Simple Steps to Starting Your Own Affiliate Marketing Business



Affiliate marketing can be an incredibly rewarding form of self-employment. With affiliate marketing, you earn money by advertising someone else’s product or service, and earning a commission on any sales you make as a result of your referral. You can start your own affiliate marketing business with just three simple steps. Let’s take a look at how to get started with affiliate marketing today!


1) What is affiliate marketing?

If you're looking to sell products online, one way to do so is through affiliate marketing. This strategy allows individuals and businesses alike to make money by promoting someone else's products on their own website or through social media. As an affiliate marketer, you partner with brands and companies that offer services or products you like. Then, whenever someone buys a product or service through your special link, you get paid a commission for sending them there. In short: You earn money when you help them (and their business) grow. Plus, there are many types of products and services people can promote as affiliates — meaning opportunities are endless.


2) The value of starting an online business today

It’s no secret that starting an online business has become increasingly popular. The internet offers incredible opportunities for entrepreneurs, including platforms for launching new businesses and a larger audience for promoting products and services than ever before. It’s also an inexpensive way to start your own company compared with traditional brick-and-mortar ventures. At last count, there were almost 2 million online businesses in operation, generating a record $321 billion in sales in 2012 alone. So why not join them? Here are three simple steps you can take toward starting your own affiliate marketing business


3) What skills are required for affiliate marketing?

For many people, becoming an affiliate marketer is a natural fit. You’re already familiar with social media and have a decent following on Twitter or Facebook. You may even have experience blogging about topics relevant to your product. One of the skills you need, however, is salesmanship. Research shows that affiliates who are successful are also excellent salespeople who can close deals by leveraging their relationships with their audience members and getting them excited about products they offer through sales copy that creates anticipation. Some of these skills can be learned over time, but if you want to succeed as an affiliate marketer in the long run, there are some basic skills and personality traits that you should start out with right away—no matter how much time it takes for your business to take off.


Types of affiliate marketing 

There are many different types of affiliate marketing, but they all have a few things in common. The two main categories are contextual and display advertising. Contextual advertising is when an ad is placed on a site (usually where there’s already content), where it can be seen by readers even if they don’t click on it. This type of ads is more organic, but also more expensive. Display ads are ones that you see while you’re browsing a website or app. These pop up as banner ads or interstitials—those annoying full-page videos that ask you to sign up for something before letting you go any further. Display advertising is cheaper than contextual, but less targeted and often requires users to take additional steps before making a purchase.


Minimum investment in affiliate affiliate market 

Since you’re most likely just starting out, it’s best that you don’t sink too much money into marketing efforts until you know they’ll pay off. You may want to start by setting aside only a small amount of money for affiliate marketing—say, $50/month. If your efforts don’t seem to be generating any returns within three months, it might be time to reassess your strategy and make more adjustments before moving forward. (See step 3.) 

But depending on how big you go with affiliate marketing, how much you spend on tools and software can rack up pretty quickly. For example, if your site begins to get serious traffic, you may want to upgrade from free WordPress hosting or install expensive content management systems like Site123 Pro or Wix Web Editor. Depending on what kind of business model(s) you ultimately choose, even simple tools like Google Analytics can become pricey when expanded with advanced tracking tools such as those provided by KISSmetrics or CrazyEgg. It all depends on how far down the rabbit hole you’re willing to go with your site once it gets popular!


What is Amazon affiliated marketing 

Amazon affiliated marketing is a way for you to earn money by providing Amazon with targeted traffic. Amazon will provide you with your own personalized tracking links, which you can then share on your website or other social media platforms. When people click those links and end up purchasing something from Amazon, you earn a commission. You also have access to valuable sales data as well as tips and tricks on how to improve your affiliate marketing efforts. The beauty of Amazon's program is that it's free to join, so you don't need to invest any upfront costs in order to get started. It's easy to sign up and begin sharing products immediately.

The first step of starting an affiliate marketing business is setting up an account with Amazon Associates Program (affiliate link). This allows you access to all of their product information and their advanced advertising platform called AMS (Amazon Marketing Services). Once your account has been approved, log in and create a new website through their portal. Then choose what products that you want to promote through AMS (this process will be explained later in more detail). Once that’s done, create a unique URL for each product page using an SEO friendly keyword phrase related to that product.


How much earn with affiliate market 

To get an affiliate marketing business started, you’ll need a niche. Once you have a particular niche in mind, look for products that would be interesting to affiliates within that niche. See if any of them are looking for an affiliate program. If not, find one and pitch it yourself! As always, there are exceptions; these aren't hard-and-fast rules. A large retailer like Amazon will likely have a huge affiliate program (we’re talking hundreds of thousands of affiliates) - but they are going to be super picky about who they let into their program. For example: only sports equipment (like running shoes) may be allowed, not gardening equipment.