So you want to learn affiliate marketing in hopes of achieving the Big American dream of earning passive income while you sleep.

Well before your mouth starts watering and you starting visualizing all those checks in the mail, or keep hitting refresh on your PayPal account to watch it overflow from affiliate commissions..

You need to have a better understanding of how affiliate marketing works and the best way to learn affiliate marketing to ensure you benefit from your hard work online.

I am going to take the time to explain affiliate marketing in complete details so you will know whether it is actually the yellow brick road that you want to take to achieve financial freedom.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

You may have spent the last hour browsing the Internet and reading those make money blogs online…that promise you if you create an affiliate niche site, you too can start making money in the next 30 days.

While it is possible to make money online as an affiliate, there are some things that you need to know before you get started.

There are essentially two ways to make money online:

Create a product of your own and then sell it to others. Of course you can also make a killing offering your building a service based business.

But for the purpose of this post, I am just going to be talking about creating your own digital products and affiliate marketing as the two main money making methods.

So what are the two main methods….

Sell and promote someone else’s digital products and get paid every time someone buys through your links. (I have a WordPress Security course you can become an affiliate for and get paid 60% of the profits from it.)

In a nutshell that is how most people get started online.

Don’t worry, I am going to explain in more detail what affiliate marketing is and how to get started.

After you get done reading this blog post you will have a better understand of:

There is so much to learn about affiliate marketing, that you won’t become a super affiliate just by reading this blog post.

But if you take the time to implement the steps on this post, I have no doubt that you will eventually start seeing the results you want.

Step One

Getting Started With Affiliate Marketing

Most people who start an online business based on affiliate marketing go about it the wrong way.

They want to start making money online without a website.

While it is possible to get started online without your own website, why would you want to?

Getting a website up and running is quick and easy nowadays. It is extremely vital that you get your own website if you want to build a long-term business.

I am basing this post on the fact that you are in this for the long run and are not going to quit, no matter how long it takes you to reach your goals.

Step Two

How to Setup an Affiliate Niche Blog That Attracts Buyers

So you have never setup your own website….

You can read my indepth step by step guide on how to install WordPress with pictures.

You will see exact how to setup a WordPress site, so even if you are a newbie you will be able to get your first affiliate blog up and running in the next 10 minutes.

You might be thinking, should I invest in a premium theme?

If you are just starting out, you do not want to spend a lot on a theme…focus on getting content on your blog and driving traffic to your affiliate links.

The most important thing to look for is a mobile friendly theme. Google is releasing the “Mobilegeddon” update on the 21^st of this month.

This update punishes all websites that are not mobile friendly…so please take the time to ensure that the theme you choose is mobile-friendly. You can read more about Google’s algorithm on their recent blog post. 

Of course if you want to start building your brand and online reputation, you may want to check out the Genesis themes…these are the themes I use on all my niche sites.

Thrive themes is another premium WordPress theme company that seems to be rising in popularity.

Thrive themes is another premium WordPress theme company that seems to be rising in popularity.

When you use either Genesis or Thrive themes, you can rest assured that your site will be mobile-friendly.

Want to know if your site is going to be penalized on the 21^st? Head on over and get your site tested right now to see how Google sees your website.

I know that starting out with a premium theme can be extremely expensive.That is the reason that I offer WordPress installation services that will help you save money.

Anyway….

Avoid these mistake of building a free website and NOT making your website mobile friendly and you should start seeing some results.

Just Rome wasn’t built in a day…and you won’t see results in a day.

Now that your blog is setup....

Now that your blog is setup….

Step Three

Don’t make the same mistakes that I made.

Get started on the right foot.

Don’t Try to Market All the Affiliate Programs

I could go into details about all the different affiliate networks available, but the truth is that are so many.

Just because one network works for me, does NOT mean it will work for you.

Here’s how to find the right program for your blog.

Are your readers interested in it?

Does it fit well with your niche.

If you have a “weight lifting blog” then you don’t want your readers to read affiliate product reviews about barbeque grills.

You want to find products that are related to the niche you chose.

Popular Affiliate Programs

Pick 1-2 networks and start finding products that will fit in with your blog.

One of the mistakes that most newbies make is that they try to market everything in the network…but we will save that for another post.

Step Four

What to Look for In an Affiliate Product

There are several factors to consider before you start promoting a product. It depends on which affiliate network you are using.

But these tips should help you get started on finding the right products that convert your visitors.

Desperate Buyers: Are there desperate buyers in your niche that will pull out their credit card and buy what you are promoting?

You may have heard people say that the make money online, health niche as well as the relationship niches are the hottest niches to promote.

While these niches do have desperate buyers. You can use tools like Market Samurai to uncover golden nuggets that do not have a lot of competition.

Trying to promote products to people who are not willing to solve their problems now is a waste of your time. Chances are no matter what you promote to these people they will not buy.

These types of niches are considered non-buying niches and should be avoided. Of course sometimes we do not know what we are entering a non-buying niche until we have already done some work.

As an entrepreneur you have to make your own mistakes and learn from them. As you continue down your path to financial freedom, you will learn which niches make money and which ones do not.

Size of the market: How many buyers are currently purchasing products or services in the market?

Existing competition: You do not want to enter a market that does not have any competition. This is big red flag that there are NO buyers.

You want to find a niche that has a healthy amount of competition. This means that it is a viable and active market that has buyers.

However, you want to ensure that the competition is not so thick that you will struggle to penetrate it.

Quality and Quantity of the Products: Focus on evergreen niches that offer an abundance of products to promote.

As an affiliate marketer eventually you will find that affiliate products come and go…but niches remain.

This means if you are marketing an affiliate product that goes away, you need to be able to find another affiliate product in the same niche.

Back in the day, I had a junk car niche site that was making over $1300 per month. To say that I was happy that it made that amount every month would be an understatement.

Then one day I woke up and the affiliate company I was promoting was closing down their affiliate program.

There were no back up affiliate products I could promote. I didn’t want to create my own product in the junk car niche….I didn’t know enough about creating products of my own back then.

So I decided to put Google Adsense on the site and needless to say that site went from making $1300 per month all the way down to $300 per month.

Eventually, it went to nothing after being penalized by the Google algorithm updates.

That is NOT something you want to experience so be sure that there are plenty of quality affiliate niche products you can promote in your niche.

Step Five

The Best Affiliate Marketing Strategies

Okay great you are now starting to get approved and those approval emails should be coming to your inbox. Now it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get to work.

Think of yourself like a commissioned salesperson….if you do not make any sales…you do not earn a commission.

So now it’s time to put your links in front of hungry buyers.

No I am NOT talking about blasting your links with Senuke, Xrummer or any of those methods.

I am talking about helping others…hopefully, you have found affiliate products that can actually help someone.

It is best to avoid products that promise hype.

Look closely at the sales page, if you were a potential customer…would you buy that product?

Speaking of being a customer of the actual product…

While you do not have to own or use the product, I think that it is a lot easier to write a product review if you actually use the product.

Now it does not mean that you have to purchase every product….super affiliates do not purchase every product they promote.

At first you may struggle to write a product review, but as you continue posting content on your blog…you will get better and faster.

Step Six

How to Do Affiliate Marketing Ethically

I know that you have ventured into the Internet marketing niche in hopes to make money.

This does not mean that you should cheat, lie or steal just to make a dime.

Chances are you may have been the culprit of purchasing something that you do not need or use.

Just because someone may have lied to you….do not do it to others.

Be as honest as you can be…even if you do not personally use the product.

Yes you can lie just to make a sale…people do it every day.

But if you want to build your tribe and a loyal following, then you want to do affiliate marketing ethically.

I have found that I make more money when I promote products that I personally use or have used in the past.

Creating step-by-step video tutorials of you actually using the product you are promoting is a great way to make affiliate commissions.

While it takes a little bit more time than writing a blog post, I enjoy creating video affiliate product reviews.

Check out my how to Use Engagifire Review. At the time of this writing, this post has already made 3 affiliate sales.

This does not mean that you can not promote products that you personally do not use.

People do it all the time and you should not have to purchase all the products you are considering purchasing.

I am just saying that it is easier to write a review on something that you actually know about and believe because you use it.

Don’t jump on the bandwagon.

What do I mean by this?

I mean just because everyone promotes a product it does not mean that you should do it as well.

We see it everyday in the Make money online niche. A product creator launches a new product that has upsells and downsells, people start promoting it.

Most of these affiliate marketers are just promoting it because they want to earn big commissions.

They do not care if the product will add any value to their subscribers or visitors.

The products should add value to the buyers. Now you can’t help it if someone buys something and they do not take action on it.

That is NOT your problem.

As long as you know the product is valuable and can add value to your readers, then you have done your job.

So there you have it that is basically the nutshell of what you need to learn affiliate marketing.

If you are considering getting started as an affiliate, then I suggest that you continue learning as much as you can.

But most of all take action on everything you learn.

Affiliate marketing is one of the quickest ways to make money online. Once you get better at it and start making money, you can delve into creating your own products.

Conclusion

Congrats on wanting to get started online in hopes of changing your financial situation.

I personally know that as long as you NEVER give up, you will see success.

The Internet is a great way to sustain a lifestyle that you want. It is going to take work…but many people have learned how to do it.

So do you currently have an affiliate niche blog setup? If so are you making a consistent income online?

When you got started online, how did you learn about affiliate marketing?

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