Affiliate Marketing for beginners – The Steps by Step guide.

Would you be interested in learning a modern way of earning money online?

A way where you do not have to buy or store the products; neither do you have to deal with customers enquiries. How good is that?

If you are a blogger, you are most likely familiar with affiliate marketing. If you are not familiar with affiliate marketing, do not worry as I have written a step by step guide to walk you through the process.

Affiliate marketing is awesome and is not as difficult as it looks. You only need to learn a few strategies and tweaks to succeed in the business.

What’s Affiliate Marketing And How Does It Work?

Affiliate marketing is the process where you earn commission for recommending services or products to people.

How Affiliate Marketing Works

You do this by using affiliate programs where you use specific links that track each time the link converts to a sale.

When someone purchases a product through your link, you earn a certain commission, usually a certain percentage.

Affiliate marketing involves three main parties; the customer, the affiliate Marketer, and the merchant.

• The merchant

The merchant is sometimes called the seller, the vendor, the retailer or the brand owner. The merchant creates the service and can be a big company like Amazon or a single individual.

Anyone can be a merchant behind an affiliate marketing program. You can also be a merchant if you are offering a product to sell and hoping to introduce other people to the sale of the service as affiliates.

• The Affiliate Marketer

The Affiliate Marketer is the one responsible for the promotions of merchant’s goods and services.

You can use several strategies to get potential customers to purchase products through your link. You can either use URL masking or deep links.

Deep linking – as a marketer, the best way to get to your prospective users is by using deep links. Deep links are links that direct you to a particular page or product instead of the website.

URL masking – in URL masking, you forward your visitors to the certain website but hide the domain of the website.

This ensures that your visitors see the original domain name and not the destined URL.

You can use the WordPress plugin or the URL which hides the destination of the domain.

• The consumer

The customer or the consumer is the buyer. Without sales, there would be no commission because there would be no revenue to be shared.

Affiliate Marketer markets the products to the consumer with a hope that the consumer will purchase the products or services. The consumer doesn’t earn any commission but is relevant in the circle.

As a marketer, you try to market your products to the consumer via any channel available, whether digital boards, social network or through search engines.

For you to succeed you need to know the process leading to a consumer buying your products which brings us to:

Stages Of the Consumer Buying Process.

What Is The Consumer Buying Process?

Consumer buying process is the stages it takes for the consumer to buy your products.

There are 3 main stages which determine how close a customer is to becoming a paying customer. The more you understand these stages, the better you know how to market to these customers

RESEARCH ✅ DECISION ✅ PURCHASE ✅

Stage #1. Research Stage.

Most customers will do research on the product they want before they buy. Most of them research online through Google search as it is the quickest way of finding answers.

If you engage them at this point with their product related content, they will likely revisit your website again and end up buying.

Stage #2. Decision Stage.

At this stage, people have done research and they know the product they want to buy.

At this point, the affiliate marketer can showcase the relevant products by writing reviews about them thus helping the customer in the buying decision.

Stage #3. The Action or The Purchasing Stage

In this stage, the customer is ready to buy as they have done their research and have made a decision to buy.

The ultimate goal as a marketer is to get customers at this stage.

To get them, you would be using the target keywords which should be ‘buy’ type of keywords in your product description.

I will recommend a keyword tool towards the end of this article to help you in this process.

Who is Affiliate Marketing for?

Anyone can do affiliate marketing as long as you have the determination to succeed and you are ready to work hard particularly at the beginning.

The difference between affiliate marketing and traditional jobs is that with traditional jobs, you work for the next paycheck, but with affiliate marketing, you are your own boss and you only work when you choose to and you can earn passive income

How to Start Affiliate Marketing Today

Regardless of how easy it is to start, you still need to put in some efforts. It takes a lot of energy and hard work at the beginning but ones you master the strategies, you will start to see passive income coming in.

Fortunately for you, you can learn how to do Affiliate Marketing in an easier way through a company that is globally distributed.

The company is called Wealthy Affiliate (www.wealthyaffiliate.com)

You will learn all “the what and how in affiliate marketing”.

They have everything you need to build a global flourishing business.

For starters, here is a step by step guide on:

How Affiliate Marketing Is – Done And How You Can Do It Too

STEP#1.

Choose a Niche

Before you start building your first site, you need to decide on the niche you are targeting.

If you have no idea what your website is about, it would be difficult to build a site around it.

If you have figured out what niche you will be promoting, you’re ready to go to the next step.

Choosing a niche is the most difficult step. If you have not yet figured out, here are some few steps that could be helpful.

— Choose the topics you are passionate about

It is quite easier to work on something that is of your interest.

For example, if you are fascinated by technology, for example, your niche will be based on technology. Same applies to other niches

— How profitable is the niche

Following your passion would be the best option, but sometimes it may be wise to follow a niche that is more profitable than the niche you are passionate about.

If you don’t know much about the niche but it is profitable, you can always learn about it.

— Check out for a niche that you can easily write about.

You need to find a topic about the product that you can easily write. A topic that has enough depth and that you can write more content about it.

This is essential in creating a commanding website.

…… Whether the niche you choose has room for profitability.

There are many profitable niches out there that are popular among affiliate marketers.

But before using these niches, you need to ensure that you can make profits and compete with other relevant marketers. If not, look for a niche that offers the competition you need.

— Is there adequate demand and interest on this product?

You may choose a niche that generates traffic and draws interest from the audience but are they willing to purchase the product?

You need to venture into a niche that has customers that are willing to pay for the services offered, not just viewing.

Does the niche have any other affiliate programs?

One of the essential factors when choosing a niche is whether it has other affiliate programs. The higher the number of affiliate programs the higher the sales.

Take your time to check out several niches and the number of affiliate programs they have. If they don’t, skip them. You will most likely not generate any sale from the niche

STEP#2.

Do intense Research on Affiliate programs

After you have decided on a niche, the next step you need to consider is whether there are affiliate programs in your chosen niche. You may have done some research on the niche, but you still need to research more.

Getting the right affiliate program might take some time and work but don’t be afraid to maximise your time on it since this is where your earnings will come from.

Getting an appropriate program takes a while but it’s worth the wait. When choosing the best affiliate program, consider the following

— The type of merchants that use the affiliate network/program

Ensure that similar merchants are using the program so that you can gauge the likelihood of generating profit. You might also want to know the commission you are likely to make from the products.

STEP#3.

Create a Website

After you have researched and figured out what is profitable and what is possible, you now can start using your research to Build your website.

Building websites isn’t complicated as it was in the past.

… Buy a domain

Buying a domain is one of the most important steps in your business.  Currently, there are millions of websites on the internet so it might be possible that your desired domain has already been picked. Ensure you have several related options.

… Host your website

What is Web Hosting?

It is the location of your website on the internet where all the information about your website is located. This includes all the contents, images, videos, etc

After you’ve bought a domain, its time to host it. Today, hosting a website is very cheap so look for a provider that is reputable.

A good web host makes sure that your website is available all over the World 24 hours, every single second. Many cheap hosting companies overload their servers which results to your website being slow.

You should avoid such hosting companies as most of them will also have very poor support system to support you in case you encounter problems.

The only legitimate Affiliate Marketing company that I trust and which I am personally using is Wealthy Affiliate. They will offer you safe hosting for your website, all the training as well as showing you how to build your own business.

You can also learn how to install your website themes from thousands of available themes.

STEP#4.

Write Quality Content

Content is what matters to your website. The main goal is to establish authority over your niche. The only way to achieve this is by producing high-quality content.

Your content could include product reviews, blog posts that are related to the niche, evergreen, and informational content.

STEP#5. Create an audience

Creating an audience for your website depends on the quality of your content. Consistent traffic also results in consistent sales for your website.

There are several ways you could attract an audience to your website:

— Promote your content on social media

The common and easiest way to build an audience is by making use of social media. You can choose to share your content on Instagram, twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.

— Create an email list

Email marketing is essential for any affiliate marketer. You can start by creating an email list with a lead magnet and encourage your audience to sign up for your content.

You can send your leads to your posts each time you update your website.

— Make use of paid advertising.

I would suggest that you do not spend any money on advertising at the beginning.

I will show you under ‘’my recommendation how you can start earning money without any advertising; so if you are new to affiliate marketing, skip this step

You can use paid advertising to generate extra traffic to your website. Paid advertisements on social media are a great way since they are more affordable.

You can also use affordable banner ads. Google AdWords could be a great tool to use for paid advertisements

STEP#6. Promote Affiliate offers

Depending on the site you’ve built, you can promote your products to your audience in several ways.

— Product reviews

Build up trust with your audience by writing genuine reviews about products. An honest opinion about a product includes the pros and cons of the product.

Your product review could also be linked to the page where the audience can make purchases whenever they are interested in the product.

— Banner Ads

You can also promote your affiliate offers by using banner ads on your site. You only need to put the banner on a highly trafficked page.

When you put banners in the locations, you could generate lots of profits. The affiliate Programs you are affiliated with will allow you to use their promotional banners at no extra cost.

— Make use of paid advertising.

I would suggest that you do not spend any money on advertising at the beginning.

I will show you under ‘’my recommendation’’ how you can start earning money without any advertising so if you are new to affiliate marketing, you can skip this step

Why Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is one of the best businesses available. It benefits both the merchant and the affiliate.

Affiliate marketing has grown immersively over the last few years, and most businesses have realised the need to earn via affiliate marketing.

It is incredibly flexible and provides many benefits that aren’t available in any other business .

Some of the benefits include:

1. Better page rank particularly after mastering the keywords the customers are using when searching for the products. (see the keywords tool under ‘’My recommendation’’).

2. Affiliate marketing gets you in control

You determine the affiliate program you want to be affiliated with. Generally, you are your own boss.

You can work it all alone, and you can work anytime and from anywhere you want provided that you have access to internet connection.

3. Unlimited Earnings.

There’s no cap on your earnings. The more sales you generate, the more money you get.

4. Saves money

– With affiliate marketing you do not need any sales staff and you do not need to buy the products.

5. Low entry price

– Joining an affiliate program does not cost much. Most online businesses are associated with a lot of money to get started. With affiliate marketing, all you need to get started is your website.

My Recommendation

>>>>>Now, you might be asking yourself, okay, l have read all the above on Affiliate Marketing/ “how to” for beginners but l still do not know where to begin.

I would suggest you get help in every step of your business. If you do not have a niche, you will get help with choosing one.

I highly recommend you signing up for the training and business support offered by Wealthy Affiliate.

This is a company with all the tools and Complete Step by Step Training on how to start and run a business.

You will be able to join as a starter for free (£$0). This is what you will get as a starter:

✅ Build and Host Your Website

Website building platform which includes website hosting with a step by step guide on how to do it. Why pay someone to build a website for you if you can be shown how to do it for free

You want to be the one controlling your business but in future, if the money is coming in and you start expanding beyond your capabilities, you can then decide to pay someone to do some of the tasks.

It is sad that many business owners are overpaying web designers to build websites for them when they can easily do it for themselves (if they are shown how to do it).

You might even end up with an unsuitable website for your niche but if you built it yourself and you did not like it, it would be easier for you to change it.

Build Your own Website for Free

Click Here to build Your free website

✅ one free domains so that you can start building your business straight away.

✅ Keyword Research Tool.

You will get access to Jaaxy which is a keywords Research tool which will help you in finding out the words the customers are using on search engines.

✅ You will learn Search Engine optimisation (SEO) which will help you in getting people to buy your products without spending a penny.

Search Engine optimisation is the most valued skill in the Internet Marketing World and if you master it, you will be assured of succeeding in your business.

✅You will join a community of other entrepreneurs from all over the world.

✅ 24 Hour Support.

You will be empowered with all the tools, the knowledge and support you need.

You are taught exactly what you need to do and how to do it. The more support you get, the more likely you are going to succeed.

✅ Website backup.

✅ Beginners training course.

✅ Live chat for the first 7 days to make sure that you are progressing well.

✅ Video walk tutorials which are also a step by step guide.

✅ Free mentoring by me as well as from the 2 co founders of Wealthy Affiliate

You can remain as a free starter member for as long as you want but if you decide to be a premium member, the membership costs are Budget friendly

$19 the first month (if you take advantage of the 59% discount during the first 7 days after joining).

I would advise you to first start on a free membership to see if Wealthy Affiliate really is this good.

To get started as a free member CLICK HERE

After starting as a free member, If you like what you see; take advantage of the 1st month discounted offer so that you can experience what premium membership is all about.

Once you do that, my recommendation would be to go either 6 monthly at $234 or yearly where it will cost you $359 which is less than one pound (£) per day or less than one dollar (1$) per day.

Below is a Few of what you will get as a Premium Member:

EDUCATION BENEFITS

• Weekly LIVE Interactive Classes

Every week we offer Live Class training from internet industry experts. This is going to blow your mind and advance your skill sets in whatever business you are in.

• Over 300 Hours of Expert Education

Every live class has a replay so that you can listen at your own time. As a premium member, you are going to get access to ALL of the past live classes; which includes over 300 hours of education on absolutely every topic you can think of. This is worth 100x the cost of the membership alone

• Online Entrepreneur Certification (50 Lessons)

This 5 Phase, 50 Lesson courses is going to be the fundamental core of your knowledge base and by the time you have finished, you will be well equipped with the knowledge you require to succeed in ANY niche.

The training is updated regularly to keep you ahead of your competition and industry trends. Business strategies needs to be updated regularly otherwise your business will lag behind.

• Affiliate Bootcamp Training (70 Lessons)

This training is going to turn you into a thriving and successful entrepreneur. No secret is left unattended as we believe in transparency. Those who have taken this course are thriving in their businesses.

• Virtual Classrooms, Evolving Daily, currently about 12 Classrooms where you can ask questions 24 hours a day. In these classrooms you have access to 1,000’s of training modules covering almost everything you could imagine of in running your online business.

Wealthy Affiliate have the most diverse trainings in the world to cater for everyone and almost every field.

There are several ways in which you can build a business online. From Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), drop shipping, e-commerce, Facebook ads, local marketing, AdSense, pay-per-click, email marketing, lead generation, Google+ etc.

All these topics and more are covered within the classrooms.

In case you are looking for a training and it’s not there, just request for it and an expert in that field will build it. How good is that?

• Earn by Creating Your Own Training.

You cannot believe this!: Wealthy Affiliate will reward you by simply giving back to the community.

After 3 months as a premium member you have the ability to create your own training and you will be paid for it.

• Own Authority Wealthy Affiliate Blog page

You will have your own profile blog page that you can use to share your experiences and your journey online with other members of Wealthy Affiliate. You can change or update your profile page as many times as you would like.

WEBSITE AND ITS BENEFITS   

You will have a Website Platform that allows expansion of your business, allowing for higher traffic and higher opening speed.

Have you ever seen a topic on Google you would want to read and the page wont even open or takes forever to open, how frustrating is that? You can imagine how many customers such businesses are losing every day.

At Wealthy Affiliate, you can run several multi-million dollar websites from ONE platform in SiteRubix and as a Premium member you can host up to 10 websites.

• Over 3,000 Website Designs

You can choose the themes of your choice. These themes are mobile ready and there is a design available for every type of niche website. These days, most people are searching online using their mobile phones.

• Over 51,000 Website Feature “Add Ons”

There are over 51,000 “feature” extensions available within that you can use in enhancing your website.

You can use these Adds Ons to build membership sites, adding shopping carts, image/design plugins, font plugins, and plugins for managing social aspects of your business. You need customers to be able to share your website to their friends on social media.

• SiteDomains: All Inclusive Domain Platform

You have access to all the features you would expect other domain registrars to charge for.

Included with every domain is Next Year Guarantee Pricing, WHOIS Privacy Protection, 24/7 Support, Domain Security, Unlimited Email Accounts, Advanced DNS Management & Instant Set-up and many more.

To make this even better, you will have access to all of these at no extra cost with any domain that you register through Wealthy Affiliate.

HOSTING AND OTHER BENEFITS

•  24/7 Managed Monitoring

We watch your sites, so you that you can concentrate on building your business without worrying on the technical side.

We have a dedicated team of “server administrators” that are keeping an eye on your website(s) performance 24/7/365. The monitoring includes:

Virus & Malware protection,

24/7 Automated monitoring

24/7/365 Site Support –

Help is available all the time. Average Response < 5 minutes! Instant hosting help is available in less than 5 minutes.

Unlike most hosting companies, our support team are not just server administrators but also technical Geniuses who will address any hosing issue immediately

Who Is Behind the Success of Wealthy Affiliate?

Wealthy Affiliate was founded by two people Kyle & Carson.

One unique thing about the two co founders is that the two people are still very much active in the community providing support, engaging with people, giving advice and answering community questions.

Infant they will be the 1st people to Welcome you immediately you join. They will hold your hand and make sure you are settling well. I will also be there to mentor you.

To get started as a Free starter CLICK HERE. No payment required.

Or if you want to get started straight from the Wealthy Affiliate company, click on their link which is www.wealthyaffiliate.com.

The co founders Kyle and Carson will welcome you. Zero payment and You will not be asked for your credit card details.

Conclusion

Affiliate marketing is the best way to make money online. Commerce is fast growing, and this leaves more opportunities for affiliate marketing.

As you have seen above, there is an effective strategy to use especially if you are a beginner.

You only need to utilise the strategy, and you will soon start reaping big on affiliate marketing income.