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How To Start Affiliate Marketing (Complete 8-Step Guide + 3 Upsides in 2024)

March 13, 2024

How to start affiliate marketing:

  • Step 1 - Pick a high-performing affiliate marketing niche.
  • Step 2 - Select the best affiliate programs.
  • Step 3 - Build an affiliate website.
  • Step 4 - Establish a solid audience base.
  • Step 5 - Maximize affiliate marketing tools, software, and platforms.
  • Step 6 - Generate high-quality affiliate content.
  • Step 7 - Drive the right affiliate traffic.
  • Step 8 - Monitor and optimize your affiliate marketing campaigns.

Affiliate marketing businesses are becoming more popular than before. According to a Rakuten-Forrester study, 81% of businesses globally run an affiliate marketing program. And 16% of online purchases in the U.S. come from affiliate marketing, as mentioned by DemandSage. This trend pushed aspiring online entrepreneurs, marketers, and business owners to venture into this industry.

Becoming an affiliate marketer lets you earn around $10,000 monthly. You can scale this to up to $110,000, based on Chad Bartlett’s YouTube video entitled Step-by-Step GUIDE To Make $10K/mo with Affiliate Marketing (2024). However, starting an affiliate marketing business depends on your experience, knowledge, and marketing efforts. According to Richa Sharma’s LinkedIn article, beginner affiliate marketers can expect to earn $100-$500 per month. Reaching a 6-digit income requires a massive amount of effort in learning the business model.

The latest data from Statista shows that by 2024, the total affiliate market spending will hit $15.7 billion. That’s almost a 2x increase from 2022. Simplilearn’s 2023 article also mentions how social media and influencer marketing will drive more affiliate sales. Brands will seek affiliate marketers to help advertise their offerings and boost online conversions. However, market saturation and high competition will become more evident. Read on and discover the steps in starting affiliate marketing, its upsides and downsides, and the industry’s potential in 2024.

How To Start Affiliate Marketing

Step 1 - Pick a High-Performing Affiliate Marketing Niche.

The first step to starting affiliate marketing is picking a high-performing affiliate marketing niche. You must consider your knowledge, interests, target audience, potential market, and competition. According to an Article by Nadia D. on Hostinger, aspiring affiliate marketers should focus on scalability, profitability, and sustainability. These factors will help you choose a performant niche and make money with affiliate marketing. As stated in Sanja Trajcheva’s article on CHEQ, SaaS and technology, health and wellness, and personal finance are the top three most profitable niches in 2024.

You can use tools like Ahrefs and Google Trends to do in-depth research on highly searchable keywords all over the internet. Another great platform to use is Flippa. It can give insight into the most profitable industries and their monetization type and net profit. These methods will help you determine what affiliate marketing niches and programs best suit you.

Step 2 - Select the Best Affiliate Programs.

Selecting the best affiliate programs entails getting extensive information on the affiliate products that you want to promote. This process evaluates the product’s brand, reputation, commission rate, cookie duration, and promotional resources. As a beginner affiliate, you should dig deep into your potential affiliate partner. Data from FinancesOnline, Visual Capitalist, Motley Fool, and Feedvisor show that Alibaba, Amazon Associates, eBay Partner Network, and Rakuten Advertising are some of the most reputable and profitable brands in the U.S. and globally.

According to Yashica Chopra’s article on DataToBiz, choosing an affiliate product means considering market demand, Google search volume, competitor sales, customer feedback, and social media trends. When you find the right affiliate program and products, you can now build a website or landing page for your target audience.

Step 3 - Build an Affiliate Website.

Building an affiliate website allows aspiring marketers to have a space for promoting their chosen affiliate products and services. It helps house valuable content like blog posts and video reviews. This way, you can drive more traffic to your affiliate marketing website by engaging your target audience and motivating them to click and make a purchase. Affiliate marketers can create free websites on platforms like Wix, GoDaddy, and Square Online.

According to Rahel Prodhan’s Quora post, creating an affiliate website lets you try different digital marketing strategies, create a consistent branding experience, and monetize content using various means. Some examples of affiliate marketing websites that have high traction and a sizable audience base include Nerdwallet, Wirecutter, and Dating Advice. 

Step 4 - Establish a Solid Audience Base.

You need to establish a solid audience base to create a community of potential customers interested in your chosen affiliate niche and products. Nicolas Donovan, founder of SynergyMetrics, stresses the importance of social proof in fostering trust and loyalty within your customer segment. In his November 2023 LinkedIn article, Nicholas discusses how building your audience base contributes to higher engagement and online presence.

Lemuel Park from Search Engine Journal also points out the importance of not focusing greatly on target personas to personalize your affiliate marketing campaigns. “Target Personas” help marketers identify ideal individuals, while “Target Audience” refers to people who are likely to purchase from you. Understanding how you build your audience base means generating higher affiliate commissions and enriching the affiliate marketing program you’re in. It’s also crucial to utilize modern technologies to help streamline the process.

Step 5 - Maximize Affiliate Marketing Tools, Software, and Platforms.

Learn to maximize affiliate marketing tools and software in streamlining your money-making journey. You can use social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter to garner more engagement. In fact, 47.5% of affiliate marketers use social media (organic and paid) as their main traffic source, according to Authority Hacker. You can also use data-rich online tools like Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics to gain insight into the latest affiliate marketing trends.

Affiliate networks offer marketers, bloggers, and influencers a strategic way to connect with businesses. As a beginner affiliate, make use of affiliate networks like ShareASale, CJ Affiliate, and Awin. These platforms will simplify your affiliate marketing efforts in finding the right partner program for you. Other critical tasks that you can speed up using advanced innovations include:

  • Email Marketing - Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, and GetResponse
  • Keyword Research - Semrush, Ahrefs, and AnswerThePublic
  • SEO - Voluum, AccuRanker, and Surfer SEO
  • Content Generation - Grammarly, Canva, and ChatGPT

Step 6 - Generate High-Quality Affiliate Content.

Generating high-quality content like blog posts and vlogs increases an affiliate site’s credibility, informativeness, and engagement. The more you produce valuable content that is interesting and educational, the more you can attract high-value leads. Refersion’s Importance of High-Quality Content for Affiliate Marketing article mentions how quality affiliate content directly influences buyer behavior and impacts a brand’s ROI.

A clever and successful affiliate marketer maximizes content writing tools like HubSpot CMS Hub, Grammarly, ProWritingAid, and ChatGPT. These programs and software enable you to generate ideas, create grammatically correct content, and comply with plagiarism and SEO guidelines. In fact, data from Hosting Tribunal and BloggingX reveals that SEO (69.22%) and blogging (64.48%) are the top sources of traffic for affiliate marketers.

Step 7 - Drive the Right Affiliate Traffic.

Understanding search engine algorithms and optimizing strategies helps you drive the right affiliate traffic. You can do this through SEO, paid advertisements, and YouTube marketing. This allows you to create modern, cost-effective digital marketing approaches. As mentioned in Erica Grabijas’ article on Awin, using paid ads like Google Ads and Facebook Ads is a great way to promote affiliate products using a fixed set of parameters. However, this method is costly and requires technical knowledge. You can also maximize Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to rank content and websites for free. While it is more budget-friendly, this approach takes time.

If you’re feeling adventurous, you can try uploading videos on YouTube. According to Authority Hacker, 36.9% of affiliates use YouTube videos to boost their affiliate sales and conversions. Data from Wyzowl and Oberlo reveals that 80% of consumers purchased a product after watching a brand’s video. Whether you implement YouTube marketing, SEO, or paid ads, you must disclose your affiliate links in compliance with the Federal Trade Commission’s “Endorsement Guides”. Take time to track your affiliate links and campaigns to adjust your traffic-driving strategies.

Step 8 - Monitor and Optimize Your Affiliate Marketing Campaigns.

You must monitor and optimize your affiliate marketing campaigns to identify trends, opportunities, and areas for improvement. It also helps you measure campaign performance and ensure compliance and brand consistency. According to Shannon Fogden’s contributing content on LinkedIn, marketers must use the right platform, analyze multiple data sets, and modify strategies to build a successful affiliate marketing business. You need to monitor slight changes to adjust your affiliate campaigns accordingly. Some proven and tested platforms include Post Affiliate Pro, Everflow, and LeadDyno.

3 Upsides of Starting Affiliate Marketing in 2024

  • Low-Risk Business Model - Affiliate marketing is a low-risk business model. You don’t need a significant amount of money to start your own business. Because of its low startup costs, affiliate marketers can earn more commissions. And since you don’t own any of the products, there’s no risk if you can’t sell your promoted products.
  • High Income Potential - This business model lets you make high affiliate revenue. You can increase your potential monthly income by partnering with multiple affiliate networks or programs. It also helps you build your online reputation and following. The more customers you attract, the higher your affiliate sales will be.
  • Flexible Setup - Affiliate marketers enjoy a flexible work setup in this industry. You can work anywhere, anytime. That’s why most affiliates have multiple jobs or businesses. It gives greater career and income flexibility. Famous marketers like Pat Flynn and Jeremy Schoemaker have achieved affiliate marketing success because of this factor.

What are the Downsides of Starting Affiliate Marketing?

High market saturation, unstable commission rates, and consistent content creation are the downsides of starting affiliate marketing, as mentioned by WP Manage Ninja and Ecwid. Beginner affiliate marketers will struggle with these factors as this industry becomes more saturated. Competition will also rise. According to the Influencer Marketing Hub, the success rate of affiliate marketing is at 1%. This is why many affiliate marketers fail.

Another common issue is the unstable commission rates of various affiliate programs. CNBC published an announcement by Amazon Associates, stating that they will slash commission rates starting April 21, 2020. This also pushed aspiring affiliates to consider other business models. The third issue with affiliate marketing is consistent content creation. It’s mentally taxing to write high-quality content daily. Doing shortcuts and copying others’ work lead to plagiarism prompts and low-quality outputs. That’s why you need critical skills to succeed in this industry.

What Skills Do You Need To Start Affiliate Marketing?

Sales & marketing, website management, writing, and data analysis are the skills you need to start affiliate marketing, according to Smart Marketing’s 2023 article on LinkedIn. These skills help streamline your affiliate marketing journey. It allows you to choose your digital marketing strategies, affiliate niche and products, and target audience carefully. When you have the necessary skills to start affiliate marketing, you incur fewer costs to build your business.

How Much Does It Cost To Start Affiliate Marketing?

It costs around $43.98 to start affiliate marketing, according to Wealthygoals’ article on Medium. This consists of a domain name, web hosting, and a logo for a year of operation. You can scale up as your products and traffic increase. Adsterra also mentions that starting in affiliate marketing requires around $0 to $350. This includes traffic generation, tracking tools, creatives, training, and many more. However, you can opt for free resources like Hostinger and Canva if you want a lower cost of operations.

Can You Start Affiliate Marketing With No Money?

Yes, you can start affiliate marketing with no money, given you utilize free tools and platforms such as Freenom, 000Webhost, and Looka. There are lots of free software and online tools that can help you create a logo, host your website, generate creatives, and advertise your products. You can cover all the critical operations of your affiliate marketing business without spending any money.

Can You Start Affiliate Marketing With No Experience?

Yes, you can start affiliate marketing with no experience, given that you do in-depth research on the business model and industry. According to Joost Boer’s Affiliate24 article, studying free resources about affiliate marketing equips you with foundational knowledge, industry best practices, and rich niche insights. It will help you pick a profitable niche, affiliate program, and starting product. Some reputable YouTube channels focusing on affiliate marketing include Matt Diggity, Income School, Authority Hacker, Passive Income Geek, and Fat Stacks.

Can Affiliate Networks Help You Start Affiliate Marketing?

Yes, affiliate networks can help you start affiliate marketing by providing an expansive list of programs and products. According to Hanson Cheng, founder of Freedom To Ascend, affiliate networks help aspiring marketers by connecting them with legitimate brands and global businesses. It simplifies finding profitable affiliate offers, tracking online campaigns, and monitoring commissions and payments.

Is Starting Affiliate Marketing Easy or Hard?

Starting affiliate marketing is hard in terms of creating quality content, engaging your target audience, breaking into a saturated market, and driving traffic. However, it’s easy because of its low-risk nature, massive resource base, low startup costs, and high availability of affiliate programs. Even with many testimonials, beginners in the industry still ask if affiliate marketing is easy or hard. As Quora user Alex Leete mentioned, it takes about 6 months to become experienced enough to navigate the industry’s major challenges. You need to have a comprehensive understanding of the business model, its core marketing principles, and the customers’ buying journey to yield a profitable monthly income.

Is Starting an Affiliate Marketing Business Profitable?

Yes, starting an affiliate marketing business is profitable, given that you earn around $2,000 to $10,000 monthly. According to Niall Roche’s article on Authority Hacker, beginner affiliates can make $0 to $1,000 per month. Your affiliate income depends on your knowledge, experience, and skills. Reddit user Free_bird12345 also mentions that a $10k revenue monthly in affiliate marketing is doable if you have the necessary experience.

What are affiliate marketing pros and cons?

Pros

Low entry barrier, low startup cost

Opportunity to diversify income stream

Easy to setup and start 

Cons

High failure rate

Lack of control over product

No opportunity to build customer loyalty

What Are Reasons Affiliate Marketing Is Booming in the 21st Century?

  • It's more efficient for businesses to pay for performance that potential
  • Ecommerce is booming so there are more opportunities
  • People are spending more time online, with the average person spending 6 hours and 58 minutes online, according to Exploding Topics

What Are Reasons Affiliate Marketing Is the Future? 

Reasons affiliate marketing is the future include: 

  • Affiliate marketing is a growing industry, with the industry averaging a 10% gain in global revenue each year, according to OptinMonster
  • Online shoppers are predicted to increase over the coming years, rising from 254.8 million in 2022 to 316.63 million by 2028 in the US, according to data from Statista

Is Affiliate Marketing Worth It?

Yes, affiliate marketing can be worth it. 15% of affiliates earn between $80K and $1 million per year, according to data from Authority Hacker. Furthermore, affiliate marketers that work hard to establish their business over the course of a few years can start earning passive income from their efforts. Therefore, affiliate marketers can earn considerable income without actively working. 

Why Do Affiliate Marketers Fail?

Affiliate marketers fail because they don’t start with realistic expectations or proper knowledge of digital marketing, leading many to give up early after losing money trying to make the business model work in a short period. 

What Are Reasons Affiliate Marketing Does Not Work for Some People?

Reasons affiliate marketing does not work for some people include:
  • Choosing a niche with too high competition or too low profitability
  • Trying to use too simple or outdated affiliate techniques that no longer work

What Are the Major Reasons Why Affiliate Marketing Is So Hard for Some People?

The major reasons why affiliate marketing is so hard for some people include:

  • Affiliate marketing is too saturated and competitive
  • Successful affiliate marketing requires consistent high quality content production and patience
  • Many affiliate programs have strict terms and conditions for promoting products

Is Affiliate Marketing Dead?

No, affiliate marketing is not dead. Over 80% of businesses use an affiliate marketing program to increase online sales, according to research by Forrester using data from the Rakuten affiliate network. Therefore, affiliate marketing is alive and thriving among modern businesses. 

Is Affiliate Marketing a Scam or Legit?

Affiliate marketing is legit. There are approximately 50 million people making money from affiliate marketing, according to OptinMonster. For example, Gia of the Glowithgia YouTube channel is an affiliate marketer who was able to make $14,282 by promoting her affiliate links on Pinterest. Affiliate marketing is not a scam because there are countless real people making money with this business model. 

How Does Affiliate Marketing Compare vs Other Online Business Models?

Affiliate Marketing vs Digital Marketing

The difference between affiliate marketing vs digital marketing is that affiliate marketing is an aspect of digital marketing. Affiliate marketing refers specifically to promoting offers to earn commissions as a third party marketer while digital marketing refers to any form of internet marketing. 

Affiliate Marketing vs Lead Generation

The difference between affiliate marketing vs lead generation is that affiliate marketing is promoting a brand’s offer to earn a commission while lead generation is attracting customers for a service and selling it to a business who can realize that service. Both are aspects of digital marketing. 

Affiliate Marketing vs Social Media Marketing

Affiliate marketing and social media marketing both fall under the umbrella of digital marketing. In comparing affiliate marketing vs social media marketing, affiliate marketing has the ability to earn passive income while social media marketing requires active work to perform services for clients and earn money. 

Affiliate marketing vs dropshipping

When looking at affiliate marketing vs dropshipping, the major difference is that affiliate marketing is a digital marketing business model while dropshipping is an Ecommerce business model. Even so, both affiliate marketing and dropshipping rely on digital marketing to generate income. These business models both have low startup costs, making them attractive for beginners in online business. 

Affiliate Marketing vs Amazon FBA

In comparing affiliate marketing vs Amazon FBA, the major difference is that Amazon FBA is an Ecommerce business model. Amazon FBA typically has higher startup requirements than affiliate marketing and requires that you can effectively source products and sell them online, instead of just promoting the products of other brands like affiliate marketing requires. 

Affiliate Marketing vs Freelancing

Affiliate marketing focuses on digital marketing specifically while freelancing can be for any industry. Freelancers make money by performing projects for businesses. When considering affiliate marketing vs freelancing, both are highly flexible online business models that enable you to choose who you want to work with. 

Affiliate Marketing vs Forex Trading

When comparing affiliate marketing vs forex trading, affiliate marketing is generally less risky. Forex trading entails using your own capital to take positions on foreign currency pairs to try and earn a profit when one currency goes up or down in value against another currency. Although you can lose money with either business model, losing large sums of money is more common in forex, where 72.2% of traders lose money, according to Traders Log. 

Affiliate Marketing vs Adsense

Affiliate marketing and Adsense are two popular ways that content creators monetize their efforts. While affiliate marketing allows you to generate income when your marketing efforts help a brand make sales, enabling Adsense on your website or YouTube content allows you to earn income by allowing advertisers to place ads alongside your content. There’s no reason for content creators to pick between affiliate marketing vs Adsense, they can often be used concurrently to optimize income potential. 

What Is High Ticket Affiliate Marketing?

High ticket affiliate marketing is a specific type of affiliate marketing that focuses on promoting high ticket products. High ticket products are typically those that sell for $1,000+, allowing an affiliate to earn considerable commissions from just a single sale. 

How To Start High Ticket Affiliate Marketing for Beginners?

  1. Choose a high ticket affiliate marketing niche
  2. Sign up for a high ticket affiliate marketing program
  3. Promote high ticket affiliate links to earn high ticket commissions

What Are the Best High Ticket Affiliate Marketing Niches?

The best high ticket affiliate marketing niches are:

  • Web hosting
  • Home security
  • Finance
  • Personal care
  • Education

Is High Ticket Affiliate Marketing Legit? 

Yes, high ticket affiliate marketing is legit. There are high ticket affiliate programs out there that pay thousands of dollars for a single sale. For example, the average commission for a Goldco affiliate is around $3,000. 

What Are the Best Affiliate Marketing Courses? 

  • Super Affiliate System 3.0 by John Crestani
  • Affiliate Lab by Matt Diggity
  • Affiliate Marketing Mastery by Stefan James

These are some of the best affiliate marketing courses in 2024

Affiliate Marketing FAQs

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a business model that uses online campaigns to promote a brand’s or an individual’s products and services to get corresponding commissions. A marketer can earn fixed percentages of commissions depending on the type of product they sell. Venturing into this industry means joining an affiliate network, program, or platform like Amazon Associates, ClickBank, or Shopify.

What is an Affiliate Marketer?

An affiliate marketer is a content creator who generates high-quality and engaging written or video content to promote affiliate products. They use various digital marketing strategies like SEO, paid ads, and email marketing to drive traffic to their website. These approaches allow them to earn commissions for every successful sale.

What is an Affiliate Program?

An affiliate program is an online marketing strategy of businesses wanting to boost brand awareness and revenue through content creators and influencers. They offer affiliates a specific percentage for each product sold or customer driven to their website to make a purchase. Affiliate programs have accompanying rules and regulations to ensure legitimate and smooth operations.

Why Local Lead Generation is Still the Best Online Business To Start in 2024

Affiliate marketing is a lucrative business to start, but local lead generation is way more profitable and scalable in 2024. Successful affiliate marketers have 5-10 years of industry experience. They can easily navigate affiliate marketing’s saturated market. This means that beginners in this industry must compete with highly experienced and knowledgeable professionals to succeed in building a profitable online business.

The affiliate marketing industry has a low barrier to entry. Standing out from the high competition takes significant effort to make your product listings or affiliate campaigns more unique. According to a 2023 Wecantrack article and data from Statista, this industry has grown 10% yearly since 2015. That’s why you need to drive consistent traffic to earn a sizable income through small bits of commissions. Another issue to note is the lack of control because of third-party platforms. This means that you can instantly be removed from the program because of minute misunderstandings.

Local lead generation is simpler than starting an affiliate marketing business. You don’t have to deal with global competitors and generate unique content daily just to attract your target audience. This business model has more potential customers because of its localized niches. You just have to build websites for local services and rank them organically on the first page of Google. This is more sustainable and scalable because once you’re ranked, leads will start calling you. Forwarding the leads you collect to local business owners lets you earn around $5 to $1,000+ per lead or up to $10,000 for every lead gen website.

Don’t settle for small commissions. Establish a stable passive income now with the right local lead gen course to guide you.

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