By Affiliate marketing has taken over the world and is now one of the biggest techniques for blog owners to earn money. This trend has grown exponentially over the years and has found its way among many bloggers and website owners.
Affiliate marketing is one of the biggest techniques that almost every blogger and every person who has a website are using to earn money through their blogs and websites.
Bloggers such as Neil Patel, Pat Flynn, and Shoutmeloud are all using affiliate marketing as a way to monetize their website.
In this article, I will help you guide you through the basics of affiliate marketing and I will tell you why it is important and how you can earn money through affiliate marketing.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate Marketing is one of the oldest forms of Digital Marketing. Here the products are sold to the users and the activity of the users is recorded for commission purpose.
Here in this method of Digital Marketing the track record of the buyer is kept in mind and is tracked via a tracking URL.
We get the tracking URL from the main source i.e. the company which sells its products and likewise, the commission is granted to the person.
In this is a type of marketing, the person usually builds and maintains a website that uploads a review based content of products, for example, best smartphones, laptops and such items that can be sold online.
The content uploaded on the website will have links called the affiliate links to the product for which the review has been mentioned.
Once the reader reads the content and clicks on the affiliate link and the sale is made, the blogger or the website owner will get a commission for that sale.
More the consumers you can direct on your website, the more income you can potentially earn from your affiliate links.
The goal of the affiliate marketing is to make sure that the website is ranked on the first page of Google for the targeted keyword, in this case, the product.
Once the website is ranked on the top of the Google search result page, the aim is to generate income from your affiliate link.
Who can Start Affiliate Marketing?
Anyone can start affiliate marketing, irrespective of their age and their occupation.
As long as you are willing to learn and grow yourself as a person, you can start with affiliate marketing and start generating revenue.
It is very much for everyone who is willing to take action in the right direction.
It is very much important to have a basic knowledge of affiliate marketing and the techniques and the strategies associated with it to attract the audience to the website.
The basic knowledge and a good foundation will help you build your affiliate website and with the right techniques, you can get it on the first page of the Google search result.
Steps towards a successful affiliate website:
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Find a niche
Finding a niche or an area of interest is especially necessary for the establishment and building an affiliate website.
A niche for your website will help your website stand out from the lot.
You will also be able to give your complete focus on your website when you have an area of interest.
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Finding an Affiliate Program
Next important step is to find an affiliate program for your affiliate website and your niche. This will make sure that your affiliate website can help you generate income in the long run.
For example, if your niche is gadget reviews, then you should look for e-commerce websites such as Amazon and Flipkart.
They have affiliate programs that you can link to your website and earn income from them.
Every time someone purchases any gadget from your website’s affiliate link, you will be paid a commission for that sale.
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Setting up your website
Once you have selected your niche and you have selected the affiliate program for your affiliate website, you have to move forward and build a website to start earning income for it.
Setting up a website is a tricky business and it requires some efforts and time.
Since this is the most important part of earning income from affiliate marketing, this should be done slowly and steadily and make sure that there are no last-minute problems on the website.
To set up your website, you need to, first of all, buy a domain. There are many companies online that sell the domain, such as GoDaddy, Hostgator and many more.
Select any one of these domains selling website and choose from their plans and buy the one that suits you the best.
Once you have selected the domain, all you have to do is install WordPress on your domain and start building your affiliate website.
This will take you one step closer towards realizing your dream of having an affiliate website and earning money.
Also Read: Tips to increase traffic
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Writing content
Writing content is another important aspect of an affiliate website. Once you have selected your niche and created your website, you should writing content for your website with the relevant keywords to ensure that your content and your website can rank in Google search result.
Writing content is very much important and you have to make sure that the content was written is thorough and well researched and of high quality.
For example, if you are writing a review of a gadget then you should include features, pros and cons and the in-depth review of the gadget.
This content will help you get your website on the top result of the Google page and earn your income via affiliate links you will put in the content.
Affiliate Marketing Tracking methods
The most common tracking method is to track via a tracking URL where the activity of the user is recorded through the URL which is given by the company to its affiliate people.
Many old-fashioned affiliate programs allow people to give their email details and to give the referral URLs for the commission.
Features of Good Affiliate programs are:-
Some common terms associated with affiliate marketing are:-
Publishers who are using the affiliate links to avail the commission are affiliates. An Affiliate can be any person.
Affiliate Market place:-
There are many affiliate marketplaces like Commission Junction, Clickbank, Sharesale etc. These market places offer affiliate programs in a variety of niches.
Affiliate Software:-
The software’s used by the companies to give affiliate links for their products. Eg. iDevaffiliate
Affiliate Link:-
A special link provided by your affiliate company to track your commission sales.
Affiliate ID:-
Similar to affiliate link the affiliate id is to track the record of a particular page or post.
Payment mode:-
Different affiliate companies provide payment through cheese, PayPal, direct payment etc.
Commission amount:-
The percentage of the commission given to the person for availing the sales.
Landing Page:-
The unique product sale or the demo page of the product.
Custom coupons:-
Many companies provide custom coupons to their affiliates for further referral to the users.
Affiliate Marketing FAQ:
Q 1- Is Affiliate Marketing Harmful or Illegal?
No, affiliate marketing is not illegal or harmful provided the direct link of the affiliate products is not provided.
It should be there on the pages and the posts.
Q 2- Affiliate Marketing and AdSense. Can we use both?
Q 3- How to find an affiliate program of a company?
Not all companies provide affiliate programs. To find the affiliate program of a company simply go to the FAQ page and search for the affiliate program.
Herein all the details about the program would be given. The person can go and simply enroll in these programs.
They should meet all the requirements of the company policies to get the program.
Another way of finding the affiliate program it to search for the companies related to the products who offer the affiliate programs on Search Engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Yandex, etc.
Another way to find the affiliate programs is to go on the platforms like Commission Junction, Sharesale etc.
Q 4- How to find out the new products to promote?
Q 5- How much does it cost to join the Affiliate Program?
Q 6- What are the qualifications to join an Affiliate Program?
Q 7- How much money can a person make through Affiliate Marketing?
Final Thoughts
Affiliate marketing is the biggest income-generating technique that is used by many people around the globe.
Many bloggers and website owners have put affiliate links on their website and they are paid good commission, depending on the product, for each sale they make on their website. This helps in making them good income from their website.
Author Bio:
Ankur Aggarwal is a Digital Marketer, Entrepreneur, Traveler, Blogger, Foodie. Have been blogging since 2010. In 2016 he scored 99.2 percentile in XAT Exam for MBA, left that to pursue his Online business dreams. He has multiple websites but incomeboy.com is his new venture. The purpose of Incomeboy is to pass on 100% accurate and genuine information on making and saving more money either online or offline in India. Write to him at contact@incomeboy.com.
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