Everyone has to start somewhere and choosing affiliate marketing for beginners is one of the best places to start.
Affiliate marketing has several advantages:
- No need to create your own products
- Usually more commission than just selling adverts, sometimes with the option of recurring commission
- An almost unlimited supply of affiliate products to promote in almost any niche
Where to begin affiliate marketing?
The best place to start is to decide on a niche area that you want to cover.
A niche can be almost as small as you like so long as there are people somewhere in the world who are also interested in the same niche and who buy products in that niche.
If you’ve got a hobby that you like and that you spend money in, that’s a good place to start.
Or if you want to branch out into a new area in your life and want to get the option to earn something whilst you share your experiences, that’s another excellent place to begin.
Just be wary of choosing something that’s too broad.
One mistake that a lot of beginners make is to either try to tackle a giant market (weight loss, football, that kind of thing) or to be a jack of all trades, covering anything and everything that stands a chance of earning an affiliate commission.
Both of those options are a recipe for disaster – you’ll be competing against giants and they will have much more content and authority than your fledgling site. Which means you’ll be doomed to getting next to no visitors or spending an order of magnitude more on promotion than you can ever realistically hope to get back.
It’s much better to start in a small but manageable area and build up your authority in that area.
Then check there are enough products to promote
If you’ve chosen your niche well, there’s a good chance that there will be products available.
Amazon is a maybe – they’re a bit picky about which State you live in, so if they don’t like your State or country then you’ll have to look elsewhere. But they can be a useful extra addition to other affiliate marketing programs as they offer a wide range of products on almost every subject under the sun.
Depending on your chosen niche, you may be promoting physical products that have to be physically delivered to buyers or digital products that can be instantly downloaded. Whilst you won’t be getting involved in the actual delivery, it will affect the affiliate networks you can join as most of them specialise in different areas. That said, there is some overlap but you’ll need to check.
There are a number of established affiliate networks: Commission Junction, Shareasale, Clickbank, Warrior Plus, JVZoo and lots of others.
They have varying terms and conditions – Commission Junction tends to be pickier than most, so be prepared for rejection of your applications on a reasonably regular basis until you get established – and they pay out at varying amounts and varying timescales.
That can be important when you’re just starting as the need for cash is higher.
In turn, that could influence the niche you decide to promote and the products in it.
But don’t let that be the deciding factor!
Whilst it’s tempting to – say – choose the make money online niche because of the 100% instant payouts that are often available, if that sector bores you to tears and you end up buying most of the products you hoped to promote, spending more cash on them than you earn, it may not be the best option.
Whilst a month seems like an eternity when you’re just starting your affiliate marketing career, it soon passes.
It’s much better to be promoting good products that you believe in
Temptation is everywhere.
And the prospect of a quick sale of a product to someone you’ve never met increases that temptation.
But don’t use that as an excuse to sell rubbish just for the money.
Whether or not you believe in the concept, karma works on the internet just as much as it does in real life.
Plus there are plenty of decent products available to promote so there’s no need to pursue the fast buck just because it claims it will be easy and fast.
In fact, if an affiliate program claims you’ll be earning money by doing next to nothing, it’s time to click the back button.
Fast.
Because whether you’re a beginner in affiliate marketing or a long in the tooth experienced marketer, there’s almost never such a thing as a fast buck with no effort.
Sure, sales and affiliate JV pages will often make out that their program is the best thing since sliced bread.
But customers are getting more savvy and most of them can smell a rat very quickly.
That means if you promote bad products that don’t live up to the hype, the poor reputation of that product will almost certainly come back to bite you. Whether that’s bad reviews of your site on places like Facebook and Twitter, poor response to the email list you’re building up or anything else that affects your fledgling affiliate marketing business.
So choose the products you promote wisely.
It’s slower burn but you’ll sleep better at night and you’ll be building up a business that should bring you income for months and years and hopefully even decades to come.
If you’d like help with getting started in affiliate marketing, check this out.
