How To Start Affiliate Marketing From Scratch

How To Start Affiliate Marketing From Scratch by Aimee Devlin

In this article, I’ll share with you how to start affiliate marketing from scratch…

…even if you have no technical experience or product to sell!

You’ve heard the buzz around affiliate marketing, but you don’t quite understand how it all works – yet.

It’s ok, I’ve got your back. ?

Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to start an online business.

Why?

It allows you to get off the ground much faster than other businesses.

Traditional network marketing relies on you buying a starter kit and hitting up friends and family to make your first sale. Which is easy for some, yet most people would rather hack their eyes out with a rusty spoon.

In contrast, affiliate marketing requires minimal initial outlay. You can get some runs on the board without spending ANY money at all if you’re super skint. (Not that I’d recommend that. It pays to invest in education. And, having an advertising budget is essential if you want to be serious.)

Do you see the possibilities here? ?

But the most important part is: never let being a noob stop you from starting in the first place.

What Is An Affiliate?

An affiliate makes money by leveraging another company’s business infrastructure. Affiliates make a commission when someone buys a product using their unique link. It’s a normal web link with a unique code attached that tracks where the sale came from.

Thousands of brands and companies you love and support have affiliate programs. Anyone can register for these programs. Yes – that includes you!

As an affiliate, you’ll receive a special link which you can share whenever and wherever you like. Share with friends for free or setup paid advertising for your target audience.

When a customer uses your link to buy a product, the company will send you a commission for promoting their product. Each dollar of commission you earn is a step closer to FREEDOM.

Why choose affiliate marketing over traditional business?

When starting a new business, we need to build strong foundations. We must organise websites, online shops, shipping routes, product formulation, pricing, and packaging. These outlays happen before we can even sell something!

In affiliate marketing, someone else has already done that work for us. All we need to do is promote the product, and in return, we’ll receive a commission (aka a “finder’s fee” in traditional lingo).

This means affiliates can get started with a much smaller initial investment. Which leaves more money in the kitty for advertising and scaling up.

In a traditional bricks and mortar business, regular monthly outgoings may include:

  • Staff wages
  • Worker’s compensation
  • Insurance
  • Superannuation
  • Stock and inventory
  • Rent
  • Utilities

And this is BEFORE we even sell anything!

By choosing affiliate marketing, we cut out most of these costs, making it way easier to get off the ground. It’s the smartest way to build an online business.

But What Should I Sell?

If you want to be a successful affiliate, source and promote products that people want, love, and need. (There’s no point selling something no one wants to buy, is there?)

One of the simplest ways to get started with affiliate marketing is to find a product that you’d share anyway. Visit their website to check to see if they have an affiliate program. Many times they will! Amazon has one of the most popular affiliate programs for this reason – almost EVERYONE has heard of them! (Though I wouldn’t choose Amazon for reasons I’ll share later.)

Here’s a great, real world example for you…

I am an affiliate for some online health and wellness documentaries. You know the ones that you see screening for free online? But you have to watch each episode in the space of 24 hours (and let’s face it, no one’s that committed!). It’s a smart business model.

I’d share the links to these on my Facebook feed even if I wasn’t receiving commission because I love getting health and wellness education out there. Many docu-series’ offer a 40-50% commission on their hard copy packages. So, when I share my link and someone buys, I receive a commission. All for sharing the love.

Awesome, huh?

How much money can I make with affiliate marketing?

The amount of income you can make with affiliate marketing depends on so many variables, including:

  • your education and experience,
  • your commitment,
  • advertising budget,
  • the product/offer you’ve chosen to promote, and
  • how much time you have to dedicate to your new venture.

Different offers pay in different ways. Though I’ve promoted my fair share of “low ticket” offers (e.g. Amazon), my preference is “high ticket” offers. You’ll grasp this once you’ve seen the example below.

Let’s compare low ticket with high ticket.

In our hypothetical example, our goal is to make $10,000 in commission.

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Would you prefer to sell 10 products or 500? ?‍

It’s the same amount of effort. I know which I’d prefer!

Here’s the “magic” formula

  1. Find a product…
  2. Find people who want to buy the product…
  3. Connect the two together!

Affiliate marketing is a win-win-win.

The creator sells more product and reaches a wider audience.

The affiliate receives a commission for promoting the product. (It’s like word of mouth, but better!).

And, the customer gets exactly what they were looking for!

(Most of the time, they’re also blissfully unaware they helped an affiliate put dinner on the table.)

Cool stat: When you buy online, 90% of the time an “affiliate” is making a commission on that sale.

Your options to start affiliate marketing from scratch

Option 1

Find a product you like with an affiliate program, get your unique link, and start sharing right now. Your side hustle will grow slowly over time.

Option 2

Set some solid goals for what you want to achieve, learn the ins and outs of digital marketing, find a product you love and a high ticket offer that’s already working for the community.

If you’d like to really succeed at it and work full time from wherever you like, it makes sense to choose this second option.

If you’re ready to get started with affiliate marketing, grab a seat in my Freedom Masterclass. I’ll walk you through the 5 keys that helped me build a conscious online business that I love.

You can build one too.

Not a business you like.

LOVE. ?

Because it revolves around you being you.

It allows you to earn whenever you like.

And there’s no ceiling on how much you can earn.

Which means more of your time will be yours, and you’ll have the money to enjoy it.

Sound good?

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