Affiliate Marketing: A Complete Guide for Beginners

Below is everything you need to know about affiliate marketing, including how to get started, different methods, and things to keep in mind. Affiliate Marketing is the easiest way to generate income online. You don’t need to create your own products, and you don’t even need to actually sell anything. You just need to know how to recommend something, and if you’ve ever recommended something to someone before, you already know how to do it.

What is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a process where publishers earn commission by promoting a product or service created by another retailer or advertiser using an affiliate link. A payment is given to the affiliate partner for providing a specific result to the retailer or advertiser. Typically, affiliates are rewarded for sales. But some affiliate marketing programs can reward you for getting leads, free-trial users, clicks to a website, or downloads for an app. An affiliate network is a website that connects creators or influencers with affiliate programs from different brands. Many affiliate programs are free to join. When done correctly, an effective affiliate marketing strategy can go from unnecessary hustle to a profitable online business idea that generates passive income.

Here you can learn how to become a successful affiliate marketer in this article we define in Affiliate Marketing: A Complete Guide for Beginners

How does affiliate marketing work?

Affiliate programs work by allowing individuals or businesses (affiliates) to promote and sell a company’s products or services in exchange for a commission on each sale. The affiliate earns a commission whenever someone makes a purchase through the unique affiliate link associated with their recommendation. To make this work, three different parties need to be involved:

1. Sellers and product manufacturers

 A seller, whether a sole entrepreneur or a large enterprise, whose product is in the market. The product may be a physical item, such as household goods, or a service, such as makeup tutorials. Also known as brands, sellers do not need to be actively involved in marketing, but they can also be advertisers and profit from revenue sharing associated with affiliate marketing. For example, the seller may be an eCommerce merchant who has started a drop shipping business and wants to reach a new audience by paying affiliate sites to promote their products. Or the vendor may be a SaaS company that leverages affiliates to help sell its marketing software.

2. Affiliates or advertisers

Also known as a publisher, an affiliate can be either an individual or a company that markets the seller’s product in an attractive manner to potential consumers. In other words, the affiliate promotes the product to convince consumers that it is valuable or profitable to them and persuade them to buy the product. If the consumer purchases the product, the affiliate receives a share of the revenue.

3. Consumer

The affiliate will market the product/service to consumers through the necessary channels, whether it is social media, blogs or YouTube videos, and if the consumer finds the product valuable or beneficial to them, they may follow through. However, keep in mind that the customer should know that you, the affiliate, are receiving commission from the product. According to the Federal Trade Commission, an affiliate marketer must clearly and unambiguously disclose their relationship with the retailer, thus allowing the consumer to decide how much to value your support.

Who is suitable for affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing can be a great option for online entrepreneurs, bloggers, and really anyone who has a website and is looking to build an audience that they can serve authentically. If this describes you, there are products out there right now that people in your target market are probably already buying, and if you can become a resource recommending those products, you can generate commissions as a result.

If you’re not ready to create your own product or service, but you want to serve your audience by recommending products that may be useful to them, affiliate marketing may be an especially good option. Online affiliate marketing can also be suitable for a wide variety of people because you can apply a bunch of different marketing methods to promote affiliate products and services. These include the same marketing methods you’re already using—things like search engine optimization (SEO), paid search engine marketing (SEM), email marketing, content marketing, and display advertising.

Pros and Cons of Affiliate Marketing

Here are the main pros and cons of Affiliate Marketing: A Complete Guide for Beginners:

Types of affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketer Pat Flynn divides the different types of affiliate marketers into three groups. Understanding these types of affiliate marketing systems can help you learn about the different ways people are making money online in this field. There are three types of affiliate working:

1. Unattached affiliate marketing:

In the no-affiliate business model, the affiliate marketer has no connection to the product or service they are promoting. Typically, an unaffiliated affiliate will run a PPC (pay-per-click) marketing campaign using an affiliate link in the hopes that buyers will click on it and make a purchase themselves. While unattached affiliate marketing can be attractive due to its lack of commitment, it is generally for those who simply want to generate income without investing in a product or customer relationship.

2. Related affiliate marketing:

A happy medium between detached and involved, relevant affiliate marketing is aimed at people who don’t necessarily use the product or service, but who are related to a specific audience in some way. The advantage of this type of affiliate marketing is that the affiliate has the expertise to generate traffic, however if they have never actually used it before, they may run the risk of recommending a poor product or service, which could potentially cause them to lose the trust of their audience.

3. Involved affiliate marketing:

Incorporated affiliate marketing means only recommending products and services that the affiliate marketer has used and truly believes in. In this type of marketing, an affiliate marketer uses his or her influence to promote products and services that followers may actually need, rather than paying to get clicks. A banner ad. It takes more time to build this type of credibility with an audience, but it is essential to building a sustainable business.

Read Also: 35 Real Money Earning Apps In India Without Investment | 13 of the Best Affiliate Marketing Training Courses For 2024

How Do Affiliate Marketers Get Paid?

A quick and cheap way to make money without the hassle of actually selling a product, affiliate marketing is an undeniable attraction for those looking to increase their income online. The consumer does not always have to purchase the product from the affiliate to receive the kickback. Depending on the program, the associate’s contribution to the seller’s sales will be measured differently. Affiliates can get paid in different ways:

1. Pay per Sale:

In this program, the merchant pays the affiliate a percentage of the selling price of the product after a consumer purchases the product as a result of affiliate marketing strategies. In other words, the affiliate must actually get the investor to invest in the affiliate product before receiving compensation.

2. Pay per Lead:

A more complex system, pay-per-lead affiliate marketing programs compensate affiliates based on the conversion of leads. The affiliate must persuade the consumer to visit the merchant’s website and complete the desired action – filling out a contact form, signing up for a product trial, subscribing to a newsletter, or downloading software or files.

3. Pay per click:

Affiliate marketing is mainly about generating traffic to websites and motivating customers to click and take action. So, the myth that affiliate marketing is all about SEO is no surprise. PPC programs focus solely on incentivizing the affiliate to redirect consumers from their marketing platform to the merchant’s website. This means that the affiliate must engage the consumer to such an extent that they move from the affiliate’s site to the merchant’s site. Affiliates are paid based on growth in web traffic. There are two general concepts in PPC:

• Cost-per-acquisition: With this model, the affiliate gets paid every time a lead is acquired by a seller or retailer, which is when an affiliate link takes a customer to the merchant’s online website and they take an action. 
• Earnings per click: This is a measure of the average earnings per 100 clicks for all affiliates in a retailer’s affiliate program.

4. Pay per install:

In this payment system, affiliates get paid every time they drive a user to the merchant’s website and install a product, usually a mobile app or software. So, if a retailer bids $0.10 for each install generated through an affiliate program, and the campaign results in 1,000 installs, the retailer will pay ($0.10 x 1,000) = $100.

Why Be an Affiliate Marketer?

Becoming an Affiliate marketer can be highly beneficial in various ways : 

1. Passive income:

While any regular job requires you to be at work to make money, affiliate marketing allows you to make money while you sleep. By investing the initial time in a campaign, you will see a sustained return on that time as consumers purchase the product over the following days and weeks. You get paid for the work long after it is completed.

2. No customer support:

Individual sellers and companies offering products or services must deal with their consumers and ensure they are satisfied with what they have purchased. You will never have to worry about customer support or satisfaction thanks to the affiliate marketing structure. The entire job of an Affiliate Marketer is to connect the seller with the consumer. After receiving your commission from the sale, the seller takes action on any consumer complaints.

3. Work from Home:

If you are someone who hates going to the office, affiliate marketing is the perfect solution. In which you will be able to launch campaigns and receive revenue from the products that sellers create while working from the comfort of your home. This is a task that you can do even without taking off your pajamas.

4. Effective cost:

Most businesses need an upfront startup fee and cash flow to finance the products sold. However, affiliate marketing can be done cheaply, meaning you can get started quickly and without much hassle. There are no unexpected fees and no need to build a product. The beginning of this work is relatively straightforward.

5. Convenient and flexible:

Since you are essentially becoming a freelancer, you get ultimate freedom in setting your own goals, redirecting your path when you feel like it, choosing the products that interest you, and even setting your working hours. This feature means you can diversify your portfolio or focus on simple and straightforward campaigns. You will be free from company restrictions, regulations, and underperforming teams.

6. Performance-Based Rewards:

You can work 80 hours a week in other jobs and still earn the same salary. The good thing about affiliate marketing is that it is entirely based on your performance. Brushing up your review skills and writing engaging campaigns will improve your revenue.

Read Also: Earn commission with Instagram’s affiliate program | How to Grow Your YouTube Income With Affiliate Marketing

Common Types of Affiliate Marketing Channels

Most affiliates share standard practices to ensure their target audience is engaged and receptive to purchasing the promoted products. However, not all affiliates advertise products in the same way. There are many different marketing channels they can take advantage of:

1. Influencers

An influencer is a content creator who has the power to influence the purchasing decisions of a large segment of the population. This person is in an excellent position to benefit from affiliate marketing. They already boast influential followers, so it’s easy for them to direct consumers to the seller’s products through social media posts, blogs, and other interactions with their followers. Influencers then get a share of the profits they helped create. While an influencer may have their own branding and aesthetic, it’s important to add elements that connect with your brand to ensure brand recall and recognition. This can be achieved using apps like InstaSize, where you can instantly edit and customize your campaign creative in one tap.

2. Bloggers

The blogger samples the product or service and then writes a comprehensive review that engagingly promotes the brand, driving traffic back to the seller’s site. Bloggers are respected for spreading the word about the value of a product and helping a seller improve sales.

3. Paid search-focused microsites

Developing and monetizing microsites can also generate large amounts of affiliate sales. These sites are advertised within a partner site or a search engine’s sponsored listings. They are distinct and separate from the leading site of the organization. By providing more focused, relevant content to a specific audience, microsites increase conversions due to their simple and direct calls to action.

4. Email Lists

Despite its old origins, email marketing is still a viable source of affiliate marketing income. Some affiliates have email lists that they can use to promote the seller’s products. Others may use email newsletters, including product hyperlinks, to earn a commission after a consumer purchases the product. Another approach is to build an email list over time for affiliates. They use their various campaigns to collect emails en masse and then send emails regarding the products they are promoting.

5. Big media websites

Designed to generate huge amounts of traffic at all times, these sites focus on building an audience of millions. These websites promote products to their huge audience through the use of banners and relevant affiliate links. This method provides better performance and improves conversion rates, resulting in top revenues for both the seller and the affiliate. One of the most famous sites is the Amazon affiliate program, Amazon Associates, which claims the largest market share of the affiliate network (46.15%).

Read Also: How To Become An Amazon Affiliate (A Step-By-Step Guide) | Affiliate Marketing On Snapchat: How To Get Started In 2024

Tips to Help You Become a Successful Affiliate Marketer

Here are our top online marketing tips to help you get started:

1. Develop a rapport with your audience:

You’ll want to build an audience with particular interests when starting your affiliate marketing career. This allows you to tailor your affiliate campaigns to that niche, increasing your conversion chances. By positioning yourself as an expert in an area rather than promoting an extensive range of products, you can market to the people most likely to buy the product.

2. Make it personal:

You’ll be able to pick and choose products you believe in or even products from your favorite brands, so make sure your campaigns focus on valuable products that consumers will enjoy. You’ll achieve an impressive conversion rate while establishing the credibility of your brand. You’ll also want to be good at email outreach to work with other bloggers and influencers. Use a tool like ContactOut or Voila Norbert to collect people’s contact information and send personalized emails to capture guest blogging and affiliate opportunities.

3. Start reviewing products and services:

Focus on reviewing products and services that fall within your niche. Then, taking advantage of the rapport you’ve built with your audience and your stance as an expert, tell your readers why they would benefit from purchasing the product or service you’re promoting.

Almost anything sold online can be reviewed with an affiliate program – you can check physical products, digital software, or even services booked online, such as ride-sharing or travel resort bookings. It is especially effective to compare this product with other products in the same category. Most importantly, make sure you’re creating detailed, explicit content to improve conversions.

4. Use multiple sources:

Instead of focusing on just one email campaign, spend time monetizing a blog, creating landing pages, posting on review sites, reaching your audience on social media, and even running cross-channel promotions. Test different digital marketing strategies to see which ones your audience responds to the most. 

5. Choose campaigns carefully:

No matter how good your online marketing skills are, you’ll make less money on a wrong product than a valuable one. Take time to study the demand for a new product before promoting it. Be sure to research the vendor carefully before building a team. Your time is precious, and you want to make sure you’re spending it on a product that is profitable and from a seller you can trust.

6. Stay updated with trends:

There is serious competition in the affiliate marketing sector. You’ll want to stay on top of new trends to stay competitive. Additionally, you will benefit from at least some of the new marketing techniques constantly being created. Ensure you stay updated on these new strategies to guarantee that your conversion rates and revenue will be as high as possible.

22 Affiliate Marketing Tips for Beginners

Here are the basics you need to keep in mind when getting started:

1. Build trust first

Trust takes time and energy to maintain. Things take a little time and focus first on your community and building trust within that community. Recommendations for products and the associated love you get from your community come almost naturally after you earn their trust. 2 things earn trust:

• Give as much as possible: content, information, freebies, high-value items, and sometimes your time. Online karma exists, and the more you give, the more you get back in return – probably not from the same people you gave to, which is why that’s the other part of earning trust. 
• Referrals from others: Get on other people’s radar and ask them to market for you, not for the affiliate products you are promoting but for you or your brand.

2. Know the product

One of the biggest mistakes people make when trying to sell a product as an affiliate is that they need to learn more about the product. This usually stems from a desire to push a product to make money from it, which is a no-no. Don’t get me wrong – as a marketer, it makes sense to consider the commission and how much money you can earn per sale, but the commission should not drive the decision to promote a product.

3. Ask yourself

Can I trust that the product will fit my audience well? It is an important question. You should share or recommend something that will help your audience, but Are you confident that after sending people through your link, that product’s sales page, the product itself, and the customer service for that product, if any, will be any good to them? It is the very first question you must ask yourself to gain the trust of your audience. 

4. Show Your Results (Proof)

One of the most significant ways to take affiliate income to the next level is to show people what you achieved using products. For example, you can use a Convert Kit tool to help me run email campaigns to get even more followers. You can use these results as proof when promoting Convert Kit as an affiliate product to your  audience.

5. Help your audience learn as much as possible about the product (evidence)

So a person sees an affiliate link to a product you recommend on one of your sites. Big oops! Instead of explaining the product and what it can do for them in a paragraph or two, show them how it works. Tell them what it’s like to sign up for a product, share some tips to make the experience of using that product even better, answer frequently asked questions about it, and show them everything.

6. Become a source of information and support for a product

The next level is to make yourself available to your audience as a source of information and support for that product. Treat the product as your own. This may help in the pre-purchase stage. If someone has a question about a product before making a purchase, ask them to ask you (or perhaps one of your staff or VAs). If someone needs clarification, all they need to do is answer a simple question, click on your link, and make a purchase. Plus, they’ll feel more secure with their purchases again because they know they can contact you if they have any questions.

7. Use your website (or create one)

Today, there are many ways to build an audience: on social media like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, or through your website. But when it comes to affiliate marketing, a must-have is a website. Many people earn income through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube, even without a website. Power to them—but if you want to set yourself up for success in affiliate marketing, you need a website.

8. Give people multiple opportunities to click on your affiliate link

This next one is a pretty obvious tip that many people fail to implement. When you give your visitors only one opportunity to click on your affiliate link – for example, by adding a link near the top of a blog post – you’re missing out on potential income that might not come with a lot of work.

9. Disclose that your links are affiliate links

Most of you know I’m all about transparency and authenticity – which is no different with affiliate links. Therefore, you must always do your  best to indicate when links are affiliate links. Well, at least in the US, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) rules require that if you are receiving any compensation for promoting another product or company, you must disclose that relationship. There’s more to it than that, but you can best be honest and straightforward with your links.

10. Keep track of your click-through

One thing you should always do with your affiliate links is keep track of them – where they are located in your content, how many clicks each gets, and your conversion rates. It takes time to set up yours, but you need to know what’s going on with your links to understand what works and doesn’t.

11. Use your language to promote your affiliate links

When you sign up as an affiliate with a company, they often ask you to use them in their emails, blog posts, and social media messages to help sell products. Although this language can be helpful, you must not use it 100 percent. Instead, use it as inspiration to create personalized language to sell products.

12. Establish a relationship with the product owner

You’re promoting a product, and you ask the product owner to answer some questions about the product, which you post in a blog post, a podcast episode, or a video interview. Or perhaps you could have that person as a guest, and they provide some high-value content with a short promo for the product at the end.

13. Offer special deals just for your audience

This is the next step in building a relationship with the product owner you’re promoting. If you can negotiate a special agreement with the product owner just for your audience, that will give your audience an even better value and more reason to buy from you. Try to make a deal with the owner before including him as a guest on your podcast.

14. Ask for a landing page on the owner’s site

Most of the time, an affiliate item is sold on the website of the company that owns the product. Unfortunately, hosting the entire sales process on your site is complicated, so you must be prepared to send people to the company’s site to complete their purchase. By researching the product and company beforehand, you can ensure your audience will have a positive shopping experience. But you’re still sending your audience into another company’s “territory,” where you usually have no control over their experience.

15. Focus on how it will help your audience

When you talk about the product, it doesn’t matter what platform you’re using or who to distribute your content. Whichever methods you choose, always focus more on the benefits for your audience.

16. Believe in your recommendation

If you genuinely believe in your recommendation for the product, your audience will, too. If you have motives other than trying to help people or give them something they need – if it’s for commission, or you’re simply doing a favor for a friend who has a product – then you won’t be able to perform as well with your sales.

17. If that doesn’t work, try another proposal

You have an affiliate product you want to promote. You’ve used the product, it’s excellent, and you know it will help your audience. You set up a promotion with links in your post and created an epic post with videos and the whole nine yards, and it doesn’t work.

18. Test your offer

Like the previous tip, test your offer, yes, but even more—try everything.

• Test how you promote to see what your audience responds best to.
• Test the placement of your links, the number of links within the post, whether they are bold or italic, whether images work better, whether interviewing the owner helps, does a Thursday webinar converts better than a Tuesday.
• Test everything you can think of.

19. Create your product instead

If all else fails, but you know there’s a market for a particular product that’s a perfect fit for your audience, and it doesn’t exist – then create it yourself. Yes, this is not affiliate marketing. When you make your product, you give up the benefits of affiliate marketing, like not having to create the product, dealing with customer service, and other aspects of being a product owner. However, affiliate marketing doesn’t always work, and there are advantages to creating your product.

20. Be patient

No matter how quickly people say, you can make money online, and understand that it will take time. Comparatively speaking, things can happen much faster—that’s the beauty of online business. You can create a site today and start sharing content with the world, but you’ll need to get your message out there and build relationships with people to make an impact and make money online. Over time, this will drive traffic to your site and ultimately increase clicks, sales, and affiliate commissions. Things take time, but by following these tips and everything you learn in this post, you’ll give yourself the best chance of getting things done as quickly as possible with affiliate marketing.

21. Thank people in advance for reading your affiliate links

Remember to thank your audience; it shows them you care about them and will help your channel grow.

22. Thank people later for going through your affiliate link

If the company you’re affiliated with can provide you with the names and emails of people who purchased through your link, you should follow those people and thank them. If you want, give them a surprise bonus, something you didn’t mention that would get them in the first place. This will help motivate them to purchase through one of your affiliate links again.

What affiliate marketing strategies do marketers use to promote their partners?

Here’s a starting list of 10 to get something to chew on and remix in your affiliate marketer’s mind:

1. Create an epic post

Think of it as a potential one-stop-shop resource for this particular product – not just a review, but a complete introduction, how-to, FAQs, best practices, and answers for anyone with problems. If you can show people this much information before they purchase, they will be more likely to buy. Plus, the epic post becomes an extremely shareable article with the potential to rank high for specific product keywords in Google.

2. Make multiple YouTube videos about the product

This is an important affiliate marketing strategy because YouTube is one of the best search engines in the world. You can get a lot of traffic through your affiliate links on YouTube, and the videos can also rank in Google. Be sure to include your affiliate link in the video description, ideally in the first part, so people don’t have to click “Show More” or “Read More” to watch it.

3. What should you include in these videos?

We suggest you record it yourself from beginning to end, and then break it into pieces. People love watching short videos, so this works in your favor, and you get many opportunities to rank for different keywords related to that product. If it’s a digital product, start at the time of purchase and walk people through the entire process. And if you’re creating a physical product, consider an unboxing video.

4. Host a Webinar

Webinar is one way to take your affiliate product promotion to the next level. Webinars are a compelling way to share a message with your audience. They’re engaging and life like; you can treat them like an actual event. This way, your promotion becomes much bigger than a regular affiliate link left in a post.

5. Publish a webinar replay

Be sure to record your live webinar so you can embed it on your website as a replay for people who didn’t watch it live, as well as for people who watched it live but want to review the information. Frankly, more people will probably watch it as a replay rather than live, and that’s a good thing—you have to allow them to do so.

6. Give a bonus

It is probably one of the more underutilized tips we have to share today – but also possibly one of the most powerful tips. In addition to promoting the affiliate product, give a bonus as a thank you to everyone who purchases the product through your link. Chances are you’re not the only person promoting that product, so to motivate people to buy from you instead of another person, offer a bonus that can only come with a purchase through your link. Ask your visitors to send you their receipt via email, and then you can reply with information about the bonus or how to access it.

7. Promote your products indirectly on social media

Although your website is the centerpiece of your affiliate marketing strategy, social media—Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.—can play an essential role in your affiliate marketing strategy as well. The thing about social media is that if you promote directly on your social media platforms, you won’t get a good response.

8. Run a giveaway to take advantage of social proof

Social proof is the idea that people will naturally gravitate towards what the masses are doing. For example, at the mall, you see a huge crowd gathering around a store. You can’t help but want to know what’s going on – everyone else is there for a reason, and you want to know what’s going on for that reason. Online means that other people do the marketing for you, except in this case, it’s through metrics like number of subscribers, likes, comments, etc.

9. Promote products indirectly through your email list

Your email list is an integral part of any affiliate marketing campaign – and if you don’t have one, you need to start building one tomorrow! Email is compelling for marketing; so many people say the money is on the list. Like social media,we recommend promoting indirectly to your email list. we don’t directly promote anything on the email list. If there are any links in your emails, they point to other content, usually on blog, like epic posts, videos, webinars, and so on.

10. Promote products indirectly on other people’s sites

This is another example of indirect linking being your friend. If you’ve been interviewed for someone else’s blog or asked to write a guest post, you can link back to a piece of content on your site that includes your affiliate link. Just like with social media and email, you don’t want to bother people with your link—and most of the time, if you try to link directly to an affiliate product through someone else’s site, they won’t allow it anyway.

11. Review and compare different products of the same type

Another strategy is to compare products of the same kind. Compare and contrast, and if you recommend them, ensure the link is an affiliate link. The reason this works is that people like to shop nearby, but they also want convenience. So, instead of making them search all over the web, keep them on your site by having every product review in one place.

Benefits to Joining the Big Commerce Affiliate Program

1. Industry-leading commission:

In the Big Commerce affiliate program, you get a 200% reward per referral and $1,500 per enterprise referral, with no limit on commission. Also, the more referrals you get through the program, the higher your commission level will be. Plus, there are no obligations or minimum commitments to join the program.

2. Strategic Growth:

BigCommerce provides unique strategies to help you grow, increase your website visibility, and drive more sales. You’ll save time and money on content creation by connecting to WordPress blogs, webinars, and more with quality content developed by Big Commerce for your audience.

3. Robust Tracking:

Our affiliate dashboard offers a comprehensive look at your clicks, tests, sales, and commissions. You can view your earnings, track metrics and performance, and get paid simultaneously every month.

4. A Dedicated Account Manager:

You’ll have direct access to an affiliate manager who understands your business and goals. 

5. Promotion made easy:

In your dashboard, you’ll have easy access to our pre-made text links, banners, and content. Promote Big Commerce anywhere on your site by simply placing our affiliate links on your pages.

Start your affiliate marketing business today

Making money with affiliate marketing programs can be a profitable way to add a new revenue stream with little or no upfront investment. Affiliate marketing takes time, but by working hours to find the right affiliate network and dialing in your strategy, you can create an affiliate system that generates passive income for years.

Conclusion

A straightforward process, affiliate marketing through reviews, blogs, social media, webinar software, and other platforms, is a new frontier in marketing just waiting to be harnessed. Follow the tips in this article, and you’ll be able to engage your audience, convert passive readers into active consumers, and increase your salary one click at a time.