2020 Beginners Guide To Affiliate Marketing For New Bloggers
We are all familiar with the term passive income right?
The idea of making money overnight with little to no work on your end is a dream a lot of bloggers chase. I, myself included.
But how is this dream achievable for a blogger?
The answer is affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketing is your ticket to turning your blog into a source of income.
This article is a beginner’s guide to affiliate marketing and will teach you the ropes for earning money by promoting other people’s and company’s products on your website or blog.
Table of Contents
What Is Affiliate Marketing?
Let’s start with a basic understanding of what affiliate marketing is.
Affiliate marketing is the process in which an affiliate (you) can earn money through marketing or promoting another person’s or company’s products.
This process consists of 4 parties:
- The Merchant: The person or company that creates and sells the products.
- The Affiliate Marketer (You): The individual that promotes the product.
- The Consumer: The individual that purchases the product through the affiliate.
- The Affiliate Network: The digital platform the merchant and affiliate use for managing product links, analytics, purchases and payouts.
The merchant and the affiliate marketer take part in what is called revenue sharing.
Meaning the merchant offers a financial incentive to the affiliate in exchange for actions taken on a product the affiliate is promoting. Programs can vary but typically affiliates will make a commission for every product sold.
Can Anyone Be A Part Of An Affiliate Program?
The answer is yes.
All you really need to begin is a platform that you can promote products on and an audience.
Most affiliate programs are free to participate in and are rather easy to join.
As your audience grows, companies themselves may begin reaching out to you directly with the opportunity to sell their products for a larger commission.
How Do You Make Money Through Affiliate Marketing?
As an affiliate, you don’t necessarily need to generate a sale in order to make money.
I previously mentioned that affiliate programs vary in regards to payments.
However, what most have in common is that they pay their affiliates on the basis of four variables:
- Pay per sale: Your big commission will come from every sale made through your affiliate links. You will get a percentage of the sale price of the product sold.
- Pay per lead: Part of your payment can be if you manage to persuade a consumer to visit the merchant’s website and complete an action. For example, some programs will offer a commission if you point consumers in the direction to fill out a contact form, sign-up form, etc.
- Pay per click: You can also make some cash by having a consumer click on the affiliate link or ad that you are displaying.
- Pay per ad view: The least amount of money you make will come from ad views. Usually, you will get at least a small payment if a new consumer views the ad on your site. Just don’t expect a large payout from this alone.
How Much Can You Make Through Affiliate Marketing?
The question that is on everyone’s mind.
Unfortunately, the answer is skewed. It really all depends on how much time and effort you are willing to put in.
However, even then you need to consider other factors that can affect your earnings such as your blog’s niche.
The good news is that you really can make a decent amount. There are success stories where individuals have been able to retire from their day job and live strictly off their affiliate earnings.
What you need to understand is that you will have good days and bad days.
Let’s say one day you pull in $300.00 from your affiliate programs. That doesn’t mean your yearly salary will come out to $109,500.00.
In most cases, you can at least expect to make a decent amount of extra cash for yourself, but rarely will an individual make enough to be able to quit their career. Unless they plan on running their blog like a 9-5 job. But, even then there is still a risk.
Don’t expect the big bucks when starting out.
It takes months to build up an audience and once there you will need to test out different products, programs, etc.
Below is a breakdown from Finch Sells on earning levels for affiliates:
- Affiliate Apprentice: Losing money.
- Low-Level Affiliate: $0.00 up to $300.00/day.
- Intermediate Affiliate: $300.00 up to $3,000.00/day
- High Level Affiliate: $3,000.00 up to $10,000.00/day
- The “Bag of Dicks” Affiliate: Anyone who makes more than $10,000.00/day.
Choosing A Niche Suitable For Affiliate Marketing
As a blogger, your niche is very important in regard to affiliate marketing. It is going to determine what products you’re going to promote through your affiliate programs.
For example, if you run a blog that focuses on pets, you will want to sell products that will appeal to your target audience, such as pet toys, pet food, pet grooming products, etc.
If you have yet to pin-point your blog’s niche ask yourself these following questions:
- What am I passionate about?
It is always easy to blog about a subject that you are passionate about. Plus, you most likely have plenty of knowledge surrounding your passion, making it easy to come up with new content on a weekly basis.
- What are some things I research or are interested in daily?
It is also easy to write about topics that interest you daily. Your niche really should be a subject that you can easily create content on. You may not be an astronaut but if space interests you, why not write about it?
- Do I have extensive knowledge in a subject?
It may not be your passion, but is there a topic you have extensive knowledge on? Being an expert in a certain field or topic can provide you with the opportunity to offer audiences insight into a subject they may be curious about.
- Is this niche oversaturated?
How many other blogs share your niche? This question really can’t be answered. There are over 500 million blogs currently available online. Chances are a handful of them will share the same niche you do. However, the question is not so much how saturated your niche is but how well can you compete with everyone else?
- Is there money in this niche?
Unfortunately, your passion may not be profitable. At that point, you need to ask yourself whether your blog is going to be a passion project or place to earn money. Some niches will make more money than others. It really depends on whether there are products available that are associated with your niche.
Your answer to all these questions will help you determine your blog’s niche. It is the first step in beginning your journey as an affiliate marketer.
Building Your Website For Affiliate Marketing
If you have not yet already, it is time to build a website for your blog.
Luckily, building a website is much easier today than it was in the past. Even with minimal coding knowledge, you can create a website that is perfect for affiliate marketing.
The reason you need a website is that you are going to want full control over your blog.
You are going to need access to certain aspects of your website that you won’t get through blogger, medium or other blogging platforms.
Your website will need to be able to support advertisements, act responsively and should overall be user-friendly.
The most popular platform blogger’s use for creating their websites is WordPress.org. I recommend you do the same.
Below is a quick breakdown of how you will set up your WordPress website for affiliate marketing:
- Download and follow the instructions to set up your WordPress site.
- Choose a customizable theme that will allow you to make your website look the way you want.
- Access your header file and install code snippets for tracking analytics and affiliate links.
- Install the Ad Inserter plugin. This is the plugin you will use for adding affiliate links and advertisements to your website.
What is nice about having a WordPress website is that the community is large, making it easy to find tutorials and answers to questions for if you ever run into a problem.
Researching And Choosing Affiliate Programs
Now that your website is up and running it is time to begin researching affiliate programs you can join.
Below are popular affiliate programs and resources bloggers use:
- Amazon Associates: This is perfect for beginners. You sign-up to become an Amazon associate. From there you can choose from a wide range of Amazon products to sell on your blog. Simply search for the product and then add it to your blog posts.
- Google AdSense: Another beginner’s affiliate program is Google AdSense. Once you sign up you have the option to choose from display ads, in-article ads and in-feed ads. Google will create the ads and display products that relate to the content on your website. You choose where these ads are displayed.
- ShareASale: ShareASale offers affiliate programs that consist of smaller and family-owned companies. You choose from a list of merchants that are categorized by niche. From there you will have to apply, with some applications being a little more detailed than others. The minimum payment threshold is only $50.00.
- CJ Affiliates: This affiliate resource is a little more robust then ShareASale, but it is the largest one around. Once you familiarize yourself with the platform you will be able to find a merchant easily.
When choosing an affiliate program you need to consider the following:
Does this fit into my blog’s niche?
You want to choose an affiliate program that relates to the content you are publishing.
What is the payout for this affiliate program?
Again, each affiliate program is different. You will want to look at the payment details and the percentage you will make from each sale you acquire.
Assessing the current market:
Is the market competitive? You want to choose a program with little competition but is a large enough niche where there are plenty of keywords consumers will be searching for. You basically should consider whether there is enough interest in the products you sell.
Can I create content that will facilitate sales?
Consider whether or not the affiliate program offers products that will be easy to build content around. Not only does your content need to be intriguing but also needs to create engagement.
Do I have experience with this product or similar products?
The worst thing you can do it write about something you have no idea about. Your audience will catch on if you fib in your writing. Resulting in lost sales and lost credibility. Choose affiliate programs with products you use or are well informed in.
Creating Content
To be successful in affiliate marketing you need to be able to create great content on a weekly if not daily basis.
If you’re a veteran blogger you are definitely aware of the importance of creating content that engages your audience and facilitates shares. Content worth sharing will generate higher earnings.
However, if you’re a new blogger I suggest taking the time and reading how to write your first blog.
Along with the normal content you typically publish, you will need to begin writing content that is more affiliate program friendly.
Below are some content ideas that are perfect for affiliate marketing:
Product Reviews:
Write a detailed review of a product from your affiliate program. The key here is to actually take the time to try out what you are reviewing.
To increase authenticity, I suggest incorporating photos of yourself using the product in your blog posts.
Video Reviews:
This is the same idea as writing a product review except you are recording yourself.
This form of affiliate content provides the most authenticity to your audience. Show yourself using the product and talk about your experience.
Gift Guides:
Gift guide blog posts are very useful for selling multiple affiliate products through one blog post. The idea is to compile a list of related products and write content around them.
Take for example my blog post on 5 essential tools for graphic designers.
What is nice about gift guides is that they are reusable and can be altered year-round.
Product Tutorials:
This is content consisting of you taking your audience through using the product.
Take for example make-up tutorials on YouTube. You’re essentially doing the same thing.
You are walking your audience through the use of the product you are selling.
Promoting Your Blog
So, you’re now a part of affiliate programs and you have created content to promote products. Where do we go from here?
Well, now is when you focus your efforts on building your audience and promoting your blog. You need an audience to sell to.
The easiest way to do this is through social media.
As a blogger and affiliate marketer, it is essential to be active on 3 of the biggest social media platforms…Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.
All three platforms offer you the opportunity to promote the content in different ways.
Facebook:
Create a Facebook business page specifically for your blog. Invite friends and family to like and follow your page so they will be able to view your posts.
It is also one of the social media platforms that make sharing content fast and easy.
Lastly, Facebook offers plenty of groups for you to join which act as a community for spreading your content and affiliate products.
Instagram:
Instagram is perfect for showing off affiliate products.
It gives your audience a visual of the product and a first-hand account of someone using that product. Consumers can even buy your affiliate products directly through Instagram.
Learn more about how to increase your Instagram following in order to increase more sales.
Pinterest:
Pinterest has always been a playground for sharing products and ideas. Similar to Facebook, you can join Pinterest groups specifically for spreading affiliate links.
With eye-catching pins, you are sure to secure a handful of potential consumers.
Learn more about how to dominate on Pinterest here.
Take some time to brush up on social media and find out what each platform has to offers. You need to understand each platform demographic. This will help you choose which platform is best for promoting your affiliate products.
Conclusion
In this blog, we covered the steps you need to take for getting involved in affiliate marketing. I hope this beginner’s guide to affiliate marketing was helpful for you and jumpstarts your journey to earning a passive income.
If you have any questions or suggestions of your own, please feel free to leave a comment below or contact me directly.
This is exactly what I needed! I have been trying so hard to learn more about affiliate marketing and it seems like there is so much information out there And I don’t know the right or wrong way. Thank you for sharing this!!
Wow this is so detailed, i am learning new things. I have been blogging for about 5 months now and still figuring out affiliate marketing and other ways to monetize my blog. This is very helpful, thanks.
I basically use affiliate marketing as my only source of income on my blog right now. I appreciate the guide!
Great write up, and very honest! So many people think they will post a link and all of a sudden a stream of income flows in and it definitely doesn’t happen over night!!
Thank you so much! I really need more tips how to improve my blog and socials.
I am clueless about affiliate marketing really! I would love to know a lot more about it, this is a very good start. Thank you.
I definitely need this. I’ve been struggling to figure out affiliate marketing
Thanks for the types. 2020 will be the year where I will try to venture into affiliate marketing. I will remember your tips when I try it out!
These are super great tips and such great post, Thanks for sharing this.
What a great guide. This can all be quite confusing when you’re getting started so it’s good to have a guide aimed at beginners that doesn’t assume you know about it already.
So many great tips!!!! I know several
People who totally bank off of affiliate marketing! I need to get better at it myself
affiliate marketing is basically the main source of my blogging income so this one is really helpful to me!!
I started affiliate marketing some time ago, and these are very wonderful tips.
Thanks for sharing.
There’s indeed money in affiliate marketing, you just need to know how to start and work on it. Thanks for the encouragement.
Every time I read a post like this, I tell myself to get serious about it. I’m part of a number of programs and need to up my game in 2020
This explained a few things I didn’t know. Thank you. I do affiliate marketing…I let the money bank and go on vacation. You educated me on different avenues of revenue. Thanks.
great tips for new bloggers to earn affiliate income
Those are wonderful tips you’ve got there and plenty too. Quite helpful especially for those who are new to it.
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