Welcome to the online working world!
Starting a side hustle or a business has never been as easy, thanks to the internet.
Now, you can start a business even with zero dollars, only if you are willing to set aside one or three hours of your day for one to six months.
However, you can get results in the first month if you are consistent and give it most of your time.
The business model you are about to learn in this content is called affiliate marketing. It entails recommending products to customers, and when they buy, you earn a commission.
Outlined in this guide are steps to help you start affiliate marketing and make money from anywhere.
Pick an Affiliate Marketing Specialty (aka a niche)
A specialty is simply an area of work, and that`s not to say you should have a college degree, NO. I also have no college certificate and am still able to make money online and teach others to do so.
However, if you have a college certificate, that`s an advantage, you already have a niche. You can invest in that certificate and market goods or services related to it.
If you are employed or have a business, you can find products related to your business or job, refer them to people, and make commissions.
But, if you are yet to discover your specialty, check what your talents or interests are.
You could be interested in rapping, singing, doing poetry, dancing, teaching, playing guitar or football, freelance writing, etc.
Choose anything that you are interested in, as long as it`s something you are happy doing. That will enable you to provide helpful content and draw an audience to your online business.
If you have problems finding a specialty, go to websites such as Hubspot Academy. There are over 40 free courses. You can choose one and learn it for a week or month and make it your specialty.
Another website is edX, which has both free and paid courses you can choose from. On this website, you will find even Harvard University short courses you can take no matter your academic qualifications.
The important thing is to have some skills and use them. So, ensure that after reading, you take action.
Don`t read this content and procrastinate; implement what you learn, and you`ll be successful.
Find Affiliate Products to Market
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| Image by Polina Tankilevitch: Pexels |
To make money from your specialty, you`ll need to find products or services relevant to your niche to promote.
You can get these products from companies online that have affiliate programs.
Some companies manage their affiliate services, while others provide their services through affiliate networks.
Affiliate networks are companies that specialize in managing affiliate services for different companies.
These companies stand as middlemen between you, the affiliate marketer, and the merchants (product owners).
However, for now, don`t focus on knowing the difference between affiliate marketing methods. Focus on finding products to sell.
To find relevant products to promote, open your search engine such as Google, and type your specialty followed by the word affiliate marketing program.
For example, if your specialty is music, you can choose to sell singing courses, songwriting courses, music books, etc.
In that case, here is how you can type
- Singing courses affiliate marketing programs
- Music books affiliate marketing programs
- Football affiliate marketing programs
- Poetry affiliate marketing programs
You`ll get various websites with affiliate marketing programs you can join.
Besides, you can just join an affiliate network, where you`ll find various programs for all specialties in one place. This makes it easy to find products to market, track engagements, and know your marketing performance since your products are managed in a single place.
However, some affiliate websites might deny you; do not despair, anyway. That`s because each affiliate marketing program has its rules. Some accept only people from selected countries, but others have no restrictions.
So, wherever and whoever you are, it`s possible to find a product to promote and make money online.
Here are some of the affiliate networks you can choose from:
After being accepted on your affiliate website, you will select the products to market and copy their links. These links are called affiliate links and they are the ones you will use to promote the products.
Here is what the links to pick look like in the JVZOO affiliate network:
When you log in to your affiliate network, you will click on the request approval options for the products relevant to your business, and when you are accepted, you`ll see something like this:
You will click on the get link buttons to copy the links and start promoting.
What`s nice is that affiliate links have cookie durations. Cookies refer to data such as email addresses, and device IP addresses. This data is stored in a person`s device so they can be easily identified when they purchase products through the referred link.
When someone clicks on your affiliate links, their data is stored for a duration of time.
Cookie duration depends on the affiliate company you join. Some offer 90, 180, 360-day cookies or more.
So, if someone clicks today and buys even after three months or one year, you still get a commission.
Concerning how to get paid, every affiliate marketing platform has its payment methods. Some pay through check or bank wire, but most of them acceptWhatever payment methods your affiliate website states, you can easily create online and get paid when you make a sale. This means no matter where you come from, you can make money from this business.
Choose a Platform to Market Your Affiliate Products
You can market your products through videos or text.
If you decide to do it through text, you`ll need to start a blog and create content.
You can start a blog for free using Getresponse, an easy-to-use marketing company, which has website templates for various niches. Read the full GetResponse review here.
Alternatively, can use Blogger, a free Google blogging platform, or sign up for a Medium or Quora account and start creating your content for free.
If you choose to promote your products or services through videos, you can create a TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, or Facebook account, some of which you already have.
However, it`s advisable to pick one marketing method if you are starting, even if you are comfortable writing and creating videos. That`s because you will be overwhelmed and fail if you pick too many promotional methods. You can add more promotional methods later if you understand the trade.
So, in the case of videos, pick only two channels. That can be TikTok and Instagram.
If you choose to blog, you can pick Getresponse and Quora. On Getresponse, you will create a website, write content, and then use Quora to market your content.
Create Content to Market Your Affiliate Products
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| Freelancer by Blue Bird: Pexels |
It`s content that will help you entice people to follow you, click on your affiliate links, and buy your products.
To encourage people to take action, create content that provides value.
Your content should appeal to your audience and encourage them to take action. However, that doesn`t mean forcing people to buy your products or services. It entails solving their challenges.
For instance, if you are promoting poetry products, create poems that align with your audience`s persona and satisfy their needs.
So if you are targeting people who love traveling, you can create poems about beautiful places that people should visit.
That`s how you can convince them to (buy your goods or services) take your call to action.
Check out how this girl does it on TikTok and take insights: tailorshusles. She creates no-talking videos on how to work online and sells online courses and SaaS products.
The most important thing is consistency. Do not start today and skip a whole week without promoting your business. It will take you long to get results.
But you don`t have to create content every day, either, NO. You can set one day and create content for the whole week and schedule it.
Most social media platforms have built-in scheduling tools. As an example, check how you can schedule your Instagram content.
If you are stuck about how to find content ideas, you can use free content generation tools, some of which include
All you need to do is create an account and command the tool to create the content you want.
For instance, if you need football content for TikTok, you can type, “I need football content ideas for TikTok” and it will do that in seconds.
Here is an example of what you can get when you use CHATGPT:
However, it`s better to edit the content it delivers so it aligns with your audience's intent and tone of voice.
If that seems complicated, you can choose relevant channels in your platform, check their videos, and replicate them. Don`t copy people`s videos, though: take the ideas and create yours along those lines.
If you are in the singing niche, for example, you can take insights from a TikTok account like Will Gittens`.
Always remember: it`s unlawful to use people`s content without crediting them or having their consent; your account can be banned if you are reported. Moreover, you can be sued and be penalized.
To be safe, unless it`s your song, use the platform's music. That will give you a high potential to go viral and attract more fans.
Create an Affiliate Marketing Landing Page to Collect Customers
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| Image source: Semrush |
Although they are one of the best online marketing methods, you don`t own your social media platforms. Anything can happen, even by mistake, and make you lose your account. Even when you get it back, it will take time and that can drop your sales.
To avoid that and build a stronger online business, do email marketing. This entails collecting your audience`s (fans) email addresses, which you can do by creating landing pages.
A landing page is a stand-alone web page that a person can land on after clicking on your promotional link.
The landing page will have an incentive that you can offer the audience in exchange for their email address.
An incentive is an offer that helps marketers encourage clients to buy products or services. It is also called a lead magnet.
This can be a free e-book, course, or any free resource that you are sure will encourage people to click on your landing page and perform your call to action.
So, they will enter their email addresses, which you will use to send them the incentives.
Later, you can still use the email addresses to send them some more content, which you will incorporate affiliate links and persuade them to buy.
When you do that, in case your social media platforms are restricted or banned, you can reach out to your clients and tell them what`s wrong and how they can find you on social media. This makes it easy to restore your social media fan base. If you don`t have an email list, you will be forced to start over again.
Moreover, this allows you to promote other relevant products and make more sales.
So, you`ll have combined social media marketing with email marketing—how powerful! You will have two platforms to market, which increases the potential to make sales.
The good thing is that email marketing is confidential, making it easier for someone to act on an email promotion than social media.
Moreover, on social media, content has a short lifetime. Only the latest content is shown to viewers, while emails can stay forever in your clients` email inboxes.
Gettresponse is the most affordable and simplest tool you can use to create landing pages. it's a one-stop marketing software that allows you to market your online business.
You can create landing pages, opt-in forms, websites, etc. What`s more, you can schedule your social media, email, and blog content and post it on your marketing platforms, which saves time in navigating different platforms.
The best part is on this platform, there are landing page templates you can choose from according to your specialty.
All you have to do is select one relevant to your business and then edit it to fit your business. What follows, creating content, and publishing it.
How to Create an Affiliate Marketing Landing Page with Getresponse
The best plan to choose is the marketing plan, which costs $15.58 per month for 1000 contacts. It enables you to
- Send unlimited newsletter
- Set email autoresponders
- Do basic email segmentation
- Create websites and landing pages
- Create sign-up forms and pop-up forms
However, if you have no money, don`t worry. You can start, anyway. There is a free plan which caters to 500 email addresses.
This plan allows you to
- Send 2,500 newsletters, monthly
- Create one landing page
- Create sign-up and pop-up forms
- Create a free website
It is ideal for those who want to learn how to build an email list.
However, you won`t get the best features to grow your business faster. If you want to see faster results set aside some startup capital.
Always remember: if you want to make money, be willing to spend some.
Later, when your business grows you can choose the marketing automation plan, which gives you more features such as
- Creating Marketing automation
- Setting advanced segmentation
- Hosting webinars
- Creating sales funnels
After choosing your plan, click on the landing pages option.
You will be taken to the landing page templates.
Select an attractive template that aligns with your business and audience needs.
You don`t have to worry about how your landing page should be at this time though. You can learn as you do the job. Just pick the template relevant to your business. Everything is categorized for you on the platform.
Then edit it to align with your business name and what you offer and include your incentive.
If you sell physical products such as clothes, for instance, your incentives can be discounts. So, when someone clicks on the link, they know they will get a discount.
For SaaS products, you can use free courses and ebooks.
However, ensure your incentives are genuine. When people click on your landing page, they should get the free resources aligning with the offers in their emails. Then include the affiliate link in the emails.
So, the free resource will entice them to click on the affiliate link and purchase your products.
What`s better, you`ll have their emails, which you can use to market in the future.
To create incentives, you can use your phone or camera and create a short tutorial video on how your audience can benefit from the product or service you are promoting.
Besides, you can use Google Docs and create text-based content and then convert it into a PDF.
The best thing about PDFs is that one can save them on any device and access them even offline.
You can write simple steps on how your audience can get started on marketing their products, and for them to succeed, they will need to click on your course link and buy to learn more.
Again, you can use software like CHATGPT to create your incentive content if you are running out of ideas, and it will automatically create a short guide.
Just log in to your content creation software and type, “Create how to make money with poetry affiliate programs”, or whatever your specialty is and it will create your content.
Then paste that information into your Google Docs and convert it into a PDF, or use it as it is. However, ensure to edit it a little so it can sound natural and suit your fans' needs.
Later paste the document link on the landing page, finish building it, and publish your landing page.
Afterward, copy the landing page link and paste it on your Instagram or TikTok bio or whatever your promotion platform is.
Whenever someone clicks on the link, they will leave their email address so you can send them the resource.
When they click on your affiliate link and buy, you get your commission.
Note: You need to switch your TikTok or Instagram accounts into business ones to be able to add links, if these are your chosen marketing platforms.
Here are resources explain a step-by-step process of how to convert your TikTok and Instagram accounts into business ones:
Landing pages are an effective way of marketing your affiliate marketing business. However, if you don`t want to create a landing and collect clients, there is another way to do it.
Take the affiliate link, and paste it on Google Docs. Then include some sentences about where the link leads to and how it`s helpful to your audience.
For instance, if you sell clothes, you can type:
Click on this link to buy your fashionable dress from Amazon:
Then hyperlink the text or paste your link below the text.
After writing your short description, take the Google Docs link and add it to your social media platform. Whenever someone clicks on the link, they`ll be taken to Google Docs, click on the affiliate link, and buy the product.
Alternatively, you can take the affiliate link and paste it on your social media bio, and then create videos relevant to your products or services and direct people to click on the links and buy.
Whenever someone clicks on the links, they will be redirected to the product or service to purchase.
Start Your Affiliate Marketing Business Now
There is nothing complicated with online business. It`s a business like any other.
You will benefit if you start, provide helpful products or services, and be consistent. SO START NOW.
Go ahead and choose your niche, and then find affiliate products to market.
For those with problems with selecting their specialties, go to websites, such as eDX and Hubspot Academy, that offer free and paid courses.
Learn your preferred courses, and based on your preferred marketing method, be it videos or text, choose your marketing platform. That can be YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Blogger, etc.
Finally, create content and build a landing page through Getresponse to start collecting leads (clients) to whom you can promote your products or services and start making money online.
If you wish to start affiliate marketing but don`t have the time to create and market your content, you can hire a freelancer.
I offer freelance writing services, and can also help in social media management. Check out my services here.
That will make it easy, so, yours will be checking how your accounts are improving.
You have no reason to fear or procrastinate, start your online business today and reap the fruit of your labor for years.
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