How to Start Affiliate Marketing in 2024
Affiliate marketing is a way of marketing where third-party publishers promote a merchant’s products or services and get a share of the sales or web traffic that results. It's a key part of modern digital marketing.
Businesses find affiliate marketing attractive because it helps them achieve their marketing goals inexpensively. For affiliates, it's a way to earn money by promoting products they personally use and like. To earn affiliate income, you need to build a platform and grow an online audience. It's also important to keep up with current trends in affiliate marketing
For example, according to Affiverse Media, using generative AI and creating content on a large scale will become more important for affiliate marketers in 2024.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a type of marketing where someone like a blogger, YouTuber, or influencer promotes a business’s products or services to help them sell more. In return, the affiliate gets paid a commission or other rewards for each sale they bring in.
Businesses use affiliates to:
- Sell more products
- Get more people to visit their website
- Make more people aware of their brand
- Reach the audience of the affiliate
For example, a shoe company could team up with a fitness blogger to reach the blogger's audience of fitness enthusiasts. By working together, the blogger helps bring more visitors to the shoe company's website and increase sales. Some of these new customers might even become regular buyers.
How Affiliate Marketing Works
Many affiliate programs are free to join. Affiliate programs work by allowing individuals or businesses to promote and sell the products or services of another company in exchange for a commission on each sale. The affiliate earns a commission each time someone makes a purchase through the unique affiliate link associated with their recommendation.
Here’s how affiliate marketing works at a high level:
- An affiliate promotes an affiliate link to their website visitors, blog readers, or social network.
- An audience member clicks the link.
- The audience member makes a purchase.
- The affiliate network records the transaction.
- The affiliate gets paid a monetary commission.
Commission rates for affiliate sales vary depending on the product, industry, and the agreement negotiated between the affiliate and brand. Low-price, high-volume products in niches such as pet food or skin care might earn you 5% of each sale. High-ticket affiliate programs in sectors such as finance and software can offer more than 20%.
Successful affiliates may negotiate bespoke deals with their partners for even higher percentages. Some affiliate marketing programs provide a flat rate per sale instead of a percentage.
3 Types of Affiliate Marketing
1. Unattached Affiliate Marketing
Unattached affiliate marketing is when the affiliate is a general advertiser or promoter. They are not associated with the affiliated brand, product, industry, or niche, and may promote a wide range of affiliate products to multiple audiences.
Unattached affiliate marketers often use pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns to reach customers on social media and search engine results pages.
2. Related Affiliate Marketing
Related affiliate marketing is the practice of promoting products or services that are relevant to an affiliate’s audience. An affiliate in this category has invested resources to build a following through blogging, YouTube, TikTok, or other types of content marketing.
Related affiliate marketers may be influencers, making them a trusted source for recommending products.
3. Involved Affiliate Marketing
Involved affiliate marketing refers to the creation of content that includes an affiliated product or service. This could be a product review, a walkthrough, or other content that demonstrates product benefits.
Many involved affiliate marketers gain a reputation for trustworthy, impartial product recommendations. Earning an audience’s trust is a sustainable way to build an affiliate marketing business.
How To Start Affiliate Marketing
1. Pick a Channel and Format
To start as an affiliate, the first thing you need to do is choose a marketing channel to reach your audience and decide what type of content to create for that channel.
- Common marketing channels include:
- Organic search (like Google)
- TikTok
- YouTube
Popular types of content include:
- Product reviews
- "Best of" product lists
- Curated product recommendations
- Product comparisons
- Lifestyle content
When picking a channel and content type, think about the platforms you use the most and the content formats you know well. Starting with a familiar marketing channel can help you create high-quality content and build a more engaged audience.
No matter what approach you choose, being genuine is important in affiliate marketing. Without a real connection with your audience, it can be hard to turn them into affiliate sales.
2. Determine your Niche
When choosing a niche, affiliate marketers usually follow one of two paths:
- They pick a niche they are passionate about.
- They select a niche based on audience analysis.
Choosing a niche you already know a lot about can make you seem genuine and trustworthy to potential customers. It also helps you decide which products and brands to promote.
For example, if you started a blog when you got a dog to share your experiences as a new pet owner, it would make sense to choose an affiliate niche in pet care. This way, you can promote products that match your content and audience.
On the other hand, choosing a niche based on audience analysis can help you find profitable areas with less competition. This approach might allow you to establish yourself in new areas before other affiliates notice the opportunity.
However, this method means you'll be competing with people who probably know more about the topic than you do. To succeed, you'll need to use affiliate marketing tools like social listening, website analytics, and social media insights to understand your audience's preferences.
3. Find an Affiliate Program
To make money as an affiliate marketer, the products you promote must match your audience's interests. If you choose the wrong products, it can hurt your success and make you seem less trustworthy.
If you don’t know where to find products or brands to partner with, you can check out these popular affiliate networks:
You can also visit the websites of companies to see if they have affiliate programs. Many companies, like Shopify, offer affiliate programs.
Another way is to contact the owner of a product you like and ask if they have an affiliate program. If they don’t, they might be willing to set up a deal, like giving you a special coupon code to share with your followers.
Remember to read the terms of service for each affiliate program. These rules often include details about how long your affiliate link's cookie lasts and whether you can use pay-per-click ads with the product or company's name.
4. Choose your First Product
When thinking about products to promote or browsing through affiliate platforms, it's important to choose items that match your audience or the audience you want to attract. Ask yourself:
- Would my target audience find this product useful?
- Does it fit with what I know and my brand?
Also, make sure the product or service suits the platform you're using. For example, home décor and clothing might do well on Instagram because it's image-focused. But for more complex items like software, you might get better results on platforms that allow detailed content, like blogs or YouTube.
Final Thoughts
Affiliate marketing offers a great way for people and businesses to make money by promoting products and services they believe in. It has low start-up costs, flexible work hours, and the chance to earn passive income, making it very popular. To do well in affiliate marketing, you should pick the right niche, know your audience, create good content, build trust, and track your results. By doing these things, you can succeed in affiliate marketing.
FAQs
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a type of marketing where individuals or businesses earn a commission by promoting another company's products or services. Furthermore, affiliates use unique links to track the sales or actions generated from their promotions.
How do I get Started with Affiliate Marketing?
To start affiliate marketing, you need to join an affiliate program, get your unique affiliate links, and promote these links through your website, blog, social media, or other channels. However, when someone clicks on your link and makes a purchase, you earn a commission.
What are the Benefits of Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing has several benefits, including low start-up costs, the ability to work from anywhere, flexible working hours, and the potential to earn passive income. Moreover, you don't need to create or manage products; you just promote them.
How can I be Successful in Affiliate Marketing?
To succeed in affiliate marketing, choose a niche you are passionate about, understand your target audience, create valuable and engaging content, build trust with your audience, and track your performance to optimize your strategies.
