Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to make money online and we have people making thousands of dollars (and even millions) from their affiliate marketing efforts. We all love to get great results from little efforts and that is exactly what affiliate marketing brings about – No need to answer support queries, no need to brainstorm product ideas etc.
Successful affiliate marketers have a recipe, and this is what most newbie don’t know. You don’t just setup an affiliate website and expect the income to be flowing; there are steps you have to take to get the best from your affiliate marketing efforts. This post will be explaining a 4-step-recipe used by many successful affiliate marketers to make money online.
1. Market Research
One thing I have learned from many successful affiliate marketers is that they don’t just jump into a niche and begin to try to make money online promoting affiliate products but they always research effectively before committing their resources into a niche.
It is a very dangerous mistake to get started in a niche you know nothing about, you have to research effectively and have enough details about the niche you are about to enter. When trying to start affiliate marketing in a particular niche, you have to have basic knowledge of the niche, such as the type of audience, the buyer intent, the competition and which type of product works best in that niche. You wouldn’t want to be promoting ebooks in a niche where they love to buy books in hardcover.
2. The Right Product
After you know the type of market and what works best, you wouldn’t just want to start promoting any product you see, this isn’t going to work! Another crucial step to making money online from affiliate marketing is promoting the right product. I have discovered that promoting products from big brands tend to convert better because the big companies will have done a lot of the marketing work, and your prospect would have come across the product on several occasions, he/she will be more likely to buy it than other products he/she is coming across for the first time.
Another thing you should note is that if a product has been over-promoted, you might not get the best from your promotion efforts because most of the buyers would have gone after the recommendations of a guru in the niche, thereby leaving you with less opportunity to make sales.
3. Focus on Trust
Another core factor that determines how you make it with affiliate marketing is trust. It is very important to focus on building trust with your prospects first. It is very important to know that it is easier to destroy your trust than it is to build it. If you worked hard on building trust with your readers, you can destroy that trust by promoting the wrong product.
There are several ways to build trust with your readers (or to-be customers) and one of the best ways to build trust is by making sure you give value. If you are promoting your affiliate products via your blog, it is very important to focus on writing high-quality, valuable content first because this will help you win the trust of your readers, thereby making them buyers.
4. Get Traffic
One thing I have noticed from most people who believe affiliate marketing is difficult is that most of them have little to no traffic. Affiliate marketing success doesn’t stop in you researching the market or having the right product, you also have to focus on getting traffic to your affiliate links. When it comes to getting traffic, there are different types of traffic but getting high-quality traffic from the right place works best. One major source of traffic you should focus on as an affiliate marketer is search engine traffic because you only need to work once, and once you could secure your spot in the search engines you will begin to get traffic on autopilot.
Another great advantage of search engine traffic is that it converts better than any other traffic source because search engine visitors are more targeted – they came in a search for something.
While search engine traffic is not the only way to get traffic, there are several other ways to get high-quality traffic to your blog and I will be listing 5 of them below:
i. Guest Blogging
ii. Forum Posting
iii. Blog Commenting
iv. Video Marketing
v. Article Marketing
Conclusion
The above are 4 great steps (I call it the affiliate marketing recipe) to affiliate marketing success, implement the above tips and you will begin to get more results from your affiliate marketing efforts.
This guest post was written by Onibalusi Bamidele, a young entrepreneur living the internet lifestyle, subscribe to his blog for more great posts. Also, get his free traffic report called the ultimate traffic formula.
your blogs bring immense clarity into a newcomer's search for knowledge on affiliate marketing. Thanks and blessings.
Great Helga,
You are absolutely right! This blog is really a great resource for anybody who wants to make money online fom affiliate marketing.
Thanks so much for commenting!
My recent post Blogging with Style- How to Manipulate Your Writing for Success
Thanks, appreciate it! Let me know what posts you would like to see in the future.
Great post, Onibalusi Bamidele, and on the money. Zack – thanks for opening up your blog this way, mighty kind to do so.
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Great TAG,
Glad you loved the post
My recent post Blogging with Style- How to Manipulate Your Writing for Success
Great and comprehensive article, Zac
My recent post My First Impressions About Google Instant
Oops, I missed the last line. Sorry Onibalusi Bamidele
My recent post My First Impressions About Google Instant
Some great advice for affiliate marketers who just don't know how to get started.
My recent post Google Instant – a Quick Look
I liked this article because it reminded me of my how hard it was starting out. Zac you seem to be covering a lot of topics with your Blog. Thanks a Billion man! A a true fan of Zac Johnson. Something I'd like to see you post about is Hosting from free, low cost to what you actually use. You may have already done this in the past, I just haven't caught up on all your post yet.
Onibalusi I'll be visiting your post/blog soon.
Great post Zac. i think one of my problems is i'll pick a niche without doing too much research and realise that the niche is extremely competitive. After doing a few months of work i'll see no results and just give up. However i think i've found a niche that my work for me now.
Using these tips hopefully i will some luck!
Great post Zac. i think one of my problems is i'll pick a niche without doing too much research and realise that the niche is extremely competitive. After doing a few months of work i'll see no results and just give up. However i think i've found a niche that my work for me now.
As always you deliver the goods. Thanks for the post.
Doing market research is probably where a lot of people stumble to find hungry markets because it's not a sexy task to do. However if you get that part right everything else is a cake walk.
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Good information here, Zac. Finding a good market, a good niche in the market, and then a couple of good products to sell is always the hardest part of anything done online. I know I would love to buy some software that would automate at least part of the process. Like the new comments look.
Good concise article.
I particularly like that it was written by a guest blogger – that looks like a great way to get instant targeted traffic to your site. Something to consider for the future me thinks.
Keith
hey zac great post as usual,i would like to run some ideas by you for future posts :-
1) The Super Afilliate Mindset – what mindset you really need to adopt to be successful???
2) Marketing With A Twist – why relationship marketing can work well for an affiliate???
3) Case Study:- Facebooks ads Vs Google Ads ????
have a great day!
It is better to promote a niche you like and more familiar with. That way, not only do you appear as an authority, but you are one. Sometimes competition is good. That means the product is selling well.
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Great Post!
I have been building my web presence over the last year and articles like this always give me one more idea to implement.
Thanks
Craig
My recent post Facebook Tops Google- Why You Need Your Own Facebook URL
Traffic Is the key of success of Affiliate Product earning.
I agree, interaction with others will always benefit the traffic growth.
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It is better to promote a niche you like and more familiar with