Here’s the first thing you should know:
Learning about affiliate marketing also requires you to un-learn things you may have heard about in the past.
If you’ve researched affiliate marketing, you probably already know there are some things that “sound good but do not work” and that’s primarily the reason why so many affiliate marketers fail before they even get started.
I’ve been an affiliate marketer for the past 10 years and I would’ve been much further ahead if I’d spent less time wondering what to know about affiliate marketing and instead just sticking to the few things I know worked well.
Today I’m presenting you with 62 “should must-knows” for anyone getting started in this business.
The goal for this list is not to make you a successful affiliate marketer overnight, but to give you a bit of a “heads-up” of what you can look forward to.
With that said, here’s everything I learned (and everything you need to know) about affiliate marketing (click on one of the categories below):
Table of Contents
Getting Started
#01: If you think affiliate marketing is easy money, close off this page and never visit again.
#02: Affiliate marketing is not easy, and it requires a lot of work.
#03: 96% of affiliates never make any money and quit somewhere in the first 3 months.
#04: Affiliates who last a year have a 90%+ success rate. This means that….
#05: YES! Affiliate marketing takes time (lots of it).
#06: Set your targets and goals one year down the line. You might get there earlier, but, likely, you won’t.
#07: If you’re following the right steps and in 6 to 12 months you’re not making money, you’re doing it wrong.
#08: Going from $0 to $100 takes 6 months. Going from $100 to $1000 takes a month.
Understanding Affiliate Marketing
#09: Your objective is to provide information, not to sell products.
#10: The best affiliates are the ones who provide the best information (+ great selling skills).
#11: You are going to need a website. This is a must. Forget whoever tells you otherwise.
#12: No, You can’t “work from the beach”. The glare makes it impossible and you do not want sand on your laptop. Trust me, I’ve tried the whole “working on a beach thing” and it sucks.
#13: Affiliate marketing is the hardest, easiest money you will ever make.
Finding Affiliate Niches & Offers
#14: You need to find a niche, which is basically an audience of people interested in something.
#15: “Cat videos” is not a niche, “smart home appliances under $100” is. Know the difference between the two.
#16: Picking the wrong niche could mean doing everything right for 12 months and still have nothing to show for it.
#17: Picking a niche that you enjoy is the best way forward. It will keep you happy while working for months with no results.
#18: Every niche can make money – but…
#19: If you can’t see how you are going to monetize a niche, then it’s not a good niche for you.
#20: Competition is fierce, but don’t let it scare you away. If I let it scare me away 8 years ago, I wouldn’t be here writing this.
#21: Affiliate marketing is not a scam, but it can become one very quickly if you’re spending money looking for quick overnight riches.
Your Affiliate Website
#21: Websites are easy to create. They’re just as easy as registering a new account on Facebook. Get yourself a fresh WordPress website and you’re good to go.
#22: Your website does not need to be fancy. Anything that supports a white background, black text and a clean look is great.
#23: Premium themes are for when you start making $1000s a day, till then, stick to the free ones.
#24: You need a domain. 100%. Get one here.
#25: You need to pay for hosting, but you can also get it for free here.
#26: Plugins are great, but only use what you need. Anything more than 10 plugins on a basic hosting plan is overkill.
#27: Monitor your site’s loading speed. Anything over 2-3 seconds and you are just losing people before they even arrive.
#28: Go through your website on mobile, even if you think it looks great. Go through it and spend some time reading. You will find a massive list of things to fix.
#29: Build trust with your website. An image of who you are and what you’re about is 100X better than a blank author (you can see who I am here).
#30: Your website is your business. You own it. Always build on your site and not on other platforms. Nobody can take your site away from you.
Getting Traffic To Your Website
#31: As a beginner, your only focus should be SEO (writing content). Forget about the rest. Just focus on getting traffic.
#32: Your blog does not need an Instagram account, a Facebook Page and a Twitter. That’s for later. Right now just focus on building out your website.
#33: Traffic takes time to build. You can see a perfect example from my experiences with that.
#34: You’re only ever one blog post away. The next one could be what takes you from 10 people a day to 100 people a day.
#35: Not all posts will get traffic. The 80/20 rule applies here. Some of your content will bring zero traffic and zero sales. Deal with it.
#36: It’s all a numbers game. After a while, you will start learning what works and what doesn’t work thanks to some key data points.
#37: Create a content plan. Ideally, you would post once a day, the bare minimum is one post per week.
#38: The more content you have, the higher the chances of success. Again, it’s a numbers game.
#39: Optimising old blog posts can sometimes increase traffic drastically, but in your first year, just keep publishing content.
#40: Always go for evergreen content, not news-type articles. You can do news later, but for now, you need content that will last for many years.
#41: Use Google Webmaster Tools.
#42: Use Google Analytics.
#43: Those two tools above will give you the only data you need right now to continue moving on the right path.
Making Money With Affiliate Marketing
#44: Just a friendly reminder; it won’t happen overnight, nor next week nor next month for that matter. Just give it time.
#45: If you do manage to make money in your first week, you’re the luckiest affiliate marketer that ever lived.
#46: Focus on product reviews, these bring in easy rankings and easy commissions.
#47: Go for recurring commissions when possible. Making $200 one time is great, making $200 for many months to come from one sale is even better.
#48: Yes, it takes much more effort to sell a $1000 product than it does a $10 product, but it does not take 100x more effort. Lessons in there.
#49: Pick the right affiliate program. Something legit and trustworthy. You do not want to have to chase your money after working so hard to earn it.
#50: Don’t put all your eggs in one basket with an affiliate program.
#51: If it closes down or changes its policies, you’re shit out of luck.
#52: Having multiple sources of affiliate commissions is how to build an affiliate business for the long term.
#53: Be original. Give us YOUR take, not what you heard or read somewhere from another “expert”.
#54: You do not need to be an expert or an authority to make money, just start with what you have and you will start making money way before the world sees you as an authority.
#55: Yes, you have to pay taxes on your affiliate income. Note down all your income/expenses.
#56: Tracking goals, traffic, sales, etc is a MUST (just don’t let it consume you).
#57: What you can track you can manage, what you can manage you can expand.
Scaling Your Affiliate Marketing Business
#58: Once you start making money, you’re going to want to start a new website. Once your initial site is strong enough, go for it.
#59: To scale an affiliate marketing business, keep doing what works and cut what doesn’t. In time, you will know which is which.
#60: It’s easier to buy an affiliate website than it is to build it BUT…
#61: Don’t do it yet. You need to know how to build a successful website before you buy one.
#62: Email marketing is something you should learn and start using. With time and enough subscribers, just the email list will be enough to earn you a full-time income.
How To Learn About Affiliate Marketing
While up top I may have said this list will give you everything you need to know about affiliate marketing, seeing how this is a “beginner’s list”, I will end it right here, but I will keep adding to it in the future so if there’s anything you’d like to know, drop me a comment below
In the meantime, if you’re dead-serious about getting started with affiliate marketing and you’d like a step-by-step video course to help you get off to a great start, look no further than Wealthy Affiliate (the link leads you to my review).
It’s where I learned how to finally make it work and boy am I glad to have come across it when I did. I was just about to give up but I’ve decided to take one last chance and see where I’d take me. I didn’t have much money at the time but I went for it anyway and the rest is history.
Luckily for you, these days you can get started for free and only go premium once you’re satisfied with the training provided and want to know more.
I also happen to have a special bonus for the action-takers who join in the first 7 days, but I will tell you more about that inside the training course.
I’ll see you on the inside.
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