How easy is Affiliate marketing? Well, that’s a loaded question, huh? But, it’s a very common question among those who are looking to get started in Affiliate Marketing and its human nature, isn’t it? We all naturally want to take the easiest path to success.

So, we’re going to take a look at all the gory details around the topic, dispel the myths, and leave you with the truth behind it. I promise by the time we get done here, you’ll know what you’re getting into, fair enough? Let’s get started.

A Short History Of Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Marketing has been around for about 30 years. The term was actually patented by a fellow named William J. Tobin in 1989. So it’s almost as old as the internet itself. However, it wouldn’t be until 1996 when Amazon stated their Affiliate program (Amazon Associates) that it would become a method of marketing available to the public.

As you know, when you become an Amazon Associate you’re able to sell anything on Amazon with your own special link and you get paid a small commission for every sale made with your link. Once Amazon implemented Affiliate Marketing (AM) it has taken off and is now used by nearly business on the internet, including the likes of Walmart.

Currently, AM is a global industry worth over $12 Billion dollars annually. So AM accounts for a huge portion of all purchases made online.

Over the past several years AM has continued to grow at a rate of 10% or more per year. This is driven by the massive move to online purchasing that has been underway during this same period.

So what does all this mean for people like you and me? It spells a huge opportunity! Since it reduces seller’s advertising costs, they are eager to sign up Affiliate Marketers to sell their products. There are literally millions of products out there that we can sell as an affiliate on our own internet real estate (domain and website).

How Hard Can It Be?

What have you heard about Affiliate Marketing? That it is super easy or super hard? How easy is Affiliate Marketing? AM in itself is a very simple concept. Sell someone else’s product through an affiliate link and make a profit, sounds like easy money, right? While the concept is simple, understanding how to promote that product and make that sale is a little more involved.

It’s doesn’t mean it’s that hard, but it does take some know-how and some elbow grease. So I’ll be quite honest and up-front, you’re not going to get rich overnight. Short of winning the lottery, getting rich overnight or even in a month or two, just doesn’t exist. It’s just a tactic used to play on your emotions by scammers.

It takes time to build an online business. All good things come in time…

The great thing is, if you apply yourself, and you’re not afraid of a little hard work, you can become quite successful. The next great thing is, AM is a passive income source. You’ll be making money whether your asleep or on vacation. Imagine having a handful of these passive income sources working for you day and day out.

What You Need To Know

I’m going to break out the primary components of AM into easy to understand chunks. I can then give you some additional reading on each of these chunks of information. Sound good?

The first thing we have to do is understand what AM is really about. You might think that it’s simply throwing up a website (which is done very easily these days) and promoting a bunch of products.

You’d be right in that you really should build a website, however, the rest of it involves helping people. AM is all about helping people with some problem or desire. Our goal is to “connect” with people in a real way. So the first question you need to ask yourself is “who is it that I want to help”?

Starting out with something that is a passion of yours is great idea. You might be passionate about helping women find a way to homeschool their children or perhaps helping people save their marriages. Taking a passion and turning it into a business is a great way to go.

I know, I know, that is not how all affiliate marketers do things and that can give AM a bad name. There are some marketers who just want to push sales down your throat or market with dishonest tactics. Unfortunately, the making-money online sector is full of scammers. That’s why I feel it’s important you know how things really work.

Scammers are here today and gone tomorrow. Our goal is to create a sustainable business that creates value. It’s only by providing value to your readers that you can gain their trust and recommend quality products that help them achieve their goals and in turn, earn you money.

So let’s look at the process and I’ll give you some additional material you can use to gain a deeper understanding.

Step 1 – Choose an Interest

Before you do anything you’ve got to choose an interest or your “Niche”. A niche is a specific group of people with a common problem or desire. This is the “who do I want to help” question you’ve got to ask yourself.

Your niche should be specific like, people who have bad knees looking for things like running shoes, pain relief, and so on, instead of something broad like “people looking for running shoes”. It’s much easier to rank in the search engines for more specific, less competitive niches vs. very competitive, broad niches.

Finding a niche is very easy for some people and more difficult for others who may not have a specific passion to follow. But, I’ve got some helpful tips on finding a niche that you can use if you need help coming up with something.

Step 2 – Build a Website

Building a website might seem like a daunting task, however, with today’s technology it’s a breeze. You can build a website with a push of a button, literally. You don’t need to know HTML or any other programming language. It’s as easy as picking a website theme and creating the website by pushing a button, really. It’s that simple.

The kind of website you’ll be building is a content website or a blog. I’m sure you’ve heard about people making a lot of money using blogs. Blogs are simply content management websites, usually WordPress. They are very simple to create and very simple to manage and create content.

Check out this article on how easy it can be to create an Affiliate website.

Step 3 – Attract Visitors

Visitors are your life-blood. This is referred to as traffic. You attract visitors through the content you create on your website. When you’re first starting out with your website/blog, you should decide on the kinds of content you want to provide your visitors.

Your content can consist of helpful tips, product reviews, and other useful information your visitors might be looking for. You target each piece of content around a keyword or keyword phrase. So, in the example of people with bad knees, you might target the keyword “running shoes for women with bad knees” for one of your articles. You could also do reviews on the best running shoes for these people and use the shoe brand and type as your keyword.

When you write your content, write as though you were talking to the person, not like an encyclopedia. Also, don’t push products, simply mention them where appropriate and use your affiliate link for the product. Focus on providing the value vs. making the sale.

I have a great article on keywords you can look at, as well as free tools to help you with keyword research.

Step 4 – Earn Revenue

This is where you make your money. As you build your content on your website, you will naturally make recommendations on products related to the topic at hand. You’ll sign up as an affiliate for all the various products you promote on your website.

Product reviews are great places to refer your visitors for specific products as you’ll have your affiliate link on that page and have told them about the product. Just make sure that the product is relevant to the keyword and the article.

How To Ensure Your Success

The best way to ensure your success is by surrounding yourself with like-minded people and getting your hands on great training resources.

You need the support of other like-minded people because they are the ones who you can count on to answer questions, talk about successes or failures, and keep you grounded. Otherwise, you’ll only hear the voices of family and friends telling you that you’re wasting our time, etc. THEY DON’T KNOW what you are doing, they just see you setting in front of a computer typing and seemingly doing nothing.

You also ensure your success by having access to proven, step by step training. This will keep you on the right track and away from those time-wasting obstacles in the road.

Most of all, Affiliate Marketing is about staying the course, learning from failures (and you will have some), and not giving up! You can’t get anywhere if you give up.

I haven’t failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.

–Thomas A. Edison

Come hang out with me. You’ll have access to 1.6 million like-minded people and you can sign up for a free membership, no strings, no credit card needed. You’ll get access to the first 10 lessons, 2 free websites on the Site Rubix WordPress platform to learn on, and many more features. Plus, I’ll be there to greet you and guide you to success. Build your own business and be successful.

Wrapping Up

How easy is Affiliate Marketing? The concept is simple, sell someone else’s product with an affiliate link, then bank your commissions. While it’s not a get-rich-quick scheme, it is a proven method you can create a successful online business with.

The key? Understanding that Affiliate Marketing is all about helping people and applying this principle. By implementing this concept in your Affiliate Marketing business, and getting the proper training and support, you can build yourself sustainable passive income sources.

To Your Massive Success. Hope to see you soon.

Michael

AffiliateCash101.com

PS. Scroll down and leave any questions or comments. I’d love to hear from you.