How To Start a Profitable Affiliate Marketing Business?

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How To Start a Profitable Affiliate Marketing Business?

Feb 02

How to start a profitable affiliate business? Your image on the computer screen literally tortures you. You feel like your optic nerve is on fire.

Indeed, you have been working for weeks on the production and editing of your first video training. You clearly underestimated the workload.

Despite everything, you cling to this project. Now it is urgent to end it. Your bank account depends on it.

What if this product is a flop? Imagine all this wasted energy. Furthermore, the time spent on the development of your YouTube channel deserves a return on investment.

Does this situation terrify you? However, your motivation for making money on the internet remains intact. Perseverance is a good virtue for success.

Are you starting from scratch? Already have an audience with a blog or podcast?

There is a much safer way to get your first income online. It is about offering products and services that have already been successful. It's so obvious! The simplest solutions give the best results.

Keep reading to discover the best way to start a profitable affiliate business.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

New sales methods have appeared on the internet. But these are often well known old practices.

Do you remember the sponsorship or recommendation sales tactic?

Affiliate marketing is in fact an adaptation of these practices in digital mode. There was even talk of viral marketing in the early days of ecommerce.

Affiliate Marketing is a method that aims to promote a product of a company (advertiser) using the services of an influencer or a content editor.

The latter then becomes an affiliate when he obtains the seller's agreement for this type of transaction.

His role is to communicate to its community about a product, a service or a brand.

Affiliates can get in touch with their audience in different ways: blogs, YouTube, emailing, social networks, etc.

In short, the possibilities are endless as long as the visitor can click on the advertiser's web link.

How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

Are you satisfied with your electricity supplier? Would you recommend this service without hesitation to your cousin John?

Do you have a YouTube channel with a growing subscriber base?

Well, affiliate marketing is a great way to monetize your content.

Before getting into details, know that you can practice affiliate marketing two ways. You can go to the merchant and establish a relationship. Or you can promote their products through an intermediary.

Affiliate Marketing Through Direct Contact With The Merchant

It is the simplest and the most profitable. Interested? Read on carefully.

Let's take a concrete example with a company that markets Electric Bikes on its own online store.

You are a customer of this brand and you have a blog on new methods of environmentally friendly consumption.

You are very satisfied with your purchase. Besides, you could recommend this product without commercial interest.

But it turns out that this bicycle manufacturer has an affiliate program.

The first step is to get in touch with this shop. This connection is generally made by email or with a contact form.

If your request is successful, this company will provide you with an affiliate link.

This allows access to the product sheet. The link intended to identify customers that you referrer.

You now have the opportunity to communicate on your magnificent electric two-wheeler in an article and insert the affiliate link in your post.

So as soon as a visitor clicks on the link, he will be taken directly to the manufacturer's store and identified as one of your contacts.

One of your fans, Stephen dreams of buying an electric bike. While viewing your article, he decides to click on the affiliate link and visit the product page of the online store.

Stephen places his order immediately. You then receive a commission on the sale made.

Affiliate Marketing Through An Intermediary

Let’s assume that you are a real estate investor and you run a blog on this topic. You already sell ebooks but you want to diversify your income with affiliate marketing.

There are many ways to achieve this. Indeed, you can recommend your gas supplier, a brand of boiler, etc.

However, you don't have time to find out about all the potential partners. Not to mention the opportunities you haven't thought of yet!

The easiest way is then to go through an intermediary. These are affiliate networks or platforms.

On the website of these partners, you will find a directory of companies offering an affiliate program. If you are interested in a program, simply register online on this platform to become an affiliate member.

Affiliate Platforms

Among the most famous affiliate networks, there are specialists like Clickbank or Amazon Associates.

On one of these platforms, you spot the affiliate program of your favorite energy supplier, Engie.

You are particularly satisfied with their services. You immediately decide to register online and join the affiliate program on the network site.

You will then receive your affiliate link. Now it's your turn to take action and provide this link to your community.

The sales made will be recorded by the platform. You will get your commissions from the network in accordance with the general conditions of the program.

Do you know Amazon? The answer is so obvious… On the other hand, did you know that it has one of the biggest affiliate program in the world?

The marketplaces are valuable intermediates for affiliation. Indeed, everything is now sold online.

To take advantage of the affiliate program of a marketplace, simply register online on the dedicated website. Then the operation is similar to the affiliate network.

So Which Option To Pick?

If you want to promote a specific offer and earn good commissions, live affiliate membership is best.

This is ideal for starting with a small audience but the opportunities are fewer and more time consuming to find.

Do you have significant daily traffic? Do you have a deep contact base? You can diversify your income with affiliate marketplaces and affiliate platforms.

The commissions are much lower but the opportunities are numerous.

5 Reasons To Get Started In Affiliate Marketing

You now fully understand the principle of affiliate marketing. Not yet convinced?

Yes, all of this may be new to you. Suddenly, you need solid arguments to convince yourself before embarking on this journey.

Reason # 1 Avoid creating the wrong product

Are you already working on a topic dealt with by other experts? This will surprise you, but it's quite a good thing!

First of all, it confirms that the market exists. Then, these competitors have already created several products with different offers. Some believe that this competition constitutes a real barrier.

But in fact, it is an extraordinary opportunity. Indeed, it is enough to distribute these available offers and share the pie with the author. This is what affiliate marketing allows.

So you don't have to come up with your first great product idea.

Imagine a little. You spend weeks or months building your offer. The D-Day of the launch has finally arrived.

Unfortunately, it's a total flop. And there, it is the big disappointment and the total depression...

On the contrary, affiliation makes it possible to offer products with proven success. Furthermore these operations are easily repeatable.

Reason # 2 Create Passive Income

You enjoy a magnificent hike in the country side. During a well-deserved break, you check your mailbox.

Suddenly, you leave with a smile on your face. But what happened?

You have actually received several notifications for affiliate commissions.

So, you get income without direct actions. This is the principle of passive income.

Initially, you invested time to promote an affiliate product. Once the system is in place, you receive your commissions with a workload close to zero.

Reason # 3 Lean Management

With the paperwork, you are cold. You have an "administrative phobia". Well I have awesome news for you!

Indeed, affiliate marketing is easy to manage. You can forget:

order management,
sending invoices,
pay suppliers,
ensure logistics,
storage and transport.

Reason # 4 Freedom Without Stress

Independent in nature, you want to start a business to become free. Are you an employee? You dream of starting your business without falling into a new prison.

Thus, the choice to get started in affiliate marketing prevents you from:

respond to orders from your boss,
deal with complaints from dissatisfied customers,
find solutions to technical product problems,
respect working hours from Monday to Friday,
take transportation to your place of employment.

In addition, membership makes it possible to start with few resources without geographic constraints.

This gives you incredible latitude. No need to go to the office or meet prospects all over your region.

You can create your business at the bottom of your sofa or peacefully on a terrace by the sea.

Reason # 5 A Risk-Free Business With Enormous Potential

Are you anxious by nature? Suddenly, you hesitate to give up everything to start an activity on the internet. As they say: "a man warned is worth two".

So play it safe! Keep your day job with guaranteed pay cheques.

On the other hand, invest in creating your affiliate business in your spare time.

It requires rigor and organization to get started. But when your affiliate income is sufficient, you can then submit your resignation with confidence.

Besides, time is on your side. Two powerful levers are at your disposal:

the growth of your audience,
the development of your affiliate partnerships.

Thus, you multiply your commissions as your traffic and your list of subscribers grow.

Do like the sportsmen who accumulate sponsors. Collect affiliate partnerships.

You thus create new sources of income and you secure your activity with this diversification.

The 4 Steps to Start Making Money With Affiliate Marketing From Scratch

Is affiliate marketing your choice to start your first internet business? Perfect, you are on the right track.

You might think this strategy is simple. Apparently, it's enough to broadcast an affiliate link to an audience. Not that easy as there are specific ways to practice affiliate marketing.

If you want to be successful in affiliation without having the impression of permanently soliciting your audience, it is necessary to follow these 6 steps.

Step 1 Create An Audience

If you're starting from scratch, you need to pick a niche to create content. The best place to start is to come up with a good idea.

List your passions and your best skills. To narrow down your choices, you can use Google Trends and search for information on the most "bankable" subjects.

Before producing content, it is essential to differentiate yourself.

To do this, you have to adopt a good positioning in your niche market and adopt the right format to express yourself (text, audio, video).

Now is the time to attract your first visitors.

Attract Your First Visitors

Two strategies are possible to generate traffic and make yourself known:

The advertisement,
content creation.

The first method is effective with the possibilities offered by Google or Facebook.

However, it takes a budget and know-how to be successful. Online advertising is therefore not ideal for beginners.

The second strategy requires less resources even if the implementation is longer.

This is to regularly publish quality content about your field.

Blog, Instagram, Youtube, podcast… The alternatives are varied depending on your affinities and your positioning. Your audience then grows. At this stage you have a traffic base. It is then possible to move on to the monetization stage.

Step 2 Find Your Affiliate Best Sellers

You must constantly maintain consistency in your communication.

Consequently, it is strongly advised not to offer anything and everything within the framework of the affiliation.

In order to select the best products for your audience, strictly adhere to these 5 principles:

only look for products / services that meet the needs of your audience,

prioritize the solutions that provide the best help with rapid results,

eliminate the least qualitative offers ,

choose the most profitable affiliate programs first

experience the products yourself .

In order to maintain your credibility, it is important to scams.

Indeed, we can no longer count the miraculous methods to lose weight in 3 seconds or stop smoking overnight by snapping toes every morning!

Imagine the consequences! People trust you… All of your work may fall apart sooner or later suddenly.

So be very vigilant!

In Search Of The Holy Grail

As a priority, contact competitors in your field to offer their products in affiliation with their agreement.

Google is once again your best ally for this quest. Use the famous search engine to identify quality offers to offer in affiliation. This is the best way to find quality products with commission rates up to 50%!

Then, don't hesitate to look at marketplaces like Amazon for physical products: books, electronic objects ...

Check out the programs and terms on affiliate networks. Many products and services are also available.

Platforms clickbank and jvzoo offer information products on a wide variety of topics.

Here are some examples of products:

fitness programs for the fitness theme,
a multifunction robot for the kitchen,
the best graphics card for video games,
a budget app for personal finances,
the best eyeliner for makeup.

Step 3: Test the products

You selected your nugget in the previous step? Perfect. Now it is necessary to validate your first choice.

You will therefore test the chosen product yourself for two reasons:

check the quality of the product,

collect the elements to create your content (article, video, podcast, etc.).

During this test, you proceed in 3 stages.

Before

Write down the reasons for your choice and your situation before using the product. This will allow your audience to identify with it. Also specify your impressions and emotions at each stage of the test.

The emotional part is the most persuasive part of the sales process. Feel free to take pictures and write down numbers. For example, you can take a picture of yourself and lift your weight before trying a slimming diet.

During

Now is the time for the test. As you progress, carefully collect as many items as possible: notes (impressions, difficulties, advantages, etc.), photos, videos, figures, etc. Record everything as you go in a paper file or on your computer.

After

The chopper must now fall! Are the results achieved there? Are the promises kept? How did you experience this test in the end?

If the experience is positive, it's time to bring the product to your audience.

Step 4: Write Your Recommendation Content

You are now sure to offer a useful product to your audience. The recommendation must therefore be a hit and earn you your first commissions. Most of the work is done.

However, you have to finish and take care of the rest of the tasks at hand. The creation of great content to present your test is mandatory to obtain good results.

So present your experience with the product as a case study. To do this, simply take the elements from the previous step and format them in the form of text or video according to your preferences.

Choose A Good Title

A good headline is about 50% of success. To attract and engage your audience, the best place to start is to communicate about the resolution of a common problem encountered by your community. Here are some examples:

How I lost 5 kg in 1 month in 5 minutes a day with HIIT,
No more fatigue! 2 hours more sleep with the Todoist app,
I won 300 euros in 3 weeks with my car.

Start Writing

To write your case study, start by describing your situation before the test, emphasizing your difficulties and your emotional state. Add anecdotes, figures and photos taken.

Then just describe how your experience went. Bring as much concrete as possible such as figures on the results obtained and photos.

Detail the characteristics of the product and honestly give the advantages and disadvantages. Your sincerity will strengthen the confidence of your audience.

Illustrate your point with images or videos showing your use. This type of content is highly regarded and viral.

We can now conclude and make the offer. This is the critical phase of your content. This conclusion must be particularly taken care of to facilitate the act of purchase.

The End Of The Case Study Is Thus Punctuated In 3 Parts.

1. Start this conclusion with something concrete. And what are the best elements for this? This is naturally the results obtained. You can recall the benefits and express here your additional experience from your test.

2. At this exact moment, your audience is on their toes and impatient for the price. Advertise the price and argue with the benefits obtained without overdoing it. Drive the point home with the impacts on your life.

3. Be transparent. Explain here your approach with the reasons that pushes you to talk about the product and the fact that you earn commissions.

Here is the most difficult is achieved. Now insert your affiliate link as text and publish your content.