So you want to know how to start affiliate marketing. If you’re like me, then you’re probably not new to online business in any shape or form. I remember when I first got started with no money and little knowledge. It was a vicious circle. I needed to learn the tools of the trade, so I could learn to make money, but without the tools to start making money, it was nigh impossible to do.
So I quickly realized that the best way to learn how to start affiliate marketing was to get started with the wrong product. In fact, I’m not even sure which product I should have started with. I’ll admit, up until this point was not a big affiliate marketer. In fact, just doing a handful of affiliate programs during the course of 6 short months, mostly focused on eCommerce. Now, don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with that, but it was not the best way to learn how to create massive traffic to my website.
The problem with that is that when I started affiliate marketing, I chose a niche that didn’t have a lot of potential for me. A niche that I, at the very least, did not have any knowledge about. In fact, even the niches I had knowledge about I had never made any money on. Now, I’ll give you one guess as to what those two items are.
The first item was obviously eBay. The problem with selling on eBay is the cost. To sell one item, you’re looking at paying anywhere between seventy-five and one hundred dollars in order to get paid per sale! For that kind of cash investment, I just would not recommend it to someone just getting started with affiliate marketing. If you’re working to create some extra income, it might be okay, but for those looking to become financially stable, eBay is probably not the best way to go.
Another thing I didn’t consider was display ads. This is the one area where I spent the most money in the beginning with affiliate marketing. You see, with display ads, you have to pay every time someone clicks on one of the display ads, regardless of whether or not they make a purchase. So if you don’t have a lot of traffic, you won’t be able to get paid that much. As with eBay, it’s better to focus on a niche that has a lot of potential and, therefore, a larger audience.
There are many other ways to monetize online. Some of the most popular include things like Google AdSense, Google AdWords, affiliate links, and display ads. However, there is one concept that I didn’t talk about and that is creating information products. Information products are basically ebooks that you can then sell for commissions.
The first step to getting started with affiliate marketing is to choose a niche. You’ll want to choose something that has plenty of demand, but also plenty of competition. It goes without saying that you will need to do your research as far as how much competition there is in the niche. Once you know this, you can start focusing on finding the best niches in which to market physical products.
For instance, say you want to promote exercise. If you find an affiliate program terms and conditions that clearly say that you will not be getting paid unless people actually click on your affiliate link, then you’ve found your target audience. All you have to do next is find the best ways to deliver the message to your audience so that they will actually click on the link and purchase the product that you’re promoting.
