Affiliate Marketing – Key Steps & How to Get Started Faster
And the 7 critical points you need to know
You’ve most likely heard about Affiliate Marketing and maybe you’ve been doing a bit of research but still can’t figure out if it’s the right kind of online business for you. Or maybe you’ve decided it is, but aren’t sure how to get started.
There's so much information out there that it can make your head spin, and then information overload kicks in and you end up doing nothing.
I've certainly felt that myself at times, so my aim is to help sweep away the confusion, save you A LOT of time-consuming research, and give you a clear path forward so you can get started with your affiliate business, start earning money and create the life you want.
So let’s get into it!
1. Who Am I? (About me)
My name is Melissa Phillips (and that's our groodle Polly) and over the years I’ve invested a lot of time and money learning about and building different types of online or side-hustle type businesses - think MLM, Amazon, social media management, print-on-demand. I’ve done this whilst working a full-time job.
The short story is I’m a mum, divorced and whilst I enjoy my job (to a certain extent) I don’t enjoy having to turn up every day to the office, and I don’t enjoy not having the flexibility to take holidays when I want.
I’ve always felt this desire to create a business that I love (so it doesn’t feel like work), that provides value to others, earns a great income and will give me a more flexible lifestyle.
Then about 10 years ago, I found myself divorced and starting to panic about how I was going to support myself and my boys into the future. My driving focus became about creating more financial security.
For years, I searched for the right business that I could start building alongside my existing job. I knew that working for someone else, even while I mostly enjoyed what I was doing, was only really building my boss’ dream - to achieve their retirement plans, and that my income was limited by what my boss said I was worth.
An online business appealed because it's something I could build without a lot of upfront capital, my age didn’t matter (I’m in my 50s), and I could build it alongside my existing job.
But what I particularly liked was that an online business could give me more flexibility in my life with both time and even where I live (I’m really over the traffic!). It would give me the ability to scale my income, with no glass ceiling based on gender or age, and the bonus was I could build it around something that aligned with my values, that I felt passionate about.
My ultimate goal - be able to do
WHAT I want, WHEN I want, WHERE I want.
That’s true flexibility and time freedom.
The best and easiest way to start your own online business is Affiliate Marketing.
2. Why Affiliate Marketing? (I hear you ask) - The Pros & Cons
- You don’t need a lot of money to get started but you do need to invest time and some money to get going faster and build a solid business.
- You can be any age and do this – young or old doesn’t matter.
- You don’t need any technical skills to get going but you do need to start developing your marketing skills and this is where good training is critical.
- You don’t need to put your own face out on social media (unless you want to!) and be constantly posting.
- You don’t need any products or services of your own to sell.
- You don’t need to buy or hold inventory.
- You have control over the products you promote but you need to ensure you are an affiliate for reputable businesses.
- You can use paid or unpaid (organic) methods of promotion depending on how quickly you want to build your business.
- You can earn as you learn. I recommend getting proper training and mentoring as a shortcut to gain momentum and success.
- You can build a passive income.
- You can continue to evolve your business as you build your Authority Brand – HUGE POTENTIAL!
- You can work from anywhere, anytime - choose your own hours - THIS IS A BIG ONE!!
- You can be part of the Digital Goldrush - according to Statista, online retail sales were worth 5.78 billion USD in 2023 and will be worth just over 8 billion USD by 2027. So it’s an amazing time to up-skill and earn your slice of the digital pie.
Now, let’s get into some detail about Affiliate Marketing.
3. How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?
There are tons of companies out there that offer an affiliate program and they are free to join, with no commitment from you. You become like a freelance, commission-only salesperson for them – if someone uses your unique link to buy a product or service, you get paid a commission.
How Do You Join a Company’s Affiliate Program?
To see if a company offers an affiliate program, go to their website, scroll to the bottom and in the footer menu they’ll list something like “Affiliate Program”, “Affiliate”, “Referral Program”. Click on this to join - you usually just have to enter a little bit of info about yourself and then they provide you with a unique affiliate ID link you can use to promote their products or services and it attributes the sale directly to you as the affiliate.
Hot Tip #1: Choose Products and Services you Love and Believe In
If you have a particular interest or passion, you can search for companies that offer quality products or services that you are passionate about and become an affiliate for them. It’s much easier to write about or promote products or services that you love, and know they will add value to your audience.
How Much Commission is Paid?
Every company has a different commission structure, for example you may receive a flat rate per sale regardless of how much the customer spends, or it may be a percentage of the sale amount.
Make sure you look into the commission structure for each company to make sure you are aware of how it works.
Hot Tip #2: Promote High-Ticket Products or Services
High-ticket products or services will give you higher commissions (can be up in the $1000s), so it takes less sales to earn a good income. So it just makes sense to focus on promoting high-ticket products or services.
Do You Need Any Prior Experience to Get Started?
No – you can be a complete beginner with no experience in online business and be able to get started.
Hot Tip 3: Invest in Some Reputable Training
There’s plenty of information online that you can learn from, but if you’re serious about building an affiliate business and want to get going faster, you need to invest in high-quality training and mentoring.
I’ve included a link below to the some Introductory Training Videos. It’ll give you an overview of affiliate marketing and other online business models so you can evaluate for yourself if affiliate marketing is for you.
You can then choose to go on and do the Starter Program ($37) to get more information on how Authority Marketing works. I found this was a great way to properly inform myself before going ahead and investing too much time or money.
How Much Does It Cost To Get Started?
It costs you nothing to sign up to a company’s affiliate program. Then it depends on your marketing strategy as to how you promote your affiliate links. There are paid strategies where you’ll spend money on advertising to put your link in front of people, but there are also free organic strategies you can use.
How Quickly Can I Start Making Money?
This depends on how quickly and how frequently you get your marketing content out there. If you generate content quickly and get it in front of the right people, you can start seeing sales rather quickly.
Affiliate Marketing is one of the easiest online businesses to start generating income, so it’s a great place to start. And then as you get more experience you can scale up and generate more income. Authority Marketing will show you how you can even create multiple income streams.
How are Commissions Paid?
Usually, commissions get paid monthly directly into your bank account, or into your Paypal account (if you have one). Personal accounts are fine – they don’t need to be business accounts. But I would recommend at least setting up a separate account so you can easily track your affiliate income and any expenses you may have.
Can I Do This from Anywhere?
YES!! This is the beautiful thing about Affiliate Marketing. You can work from anywhere in the world. SOOO GOOD!!
How Many Affiliate Programs Can I Join?
As many as you want! You can be an affiliate for any company that has an affiliate referral program - just go and sign up. Make sure you check out their affiliate terms because they’re all different.
What Content Should I Create?
1. Search Articles
Like the one you’re reading now. This is where you create an article or blog, so when someone searches on Google for something, the aim is for your article to show up in the search results. When the reader clicks on an affiliate link in your article it will take them to the company’s website and because they have used your unique referral affiliate link, you will get a commission if they buy.
2. YouTube Videos
If you’re interested in creating videos instead of writing blog-type review articles, video can be a really powerful way to speak to your audience. And because YouTube videos can show up not only in YouTube but also in the Google Search results, you’re potentially reaching a lot more people. In the case of YouTube, your affiliate link shows up below your video on YouTube and you will receive a commission if anyone clicks on your link and buys the product.
4. The 7 CRITICAL Points About Affiliate Marketing - YOU MUST KNOW
Here are 7 other CRITICAL points that you need to know:
1. Referral Terms
Terms vary between companies so it’s worth making sure you’re aware of what these are. Some companies pay a one-time commission, others will continue to pay you commission on any purchases that person makes within the whole month, year or whenever that customer buys!
2. How FAST do you want to start earning?
To start earning more quickly, you can invest in paid advertising to put your content in front of the right audience for the product or service you’re promoting. By investing in paid ads you are more likely to land on the first page of the Google search results, which means your article or YouTube ad is more likely to be seen and clicked on.
3. High-Ticket vs Low-Ticket products
Generally the higher the price of a product or service, the more money you make in commissions. I recommend going for the high-ticket products or services so you make more money with less sales.
4. Build an email list of subscribers
One of the best things you can do from the very beginning is build an email list of subscribers that you can continue to nurture as you build your business.
5. Create evergreen content
By putting in the effort upfront to create quality content, you can literally put it out there and continue to make money from it year after year. In my opinion, that’s a fantastic business model for earning passive income.
6. Social Media
This is not a strategy for beginners to online business, but if you already have a following on social media you can start promoting products or services to your followers using your affiliate links. This is a more advanced strategy you could think about down the track if social media is your thing.
7. Invest in quality training and mentoring
There is plenty of free information online that you can take the time to figure out things for yourself, sign up for some affiliate programs and make a bit of money. But the reality is, it’s unlikely you would build a big business just using free training.
5. AUTHORITY MARKETING - The Cutting-Edge Secret to Success in Affiliate Marketing
Instead of following the same old tired strategies most affiliate marketers use, I found the most effective path forward and get going faster was to learn Authority Marketing.
Authority Marketing is a cutting-edge strategy that teaches you how to successfully generate leads and sales online 24/7, all year round, on auto-pilot, whether you’re at home or snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef!
6. How Authority Marketing Helps You Work Smarter not Harder
Authority Marketing will show you how to make money in less time. You can build any type of online business, so the opportunity is HUGE!
Think eCommerce, coaching, online courses, blogging, affiliate marketing (which is one of the easiest ways to start your online journey) - you can build multiple income streams.
Learn how to market anything, to anyone, anywhere in the world.
Invest in yourself and learn Authority Marketing to up-skill with the most up-to-date online marketing strategies and access mentoring from people who’ve already done (and still do) what you want to do.
And TAKE ACTION.
7. Where to Start - First Step
Your next step is to access the Introductory Training Videos on Authority Marketing to see how you can get started with Affiliate Marketing. That way you can see if affiliate marketing is really for you BEFORE you invest any real time and money in a paid program. You can also get a feel for the community of people (that includes me!) who are involved from all over the world and see if it’s a good fit for you.
So there it is!
Your roadmap to get going with Affiliate Marketing and START EARNING FASTER.
