This image displays the post's title. The post's title is genius ways to promote affiliate links as an online entrepreneur.

Genius Ways to Promote Affiliate Links as an Online Entrepreneur

by with No Comment Affiliate Marketing

Your affiliate marketing success highly depends on your link placements. And that’s because of a simple reason: 

Strategically placed links are more likely to be clicked by your readers!

Just imagine you’d see a blog post completely stacked up with affiliate links each two or three sentences. 

Nobody would end up buying something through your affiliate links!

Incorporating your links seamlessly into your content and trying to further help your audience with your affiliate products… thats our goal!!!

Only this way you can drive tons of sales in the future.

To achieve that, we need some genius ways to promote affiliate links.

Most of them are super easy to do, so let us have a look at the most smartest and genius ways to promote affiliate links!

Table of Contents

Genius Ways to Promote Affiliate Links

1) What I Love About Affiliate Marketing…

2) Genius Ways to promote Affiliate Links 

  1. Add Affiliate Links to Your Blog Post
  2. Leverage Email Marketing 
  3. Create a Resource Page
  4. Include Affiliate Links in Your Freebies 
  5. Use Banners and Side Bar Ads

3) Promote Affiliate Links with Social Media

6. Promoting with Instagram 

7. Promoting with Pinterest

8. Promoting with Facebook

9. Launch a YouTube Channel

10. Create a Podcast Channel 

11. Host Webinars and Live Sessions

12.Track and Optimize Performances 

4) The Takeaway 

5) Final Thoughts

What I Love About Affiliate Marketing...

There is really one thing that makes affiliate marketing special for me: in most cases it is super easy and a great source of passive income!

Affiliate marketing is known to be evergreen.

Let me give you an example for this: Let’s say you create a blog post and add some affiliate links to it. When optimized and promoted properly (SEO, social media, newsletter, …), you remain getting affiliate sales even years after having published your post.

This gives you such a great opportunity to earn passive income – allowing to stop changing time for money!

To read more about why I love affiliate marketing, check out this post:

Genius Ways to Promote Affiliate Links as a Blogger

To make affiliate marketing even more profitable, there are super smart ways to promote your affiliate links on your blog.

Let’s go through each and every one of them!

1. Add Affiliate Links to Your Blog Post

Adding relevant affiliate links to your content is the very first step you should take. 

Especially for tutorials and reviews it is super effective to include affiliate links in your content. 

In fact, 74% of people are checking sites for reviews before making a purchase.

While you should add affiliate links to your old blog posts, try to write these evergreen types of posts in the future to ensure long-term earnings

  • How-to Guides: Detailed tutorials related to your niche
  • Product Reviews: In-depth reviews of products you genuinely use and recommend
  • Top Lists: Lists of the best products or services in a specific category

There is one important thing though: Never ever spam affiliate links!

You should only include affiliate links when it further helps your audience and when it adds more value to your post 

Let me give you an example: If you’re writing a travel diary, you could mention the camera you used to take your photos and include an affiliate link.

As you can see, only incorporate your links when it naturally fits your content and when it offers some kind of a solution for a problem. 

This is by far better than staking up your post with random affiliate links. 

We’ve already discussed this in the introduction. 

That’s the first of our top genius ways to promote affiliate links.

In case you’re not having blog, I strongly recommend you to start one.

This post covers everything you need to start your own blog:

2. Leverage Email Marketing

Trust me: Do not longer wait and start your first newsletter. 

In case that you’ve read my about page, you know that I’m also new to email marketing and I’m still trying to make proof of its effectiveness.

But according to so many bloggers out there email marketing is such a powerful tool to drive affiliate marketing sales and traffic to your website. 

In fact, a study found out that email marketing has an average ROI (return on investment) of $39 for every dollar spent.

I know I keep mentioning this study throughout my recent posts, but I’m just too impressed fron this number!!!

A ROI of $39 means that you invest as little as $1 and get 39 time more of it back… crazy isn’t it?

Enough with praising mail marketing, let’s get back to the point!

With your email list, you can start sending out highly personalized and targeted emails, promoting your affiliate products. 

Same as adding affiliate links to your blog post: Add your links seamlessly into your email and try to solve your audience’s problems.

3. Create a Resource Page

Adding a simple resource page is another genius way to promote affiliate links as a blogger.

Once created, a resource page is evergreen.

For those of you, who don’t have a clue what a resource page is: 

It is a dedicated section on your blog where you list and recommend products, tools, and services you find useful. 

For you as a blog owner, this could be, for example, your blog hosting, SEO tools or email marketing software. 

Depending on your niche, there are so much more things you could promote in your resource page. 

Let’s say you’re in the travel niche. Just think must-have credit cards, travel gear or hotel recommendations. 

Just go a step back and think about:

  • what has helped me so far
  • what could help my audience too

Once you find something, consider adding it to your resource page. 

4. Include Affiliate Links in Your Freebies

Freebies are valuable content pieces such as mini ebooks, pdfs or checklists, you’re providing for free!

You can use your freebies to promote affiliate products. 

Adding an extra page with tools or further resources to your freebie, is usually a genius way to promote affiliate links.

Why?

Just think about it: People wouldn’t sign up for a freebie, if they aren’t interested in your content. 

Therefore, people who are reading your freebies are 100% interested in its content ensuring a higher conversion rates on your affiliate products.

5. Use Banners and Side Bar Ads

With some affiliate programs you have to opportunity to add banner and side bars to your blog. 

That’s usually a very simple way to promote affiliate products.

These visual elements can catch the attention of your readers without being intrusive.

Remember: Do not overload your blog with affiliate ads. Only include a few relevant banners.

Promote Affiliate Links with Social Media

Making social media part of your affiliate marketing strategy as a blogger is probably the most genius way to promote your affiliate links.

Let us have a look at the best social media platforms to promote affiliate products on: 

6. Promoting with Instagram

With 2 billion users worldwide (April 2024) Instagram is one of the top three biggest social media platforms out there.

This is a huge potential for you, to get free traffic to your affiliate links. 

How to promote affiliate links on Instagram?

  • Promote with posts by reminding that you’re affiliate links are in the bio
  • Promote with reels
  • Add your links in stories with the link sticker

Make sure to use tools such as Linktree, for your instagram bio. 

LInktree, for example, provides you with a simple landing page allowing you to link to your affiliate products.

7. Promoting with Pinterest

With Pinterest there is no need for landing page tools such as Linktree. 

That’s because there is something that makes Pinterest special: You can directly add your affiliate links to your Pins. This means that each of your pins can represent one affiliate link! 

But let us go a step back: What is Pinterest?

Pinterest is a visual search engine and a social network, providing users a platform to discover, collect and share both images and videos.

Pinterest does work a bit different compared to other social media platforms: 

Search Engine Focus

As just mentioned, Pinterest is more like a search engine than a traditional social media platform. 

Visual Discovery

Pinterest emphasizes visual content, such as images and videos, which makes it ideal for showcasing your affiliate products.

This visual focus can help you to attract and convince them of your affiliate product.

Longer Content Lifespan

Content on Pinterest (pins) has a much longer lifespan compared to posts on other social media platforms.

Pins – your affiliate link – can continue to drive traffic and engagement for months or even years after they are initially posted. (huge pro!!!)

8. Promoting with Facebook

Another social media platform that is great to do affiliate marketing is Facebook.

The most smartest way to promote your affiliate links on Facebook is through Facebook groups.

A Facebook group is nothing more  than a community interested in a specific topic.

Try to find groups relevant to your niche and provide valuable content.

Same as before: This can be an opportunity to include your affiliate links, but only include them when they naturally fit your content!

9. Launch a YouTube Channel

Have you ever wondered how YouTubers make so much money? Believe it or not but most of their income is from affiliate marketing.

Therefore, launching a YouTube channel can be a genius way to promote your affiliate links too!

Pick a niche you’re interested in and start earning with affiliate marketing on YouTube!

On YouTube the same rule applies than on blog posts:

Evergreen content for the win!

You know how it works: Tutorials, reviews and top lists – that’s what we want to create

In your YouTube videos you should make your audience aware of your affiliate links in your video description.

Important: Don’t forget to include an affiliate disclosure outlining that you’re getting a commission with each sale generated through your affiliate link.

10. Create a Podcast Channel

If you love to speak and interview other people, then creating a podcast channel might be the go-to way for you.

In terms of promoting your affiliate links, podcasting works quite similar than on YouTube.

Try to promote your affiliate products in your podcast episodes to solve your audience‘s problems.

You can provide your affiliate links in the show notes of your podcast episodes!

11. Host Webinars and Live Sessions

This is such an effective way to promote affiliate links.

Let me tell you why:

Webinars and live sessions allow you to engage directly with your audience. This gives you the opportunity connect with your audience on a more personal level that builds trust and loyalty.

These two thing can make your affiliate sales increasing.

Let us think about how you can showcase your affiliate products in real-time to make the most of it:

  • Demonstrations: Show how the product works and what benefits it has
  • Exclusive Offers: Provide special discounts or bonuses for webinar attendees who purchase through your affiliate link
  • Q&A Sessions: Again: we want to build trust and credibility, therefore go ahead and answer some questions about your affiliate product

12. Track and Optimize Performances

I‘m gonna admit: This point does not really count as a genius way to promote affiliate links.

But, it is super important to include this step to be successful in affiliate marketing!

I want you to always keep track of your link performances.

Many affiliate programs and networks offer you tracking tools allowing you to see how many people clicked on your links.

Tracking results tell you whether or not your strategy work out. If not don’t lose motivation or something!

Go ahead and change your strategy. Experiment with different link placements and formats to see what works best. We call this A/B testing.

You’ll find something that works for you – that’s for sure.

So when putting everything together you should:

  • Identify Top Performers
  • Optimize Underperformers
  • Do A/B Testing

The Takeaway

At the end of each of my posts I provide a short takeaway. Just to make sure you remember everything you learned today! 🙂

With affiliate marketing you have the opportunity to earn passive income through creating evergreen content. 

This allows you to stop changing time for money!

The most important lesson in affiliate marketing is to only include links when they seamlessly fit into your content. 

Trying to help your audience with your affiliate product is your main goal in affiliate marketing. 

Better include just a few high-quality affiliate links in your post than spamming multiple links.

There are a bunch of genius ways to promote affiliate links. 

This list gives you an overview of ways we’ve talked about in this post:

  • Blog Posting 
  • Email Marketing 
  • Resource Page
  • Freebies
  • Banner and Side Bar Ads
  • Social Media
  • YouTube
  • Podcast
  • Webinars and Live Sessions

Final Thoughts

At the end of the day the most genius way to promote affiliate links is the way that fits your preferences the best.

That’s a personal choice. 

However I tried to include versatile ways so that there is something for everyone!

Now it is up to you!!! Grab your laptop and get started to promote your affiliate links.

You got this!

If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch in the comment section below or write me an email!

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Best 5 Ways to Do Affiliate Marketing without a Website

by with No Comment Affiliate MarketingMaking Money OnlineOnline Business

Let me say you this: Being successful in affiliate marketing does not require you to have an own website! 

Affiliate marketing is one of the best business models to start your online career as  you can start for free without any huge risks. 

Especially for beginners, building an own website to start with affiliate marketing might be an overwhelming challenge.

For those of you who feel so, I created this post to give you an even less complicated start of your personal affiliate marketing journey.

Here are my top 5 ways to do affiliate marketing without a website!

Apart from Affiliate Marketing there are other ways to make money from the comfort of your sofa! Just click here to know more.

Table of Contents

Best 5 Ways to Do Affiliate Marketing without a Website

 1) Understanding Affiliate Marketing without a Website

2) Getting Started

3) Best 5 Ways to Do Affiliate Marketing without a Website

  1. Utilize Social Media Platforms
  2. Launch a YouTube Channel
  3. Engage in Online Forums
  4. Utilize Email Marketing
  5. Create Podcasts

4) Final Thoughts

Understanding Affiliate Marketing without a Website

Affiliate marketing involves promoting products or services and earning a commission for each sale or lead generated through your unique affiliate link.

While a website can serve as an effective platform, it’s not a prerequisite for success in affiliate marketing.

Successful affiliate marketing can also be done via other channels than your own website.

Regardless which channel you choose, there is one common criteria to become successful in affiliate marketing: TRAFFIC!

At the end of the day it is not relevant on which channel you do affiliate marketing as long as you drive decent traffic to your affiliate links.

That’s why there are other possibilities apart from an own website to establish a profitable affiliate marketing business.

Getting Started

Before thinking of possible marketing channels, it is vital to have a look at the starting process. Without a decent foundation you won’t be successful in long-term. That’s the truth!

So let us look at the absolute basics of starting an profitable affiliate marketing business.

1) Identifying your niche 

The probably most important steps of any following is the choice of your niche. 

The niche is the general niche your content will be dealing with. 

Advice: Your niche choice should be affected by the following aspects: 

  • Personal interests and passion
  • Personal expertise 
  • Monetization potential 

Following these advice will ensure that your affiliate business has a solid foundation that is necessary for your business to flourish. As I said, a decent basis is key for success!

2) Choosing affiliate programs

Without this step you will not be able to earn a single penny from affiliate marketing. Through affiliate programs you get your unique affiliate links with which you can start promoting. 

Affiliate programs give you the chance to promote other’s products for a commission. 

There are different affiliate programs out there – some better than others. 

Affiliate programs, for instance,  can vary in terms of their commission rate, reliability, offered products and their cookie duration. 

As choosing the right affiliate program for your business is not an easy task, I created a whole guide on the best and highest-paying affiliate programs out there! Just click here to read more. 

3) Create High Quality 

The third step and the step that will require you to have a lot of endurance is to create high quality content.

Successful affiliates have one thing I common: They are consistently creating high-quality content for their audience. 

And what is high-quality content?

Content that helps your audience- it is as simple as that!

Do not just slap as many affiliate links as you can in one post just to make the most money. That is not how the game works. 

Go the extra mile and provide content that entertains, helps or solves your audience’s problems. 

It will pay off – trust!

For more in-depth advice on the whole starting process of establishing a successful affiliate marketing business just click here!

Best 5 Ways to Do Affiliate Marketing without a Website

You cannot imagine yourself building an own website, but yet you are interested in affiliate marketing?

Well, today is your lucky day as you will learn about the best 5 ways to do affiliate marketing without a website. 

1. Utilize Social Media Platforms

Let’s be honest. Hardly one day goes by without people clicking  through social media platforms. 

With millions of active users every day social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook or X (formerly Twitter) are vital in the world of online marketing. 

For us affiliates this means FREE traffic (= visits and clicks) for our affiliate links. With each and every user you can potentially make your first commissions. 

How can I use the power of social media platforms for my business?

In affiliate marketing it is your primary goal to get people to your links so that you can earn commissions after someone makes a purchase. 

To achieve this, try to create compelling content that aligns with your audience’s interests and your niche. 

Advice: Stay in your niche! Remember that people will follow you to see more content in your particular niche.

Let me make an example: If people followed you because of your health advice, for instance, they will most probably unfollow you when you start publishing finance tips. See the point? You will loose followers (= potential traffic) at the end of the day.

As you learned above, this will only work out when you create valuable content consistently. Only this way you can grow a  considerable following in long-term.

This requires time and endurance, but it will pay off once you have a solid audience.

2. Launch a YouTube channel

Maybe you are someone who better wants to stay away from writing thousands of words, but loves to create videos. Then YouTube might be the right platform for your affiliate marketing business.

Even though YouTube counts as a social media platform as well, it is worth to have a look at YouTube separately.

Compared to other social media platforms you have to create longer videos on YouTube. That is the main difference.

Also, if you manage to grow a considerable following on YouTube with thousand of views on your posts you get paid a lot.

That is the case because YouTube pays you per click, making this another income stream apart from affiliate marketing. 

Advice: Reviews of certain products usually work great on YouTube in terms of affiliate marketing. You can review both physical and digital products in YouTube videos.

Firstly, it gives social proof and trust by providing real user-experiences. 

Secondly, reviews significantly impact conversion rates, influencing potential buyers to proceed with a purchase.

Growing on YouTube is a tough journey that requires consistent posting. Try to create posts that entertain or solve your audience’s problems. That will speed up your growing process. Promised!

3. Engage in Online Forums

Have you ever sought advice in the internet and ended up on online forums? 

Online forums gain popularity among people making it another source of FREE traffic for us affiliates.

Look for forums that are dealing with a topic aligning with your niche. Immerse yourself in these online forums and actively participate in discussions, offering valuable insights.

Establishing your presence in these communities can be a powerful channel for affiliate promotions.

Advice: Avoid spamming your affiliate links in online forums. Instead try to share affiliate recommendations when it naturally fits the discussion. Focus on being helpful and insightful.

4. Utilize Email Marketing

Email marketing is as old as the internet, yet it is still extremely powerful for affiliate marketing. 

To be successful with email marketing you need one thing: a looot of email addresses!

How to you get those? 

Use your audience from your social media accounts or online forums and convince them to give their email addresses.

Advice: Provide something that lures your audience to give their email addresses. Something that is too good to pass up. That can be a free ebook, pdf or an insightful article. 

Once you collected a number of email addresses it is time to launch campaigns. In your campaigns you send out several emails that contain your affiliate links. 

But pay attention to not flood your audience with emails. This will eventually lead to a lot of people unsubscribing. 

5. Create Podcasts

Discussing controversy topics in podcasts has gained more and more popularity.

Set up an own podcast channel that deals with topics aligning with your audiences interests. 

Podcast hosts can strategically feature affiliate products or services, sharing personal experiences or insights to create a genuine connection with listeners – similar to YouTubers as we learned above.

Advice: Try to incorporating affiliate links into podcast episodes seamlessly integrates promotional content into the topic you are talking about. That allows a natural and authentic endorsement.

Later on, you can invite affiliate partners to your podcast which then builds collaborative relationships and credibility. As you can see, podcasting has an immense potential for affiliate marketing without a website.

Final Thoughts

So building an affiliate marketing business does not necessarily require an own website. You can do affiliate marketing using a number of other platforms: 

  • Social Media
  • YouTube
  • Online Forums
  • Email Marketing
  • Podcast

At the end of this post you should have learned that consistency is key in affiliate marketing. Regularly update your posts and re-evaluate strategies. 

If you liked this post, I would be grateful for a comment!

 

Image displays the post's topic being how to start your affiliate marketing business.

How to Start Your Affiliate Marketing Business in 6 Simple Steps – Complete Beginner’s Guide

by with No Comment Affiliate MarketingMaking Money OnlineOnline Business

Imagine this: You can earn money without having to have an own product or service to offer.

And the best about it: you can start from the comfort of your sofa!

Now let me tell you that you can make this reality with affiliate marketing!

In this post we will look at every step necessary to get started with your affiliate marketing business.

Apart from Affiliate Marketing there are other ways to make money from the comfort of your sofa! Just click here to know more.

Table of Contents

How to Start Your Affiliate Marketing Business

1) Understanding affiliate marketing

2) Reasons why you should start your affiliate marketing business 

  1. Low-costs
  2. Low-risk
  3. Flexibility

3) How to Start Your Affiliate Marketing Business: Step by Step

  1. Define your niche
  2. Conduct Market Research
  3. Decide on a platform
  4. Choose Affiliate Programs
  5. Create High-Quality Content
  6. Drive traffic to your site and links

4) Final Thoughts

Understanding affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is a business model where you promote other people’s products or services you do not own. This is done through a unique link- the affiliate link- you will get.

Each and every time when someone purchases a product or service through your link you will earn a commission. The commission is usually a percentage of the product’s price.  

And why do companies do this? Why don’t they just sell the products theirselves without having to cut their profits?

See it like a win-win situation: Companies can sell a higher amount of products and you are getting paid a commission for it. 

Without affiliates many companies would not be able to get enough traffic to their product. 

Therefore, companies work with affiliates to bring more traffic to their shop. 

As affiliates usually get paid for each sell through their affiliate link, it is every affiliate’s goal to get a lot of traffic to their links.

To help you understanding the affiliate ecosystem better, I created the following info chart for you. 

The whole concept of affiliate marketing won’t get more complicated than this. Quite simple, right?

Reasons why you should start your affiliate marketing business

Similarly to any other business model, affiliate marketing has a plethora of reasons why you should start your affiliate marketing business. Especially, concerning affiliate marketing there are several reasons making this model particularly interesting for beginners.  

1. Low-costs

When starting a business you usually have an amount of upfront costs including, for example, product creation costs, inventory, rent, etc. With affiliate marketing the only thing you need to get started is a platform to promote on (own Website or Social Media), an affiliate program and a bit of time.

To make this even more cost-efficient for you, I have created a whole overview on the best and highest paying affiliate programs. Each and every program of these are 100% FREE. Click here to read more.

2. Low-Risk

What can be the worst thing to happen?

Hundreds of dollars lost?

No.

The worst-case scenario is that you loose a bit of your time and probably a small amount of money for your website creation. That’s its!

Compared to other business models, affiliate marketing offers low-risks while still having the opportunity to make a good amount of money off of affiliate marketing.  

3. Flexibility

Similarly to other online business models, affiliate marketing comes with the huge benefit of flexibility: Work where and whenever you want!

Example: You still working in a 9-5 job? No problem. With affiliate marketing you can schedule your day on your own. Accordingly, it would be possible for you to “affiliate” in the evening after having worked in your 9-5 job. 

How to Start Your Affiliate Marketing Business: Step by Step

Now that you have a better idea about the concept of affiliate marketing, let us get to the point of today’s blog post. Follow these simple steps to get your affiliate marketing business started:

1. Define your niche

Definition: A blogger usually dedicates his or her posts to one overall topic or field. With ProfitPursuers, for instance, I’m in the finance field. This field is also called your niche.

The very first step of your affiliate marketing journey is to identify your niche. Here are simple questions that can help finding your personal niche: 

  • What are my passions? -> What activities or topics make me genuinely excited and engaged?
  • What Are My Skills? -> What skills do I possess, and which ones do I enjoy using the most?
  • What Am I Curious About? -> What topics or industries am I curious about and eager to learn more about?
  • What Do People Seek My Advice on? -> What topics do friends, family, or colleagues often come to me for advice or assistance?

This step is probably the most important of any steps following. Being successful in affiliate marketing will require you to create tons of content, making it beneficial for you to choose a niche that you are genuinely passionate about. 

Otherwise, you will get yourself barely motivated to create new content consistently.

As there are countless other websites nowadays, it is my advice to you, to be more precise with your niche. Choosing a more specific niche, such as plant-based cooking instead of a general food blog, makes it easier for you to stand out amongst others.

As I have experienced it myself how challenging it is to find the ONE niche for oneself, I will give you some examples. Maybe it will help you to broaden your horizon.

 Food and Wellness:

  • Plant-Based Cooking
  • Elderly Nutrition and Fitness
  • Urban Gardening

Finance and Career:

  • Real Estate
  • Personal Branding 
  • Personal Finance for Millennials

Lifestyle 

  • Positive Psychology and Happiness Hacks
  • Minimalist Living
  • Digital Nomad Lifestyle

2. Conduct Market Research

Definition: Market research is the process of collecting, analyzing, and interpreting information about a market, including information about potential customers, competitors, and the overall niche.

Understanding your niche and competitors is the foundation of a successful affiliate marketing business. 

Conducting thorough market research is extremely important, as it can show you whether a niche is lucrative or not. 

Example: Imagine you’re planning to start an affiliate business in the fitness niche, promoting fitness products and supplements.

Without conducting market research, you might choose products based on your personal preferences, right?

However, through market research, you discover that there is a growing trend among your target audience for sustainable and plant-based fitness supplements.

This insight not only influences your product selection but also shapes your content strategy. In this example, you should start creating content dedicated to sustainable and plant-based fitness supplements.

Now you probably wonder how you can do your researches. 

That’s not that hard.

At the beginning it is useful to just type your desired niche or topic into Google to have an overview of competitors and related topics. 

For a more in-depth research you can then use specific tools to, for instance, get more clarity about the relevancy and popularity of the topic.

Useful tools are, for instance, Google Trends and industry reports.

3. Decide on a platform

Among the first questions you should ask yourself in the process of establishing an affiliate marketing business, is on which platform you want to promote your products to your audience.

There are a plethora of different platforms you can choose from. Let us have a look at the most popular platforms for affiliate marketing: 

  •  Social Media (Pinterest, Instagram, TikTok)
  •  YouTube
  • Website (e.g. blog)
  • Email Marketing (Newsletter)

Advice: The decision on your platform should not be an either/or one. A combination of two or three platforms is also possible and mostly more efficient and success-bringing than having one single platform.

You can, for instance, have a blog and additionally an email-list or a social media account on which you promote your affiliate products.

Having more than one marketing platform can be great for complementing your online presence.

Your decision can also depend on your niche you have chosen to start your affiliate business. There are some niches or products that are better understandable in videos than in blog posts, for instance.

Example: People who want to learn how to play the piano will most likely prefer YouTube tutorials to blog posts. 

In this example, running a YouTube channel will probably bring  you more success than having an own blog.

4. Choose Affiliate Programs

Definition: Affiliate programs are partnerships between merchants or product creators and individuals (affiliates) who promote the merchant’s products or services. In this arrangement, affiliates earn commissions for every sale, generated through their unique affiliate link.

You cannot start with your affiliate marketing business without having joined affiliate programs. Only through affiliate programs you can promote products to your audience.

When choosing affiliate programs, it is vital to consider several criteria including, for instance, your audience’s interests, the commission structure, the so-called cookie duration and whether or not the program is reputable.

To make you the the importance of these criteria more vivid, the following example is supposed to show what can happen when choosing an affiliate program that is not reputable at all:

Example: You’ve decided to start your affiliate business in the technology niche. In your enthusiasm to generate quick commissions, you decide to promote a tech product through an affiliate program that promises exceptionally high commission rates but has a questionable reputation.

As you promote the product, you notice that customers who followed your affiliate link are reporting issues with the product quality, poor customer service, and delayed shipping. These negative experiences reflect poorly on your reputation as an affiliate marketer, leading to a loss of trust from your audience. 

That’s kind of the worst-case scenario!

To provide you more in-depth knowledge on this crucial topic, I recommend you to read this post about the best and highest paying affiliate programs for your business. 

5. Create High-Quality Content

High-quality content is king in the world of affiliate marketing. Try to create valuable content that aligns with your audience’s interests and that truly helps your audience. 

Affiliate marketing is not just about slapping affiliate links from any beststellers in your post and hoping that someone purchases.

Go the extra mile and create content that is profound and complement it with great products you can promote to your audience.

Trust me when I tell you that this will mean greater success for you in the long term.

 

6. Drive traffic to your site and links

Without people consuming your content you can create the best content of all time, you won’t make any money. 

Accordingly, bringing people to your site who follow your affiliate links is the last step in order to get started with your affiliate marketing business as well as making it a sustainable income source. 

But how can you actually drive a good amount of traffic to your website?

As you might guessed, there is not Justine way to do so. Here are the top ways to drive traffic to your affiliate links:

A: SEO

SEO stands for search engine optimization and describes the practice of optimizing websites so that search engines can find them more easily.

Thus, having your website perfectly optimized will result in your website being ranked higher in search engines such as Google.

Advice: Regularly create high-quality and engaging content that provides value to your audience, as this not only enhances your SEO but also encourages repeat visits.

Once you succeed in ranking high in search engines like Google for your target keywords, you will be rewarded with a consistent and passive traffic. So better do the extra work of SEO right at the beginning of your affiliate journey as your future you will thank you for it. 

To support you in optimizing your site for SEO, there a several valuable tools. One tool that I’m using since months now is RankMath. Especially for beginners this tool is great (even the best – in my opinion) to get your site ranked better in Google. Just click here to get to RankMath.

B: Social Media

In the world of online marketing social media platforms are an extremely powerful tool you should definitely make use of.

With billions of users across various platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn, social media provides a vast audience ready to discover and engage with your content. 

The best about it?

It is completely FREE four you!

By strategically sharing your website links, you tap into a network of potential visitors interested in your niche.

Try to present yourself and your brand as professional as possible to make sure visitors gains trust in you and follow you all the way to your website.

C: Paid Traffic 

Another option to drive traffic to your website is to pay for this traffic. 
 
The good things about paid traffic: you will receive instant traffic once you paid.
 
 
However, there are also some downsides to paid traffic: 

First of all, you should be aware that once you stop paying you will no longer receive any traffic.

The tricky thing about paid traffic is the fact that your traffic campaign has to be optimized in the first place. In other words, you will initially loose (a lot of) money before making any … and that’s not guaranteed.

Also, especially for beginners it is hard to calculate the ROI (Return of Investment): 

For instance, let’s say you promote a product that pays you $10 per successful purchase. Spending $100 per day and still having to optimize your campaign in the first days, makes it pretty hard to get this money back. 

Accordingly, there is a huge risk of loosing a lot of money when miscalculating  your campaigns.

I would not really recommend you to start your affiliate business with paying for traffic. 

Why?

The traffic is not sustainable at all and there is a huge risk of losing your money.

Final Thoughts

Long story short: The information provided here are the absolute fundamentals to start out with your affiliate business. Try to follow my step-by-step plan to make sure your affiliate marketing business will thrive!

The most important thing for people wanting to start their own business is to finally make the first step. Do not overthink too much and better start right away.

I’m sure, you will make it!!!