7 Steps to Starting Affiliate Marketing and Making Money
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| 7 Steps to Starting Affiliate Marketing and Making Money |
What is affiliate marketing?
Do
you have a blog or a website? If so, you can start making money right away with
affiliate marketing, even if you don’t have any experience! In this guide,
we’ll walk you through the 7 steps to starting affiliate marketing and earning
your first commissions. By the end of it, you’ll be ready to choose your
affiliate program and start promoting products and services to earn money
through your site or blog. Let’s get started!
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| 7 Steps to Starting Affiliate Marketing and Making Money |
Step 1 - Have an idea for a product
To
start affiliate marketing, you need a great idea for a product. While there are
many different types of affiliate programs (and I'll get into those in Step 2
below), your product has to be related to them somehow. For example, if you
want to promote eCommerce sites, focus on physical products that people can
purchase through an online store such as kitchen supplies or electronics. Or if
you want to sell digital products like ebooks or courses, focus on promoting
those kinds of products instead of physical ones. Pick something that is
relatively easy and straightforward so that it is simple for your
readers/viewers/listeners to follow along with your affiliate link when they
click through on yours!
Step 2 - Choose your niche
Choosing
a niche is important. It narrows your focus so that you can spend time building your business in just one area. In order to choose a profitable niche,
make sure that you do some research first. Check out other affiliate websites
in your industry or read blogs like MyBlogU for tips on what has worked for
others. You should also consider how much money you are willing to invest in
your affiliate marketing business. This will help you decide which affiliate
programs are right for you. For example, if you want to start an affiliate
website but don’t have much money to invest, then Google AdSense might be a
good fit because it’s free to join and easy to get started with their AdWords
program. On the other hand, if you have plenty of cash available but no time at
all, look into Amazon Associates since they provide everything from hosting (so
there’s no need for web hosting) to tracking links and payments
automatically without any work on your part.
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| 7 Steps to Starting Affiliate Marketing and Making Money |
Step 3 - Pick your theme
The
success of your affiliate marketing business is all about picking a topic
you're truly interested in. If you know nothing about football, for example,
it's going to be tough to write a weekly column on pro football. When starting
your site, make sure it's an industry that interests you or one that you have
experience with. For instance, if you've worked at a computer company for five
years, then writing an educational tech website might interest you. On paper
(or in your head), list 5-10 topics that are related to what interested
you. Then look at those sites and see how they're doing -- are they getting
traffic? Can you learn anything from them? Can those lessons be applied to
your new website?
Step 4 - Get your hosting
To start your website you’ll need a hosting provider. This can be an expensive option, but it is important to get one that gives you enough storage space for all of your content. To find out which providers are more suitable for affiliate marketing websites, check out our post on how to host a website. In addition to choosing a good hosting company, you should also choose a reliable theme. If you don’t have any experience with web design or coding, there are plenty of free themes available online (e.g., WordPress). Alternatively, if you have some experience in coding or web design and want something simple yet professional-looking, we recommend checking out StudioPress Themes (the affiliate link will give us credit for further development).
They offer
great designs at affordable prices ($59) with lots of customization options
without needing any technical knowledge. You could easily spend $500+ on custom
design work from other places so we highly recommend checking them out! We use
StudioPress themes here at I Will Teach You To Be Rich and love them!
Step 5 - Pick your blogging platform
The
last thing you need to figure out before starting your affiliate marketing
website is which blogging platform will work best for your needs. This decision
will largely depend on whether or not you want more in-depth control over how
things are designed, but if all you're looking for is a quick, simple setup
that makes it easy to get your affiliate marketing website up and running,
WordPress would be a good option. While there are other solid options out there
like Joomla or Drupal, WordPress is by far one of the most popular platforms out there.
Not only that, but it also has plenty of free themes to choose from -- so if
you're on a budget when getting started with affiliate marketing, using
something like WordPress might be for you.
Step 6 - Create an account at Shopify
Shopify
is a free e-commerce solution that gives you everything you need to sell
online, on social media, in person, or by mail. With hundreds of apps that let
you customize your store with everything from simple product catalogs to
advanced point-of-sale solutions, Shopify is designed for people who want their
businesses to grow. Every business has different needs at different stages in
its development; Shopify’s offerings will have something for everyone. The get started with Shopify, create an account here. Use the signup form to create an account.
You
can also sign up for an account using Facebook Connect if you don't want to
enter all your information manually. If you already have a Shopify account,
skip ahead to Step 7.
Step
7 - Choose your products: Once you've created an account, it's time to choose
what products you're going to sell. The first thing I would do is browse
through some similar stores (like mine!) and see what they're selling. You'll
get ideas about which niches are popular and how much competition there is out
there!
Step 7 - Create an account at ShareASale
This is not one of those in-person meetings. ShareASale is an affiliate network that connects you with retailers (that's us!). You'll get a unique affiliate link (URL) specific to your account that can be shared in any way you like. All you need is an email address to get started. Once you've decided on your niche, grab a pen and paper, open up a new document in Google Docs, or turn on your computer's audio recorder—it's time for step one! (Check out our list of top 10 affiliate networks here.) Step 1 - Research Your Niche: Don't jump into anything before you have a good idea of what it will take to succeed.
Learn
about who buys from that niche, why they buy from them instead of other
sources, and how much they're willing to spend on products/services related to
your topic. By thoroughly researching these things ahead of time, you'll have
an easier time finding success once you start sharing links/content related to
that industry. Step 2 - Pick Your Link Type: There are three main types of links
used by affiliates: nofollow, dofollow, and internal linking.
