My interpretation is that I am an affiliate
marketer and I sell other people’s product for an agreed commission. I send
targeted customers to their purchasing page through an affiliate link or banner
that I have created. If I send the right person to the right offer I have a
better chance of making a sale and getting my commission.
You can join an affiliate program either
directly through a merchant or through a network that handles the merchants
affiliate transactions.
Get Serious First
If you just want to try your hand at affiliate
marketing because you heard about it somewhere on the internet then that is not
a good reason to start a business doing this. It is not something that will
make you millions over night. It actually takes skill.
If you really want to learn a new skill that can
possibly turn into a new career then that is what affiliate marketing for
beginners is about. The key here is that it will take time to learn and master.
Get Paid To Grow Your
Own Business
I build successful WordPress websites and I not
only have developed true and sell-able assets, I also got paid to build them.
Where else can you do this?
Make The Future Your
Goal And The Present Will Come
Of course you want instant profits today. Who
doesn’t? You can get your instant commission from selling other people’s products
but always try and remember how the customer is also connected to your
business. Can you connect with that person in the future? Are they signed up to
your list, following you on Facebook, or maybe commenting on your content?
Never let a good commission get in the way of
your customers. Your website audience is the lifeblood of your business.
That is why you need a website to proceed.
Build a Website VS No
Website
You are talking to the wrong person here if you
are waiting to hear that you can make lots of money by not having a website.
You possibly can make money without a website but what exactly are you
building? I like to build a business and something that becomes virtual real
estate. If you are planning on spamming social media with affiliate links, or
some other devious way to get a sale, then this article is not for you.
I don’t believe that building a business that
relies on third party properties is a good idea at all. For example, if you
build an awesome Facebook page and make millions from it, what happens when
Facebook removes your page? What then?
Or what if you build a website that solely
relies on Google for traffic and Google decides to de-index your site for
breach of THEIR TERMS?
This is why you need your own website and you
need to build your own customer base.
Choosing a Niche
Choosing the right niche for your website can be
a tricky thing to do. After all, if you choose the wrong niche you could be
working on something that will never actually make money in the end. That is
why I have a few simple questions you should ask yourself when choosing a
niche:
·
Are people searching for
content related to this niche?
·
Is there a problem I can
solve for them?
·
When searching in
Google, are other businesses advertising on the results pages? Is there money
to be made?
·
Is this topic out of my
league or do I have the knowledge to be the best?
·
Are competing sites
unbeatable with awesome content ? Is there a space for me?
Stick to What You
Know
Many people will start building websites that
are centred around topics that they really have no idea about. I have seen this
many times over the years and it always seems to lead to the same conclusion.
If you do not get out of bed every day and enjoy what you do, I can almost
guarantee you will not be doing it for long.
Even when building a website from scratch, you
need to enjoy the topic that you have to write about every day, because trust
me, you will get sick of it very fast. Therefore choosing your website topic
should be a mixture of research and passion.
Buy Hosting
You can try to build our business on free Web
hosting or blogging platforms, but I never recommend it. If you are serious
about affiliate marketing and building a website that can actually make money,
you need to buy your place on the Internet. Sure you can get your nerdy
neighbour to host your website on his home-made server, but trust me, this only
leads to trouble.
When looking for website hosting, you need to
consider this from a business point of view. Are you going to get good service
and it is your website going to be available 24 hours a day?
When I first started out I bought Godaddy
hosting and immediately started to hit roadblocks on what I could and could’t
do. Everything I wanted to do with my website involved getting another upgrade
which in turn always costed more. I hated that.
After trying a few more hosting companies I
ended up with Hostgator and have been with them for approx 7 years.
The one thing I will say about website hosting
is JUST DO IT! Don’t waste time on this decision or you will never get started!
If you decide you don’t like your hosting, most
top hosting companies will move your website into their new hosting for free..
So stay cool as change is easy!
Now Build a WordPress
Website
WordPress is the only website building platform
I use. I have some free resources for you to build a website at the push of a
button. This includes free step-by-step tutorials and full-length videos.
See my WordPress Website Basic Tutorials page for more
information.
Affiliate Marketing
For Beginners – What to Sell
Now that you have a niche, what can you sell?
This is an important question because you cannot just sell anything and everything
on the Internet.
Here are a few tips to
finding and selling the right affiliate product:
·
The best way to sell a
product is to use it yourself. Are you willing to buy it before trying to sell?
·
The best product is the
one that is directly matched to your content. A cat lover does not want a dog
grooming tool.
·
Think about your
reputation when selling other people’s products. Is it a good product and will
it please the customer?
·
The merchant page you
send your potential customer to must do a good job at converting then to
buyers. After all, you have worked hard to get them there.
·
Will the merchant
provide good after sale support and care about customers?
Where To Find
Affiliate Products
This is the boring part. Sifting through sites
that offer affiliate products.
Affiliate Networks: These are websites that basically control
an affiliate program for a particular merchant. If you visit an affiliate
network you will see hundreds of merchants listed and waiting for affiliates to
sign up to their program.
Some affiliate networks include:
·
Clickbank
·
JVZoo
·
Commission Junction
·
Linkshare
·
Shareasale
Most of these networks are pay per sale or pay
per lead. A network like Adsense is pay per click (PPC) and Neverblue is pay
per action (PPA).
Go Direst to Merchant
Sites: Some merchants
choose to handle its own affiliate sales and payments. For example, the Elegant
themes affiliate program is run from their website. If you see a product that
others are selling then the first place to visit is the merchants website. Most
will have an affiliate link for more information on how to join their program.
We must always be careful when dealing with
merchants directly as some have been known to not pay up when commissions are
due. Go with well know merchants just to be safe.
Related Websites: See what your competition is selling and
find the affiliate program for that product. Please note: The website might
either be stupid or smart. Stupid for sticking with a product that doesn’t sell
or smart for sticking with a product that does sell. Either way you need to
find out for yourself.
Adsense Banners: We all know Google knows what sells with
what content so why not steal their ideas? Place Adsense on your blog and see
what ads appear on what pages. Then when you see pages that earn good money
from Adsense you can remove Adsense from individual
pages.
Where To Place Affiliate
Links and Banners?
Over the years I have learnt that affiliate
banners placed in the sidebar of a website are there just for looks. The real
money is made within the content. Why do you think Google AdSense suggests that
you place a banner within your content? This is because it is the best
performing ad.
I have stolen some very valuable tips from the
Google AdSense program over the years. For example, Google only serves highly
related ads, they like them to be placed in the content, and they like them to
blend in with the overall website.
So now when I place an affiliate banner or link
I follow these basic rules. But the best rule of all is to have a highly
related product within your content. This is because if a person takes the time
to read this content, they are obviously interested in its information, which
is more likely to lead to a purchase.
Nothing But Useful
Content
Even though I say that “content is not the only
king“, by gosh it is dam important! If you haven’t got the information that
your visitor wants then you can kiss your affiliate commissions goodbye.
Excellent content is the main ingredient in your sale process so never just
slap any old content up. See this article showing what I think quality content is.
Each time you build awesome content with the
right monetization methods, you’re building another opportunity to make a sale.
Publishing generic content will not get you in
the race for being one of the best information providers and is a waste of your
time. Affiliate marketing is not about cheesy sales pitches, it is about
providing awesome information that makes the reader want to buy something.
For example if you choose to review a product it
can’t be a generic article. The best reviews can only come from a true
experience of using the product.
image:
https://cdn.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/affiliatefunnel.jpg
Build Pages and Then…
Get targeted traffic to your landing pages,
reviews, tutorials, and so on. You will never know if your content and
affiliate links are working if you don’t get a certain amount of people there
to see it.
Tips to get targeted
traffic to your offers:
·
Guest post on someone
else’s site where your customers might be. 2 or 3 for each post is the best.
·
Share your content
through social media.
·
Create a free download
like a PDF report that links back to this content.
·
Send an email out to
your subscribers alerting them of the new content.
Then Do It Again
So you created a page that worked for you.
Awesome. Now you should promote that page more and create more related content.
Don’t leave the page to die and get burred in the archives of your site, it is
too valuable for that!
Be In IT To WIN IT
Well duh! If you don’t add affiliate links and
banners into your content then how do you expect to make sales? When people
fail to make money when affiliate marketing, it is usually because they are not
discretely monetizing all opportunities. People DO NOT care if you have a few
links and banners on a website, in fact they expect it. Especially when they
get interested in a product and want to see more. If they have to go and search
for the product themselves, they hate that.
image: https://cdn.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/forgot-affiliate-link.png
The Hunt Must Go On
Let us just say you have written an awesome
article, but the affiliate products you usually sell will not fit with this
content. You have a feeling that people who read this content might want to buy
a particular product. For example an article about keeping children safe online
might be suited to software like Net Nanny rather than an Antivirus program.
The need would be direct and far more precise.
So hunt for the closest match possible. Gather
new affiliate products and test them. If they work, keep them by your side. If
they are duds, take them away from your valuable content.
Make Every Visitor
Count
Every visitor to your website is either a
customer or a potential customer. Either way, you need to get their contact
details as you can sell more to existing customers and convince potential
customers to buy. You should never let a chance go by and never let a visitor
leave empty handed.
In the affiliate marketing business it is common
practice to collect e-mail addresses from website visitors all customers. This
is a fantastic way to build a business, however creating a list with people
that are not interested in what you have to offer is a bad idea!
My lists for letsbuildwebsites.com only fall
into two categories. One for building a website from scratch and one for making
money with a website. That’s it. So I am looking for people that are interested
in these subjects only.
Sell To The Right
People
You also do not want to try and sell to people
that already have what you offer. For example, this website shows people how to
build a website, therefore my ideal website visitor would not be a well
established popular blogger.
My other main website has basic computer tips
and is not for the fill blown geek who talks tech language. If a full blooded
geek read my articles they would be thinking that they are simple and not
required, whereas computer illiterate people see a great need for them.
Any old traffic doesn’t pay the bills. You need
to get targeted traffic to your website.
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