How to Start an Affiliate Marketing Business

Affiliate marketing is no longer a new name. Everyone is talking about it. However, most of these people never walk the talk.

They are still waking up at crazy hours each day to drive to the office for their 9-5 job. They want to stop this monotonous routine, but something is holding them back.

Indeed, starting an affiliate marketing business is not a walk in the park. The fantastic thing is that the results are handsome in the long run.

If you are tired of your daily grind, affiliate marketing just might be your way out.

Don’t wait any longer and dive in now. Here are a few tips to help you get started.

1.    Choose the product

It all starts here. You should choose a product that you are sure will give you the most profit. In most cases, digital products are the best to promote as they are very profitable. The commission rates can reach up to 75% while physical products never go beyond 20%.

Either way, don’t take on too many products when starting. 2-3 products are good as you continue to gain experience. When you become an expert, expand your reach and add different products.

It’s vital that you keep track of your metrics. It’s easy to know which products are bringing in more cash. Most products will have an easy-to-read dashboard that allows you to assess your earnings.

Leverage the high-producing products and let go of the others with a downward trajectory.

2.    Choose the right affiliate program

Since you are starting fresh, it’s a good idea to choose the best affiliate programs for beginners. These give you a platform to gain experience before you advance into intricate programs like ActiveCampaign and Clickfunnels.

*Affiliate banner

The only downsides with such affiliate programs are that their commission rates are a bit too low. For instance, the most extensive program, Amazon Associates Affiliate, gives a commission of between 1-10% with a 24-hour cookie duration.

On the flip side, they are the best programs with a vast audience, and the tend to have the best affiliate marketing tools to help you grow your affiliate business. So you can still earn the top dollar if you know how to drive traffic to your blog. This is what we are discussing on the next tip.

3.    Create a website or blog

A blog is like your working station. It’s where you will write product reviews with affiliate links to the products you are promoting.

Creating a blog is very easy today. I highly recommend building your blog in WordPress for the high-quality plugins, ease-of-use and other great features.

The first step is choosing a name. Since you are starting an affiliate marketing business, choose a name that vibes with the products you will be promoting. For example, you can select “best kitchen guides” if you want to promote kitchenware.

The next step will be choosing a domain name. Ensure that the name has not been used anywhere. Once through, take the blog online by selecting one of the many hosting services available.

Here are a few affiliates options that I recommend:

The next thing will be customizing your blog on WordPress. You can select the theme that fits your business, change the blog design, add plugins to enhance your site and start publishing.

4.    Promote your blog

Creating a blog is one thing, but promoting it is the next obstacle. It’s no surprise that thousands of blogs sit on the internet for months without a single visitor. Ramping up your blog / website takes a lot of time and focus. But it doesn’t have to be stressful. Blogging can be enjoyable if you do it the right way.

The first stop is using social media. Facebook alone has over 2.6 billion users; hence it is an ideal platform to start. Also, consider creating accounts on Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram to have a wider reach.

Although SEO is a tough nut to crack, you should definitely have a focus here and look at tactics like link building and on-page SEO.

Any serious affiliate marketer will try to get to the coveted first page. It’s the easiest way of getting thousands of visitors in a jiffy.

If the above two prove to be a hard task (which they shouldn’t), take the easier path. These would be commenting or guest posting on high DA sites with an outbound link to your website. You can also comment on popular blogs and engage with your readers as much as you can.

Bottom line

Starting an affiliate marketing business is the best decision you will ever make. It will free you from your soul-sucking 9-5 job and give you the freedom that you badly want.

I will agree that starting is not a walk in the park. The crazy thing is that affiliate marketing depends on your affiliate marketing skills, which is easy to master as a beginner.

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Adam Hendricks
Latest posts by Adam Hendricks (see all)

10 thoughts on “How to Start an Affiliate Marketing Business”

  1. Does your blog have a contact page? I’m having trouble locating it but, I’d like to shoot you
    an e-mail. I’ve got some creative ideas for your blog you might be interested in hearing. Either way, great blog and I look forward to seeing it develop over time.

    Reply
  2. Hey! Do you know if they make any plugins to help with SEO?

    I’m trying to get my blog to rank for some targeted keywords but I’m not seeing very good success.

    If you know of any please share. Kudos!

    Reply
    • The Yoast plugin is great. You have both free and paid options. It helps automate the schema process and gives you a picture of how well-optimized your posts are. It also has a feature to help you optimize social media shares and the way those appear.

      Reply
  3. Hey Adam Hendricks & Anthony Gaenzle ,

    Excellent post with fab-work. I truly appreciate you hard-work.

    Glad to say that you have suggested helpful & working tips for starting an affiliate marketing business. Every time you comes up with fascinating ideas that are truly engaging in every aspect and every time i get new ideas through your post.

    I completely agree with your each & every mentioned tips. Creating website or blog, selecting the right affiliate program and right product are really crucial steps for starting an affiliate marketing business. You have elaborated the tips in an impressive way along with all the crucial information that is true enough to understand & educate the learners.

    Affiliate marketing is an amazing platform that allows its user to earn handsome income just by selling others company product. Many people are doing this affiliate marketing in their spare time and earning a good commission.

    Your blog is really providing in-depth knowledge and According to me this is a perfect guide especially for those who are willing to start an affiliate marketing business.

    Eventually thanks for sharing your knowledge and such a fantastic post.

    Reply
    • Affiliate marketing is indeed a great way to earn extra income and grow a business in your spare time. The great thing is, for many people it can become a full-time job if the right tactics are applied and a focused strategy is developed.

      Reply
  4. Found this so useful because I want to start doing more, effective affiliate marketing but wasn’t really sure the best way to go about it, thanks for sharing!

    Reply
    • As you continue to build traffic, affiliate marketing can be a very effective way to monetize your blog. As long as the products / services you promote on your site are relevant to the content, you can do very well.

      Reply

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