How To Start Affiliate Marketing for Beginners: Roadmap to Success

The global estimation of the affiliate marketing industry is $12 billion.

The U.S affiliate marketing industry is expected to reach $8.2+ billion by 2022.

– 81% of brands rely on affiliate marketers to improve their business.

The above stats, it is clear the power and potential of affiliate marketing for affiliate marketers.

And unlike other types of marketing models, affiliate marketing has no real barriers to entry.

As you can get in with a budget from as little as $0 to $100 for website owners, the reason why many people get drawn in.

The real deal is that this business has a very high failure rate.

Statistics show that 95% of beginner affiliate marketers fail to make any money at all.

Obviously, it is easy to start, but not really easy to succeed without the relevant skill set and needed consistent persistence— just like in every other day-to-day business.

But it is also very profitable.

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Here, I have got a roadmap I call:

How To Start Affiliate Marketing for Beginners: The Roadmap to “Ultra” Success to expose for all beginner and pro affiliate marketers alike.

By the time we are done with this read, implemented it as much as possible and continue to play the patient-dog game; an example of what is possible is this guy’s $20,000/m cash-out or even something bigger!

This post contains all the best methods used by the currently most successful affiliate marketers in the industry.

So are you interested in tapping into the billion-dollar affiliate marketing industry?

Then let’s do it!

*REQUIREMENTS to become a successful affiliate marketer*

Affiliate Terms Page

Contact Page

About Page

A few hundred of daily visits…

Set [Relialistic] Goals And Expectations

What is it that you want to achieve 3 months into your affiliate marketing business?

Do you want to make $10,000 in 6 months, own the most popular website in your niche, or just be at the top of your affiliate game? These are all realistic goals.

Since affiliate marketing is not one of those get-rich-quick schemes, if you want to succeed, you need to set goals.

So my first recommendation to kick-start affiliate marketing will be to first know what you want. And this should not make the process look daunting…

For instance:

Do not expect to replicate the power, functionality, and popularity of something like GOOGLE (put in the big name in your niche here) just in one year. Nah!

For sure you want to be successful. In fact, that is the biggest goal of every entrepreneur, so you will not also want to set that as a goal either.

Then what?

Daily, weekly, and monthly targets; these are the real goals!

The number of posts you want to publish in a month, the expected number of weekly affiliate sales, your monthly target earning, the desirable number of daily and monthly website visitors…and it only keeps counting…

Start setting goals today. They will serve as the big-picture guide to walk you through the entire process.

You’ll be glad you did!

Learn The Complete Art and Science of Affiliate Marketing [for beginners]

Almost every other point on this list can be implemented at the start, but learning and reviewing your strategy as you go will always almost continue. Because affiliate marketing especially for beginners requires an ongoing effort for the desired ultimate success.

It is completely performance-based in the sense that you are paid based on how many sales you make, so there is every reason you should have a good grasp of this thing.

There will be no space for guesswork.

Fortunately, this blog post may teach you a good percentage of all you will need to know to succeed as a beginner affiliate.

Nice one, but you’ve got to read a lot more posts, signup for different paid and free affiliate marketing pieces of training, and even watch several YouTube videos.

A certain wealthy and influential man in my area when asked how he managed to become the richest man in the continent, answered:

“When others are sitting, I am standing, when they standing I am standing out, and when they are standing out, I am outstanding”.

Think about it, just a moment!

Have a Niche You Promote Its Products/Services and Focus Only On It!

Niche-targeted affiliate marketing is no doubt a proven roadmap to success- a simple process of choosing your target audience.

Since it is the nature of humans to “always” find answers to their problems and difficulties, when you have a niche and promote only to a specific audience, you’ll likely know what your audience looks for and can easily attend to their pain points right away. That means you have won the game!

This may not make much sense for a beginner or wannabe affiliate marketer. So let’s go with a simple example.

Using Afonne.com, a Digital Marketing Hub- for Digital marketing resources, recommendations, reviews, and SEO Marketing Tips as a case study.

This is a blog based on the Blogging, SEO, and Digital Marketing niche. Selling any services related to these mentioned keywords will definitely make more sales.

Another way to have a specific niche you promote its products and services makes affiliate marketing more productive besides defining your audience, it also helps boost your search engine ranking and popularity, which in turn increases your odds of beating the competition.

Now you get it, isn’t it?

Niche-narrowed affiliate promotion certainly has the potential to drive viral sales and generate significant revenue for the short and long term.

More than that is, this is a highly cost-effective lead generation tactic that has proven by its performance, to work superbly- surely an affiliate marketing roadmap to success for beginners especially.

Traffic Is Not Just Something You’ll Need, It Is All That Matters

The larger the number of visitors to your website the better! That has always been the formula!

When you can increase your traffic along with the quality of the visitors, higher your odds of making more paying customers!

Let’s say you’ve got a great strategy that helps you convert at least 5% of your daily visitors.

Five % of 10,000 visitors (500 sales) will be higher than 1,000 (50 sales) but the same five percent.

Track Your Marketing Progress—

No matter the level at which you are now, or will be in the future in your affiliate marketing journey, you will want to be measuring your progress often.

You’ll want to know the conversion rate, visitors’ behavior on your site, what to do next, how to modify the current strategy in use, whether is there a need to run ads or viral promotions, the number of sales, and lots more.

So as you grow your online personality, you’ll want to build effective mechanisms to monitor the success of each of your marketing effort to make your success even sweeter.

Create Value-Packed Content Regularly Too!

The first step to making a sale is to tickle your audience’s fancy with a charming headline that irresistibly makes them pay attention.

Then get them to read the first paragraph of the main content… (and continue to read), become convinced to click on your links, and probably pay for a product or service you recommend.

So if you would heed your recommendation because of the way you present it (being the salesperson you would buy from); then a good percentage of your audience will likely do the same.

A fact noteworthy is that it’s all about solving problems.

So right from the beginning of the post-title way down to the conclusion of the content, the deal is to address the potential customer’s pain points.

Then you can recommend your service as a solution.

Seriously, as a blogger and affiliate marketer, everything you’ve got to achieve your expectations as stated in #1 is your content. Why because, for one, every marketing model needs content to work.

In case you don’t know; amid many affiliate marketing strategies that have come and gone, and a lot yet on their way, quality content remains king.

P.S: Content builds trust, connects you with your audience, communicates your message and fuels lead generation… no wonder search engines like Google literally base their judgment for ranking on the quality and quantity of content, not forgetting the number of backlinks.

There are a lot of reasons why you should pay quality attention to your content creation process which include,

… your potential buyers are typical website visitors, but the quality of your content determines if they remain visitors or translate to customers.

…another important reason why you’ll want to dedicate time and energy to improving the quality of your content is for the sake of your on-page and off-page SEO.

…well-optimized content does not only increases search engine ranking but also helps boost the traffic inflow to a website.

So the process of getting more sales with bang-up content looks something like this;

… create value-packed content and populate your site with lots of it,

… rank on a search engine and get clicks and visitors,

… the visitors read your content (text or other forms), click on your links, and probably make purchases.

So in summary, you want to post quality content frequently too.

Make the fixes asap!

Avoid Affiliate Links Spamming, It “Tampers” Trust

Affiliate marketing is no doubt one of the best marketing models to make money with no real barriers.

It is open to everyone to start out without either investment or education.

Owning to that, many have joined affiliate marketing to make quick bucks. Though this has always been the trend not only in the affiliate marketing business.

Now, a few other folks (I included, though not anymore) signed up for their first affiliate program, motivated by the many zero-to-zero affiliate marketing testimonies out there. It is still not really that bad.

Did you know that…

Just as there are “many” successful affiliate marketers, there are as many “so many” failures and drop-outs too.

This enthusiasm (istic) and money-motivated affiliate promotion are one of many reasons beginner affiliates engage in the widespread practice of spamming affiliate links.

Something you wouldn’t like to hear is that spamming affiliate links is not a good idea. In fact, it will only make one look needy and sound stupid.

You’ll always be tempted to add links everywhere possible in your blog posts and articles, which automatically distorts the natural flow.

Overcome it and think of other ways to make things right; then you will become truly an affiliate master.

The roadmap to sell more affiliate products is to sell only when necessary.

My Quote: ‘Spam’ content is the next after thrash, so when you have a lot of it, then…

Do Not Promote Too Many Products, At Least Not At The Beginning!

I can remember the first time I started affiliate marketing, it’s funny that what determined the products I’ll or not promote is the amount of commission.

The problem wasn’t that I wanted to promote only highly paying products, but use this as the only yardstick.

Thanks to the experience and test-and-review practice, I have discovered a lot more things about what it truly takes to start and succeed as an affiliate marketer.

One thing you need to know is that niche-targeted, few-products, and services promotion is the key and proven roadmap to affiliate marketing success for beginners and professionals alike.

Diversifying is not an option to consider at the beginning of your journey, not only as an affiliate marketer, but everything else. Quote me (Afonne CID Paul Onyedikachi) on this!

Use the Best Platforms and Promote Quality Products/Services

It will take a few seconds of Googling to find a product to promote. But it may take more than an hour to find a great product, review the product quality, and sign up as an affiliate.

This thing is about credibility, trust, and money. You’ll first be a credible source of information for your potential buyers.

P.S: With even a pinch of trust, people can freely and willingly listen to you.

Some of the best platforms that provide verifiable quality physical and digital products for promotion include ClickBank, Commission Junction, JVZoo, and Amazon.

When you sign up to any of these platforms, then it’s left for you to search for a product or service to promote (with a sense of scrutiny), because you wouldn’t also want too many refunds, knowing that the reputation of your brand will be at stake.

Some of the roadblocks you’ll need to negotiate as an affiliate marketer, especially at the beginner level are as follows:

It is believed that many affiliate marketers do not believe in the products they are recommending for customers. Work on this!

It’s also a known fact that many affiliates do not care about providing value. Could this be true?

Many money-motivated affiliate marketers create lots of fake reviews of products.

And do not be a lazy affiliate marketer, making wishes without a plan!

Let Every Page Where You Place Your Link(s) Serve As A Sales Page

Your content must be selling something even when you do not intend to :-).

When every content you put out serves as a sales page, you can easily convert visitors to buyers.

And this can be easier than it sounds. Your content serves this purpose if it

…has a charming headline that hooks your readers,

with interesting content, anybody from your niche would want to read.

then highlights the pain points of potential buyers,

offers your product as a solution, and exactly tells what action you want them to take… something like “Click Here”, “Buy Now” etc.

Do More With Less Time [and Resource]

How do you do more of your affiliate game in the least time possible?

By using tools that will improve your efficiency, outsourcing content creation and always getting help when need be is the way to get this achieved.

As time goes by, you will discover that you can’t do it on your own. You’ll need already-made tools for affiliate marketers, that will surely give your efficiency and productivity a boost.

Also, you should know when to outsource to others in your niche. This way you’ll get jobs done by professionals that are even more experienced with focused expertise in what you will need to be done.

Such mundane tasks like content creation can be outsourced to produce more (and more quality) content in less time.

Platforms like Fiverr have made it so seamless to do outsourcing really quickly thereby ordering the services of pros without having to employ any.

Despite content creation, there are tons of other things you can outsource even as a beginner affiliate marketer. Things like SEO services for your blog, website promotion, website building, and more.

The top automation tools I personally use for my blog and also recommend for you include:

Revive Old Post

Social sharing buttons

Grammarly etc

Use Content To Build Your Reputation As An Affiliate

There are top features that can automatically make your brand reputable such as a badge from a top 500 Fortune website and blog. But it may cost a little more than you are willing to spend at the beginning of your affiliate business.

So on your own, the best of the best ways to become a credible source of anything you offer in your niche is to consistently breed, grow and establish your voice and brand via every content you publish on your blog. It’s slow but works superbly.

This works because you want to be an authority and a credible source of unique answers to problems your audiences may have, no doubts boost your affiliate sales, and all these will be contained in your content.

There are a lot of benefits to being a reputable brand in your niche.

When you are an authority in your niche, people are much more likely to rely on you, trust your judgment, respect your recommendations and, they can’t just stop coming back for more.

If you want to turn affiliate marketing, which basically means promoting a product through an affiliate link, into a full-time business, then reputation is a major ingredient you need added right off the bat.

It takes a substantial amount of time and energy and worths the work.

Engage Your Visitors by Encouraging Customers’ Feedback

Engaging your visitors and encouraging customers’ feedback by allowing commenting on your site is an affiliate marketing roadmap to success, and only works when the value is worth the wait.

Personally, I have read a whole lot of blog posts by different bloggers, but I can easily remember how many comments I have dropped and on which.

A visitor that is engaged will…

spend more time on your website,

View more pages instead of clicking away,

Share your content with friends,

drop a comment,

and most importantly, take your desired action (buy) before they leave.

And it all points back to quality, content, and every other point discussed already in this post.

Users’ engagement is completely internal. This means that it starts taking place once visitors have already arrived on your website, which means SEO has already done its job.

Engaging visitors and blog readers start with the user experience. And it carters for two major ingredients, interest, and satisfaction of visitors.

Some of the metrics to measure the level of your websites visitor engagement includes;

Average time spent on site

The number of page navigation on a visit,

onsite social interaction like sharing, likes, etc.

A pro tip for you is that replying to comments creates even more engagement and more returning visitors to your site.

So check periodically for new comments and reply to them as soon as you can.

Platforms like WordPress make it easier for webmasters to easily know when there is a new comment on a blog post. This feature makes it absolutely easy for beginner affiliate marketers to start something engaging right from the onset.

Grow Your Email List

Get the email of all potential and already-made customers right into your list.

I once made a quote that: any visitor you do not have their email address is almost like a shadow of them, ‘cus once gone their coming back is not certain.

If you are not already benefitting from the 3.9 billion+ email users to boost your affiliate sales, then you have to learn and start as soon as possible.

Don’t you think that someone that has voluntarily signed up for your email newsletter- a clear show of interest in what you do- will likely be willing and has the money to pay for that interesting product or service you are promoting? Think again!

This is a nice combo deal!

With an email list of your newest website visitors, and potential or returning customers, you are a click away to reach your audience because you have a direct communication link with your audience.

The good news is that it is easy to start.

More?

If Possible use your products/services before recommending them to others

Keep testing and improving your strategies for everything else…

Learn from Case Studies of successful marketers

Build through consistency

If You Can Get A Mentor, Your Role Model

True success takes time Love What You Do

Openly state your expertise and every other thing your audience will need to know about you on your blog

Appeal to Search Engine bots too (SEO)

Create and promote ‘value’

Originality and patience