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This post contains affiliate links; I will make a commission at no extra cost to you, should you click through and make a purchase. Read my disclosure for more info.
Affiliate marketing.
If you’re a blogger and you haven’t heard of it, you’re missing out on some serious money.
And if you haven’t started a blog, it might be how I convince you to. (Although you can actually use affiliate marketing without a blog. More on this to come).
WHAT IS AFFILIATE MARKETING?
Affiliate marketing is basically where:
- You share information on a product or service.
- Then if someone purchases that product or service, you make a commission.
And that’s basically it!
Sounds simple right? Whilst it is in theory, it can be so easy to get wrong.
But get it right, and it’s a legitimate way to earn an income online passively.
WHAT IS PASSIVE INCOME?
Passive income is basically where you earn moneywithouthaving to actively work for it.
It’s like the ultimate income goal, as you can literally earn money in your sleep.
And in fact, in my income report where I earned $439, almost all of it was through passive income methods!
If you’d like to learn more about how to make passive income, be sure to sign up for my free email courseEasy Passive Income.
It’ll teach you the 3 best ways to make money without having to work for it constantly!
HOW MUCH MONEY CAN I MAKE WITH AFFILIATE MARKETING?
You’re gonna hate this answer, but there isn’t really a limit.
But to give you a better idea, I’ve got some examples of bloggers killing itwith affiliate marketingfor you.
THE BLOGGER MAKING BIG $$$ THROUGH AFFILIATE MARKETING:
I’ve got to start with this one, because when I first read it I though there was a mistake with the decimal point!
Michelle from Making Sense of Cents went from making $0 dollars a month on her finance blog, to over$50,000 per month.
You read that right;$50,000.Every month.
Crazy right! And that’s just through affiliate marketing.
She makes even more than that on her blog through other income streams!
She now teaches bloggers how to make money with affiliate marketing regardless of what you blog about, with her online course making sense of affiliate marketing.
If you’ve heard other bloggers mention this course before, let me tell you- it’s because it’sthe course for affiliate marketing for beginners.
You have to remember, Michelle started out earning nothing through affiliate marketing.
She knows what it’s like to be new to it, and has created this course with that in mind.
I credit it to being the reason I made my first affiliate sale, and continue to make sales, even with a small audience!
OTHER BLOGGERS MAKING BIG $$$ THROUGH AFFILIATE MARKETING:
Maybe she’s a fluke, right? We can’t all be making money through affiliate marketing.
Check out these other bloggers making loads of money through affiliate marketing:
- Anastasia from Anastasia Bloggermade $1529.09 from affiliate marketing here.
- Shirley from Smart Cents for Lifemade $1866.26with affiliate marketingin this income report.
- Slaying Social made$1,626.95 from affiliatesnot including Amazon(they made$3,175.55including Amazon sales).
- FinSavvy Pandaearned $4,399.10 from affiliate marketing.
- Tom and Anna from Adventure In You made$6512.68 from affiliates here.
- Caroline from Caroline Vencil madeover $9,000 from affiliate marketingin this income report…
- …And Breaking The One Percent made$102,354 from affiliate marketinghere!
Isn’t that just crazy?!
Now, please don’t think that as someone who is not an affiliate marketing pro (or perhaps you’d never even heard of affiliate marketing up until now), that you can’t make that kind of money too.
Allthese bloggers started out earning $0, and asked themselves the question “what is affiliate marketing” when they first heard it.
No doubt in fact that some of them were actually in a worse position when they started than you are now.
Stuck in a crippling 9-5, a single parent needing money to support their kids.
Some of them even started because they were in debt (the big kind).
If they can do it with those kind of pressures, there’s no reason why you can’t do it.
BLOGGERS MAKING $ THROUGH AFFILIATE MARKETING:
Seeing the large amounts some bloggers are making through affiliate marketing can be kind of intimidating.
Even though you know they started out at $0, the amount they are earning just seems so unreachable.
Well, here are a few bloggers making smaller amounts through affiliate marketing:
- Heather from Very Anxious Mommy made $46.40 from affiliate marketing.
- Clary from Oh Clary earned $1910.42 in this income report, and $503.46 was from affiliate marketing.
- Dana from Dana Nicole Designs earned $2,258.36 in this income report; $182.45 was from affiliate marketing.
- Victoria from Blog Ambitious made $987.50 with affiliates here.
So you see, not everyone talking about affiliate marketing is crazy rich from it.
Some people are just starting out, and there’s no reason why you can’t start it too.
WHAT IS AFFILIATE MARKETING:DON’T I NEED LOTS OF PAGE VIEWS?
Nope!
Whilst it’s true that the more page views your blog has, the more money youcanmake (because the chances that somebody uses your link increases).
But it does not mean you need to have hundreds of thousands of page views to make a sale.
Thinking you need lots of page views to make any kind of money blogging is actually a myth lots of new bloggers believe (I wrote a post on bloggers making over $1,000+ a month with less than 15k pageviews to prove it!).
I speak from experience; I made my first affiliate sale with less than 3,000 page views a month, and under 30 blog posts published (thanks to making sense of affiliate marketing).
So if you came to this post wondering what is affiliate marketing, don’t let the fact that it’s new to you or your blog is small (maybe even non existent currently) stop you from getting started.
WHAT IS AFFILIATE MARKETING: A STEP BY STEP GUIDE
Below is a step by step for getting started with affiliate marketing for beginners, so you can start making money online.
KEEP IN MIND that this is not a get rich scheme and does require work.
But once you have done the work, you can make you money on autopilot (even whilst you sleep!).
The beginning steps are for those who are completely new to blogging and making money with affiliate marketing.
If you already have a blog and are getting regular readers, skip the first two steps!
WHAT IS AFFILIATE MARKETING STEP 1: START A BLOG
To make money with affiliate marketing from your blog, you need your own blog up and running.
You iactually make money using affiliate marketing on social media without even having a blog.
In this post how to make $1500 a month using Pinterest, I talk about how to make money through affiliate marketing with Pinterest (so no blog required).
However, it is better to have a blog if you want to make as much money as some of the other bloggers I listed are.
That’s because you can provide more information about a product or service in a blog post, and hopefully that’ll get more people to click through (and make you more money).
If you’re yet to start a blog, check out my ultimate how to start a blog guide.
It’s over 3,000 words long, and shows you step-by-step how to start a blog from scratch.
And keeping in mind the low investment costs compared to potential return, why wouldn’t you start one?
WHAT IS AFFILIATE MARKETINGSTEP 2: PUBLISH RELEVANT POSTS
It’s important to have a blog with some stuff onbefore you start applying to any affiliate programmes.
You might have heard otherwise, as some affiliate programmes do not have any requirements to join.
However, lots of affiliate programmes will want to take a look at your blog before you start recommending their product or services.
They need to see you are for real, and you’re the right fit for them.
So make sure to have a few blog posts (it doesn’t have to be loads) so they know you’re not scamming them.
Think about the affiliate programmes your blog readers will be interested in whilst creating content for your blog.
If your blog is about travelling, have a couple of post on travelling before you apply for any travel affiliates.
Or if you have a multi niche blog, have a post on each so they know you do cover the affiliate programme topic you are applying for.
WHAT IS AFFILIATE MARKETING STEP 3: APPLY FOR AFFILIATE PROGRAMMES
Now you need to start finding affiliate programmes so you can promote their links on your blog.
If you’re interested in affiliate marketing for beginners, chances are you don’t know any affiliate programmes.
You can find some in the following ways:
1. Google if there are affiliate programmes for products you are already using.
I’m a firm believer in not promoting products unless you love them; if you just keep talking about loads of products it gets too sales-y and distasteful.
Hopefully you’ve started a blog in something you’re interested in, so you should already be using products that are relevant e.g you have a beauty blog, and use make-up brands regularly.
Google to see if these make-up brands have an affiliate programme you can apply for.
2. Google “your niche+ affiliate programmes”.
Other bloggers may have already made lists of some affiliate programmes depending on your niche, and you should be able to find these by simply searching on Google or Pinterest, e.g “beauty affiliate programmes”.
3. Ask bloggers in your niche what affiliate programmes they love.
If you’re a blogger and you’re not getting in touch with other bloggers, start now!
It’ll help you massively in the long run.
Just join some Facebook groups for bloggers, search “affiliate programmes” in these groups and see what comes up.
And if nobody has asked it before, ask yourself! Chances are there will be other bloggers in that Facebook group interested in joining affiliate programmes too.
4. “Stalk” big bloggers in your niche.
This is kind of a joke, but bloggers who are making lots of money sometimes share their income reports (I linked a few further up in the post).
Usually, if they are making money through affiliate marketing they will break it down into how much they are earning from each affiliate.
Find income reports from bloggers who have posts on the topic(s) you blog about, and take note of what affiliate programmes they are earning money from.
WHAT IS AFFILIATE MARKETING STEP 4: USE AFFILIATE LINKS
Once you’ve been accepted to a programme, read the terms and conditions.
Then, create blog posts based around the products your readers will be interested in, or even link to them in your old posts.
Just make sure the links you are using are for products that are actually what your readers want.
For example, I have linked to Making Sense of Affiliate Marketingthroughout this post.
Why?
Because if you’re reading this you’re probably interested in affiliate marketing, and would be interested in a course on it created by an expert.
‘ve also linked to it because I’ve done the course, and I know it’s good- I wouldn’t link to it otherwise!
I wouldnotlink to a programme about weight loss for example.
It’s got nothing to do with this post, you’re probably not interested in it, and it would just make me look silly.
Try to create detailed posts that are insightful, or provide a unique view on the product.
So I can say I made my first affiliate sale thanks to Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing, and you’re reading this it’s likely you want to make your first affiliate sale. So you will check it out!
WHAT IS AFFILIATE MARKETINGSTEP 5: STAY LEGAL
This is the kinda scary bit, and is important even for beginners.
But you must disclose your affiliate links right. If you don’t you might actually be breaking the law.
My favourite part of Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing is actually the legal section.
Because I was doing it wrong before! And I could have gotten into a lot of trouble if I hadn’t taken the course and learnt how to disclose my affiliate links properly.
Be sure not to mislead people, and let your readers know that you will be earning money because it is an affiliate link.
on’t think that makes you look unprofessional- if anything it helps to establish trust with your readers!
WHAT IS AFFILIATE MARKETING STEP 6: GET TRAFFIC!
Now this step can be done earlier on, and you can get regular readersthenadd in affiliate links and start making money.
But the thing is, if you put the affiliate links in beforeyou even start getting readers, you can be making money as soon as people start reading your blog.
And as your blog gets more readers and more people using your links, you will make more money.
HOW TO GET MORE BLOG TRAFFIC
To get more traffic:
USE PINTEREST
Pinterest isthe bestway to get traffic as a new blogger.
Other social media platforms take too much effort without results. But with Pinterest, you can start getting traffic almost instantly.
In my post about how I doubled my blog traffic in 1 month, you can actually see that Pinterest is responsible for around 80% of my blog traffic.
If you’re yet to use Pinterest for your blog, or you haven’t been putting much effort into it, you should focus on it now.
I actually created a free course called Easy Pinterest with Emily, which will take you from Pinterest beginner to pro pinner.
It contains info you won’t find anywhere else (seriously I couldn’t find how to make the “Pin It” button appear on my blog anywhere!),
You can read more about Easy Pinterest With Emily here, or just sign up now to get started:
LEARN SEO
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and basically means making it more likely Google shows your blog for search results.
The sooner you start learning this the better- it can take months to see results, which is why I prefer Pinterest.
But it is better to learn it sooner rather than later.
You can check out how I rank first page on Google here.
OTHER GETTING TRAFFIC TIPS
Lastly, there are plenty of other ways to get traffic to your blog posts, like guest posting, posting in Facebook groups, etc.
If you want to find out even more ways to get blog traffic, check out my other tips on getting traffic to your blog here!
I hope this post has answered the question “what is affiliate marketing”, and shown you how easy it really is.
Don’t forget to sign up for my free passive income course below:
And if it has helped you, please share it on Pinterest:
WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT AFFILIATE MARKETING FOR BEGINNERS?
This post turned out quite a bit longer than I expected! But even so, there is more to learn about affiliate marketing.
If you’re interested in affiliate marketing for beginners but want to become an expert quickly, be sure to check out Michelle’s course here.
I really can’t praise it enough- you can’t get much better than a course about how to make money from affiliate marketing, from someone who makes a tonne from affiliate marketing!
Otherwise, check out these other posts about making money:
- The best passive income ideas for bloggers
- How these bloggers make $1000+ a month (with less than 15k pageviews)
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