Affiliate Marketing – A Guide for Complete Beginners Part 4

Hello and welcome to the last part of this 4 part series about affiliate marketing for beginners.

We started this journey of affiliate marketing with the simple objective of helping beginner marketers to understand how they can achieve real success by following some simple guidelines.

As a beginner marketer I truly hope this series has enabled you to have greater confidence in your ability to become profitable with affiliate marketing.

If I have achieved this for you then I am more than delighted and I look forward to hearing your success stories.

Join my blogging community here and stay in touch with me as you grow your online business. I'd love that.

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If you missed parts 1, 2 or 3 of the series then as a beginner affiliate marketer I strongly suggest you go check them out first and then come back to this final stage of the series.

In part 1 we looked at a whole lot of critical things for affiliate marketing including “What Really Is Affiliate Marketing?” “How does affiliate marketing actually work?” and a whole lot more.

In part 2 we looked at “7 Key Reasons Why You Should Consider Affiliate Marketing”; “How Can I Make Money from Affiliate Marketing?” and “What Affiliate Programs Should I Select?”

In part 3 we looked at “How Best to Get Started as an Affiliate Marketer?” plus “Two Different Yet Successful Affiliate Marketing Strategies”

In this final part I’ll be giving you 11 Massive Tips for Success as an Affiliate Marketer

Let’s get started.

11 Massive Tips for Success as an Affiliate Marketer

My first bit of advice to you may seem a bit unusual but I strongly recommend as a beginner affiliate marketer you should never run after commissions.

Yes I know that’s why we are in business but firstly you need to make your name and credibility in the market and then the money will follow afterward.

affiliate marketing1. Choosing the Right Niche

As mentioned in part 3 of this series you must the time to research this step.

If you choose the wrong target market niche then you could see yourself spending a lot of time, effort and money on something that never makes you a cent.

When deciding on a niche ask yourself the following questions

  • Is there enough people looking for content related to this niche?
  • Is there a pain, frustration or problem I can solve for them?
  • When you search on Google are other businesses advertising on the results pages? If so there is definitely money to be made there.
  • Am I interested in this topic?
  • Is this topic too complicated for me?

2.  Only Choose a Few Good Products

Many beginner marketers make the mistake of registering with too many different affiliate programs and they try to promote everything and anything to anyone.

This is an absolute no no!

Do this and you will get completely overwhelmed, confused and this approach will send you broke. Plus I strongly recommend you purchase and use EVERY product you want to promote. 

All you need in order to be successful is a handful of good products to promote.

Gentle Reminder: Just make sure you research the demand for the product first!

If you try to sell a product that is in low demand then chances are that you are not going to get many sales no matter how hard you try.

Get to know and understand your niche (target) market’s needs BEFORE you offer any products. Then make sure the products you select are completely relevant to the needs of your niche.

[Tweet ““Affiliate Marketing Has Made Businesses Millions And Ordinary People Millionaires””]

3. Stay with What You Know and Like

Just keep in mind that your affiliate marketing journey is not just an overnight thing.

For the foreseeable future your focus is going to be on building your affiliate marketing business.

So it may not be a very smart thing to start building a website that is based around topics that you really have no idea about – or worse have no real interest in!

This can be a recipe for disaster as an affiliate marketer.

To be a success in anything you’re going to need a positive mindset about what you’re doing every day.

If you get out of bed and don’t look forward to and enjoy what you do, I can almost guarantee you will not be doing it for long.

4. Be Honestaffiliate marketing

Sounds like common sense but it’s critical you do this every day. Always be honest and never make false claims

If there are some things that you don’t like about the affiliate product then tell your readers. This will absolutely differentiate you from the other marketers who are probably trying to sell them a product based on the features.

By sharing both the good and not so perfect things about your offer you are also showing that you have used the product as you know exactly what it does and what it doesn’t do.

This is a great way to easily build trust and rapport with your readers who will respect you for your honesty.

And it will encourage them to come back and visit your website again as well as promoting your reputation as someone who “tells you the truth”

5. Focus on Your Blog Content

With your blog always make sure you are writing about what people in your niche are interested in.

Always create content that is highly relevant to your niche.

This post is aimed right at you as a beginner marketer as that is precisely who my target audience is.

affiliate marketingNow if you are not a newbie online marketer then I still hope you got some affiliate marketing gems from my posts that you can pass on to others.

Good, informative and engaging pieces of writing will compel them to come to your blog regularly and the money will follow as you build your credibility and authority status. 

When you create your posts think always about the pains and problems your target market has.

 

[Tweet ““Never let your ads write checks that your website can’t cash.” Avinash Kaushik”]

If you are simply writing posts for the sake of supporting your link like a salesman, you are less likely to succeed.

Make your reader believe through your writing (and/or your videos) that you really understand them and the challenges they are facing.

This way they are much more likely to join your blog community (your email list) that then gives you the best chance to build relationships and trust with them.

It’s also one of the very best ways to sell your affiliate product problem solvers!

6. Don’t Be Pushy

People hate being sold to but they love to buy.

So never insult your blog visitors by putting flashy banners like BUY IT NOW or anything like it.

Instead of trying to sell all the time show you are human. Show you care and are interested in them. Become involved and make your website visitor believe that you are there to help.

And of course always recommend the product by sharing your own experiences – this is just so powerful so don't ignore this important step in your affiliate marketing.

7. Always Follow Upaffiliate marketing

Slow down cowboy. Your affiliate marketing success is not just about sales.

If a prospect buys your affiliate offer then always follow up and get the comments and reviews as how they found that product.

This is invaluable information that you can use in your marketing but sadly very few affiliate marketers bother to take this extra step.

I'll let you into a secret – your brand new customers will love you for following up with them and that's great for business as well. Agree?

Also make sure you are always there to assist them in case they find any inconvenience or problem using that product.

If you do these 2 simple things then you will never lose the trust of your audience and your reputation – your name will become so much more credible and highly regarded in your niche market.

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8. Keep Your Focus

As a beginner affiliate marketer you will very quickly find yourself facing a lot of distractions in the form of flashy banners, easy ways to earn money online or something which attracts you and get you distracted from the affiliate marketing program which you are already working on.

Don’t chase those “shiny objects” – they will ruin your future. Please believe me on this as I'm a perfect example of an affiliate marketer who nearly went broke by continually buying “stuff” and losing focus.  

This is how you lose your concentration and your chance of success if you are always in search of something better. Stop doing that right now and make the most of what you have. 

When you start up as an affiliate marketer all you need to do is to be focused on building up your reputation and name. Once you are established, other avenues will open up automatically.

[Tweet ““Give them quality. That’s the best kind of advertising.” Milton Hershey”]

 affiliate marketing9. Cloaking Your Links

Almost all affiliate links are long and ugly.

If a reader sees these types of links then immediately they are thinking that you’re going to try and ell them something.

That may be true but by seeing your links and forming this impression you are not even going to get the chance to start making your offer –no matter how good it is.

Cloaking your links is the best way to keep the website looking professional while not coming off as a hard sell.

Don’t forget you can also use anchor text links in your emails that directly link to your offer page.

Now as a beginner if what you just read about “cloaking” and “anchor text links” makes absolutely no sense to you then don’t worry.

Just know there are free tools available that enable you to shorten your affiliate links and even make them look nothing like an affiliate link – if you’re using a wordpress blog then add the free plugin called “Pretty Links”

“Anchor text” is when emailing someone you to embed a link within a certain phrase in your email. It’s easy to do but if not sure just Google it and ask “How to use anchor text”.

10.Try Different Traffic Sources

If you are going to use paid traffic sources then be aware there are lots of alternatives. Learn from your mistakes because for sure you will have some traffic failures.

Just try to not keep repeating the same mistake over and over again like many new marketers do.

Watch your traffic and conversion stats like a hawk. (see point 11 below)

If the campaign cost is less than the campaign profit then you’re on a winner and you could scale it up.

But if that’s not the situation and you are losing money – stop, learn from this and change your traffic source.

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11.Test, Measure and Track Everything

As I mentioned about “traffic sources” you need to be constantly checking all your stats.

The only way to know if your affiliate product promotion is working is to know your stats.

It’s also a good idea to use different product promotion strategies then you can figure out what is working and what is not.

Check everything. Even the position of your affiliate banners can increase your profit dramatically.

Most affiliate programs will give you all the basic stats that you need as a beginner.

My Almost Last Words On Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a great method of marketing and promoting your products with ease and within the comfort of your home.

With the affiliate marketing business model you don’t require large amounts of investment to begin making good money online.

In fact, as you know by now, signing up with any affiliate program is completely free. 

All you need is your time, effort and investment in setting up your blog and driving traffic.

However, as a beginner affiliate marketer, before you get started you should be aware there are some disadvantages that you should take into consideration:

  • In affiliate advertising there are some people involved in false claims advertising
  • Some merchants may be dishonest and promise higher rates and then reduce afterwards.
  • Some affiliates may engage in false advertisements to mislead the merchants and get commission.

However, affiliate marketing with all its advantages and disadvantages is still one of the best home based online businesses.

Need More Help With Your Affiliate Marketing?

Here's your access to FREE controversial video training where you'll discover A Dirty Little Secret you should be aware of in your affiliate marketing journey.

This is a “MUST SEE” video for all beginner affiliate marketers.

That's it. Once you've checked out this free bonus training video you've completed all my beginner affiliate marketing training. 

I hope you got lots of value from this series

It’s Your Turn

I know just how busy you must be so many thanks for taking the time to leave me your comments.

As a beginner affiliate marketer which of the tips did you find most helpful?
Are you having problems choosing a niche?
Do you already have a blog? If not, why not?
Are you worried about creating blog post content?
Care to share why you decided to become an affiliate marketer?
What have been your biggest challenges or struggles as an affiliate marketer?
What has really worked well for you as an affiliate marketer?
What were the key things you got from this post?
Would you like some help with your affiliate marketing?

Let's talk to make sure this program is the right fit for you. If so we can then come to an agreement on the investments required