offering solutions to their problems, then directing them to a certain product or service that they are already looking for and interested in.
Affiliate Marketing Isn't Easy...But It Is Really Simple!
So let’s step back for a minute and think.
If making money online with affiliate marketing was really that easy, don’t you think just about everybody on this planet would be doing it?
After wasting my money on too many scams and programs that didn’t work, I decided to put my mind to it and start looking for a real online business. I knew there had to be something where I could earn some of that extra cash that I needed. I did my research over and over and saw that so many people were making money with affiliate marketing.
Bingo! That’s it.
I am gonna start an online business with affiliate marketing.
Then reality set in. I didn’t give it much thought at first, because I figured it was gonna be a piece of cake. All I had to do is get a website and start adding affiliate links all over the place.
But it wasn’t that easy.
Hold on, let me explain.
It wasn’t that it was hard to get started or couldn’t be done, it’s just because I realized that I had absolutely no idea what to do from one minute to the next. I always heard about people doing this and doing that online, but I never really thought about how it’s actually done.
On a scale of 1 to 10 with the knowledge of running an online business, I was probably a 2, and that’s only because I used to sell personal safety products through online and newspaper ads. But I had no clue about building a website or the details about affiliate marketing.
All too often, most people are usually looking for the fast and easy way to success and don’t have the patience to wait for results and end up quitting before they make their first dollar. They finally give up because they don’t see the fruits of their labor right away.
I know you have heard this expression before, but making money online really is a journey, not a destination, and a process that will take time.
Don’t give up because most of your competitors will.
If you have a true desire to succeed, along with the right mindset, and can follow an actual proven system that really works, you are already on your way to success
How Affiliate Marketing Has Helped Me
I finally found a training program that had everything I was looking for and more. It was much different from anything else I have seen or tried in the past. Once I signed up, I started following the detailed over the shoulder video and training, and haven’t looked back since.
In fact, the same platform that I am using today is the exact same method that 1000’s of other successful internet marketers from across the entire globe are also using to generate a passive income each and every month.
Since I began, I have now created multiple affiliate marketing websites that are focusing on specific niches, but they are all built with the idea of making money as an affiliate marketer.
I would have never been able to create those websites and have them ranking on the search engines if I didn’t have the right training, the right tools, and the help of others who are in the same industry.
Can You Make Money Online With Affiliate Marketing?
Answer: Yes You Can!
There is absolutely no question that you can really make money with affiliate marketing. As I stated above, anybody can use this simple process to make money online.
Again, please don’t think that you have to have any previous experience, be some kind computer expert or have a college degree to learn how to make money the right way.
Ordinary people with all different backgrounds are continuing to make money online by following a system that truly works.
It’s up to you if, and when you decide that you are ready to take action.
There Really Is An Opportunity & A Place For You In This Online World
But Will You Make Money?
Answer: IT DEPENDS!
I know that’s not the answer you were looking for, but unfortunately, you are the only one that can answer that question. How much money you ultimately end up making is totally up to you and how bad you really want it.
Just because other people are making a comfortable living with affiliate marketing, doesn’t mean that you will too. Ultimately what you get out of your business is what you put into it.
So What Are The Secrets To Affiliate Marketing?
So what are the secrets to affiliate marketing?
Well here it is.
There really are none!
For some reason, most people think that the only ones that can really make money online are the internet gurus because they have a top secret “recipe” that nobody else knows about.
That’s total B.S!
The only “secret”, if you want to call it that, is getting REAL AFFILIATE MARKETING TRAINING from a trusted source.
Fortunately there are places you can go online that can teach you how to do affiliate marketing correctly, and without costing you an arm and a leg in the process.
While there is no real secret formula when it comes to affiliate marketing, there is a process that should be followed to achieve the maximum results, and it is the same process that will continue to work year after year.
Whatever you do, please don’t fall for the hype of another work from home opportunity that promises things like “Make Huge Profits In Just 30 Days While Working Just 15 Minutes A Day.”
You are smarter than that, and besides, they don’t exist anyway.
Review Of The Four Simple Steps Of Affiliate Marketing
Once again, these are the four basic steps that are needed for affiliate marketing. These are the same exact principles that internet marketers from all over the world are using to generate a passive income 24 hours a day.
STEP 1: Choose Your Niche
You can create a profitable online business with just about any niche or topic of your choosing.
What do you love to do and what are your passions?
STEP 2: Build Your Website
Building a website really is easy and it doesn't take any previous knowledge or programming skills at all.
You will learn how to build your own profit ready website for FREE, and have it live on the internet in a matter of minutes.
STEP 3: Attract Visitors To Your Website
Now it's time to start bringing customers and traffic to your website so you can make money.
Learn how to generate loads of free organic traffic, and get your website ranked high in the search engines.
STEP 4: Start Making Money
Once a potential customer visits your website and you recommend a product or services to them, you will make a commission every time they make a purchase.
That is how you can start earning a real passive income 24 hours a day!
It's Time To Choose Your Path Of Direction
If starting your own online business is your dream, now’s the time when you need to decide what you are going to do next.
What direction are you going to go? Basically, you have four different paths you can take from where you are at right now.
- You can go left and go at it alone, and hope you find something that works for you.
- You can go right and pay for a mentor or business coach to teach you what they know.
- You can move forward, and get real step-by-step training from an established program, and learn from other successful affiliate marketers how to make money the right way.
- Or you can stay right where you are at, and do nothing at all.
My Message To You
I’m not going to sit here and tell you that you won’t have to work hard, because operating an online business is hard work. And I’m definitely not going to tell you that you will make a boat load amount of money in a short period of time.
But what I will tell you is that thousands of people are making money with affiliate marketing each and every day, and you can make money with affiliate marketing too.
If you learn to do it the right way.
If you want to jump off the merry-go-round of money-making scams and finally ready to try a real business with a proven track record, I really hope you take my advice and start your affiliate marketing training today.
Final Thoughts
Why do you think affiliate marketing is the #1 choice for those who are wanting to start an online business? It’s because there are millions and millions of products and ideas out there, just ready to profit from.
Don’t get me wrong. Just because there are so many unique niches that you can build your business around. It takes a whole lot more than just copying a simple affiliate link and pasting into your website, and expecting it to start generating revenue for you.
Think about a few of these things for a second:
- How are you going to build your website and optimize it for the search engines?
- How are your customers going to find you?
- What are the different ways you are going to make money with your business?
- Who will you turn to when you need help?
There are so many things on the internet about why you should start this kind of business or that kind of business. That’s all fine and dandy, but how are you going to make money if you don’t know what you should do today, tomorrow, or the next day.
That is why you will need help.
There are quite a few reasons why so many people fail with an online business. I’m not just talking about all the scams and get-rich-quick schemes.
I’m talking about the reasons people fail with affiliate marketing or any online business for that matter. The lack of knowledge and the absence of real training, is what I believe is the number one reason that lead to most people to quitting.
The second reason is the lack of patience and dedication. The majority of people just won’t do what it takes to make a change for the better. We all say we want a better life for ourselves and our family, but most are not willing to put in the time to do what it takes.
I’ve wasted a lot of time and money on other programs that just weren’t good enough. I got fed up and frustrated with all of the lies and deception of these fake money making opportunities and needed to find something better.
I am hoping you do too!
I really hope you are truly interested in making a change in your life, and the opportunity to start your new online business. Whether you are looking for more freedom from the stress of a dead end job, or wanting to improve your current financial situation, please take a few minutes to read more about my #1 recommended all in one digital business.
But if you don’t want to wait any longer, click on the red button below, create your free account, and get started today.
To your success,
D. Scott
6 Responses
Hi,
This is an excellent and ultimate affiliate marketing guide. You explain everything about affiliate marketing and online marketing very well in this post. I have to say whoever wants to learn about affiliate marketing from beginner I expert, this post will be the ultimate solution. You are absolutely right, affiliate marketing is the most demanding career now. Whoever wants to work and make money online, they should definitely think about affiliate marketing.
Thanks for the nice comments Nazmun. I agree with you about affiliate marketing. It is definitely a business that anybody of any skill level can do, and they can started with no money too. Thanks again for your thoughts.
Wow! A really great explanation of Affiliate marketing. I sometimes wonder if it is for me or not. Your post has helped to answer some questions, such as would I really be able to invest in this long term.
But your post has motivated me to look into trying my hand at affiliate marketing again.
Thanks for your comment Eric. I have tried a few different ways to make money online. Some worked and some not so much. I think affiliate marketing is the best way to go if you plan on it being for the long term. Thanks again!
Hello,
I am a beginner to affiliate marketing. As you have mentioned in this article, I also thought that creating the website would be the hardest thing to do. But that might be the easiest thing when we look at the whole picture. Finding a good niche and writing quality posts, gaining traffic to our website seem like the most important things when it comes to affiliate marketing.
I chose affiliate marketing simply because I have the freedom to work on my own pace. But after chosing I realized this is the best way for me because we don’t have to pay a lot to start our business, we don’t have to keep inventory of products, no hassle in distributing our products. All we have to do is write honest reviews and promote the products which we are interested in.
As you have said earlier, affiliate marketing is not hard. But it’s not easy either. With correct training, dedication and patience, I think almost anyone can become successful affiliate marketers. 🙂
Hey Anjali, I always thought creating a website would be the hardest part, but like you said, it is probably the easiest part. I started my first online business many years ago, but it wasn’t affiliate marketing. Wish I would have got into it sooner than I did. Thanks for your comments.