When it comes to affiliate marketing, there are a few questions that many people, especially beginners, ask. Is it really possible to earn money online? How fast can you make money with affiliate marketing?
What do you do to be an online success? Do you really need to set up a website?
First, yes, having a website or blog is the most effective channel for your affiliate products. Also, yes, it is really possible to make money online. However, how slow or fast you’ll earn generally depends on the circumstances.
How to Be an Affiliate Marketer
Here are the things that you need to do to start with your affiliate marketing journey:
1. Find Your Niche
Successful affiliate marketers focus on a topic or niche that they are actually passionate about. Also, as an aspiring affiliate marketer, you must have knowledge about your topic.
Determining what niche to take is among the crucial factors that need considering. This will help you get a more targeted audience who will eventually convert visits into sales.
You do not need to have a mass appeal. Instead, you need to have an audience interested in your niche, whom you will be offering related products.
It is ideal to do keyword research and plan your SEO or search engine optimization to determine which keywords will be suitable and effective for your site. Checking related social media posts is advisable as well.
Doing these steps will allow you to determine if the niche market has both internet and social traffic. If you see that the related keywords have high Google search volumes, and if there are many followers in related pages on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram, it means that you have an audience.
2. Identify Niche-Related Products
Identifying five to 10 products that are related to your niche can help you determine if you can find enough affiliate partners. Here are some tips when choosing your niche-related products:
- Choose only physical products that cost $100 and up
- If it is possible, choose digital products because they are more likely to give higher commissions
- If you can find digital products that require recurring fees, the better
3. Get Influencers
Search for your keywords in Google and look up informative blogs and content from authority sites. Check if they have reader interaction or if they have a strong following. If yes, then chances are, you have a great audience and are more likely to find influencers who can help you promote your blog.
4. Set Up Your Blog and Create Content
Now it is time to set up your website and curate original, high-quality content that will be useful to your niche. You can then promote the products and services you are affiliated with.
You may try interesting content like how-tos and DIYs, recipes, product reviews, discounts and giveaways, plus some general info about your topic. Make sure to post regularly to keep your blog updated.
5. Add Marketing Channels
Once your website is established, find other ways to improve your following and build your audience. You may use social media networks like Facebook and Instagram or go into video marketing through YouTube. Email marketing, guest posting, paid ads, and mobile apps are also good ventures.
How Fast Can You Make Money With Affiliate Marketing?
You can easily see posts about affiliate marketing claiming that you’ll get passive income in as early as six months. Unfortunately, it is not that easy. No one can really tell how fast can you make money with affiliate marketing since it differs from each affiliate marketer.
There are several factors, though, that may affect your journey to affiliate marketing. The following are the major factors that will have a big impact on how you turn your blog into a successful online business:
- Niche
- Affiliate programs you want to promote
- Number of hours dedicated on your website or blog
- The efficiency of your content
- How effective your keywords are
- Where your traffic comes from
- How you add call-to-action to your posts
Typically, you may earn your first commission as an affiliate marketer in three to six months after your campaign started. There are lucky ones who get their first income in as fast as one month, but as an affiliate marketer, you must expect to have inconsistent income from this for at least one year. As a matter of fact, there are some who earned their first online income after 12 months or so.
Like stated above, affiliate marketing success varies from one person to another. You may need to wait for a year or you may need not to wait at all. The good thing is, either way, it is all worth it.
How to Speed Up Your Progress
Affiliate marketing experts agree that there are several things that you can do to help hasten your progress and these include the following:
- Narrowing your niche. Avoid using niches that are too broad and if possible, narrow it down to help Google rank you faster. Likewise, using a less-competitive niche will allow you to gain traction quicker, particularly if you are only relying on free search engine traffic.
- Write reviews, a lot of it! Google loves reviews and your site will rank better if you post high-quality reviews.
- Use a niche that has a higher buyer probability. It is not enough to have people looking for answers visiting your site. You need buyers to be able to convert site traffic into revenue.
- Look for new product launches related to your niche. Make a review of them.
- Connect with other bloggers with the same niche and have them share your blog content.
Conclusion
One of the best things about affiliate marketing is that it is possible to earn unlimited amounts of money. Nevertheless, that depends on the amount of work you give into it.
When it comes to affiliate marketing, learning must not stop. Updates are always there and you’ll need to learn new techniques and ideas for you to keep up with other affiliate marketers.
It is acceptable to make mistakes but once you’ve made a mistake, be sure to pick yourself up, learn something new, and keep improving. It doesn’t really matter how fast you can make money with affiliate marketing as long as you are earning.