What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate Marketing is the process of promoting other people’s products online in which these companies offer commissions to the Affiliate Marketer when someone purchases one of their products.  Essentially it is an advertising technique that companies use to get more exposure to their products.  Just like the way they would stock their products in retail stores, companies allow affiliates to “stock their products” online by way of websites and links.

So an Affiliate Marketer is the person that has a website and creates product reviews or articles that provides the potential customer with a link to that particular product. If the visitor clicks on the link and ends up purchasing the product, the Affiliate Marketer gets a percentage of that purchase (commission).

Can I Make Money Online By Affiliate Marketing?

It is definitely possible to make money with Affiliate Marketing.  Many people are doing it everyday and are extremely successful at it.  Just to be clear, these are NOT the people that are scam artists or who are promoting shiny objects (get rich quick scams for instance).  These are people who put in the work and are authorities in their particular niche.

I started my affiliate marketing business a little over 3 years ago and I’ve been making money at it for quite a while.  It didn’t take off overnight, but with training and hard work, I’ve thrived at it and it is really paying off.  My niche is the camping/survival niche.  So at my website, I promote camping equipment and several survival products.

Like any good business person, I have several mentors that I follow and model my affiliate marketing business after.  I do this because they are successful and have a wealth of knowledge that has really helped me build out my business.

Links to the Successful People I Follow:

Co-Owners of Wealthy Affiliate University – Kyle’s Profile  & Carson’s Profile

Live Video Training Coach – Jay’s Profile

Internet Affiliate Marketing Veteran – Tony Hamilton’s Profile

How Does Affiliate Marketing Really Work?

1. Choose an Interest

Deciding on what subject matter you want to write about and promote is where you need to start.  What interests you?  What is your passion or hobby?  These are great places to start when choosing a niche. Once you have a niche picked, this is the audience that you need to target.

Click here to read my article: How to Choose a Niche for Affiliate Marketing

2. Build a Website

After deciding on your niche, you will need to build a website.  This is where you will be promoting products and eventually earning income.  I suggest that you don’t just go out there and build a generic website.  You will never be successful with that.  You need to learn how to build a website that will generate money.  There is so much more to creating a website than just picking a domain name and throwing in some pictures and words.

Trust me, you will want to get advice and techniques from the experts.  My recommendation is that you gain as much knowledge as you can.  Arm yourself with proper education.

If you are interested in learning Affiliate Marketing for Free, sign up here to get started.

3. Drive Traffic

Once you have a website, you will need to drive traffic to it.  This traffic will provide you with potential customers that will click on your affiliate links.  But how do you drive traffic?  There are actually many ways to do this, including organic SEO, PTC campaigns, Advertising, and Social Media.  For detailed information and proven techniques, check out this article: The Traffic Breakdown

I have a few articles about some of the alternative traffic sources that I use from time to time.  You can read more here:

Rebrandable Traffic

Traffup – Free Traffic, ReTweets, and Facebook Likes

4. Earn Revenue

Now for the fun part…. REVENUE!!!! After all, we are here to make money right?  After you build your website, create content for it, and get traffic coming on a regular basis, you will start to earn money from your affiliate links.  Remember, you are building a business and it doesn’t happen overnight…. but it WILL happen!!!

The awesome thing is that you have put in the work and earning revenue can happen while you are asleep or on vacation.  Other jobs, you have to be AT WORK in order to make money.  With Affiliate Marketing, someone might go to your affiliate link at midnight and you still earn money.  I remember being on the beach with my family when my very first affiliate commission came in.  That was truly Awesome!!

Final Thoughts

If Affiliate Marketing sounds like something you could do, make sure that you get the training and support you need to really succeed at it.  I’m a firm believer in educating yourself as much as you can in order to avoid the pitfalls or struggles that can occur if you are not wise or prepared.

My Number One RECOMMENDATION to learn the skills it takes to be a successful Affiliate Marketer is Wealthy Affiliate.  Take a peek inside this incredible training platform in the video below.

Get Expert Training and Learn how to become an Affiliate Marketer for FREE – Wealthy Affiliate University

If you have any questions or want more information, please feel free to drop me a comment or you can visit my profile here. I would be more than happy to help.

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