So you’ve heard about affiliate marketing, now you want to know exactly what it is, how it all works & how people make money with it, right?
Well, you’re in the right place.
In this blog post I’ll be explaining everything there is to know about affiliate marketing & most importantly I’ll also be explaining how you can get it started with it too, even if you’re just a beginner.
What Is Affiliate Marketing? | How Does It Work? | How Do People Make Money With It? | How Can You Get Started? | A Fast-Start Bonus | Frequently Asked Questions
What Is Affiliate Marketing?
In short, affiliate marketing basically involves promoting products or services for companies online & getting paid commissions from any successful sales generated in return.
You see, most companies that have an online presence have things called “affiliate programs” through which you can sign up to promote their products or services for money.
This even includes the big names like Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, Nike, etc…
In fact here’s a screenshot of Amazon’s affiliate program, which they call Amazon Associates:
As you can see from the screenshot above, the program is titled “Profit from Amazon” and it states that you can earn up to a whopping 12% in commissions (advertising fees) just by sending people to their website.
You refer somebody, they purchase something, you get paid.
And the best part about affiliate marketing is that you can often still earn commissions even if the person you referred to a product ends up purchasing something entirely different.
Or if they end up purchasing multiple products, you can earn a commission from the total.
Cool, right?
And there’s little no limit on the amount that you can earn.
Some affiliates make as much as 5-figures per month.
Some even make as much as 6-figures per month.
It’s pretty crazy stuff… But what’s crazier is that those sort of figures aren’t actually unrealistic to achieve providing you’re willing to put in the work to make it happen.
How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?
Basically, when you join an affiliate program (which is free to do), you get provided with a unique membership ID inside of the program along with custom links to the website to promote.
So the idea is that you then send people to the website via those custom links, and the links contain your membership ID which means any clicks & sales can be tracked to you.
Those custom links are called affiliate links, and they typically look something like this:
www.amazon.com/?aid=123456
So if somebody clicked on that link, because your ID is appended to it, the click would be tracked to you.
Then if they also went on to make a purchase, you’d be rewarded with a commission for that sale.
And the awesome part is that most companies even save something called “affiliate cookies” on the devices of the people that click through your affiliate links.
These cookies placed on the device contain your affiliate membership ID & mean that even if somebody clicks your link but doesn’t purchase until a later date, you can still earn a commission providing the cookie still exists.
The cookies do come with expiry dates, with some companies setting them to expire in just 24 hours, but most set expiry days of in excess of 30 days, giving you a lot of extra chance to earn commissions.
So you could refer somebody to a website today, then still earn a commission even if they didn’t happen to purchase anything all the way up until next week.
Cool, right?
But whilst the process itself is pretty simple, whether or not you have success with affiliate marketing depends on whether or not you manage to get people to click on your links.
Which brings me nicely onto the next part of this guide…
How Do People Make Money With Affiliate Marketing?
To make money with affiliate marketing you need to get clicks on your links & most importantly, then sales… And affiliate marketers do this in many different ways.
Some affiliate marketers use social media to promote their affiliate links, and you might have often heard of these types of marketers being termed as “influencers”.
Other affiliate marketers may use forms of paid advertising to promote their links, hoping that the amount they earn in commissions will be greater than the amount they spend on their ads.
But I believe there to be a better way, which involves creating small, simple webpages & getting them listed (for free) in search engines like Google, Yahoo & Bing.
It’s a method known as search engine optimisation & not only is it free to do, but it’s also really easy to do as well which makes it absolutely perfect for beginners who are just starting out.
You see, when you create a webpage online, search engines (such as Google) discover it automatically & then list it within their results as an option for people to click on.
So as an example, let’s say that you were interested in dogs & so you decided to create a small, simple webpage on which you listed what you believed to be the best dog toothbrushes.
Google & the other search engines would then discover that page & they’d list it as an option for people to click on whenever they searched for something related to it.
Here’s an example of what I mean:
Then once the page gets listed, visitors will begin coming to it which means you then gain the ability to promote products to them as an affiliate in return for commissions.
And that’s exactly what the creator of that “dog toothbrushes” page has done, take a look:
As you can see from the image above, next to each of the dog toothbrushes that are listed on that page the creator has added an affiliate link to check out the product on Amazon.
So if a visitor comes to that page, clicks one of those links & then buys something, the creator of that page gets paid.
This means that from a small one-time effort the creator of that page could be earning passive commissions for many years to come, without any additional work whatsoever.
Cool, right?
And it gets even better because there’s literally no limit on the amount of pages you can create.
The more pages you create, the more money you stand to earn.
How To Start Affiliate Marketing
Many years ago getting started with affiliate marketing was pretty difficult but now there are bespoke platforms like Wealthy Affiliate that are specifically designed to help you get started.
Wealthy Affiliate provides you with step-by-step training & all of the tools you need to get started, along with access to community support & even personal 1-on-1 mentorship.
The price?
Free.
Yep, that’s right – you can actually get inside Wealthy Affiliate, make a start on the first 10 lessons & begin building out your first website absolutely free of charge.
There’s no payment details required to get inside, no catches & no tricks. Just an email address is all you need to create a free Starter account & check it all out.
Then, if you decide you like what you see you can opt to upgrade to become a Premium member which gives you access to literally everything there is to offer on the inside.
Premium membership costs just $49 per month & the important point here is that there are literally NO upsells or any other additional “hidden costs” after that.
Plus you can even bring that cost down to just $30 per month by paying for the full year in advance. It costs just $359 which means it’s literally less than $1 per day.
And I myself am also a member of Wealthy Affiliate (I know – it’d be a bit ironic if I wasn’t, right?).
Here’s a screenshot of my own personal Wealthy Affiliate profile:
So if you’d like to get started with affiliate marketing & put all of what we’ve discussed above into action to begin making money then you can create your free Starter account right here.
Bonus: Fast-Track Your Success
Like I just mentioned above, I’m a member of Wealthy Affiliate… And Wealthy Affiliate happens to have an affiliate program through which you can earn commissions by referring others.
This means that if you sign up via my link & happen to go Premium, then at absolutely no additional expense to you, I’d get paid a commission.
So here’s the deal. If you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.
If you create an account via my link & go Premium, I’ll offer you my personal 1-on-1 mentorship & do my best to help you get your business rolling as quickly as possible.
It’ll cost $49/month by going direct, or it’ll cost $49/month by going via my link… So essentially you’ll be getting my expert personal mentorship, for free.
Sound good?
All you need to do is create your free Starter account here & then fill in your profile.
I’ll keep my eye out for you joining & when I see that you have, I’ll leave a message on your profile welcoming you inside & explaining the next steps you need to take.
Speak soon.
P.S. here’s the direct link to my personal profile again in case you want to send me a message, and I’ll leave you with an FAQ below:
Affiliate Marketing FAQ
Here are the answers to some of the most commonly asked affiliate marketing questions:
How Much Money Can You Make With Affiliate Marketing?
The amount of money that you can earn with affiliate marketing is completely uncapped. You can earn as much as you like & it’s not uncommon for experienced affiliate marketers to earn in excess of 5-figures per month.
How Long Does It Take To Make Money With Affiliate Marketing?
This depends on a lot of factors. Theoretically, you could instantly earn money if you were able to get somebody to click your link & make a purchase… But like any business, even though it may happen sooner, you should set yourself a realistic goal of 6 months before turning any profit, especially if you’re brand new to it.
What Do I Need To Start Affiliate Marketing?
Whilst some individual affiliate programs may have eligibility requirements, there are no overall requirements – meaning you don’t need to have anything in particular. All you need is an affiliate program that’ll accept you & a link to promote, then you can begin earning money. For long-term success though, it’s a very good idea to have a website as an absolute minimum.
How Do Affiliates Get Paid?
Each affiliate program will pay their affiliates differently, but typical payout methods include PayPal, Payoneer, Wire Transfer, Cheque & Bitcoin. The good news is that you can often negotiate payout methods once you begin generating enough traffic to your links.
Is Affiliate Marketing Passive Income?
Yes & no. Initially, you’ll have to put in a lot of work to see success from affiliate marketing – however, depending on your means of promotion, you may be able to stop working & continue earning money. Passive income is more common from methods like content marketing as your already-created content will still generate traffic even if you stop producing new stuff.
What’s The Average Affiliate Marketing Income?
The figure for average affiliate marketing income would be misleading because each affiliate marketer does different things & works drastically different hours, however with dedication, a realistic figure to achieve would be 4-figures to 5-figures per month.
Is Affiliate Marketing Legal?
Despite how widespread affiliate marketing is there are still many people that believe affiliate marketing may actually be illegal. The good news is that it’s not, it’s perfectly legal. Of course, though, this depends on what you’re promoting. If you’re promoting something that’s illegal then that’s a different story altogether. Providing you stick to promoting legitimate things & are transparent about your partnerships you’ll be just fine.
