You like the idea of starting your own business, working for yourself, you know the value of having multiple income streams but you don’t know what to do. All you need is a great idea to get started, right? wrong.
I’m writing this post today to tell you that you can chuck that belief out of the window, you don’t need a product to get started making money online. I’m going to explain to you why affiliate marketing is something that you should learn, regardless of your long term goals (or current lack of).
You’re asking how do you start a business with no idea? Two words: affiliate marketing.
Why affiliate marketing is something you should truly invest in learning
- Hands down, affiliate marketing is the best business model for generating additional income streams
- There is no limit on the scalability
- The overheads are very low (you don’t need premises, equipment, or employees to set up shop)
- You can sell products at a profit in literally any market. Every area of business has affiliate programs; all types of physical products and digital products, services, education, coaching, you name it.
- Almost any business can thrive and grow by incorporating affiliate marketing into their business model
- As a business model it’s recession proof. As an affiliate marketer you tap into existing markets, you don’t need a product or service. You find products and services that are already in demand and learn how to get the offers in front of people who are buying. It doesn’t matter what the situation is; pandemic, economic crisis, the end of the bloody world, people are always going to be buying stuff.
The business model is very, very simple, you just need one aspect of a traditional business: the marketing.
Do you know the number one reason businesses fail? It’s that they couldn’t get enough customers, enough sales. That’s why learning marketing is so powerful, it’s the life blood of a company.
As a company you have to serve the market as best you can, the best way to do that is by recommending the best products and services that you know.
The best solutions to people’s problems that you can find, affiliate marketing is the best way to do that.
OK, reality check. It is not easy. There’s a learning curve and the first sale is the hardest. But if you stick to what you already know, find a niche market that you’re passionate about, you can do it with a couple of hours a day.
So let’s look at some of the main aspects of affiliate marketing in a little more detail.
Becoming a leader
There’s a saying in the online marketing space: “the money is in the list”, in case you don’t know- this refers to an email list.
By far the most powerful way to reach potential customers is through something called ‘permission marketing’. This is when people give you their email address and with their permission to send them emails.
But the money is not in the list itself, if it was you could just buy a list and spam them. Do not do that, it’s a waste of your time and theirs and it’s illegal.
The reality is that it’s only there if your list is responsive. A responsive list is one where a lot of people on the list open and read your emails.
So how do you get people to open and read your emails?
Simple: build a good relationship with your email list. In other words, you have to build trust, they have to value your opinion.
The only way to do this is to focus on areas that you yourself are passionate about. In this way you will become someone whose opinion they trust and who they come to for advice and recommendations.
Affiliate websites research
You’re going to want to do some research. I can’t stress how important this step is, it’s your duty to yourself to do the due diligence before jumping in. You have to know the market, the customers and your competitors.
Here are 3 tips for doing your research:
1. Think like a customer
What would your ideal customer be searching for online? write down 5 to 10 google searches that they would actually make. The majority of people use Google to find the solution to a problem, so start there with ‘how to…’ questions.
2. Inspire yourself
Ask yourself the questions-
how can I add value to the online space?
What problems can I solve?
Am I going to save my customers time by doing the research for them; by comparing and reviewing products?
Will this be a blog, or video format?
3. Scope out the competition
What are other affiliates doing? Just plug your search terms into google and see what pops up, you’ll want to focus on the first page as people rarely click beyond that.
A big platform for affiliate marketers is Youtube. By finding out how they are reaching their audience on YouTube you will gain insight on what customers are looking for, how you can deliver value on a more personalized basis, and how to leverage this platform as a content creator.
Types of affiliate programs
There are 5 types of affiliate programs worth mentioning at this stage
1. Plain old affiliate program
So this is the basic type of program; you get paid a commission (either a percentage or a fixed amount per sale).
The biggest tip, though, is not to chase the percentages but focus on promoting products that you care about.
The most common affiliate program is Amazon associates and therefore a great place to get started but there are lots to choose from.
2. High ticket affiliate programs
The definition of what makes a product ‘high ticket’ depends on you and your chosen niches, but basically, we’re talking about expensive products. This could be anything 500 to 1000 or even tens of thousands of euros/pounds/dollars per sale.
3. Subscriptions
A lot of software and services have subscriptions; for the marketer that is one way of making passive income. You make one sale and get a recurring commission every month that the person continues their subscription.
4 Cost per action (CPA)
This model offers a commission to the affiliate when a specific action is completed. The action can be anything from making a purchase to getting a quote, watching a video, or filling out a form. The commissions on this kind of program are usually quite low (5 to 10 dollars per action) that’s why it’s generally better for more experienced marketers who really know how to scale and use paid marketing effectively.
5 Pay per call (PPC)
When you’re promoting a pay-per-call affiliate program your visitors dial a number created just for you, and you’re then paid a commission for any sales that happen over the phone.
The commission rates involved in per call offers tend to be much higher- several hundred dollars for a lead.
Affiliate networks
Depending on the niche you go for, you might find companies who have their own affiliate program. This is not the norm, most companies don’t want the hassle of organising and running an affiliate program so they outsource it to affiliate networks.
Some of the biggest and most reputable affiliate networks in 2020 are:
ShareASale (all-rounder – services, physical goods, SAAS (software as a service), or digital downloads)
ClickBank (digital products, lots of variety, many high commissions)
CJ Affiliate (not the best choice for beginners- your account will be deactivated if you don’t make a sale for 6 months, if you have a big list/audience already and steady traffic- CJ is a safe bet)
Amazon Associates (what can I say, it’s Amazon- the largest online retail platform in the world, the commissions are relatively low, but its Amazon! The fact that it is an international platform means that you have to sign up for each county individually. They currently have affiliate programs for the US, the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Canada, Japan, Spain, India, Brazil, Mexico, China, and Australia. The good thing is that with their OneLink tool you can get commissions from any of the markets and don’t have to include multiple links in your constant.)
eBay Partner Network (EPN) (again, it’s Ebay, if you want to sell physical products, Ebay is a great platform)
FlexOffers (great for beginners and experienced marketers alike, great support and plenty of affiliate options)
Rakuten Advertising (been in the game for over 20 years, they have a solid reputation)
Finding affiliate programs
It’s up to you to put in the time and effort to find affiliate programs with brands and products that you genuinely like, that you’re genuinely passionate about, and that are a good fit for your audience/niche.
I recommend spending a couple of hours googling product ideas; type in the kind of product/ service and the word ‘affiliate’ and see what comes up.
E.g. “musical instruments affiliate”
As I mentioned, the majority of results will show that stores and brands have affiliate programs, and nine times out of ten they will be run through an affiliate network like the ones in this article. Check out the affiliate networks to see what kind of products and services they offer and what kind of things you can imagine recommending to your audience.
Best type of affiliate program to look for
The number one criteria for an affiliate program should always be that it is a company, product or service that you truly believe in. This doesn’t have to be something you have used yourself (although this is better) but you have to do your research and be honest with yourself and your audience.
Apart from that, here are some more things that you should look out for:
A Powerful sales funnel – without going into too much detail, a sales funnel is the customer journey from clicking on the advertising to making a purchase. It makes sense, as a marketer you want to be taking customers to a company with a good sales strategy and team. That doesn’t mean pushy, hard-sells, but rather great customer engagement and customer service.
High-ticket items – as I said earlier, high-ticket items are anything from 500 up to thousands per sale depending on your niche market. This makes sense, the higher the cost, the higher the commission. At first it may feel unreal that someone would pay $10,000 for something, but believe me, they do and you can be the person who sells it to them, there’s no reason why not.
Recurring revenue/subscription services – the goal for many affiliate marketers is to make passive income. This can be done in many ways, but one is to sell products or services (including software) that run on a monthly payment system. In this way, you will receive payments every single month for sales that you made once in the past.
How to get started
It is not my impression to make it sound easy, the business model is incredibly simple, but getting traction is not. It takes time to learn (like any skill) and there is a steep learning curve.
You’ll need to learn:
- How to grow an audience and be of value during these messed up times.
- What products or services to sell and how to sell them.
- What the most effective online marketing methods to use are.
- What’s working today in the online business world.
- What tools and resources to use and even which ones to avoid.
You can figure all of this stuff out on your own, but going it alone is hard and the best way to flatten that curve is to cut out the guesswork.
Personally, I know of no better place than the training that taught me how to succeed online to start developing the skills required to make it as an affiliate marketer in any niche.
If you want to learn how you can start your own online business today, watch this FREE mini-course with the co-founder of that training platform; Stuart Ross.
