Amazon associates

An in-Depth Review of the Amazon Associates Program

March 28, 2021 by David Sharpe Leave a Comment

Are you looking for new ways to make extra money? Wondering how to start quickly to earn a passive income? If you have a blog or social media presence, the answer may be easier than you think!

Affiliate marketing programs are an easy way to generate income online. When visitors on your website click your affiliate links and make a purchase, you earn a commission! Amazon Associates have some of the best-converting links because it is such a known and trusted website.

Wondering how you can be a success with Amazon affiliate marketing? Keep reading to learn more about the Amazon Associates program, how to join, and what to expect!

What Is the Amazon Associates Program?

Amazon is the largest online retailer. With almost a 40% market share of worldwide sales, they ship over $5 billion worth of product each year. It is the third most visited website on the internet, behind only Google and Facebook.

And you can share in that success as an Amazon Associates through their affiliate program. All you need is a website or social media presence.

There’s very little work required by you to set it up. Unlike online courses that require you to create a lot of material before you start, With the Amazon associates program, all you need to do is put links to products on your site and generate traffic to your blog.

With the Amazon associates program, you add links to Amazon products to your site. When a customer clicks on your link and then makes a purchase – any purchase within 24 hours – you receive a small percent of the sale in return. The amount of your commission varies depending on what they purchased.

In some cases, you may even be eligible for a commission after the 24-hour limit. Suppose a customer uses your affiliate link and adds the item to their shopping cart, as long as they complete the purchase before the shopping cart expires (usually within 90-days). In that case, you could still receive the referral fee.

Benefits of the Amazon Affiliate Marketing Program

This is a win-win situation for both you and Amazon. Amazon gets increased sales and expanded reach through its Affiliates website and social media following. And they only have to pay for that marketing with it actually generates a sale.

You get to participate in one of the largest e-commerce sites on the web today. You don’t have to own products or ship merchandise.

Amazon’s sales funnel works to your advantage. They recommend related items to customers on their site, which increases the average purchase. You get credit for everything the customer purchases, not just the item from your link. So, your commission rises with everything they purchase.

How to Promote Your Amazon Affiliate Links

Blogging is the best way to promote your affiliate marketing. But you can also use social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to increase your sales.

Websites and blogs let you write in-depth about the products and provide multiple links. You can write reviews or do comparison articles highlighting multiple products. You can describe the products in detail and offer your thoughts about the items, enticing readers to buy.

Facebook is one of the largest social media channels with over 2 billion active users. You can share product links to family and friends on your feed, who are likely to trust your recommendations because they know you already. Then, you can promote your links with paid ads to increase your reach.

There are a lot of fun ways to share your product links on Instagram. You can create stories, in addition to posts, to engage with your followers. Use hashtags to reach more followers. The more people who can find you, the more opportunities you have to make a sale!

On YouTube, one of the most successful techniques to generate interest is through unboxing videos and reviews. Viewers love to see products in action and are more likely to buy when they see what a product can do. Add your links to the descriptions and encourage people to use them to make their purchases.

With websites and social media, consistency is critical. Set a regular schedule to write posts or upload interviews. You’ll stay fresh in your regular users’ feeds and increase your chances of gaining new viewers and subscribers. More viewers often mean more sales.

The Pros and Cons for Amazon Associates

One of the best things about the Amazon affiliate program is how simple it is. You don’t have to take any marketing courses to start. Just register and add links to your website or social media.

Amazon is a retail giant that is well-known and trusted around the world. Customers are already familiar with them and, most likely, have already purchased from them.

They have a large volume of products available. You will be able to find anything you want to promote. And with the Amazon sales funnel, customers will often find more items to purchase while on the site!

The commission rates vary depending on the product category. While some may have a rate as high as 10%, many items can be as low as 1%. So, it can take some time to earn a reasonable salary.

Amazon affiliate marketing is easier if you already have an established website and social media following. You can easily add include links to posts and videos that you’ve already made. And you’re promoting to readers and viewers that already exist.

If you’re creating a new one, it can take some time to develop a regular audience and increase your reach. You’ll have to put a little more effort into SEO and may even want to invest in ads to expand your reach.

Don’t be intimidated by not already having an established following, however! You can find success by sharing your struggles with your audience. Let people watch and be inspired by how you can start a new site and grow your business.

Generate Income Through Amazon’s Online Program

The Amazon Associates program started in 1996 and has been going strong every year since. Their affiliate program lets you generate an income with the websites and social media you already have.

In order for you to develop your skills, you should consider taking a free or paid marketing course. There are a variety of digital marketing courses you can take from businesses that can help you enhance your skills. As of writing this, over 80,000 new marketers have taken the Online Business Builder Challenge (only $7), and that might be a good starting place for you as well.

Top 10 Best Affiliate Marketing Courses

January 22, 2021 by David Sharpe Leave a Comment

Affiliate marketing was expected to reach around $6 billion in 2020.

This profitable industry is something that you should consider in your business if you want an additional side income or a full-time income. It can also help you create passive income.

If you're unsure of how affiliate marketing works, you should consider the best affiliate marketing course. Courses offered by professional affiliate marketers can help you master the art of this industry.

You can see the best strategies you need to create passive income and drive people to other websites and make purchases.

One of the best ways to master affiliate marketing is by finding an affiliate program in a particular niche. When you've mastered a niche if it's baking, SaaS, e-commerce, or something else, you have a better idea of how to become a partner for companies in a particular niche.

Here's a guide on the 10 best affiliate marketing courses that can help you master this industry.

1. Skillshare

If you want to learn from one of the best affiliate marketing courses, look no further than Skillshare, which can be found on Udemy.

This class will teach you everything from the basics to expert knowledge of affiliate programs. You'll have an idea of the rules to follow. You'll also have some blog ideas that can help initially guide you on what to create.

Another important skill you can learn with Skillshare is how to use links appropriately. You don't want to stuff links side by side but rather have a strategic way of someone seeing them.

Skillshare will teach you how to do that.

2. Udemy

Udemy is a popular way to find a lot of courses, especially when it comes to affiliate marketing.

You'll discover a lot of affiliate marketing courses that teach you basic to expert knowledge on what to do with affiliate marketing.

For example, you'll discover the Complete 2020 Hands-on Affiliate Marketing Course that teaches you about SEO, affiliate programs, and more.

3. Coursera

Similar to Udemy, Coursera provides information on affiliate programs that can help you master this particular skill.

You can choose from a variety of courses that can help learn different areas of affiliate marketing that you may not have known before.

Another benefit of taking affiliate marketing courses from Coursera is that they offer free and paid options. So, if you prefer to get your feet wet and try some free courses, you can do that with Coursera.

4. Authority Hacker's

Authority Hacker's affiliate program is perfect for anyone who wants to get in-depth and learn everything from A to Z. This means you'll learn how to create a website, SEO strategies, how to create resources and content, and how to create WhiteHat links.

You can also learn how to make an income from different affiliate programs.

5. Commission Hero

Commission Hero is perfect for anyone who wants a simple and straightforward strategy for earning affiliate income.

With this particular course, you'll learn how to find your ideal audience and target them with Facebook ads. Commission Hero is specific about finding products that can help you sell more and earn an income

6. 123 Affiliate Marketing

123 Affiliate marketing is about teaching you with video lessons on how to make money as an affiliate.

There are 5 modules and 23 lessons in 123 Affiliate marketing that teaches you how to stay within the legal boundaries of sharing your affiliate products to your target market.

7. Five Figure Niche

This is a course by Doug Cunnington, who teaches you everything from how to build an affiliate website to strategies for selling your affiliate products.

It's another selection that can give you some additional wisdom when you are looking for a particular niche to work in and long-tail keywords that fit your niche.

8. Amazon Affiliate Marketing

Another affiliate program comes from one of the industry giants, Amazon.

Amazon Affiliate Marketing teaches you everything about how to find keywords for picking a profitable niche to do your affiliate marketing. You can find a lot of Amazon affiliate courses on Udemy, which teaches you a variety of tools that can help you get started on your affiliate journey.

9. YouTube Affiliate Mastery

If you want to earn money on YouTube, there's no better way to learn than with the YouTube Affiliate Mastery course. You can also find this course on Udemy as well as YouTube videos discussing the strategies in this course.

The course is by Bryan Guerra who teaches you everything about how to create a YouTube channel and build multiple streams of income.

You also learn about how to edit videos and make money as an affiliate when you promote other products.

10. Digital Worth Academy

In this affiliate program, you learn how to make $100 a day with your website promoting affiliate products.

They have videos, keyword training, finding the perfect products, finding the best click-through rates, and more.

If you want to get started on affiliate marketing or up your game in affiliate marketing, Digital Worth Academy is a great place to start.

Now You Know the Best Affiliate Marketing Course to Take

Finding the best affiliate marketing course can be difficult. Of course, you don't want to spend thousands of dollars taking each of these courses. Instead, you want to find a course that can also teach you different skill sets that complement affiliate marketing.

That's why we offer affiliate marketing training as well as business training and how to get more online traffic. With our training, you have everything you need to start a business or give your business a boost.

6 Steps To Earning Money With Affiliate Marketing Using A Blog

November 11, 2020 by David Sharpe Leave a Comment

Affiliate marketing is the process of promoting a product or service and connecting a buyer with a seller. If you are looking for a side hustle or a way to make some extra money online, keep reading. In this step by step guide I am going to walk you through the process of becoming an affiliate marketer using a free blogging platform.

Step one- create a blog

When creating a blog to use for affiliate marketing, a great blogging platform is WordPress. These blogs are free to start. You can customize your blog with background images, themes, different layouts, and widgets to add onto your blog.

When creating your wordpress blog, you’ll first sign up with email, choose a domain name and from there you’re able to choose what type of blog you want, such as .org, .com, .blog, or you can choose .wordpress.com which is the free option. Make your domain name something short and memorable. You want your viewers to remember your domain name when discussing the products they buy with other people so they can tell others to check out your blog. From there name your site and launch it.

Once you launch your site and begin customizing it, you want to choose a theme that will help you stand out and be pleasing to your viewers. Don’t choose too vibrant of colors, and choose a font for your site that is easy to read. You do want your blog to be pleasing to look at, but not distracting so that your readers are focused on your content.

Step two- Choosing a product and researching it

When you make your blog, it’s good to pick a theme. Your blog can be about anything you want. From laundry hacks to cooking recipes, you name it. Once you’ve chosen your theme, next is choosing your product. Choose a product you are passionate about. You will have to have a lot of knowledge on your product which will require research. The point of this is to talk about something you enjoy in your blog posts because you want someone else to enjoy it too. It is even better if you can obtain the product yourself and try it out to have an easier recommendation of it. You want your blog viewers to trust you and the product you are telling them to buy. If your viewers are not happy with the product you are recommending they likely won’t be back to visit your blog.

You need to identify your target audience. These are the people who are going to be reading your blog posts and purchasing the products based on your recommendations. Researching and finding other content creators who talk about topics similar to the ones you have chosen will help to give you a good idea on who the audience is and what type of products they will be looking for as well as what information will be useful to them.

A great way to promote your affiliate products is through comparison posts. You can use this in almost any blog theme. Examples are cooking with two different types of brands of food, two different recipes for the same food dish, two different brands of the same cleaning products, two different gaming consoles, etc. Comparing and contrasting products helps your audience make a decision on what product to purchase. Just make sure you include those affiliate links to each of the products in your posts.

When writing about your products you want to try to solve a problem with them. When a customer finds that a product will bring a solution for their problem, they tend to want to buy it more. If they know that the product you’re recommending helped solve a problem you had in some way, it’s likely they’ve had the same problem. For example, if you’re reviewing a window cleaning product, explain how the product really got the dirt that other products couldn’t get off of your windows.

Step three- Finding affiliate links

In order to get an affiliate link you need to sign up for an affiliate program like Amazon associates. From there you get the affiliate link for your product and that’s what you will use to link your customers and blog viewers to the products you want to talk about. Once they purchase the product from the link, you receive a small commission and make money from it.

If there is already a product you have in mind to purchase you can simply go to google and search the product name and “affiliate programs” and if there is an affiliate program linked to your product, it will usually pop up. If not, find the contact for the company and ask if there is an affiliate program for your product.

When inserting your affiliate links into your texts make sure that they are hyperlinked to words or phrases that pertain to your product. Add only one or two affiliate links per blog post to not clutter your posts. Add visuals to your content that will make it more appealing to your viewers. Adding photos and videos about the product will help keep your readers interested.

Step 4- Creating an email list

One important part of creating an affiliate marketing blog is your email list. This is where your readers will input their email addresses so that they can be notified about content you post. You always want to invite your readers back for more. There are a few strategies for doing this.

The first strategy is to offer them a free product. For example, if your blog is about cooking and recipes, you may want to offer them a free recipe for putting their email address in. The next strategy is to have an email pop-up where you add a tag line that says something along the lines of “want to stay up to date with my latest posts? Input your email here to never miss a post from me!”. A great way to do this is through a widget from WordPress called Mail Chimp. This plugin for your blog will help you collect email addresses through newsletter subscription offers.

Step 5- creating a newsletter for your email list

When sending out your newsletters for your blog, you want to keep it short and interesting. You don’t want to give away your entire blog post in your newsletter email. You want your reader to want to go to your website to read more about what you have to offer.

It’s great to start sending a newsletter about once a week. Do this whenever you publish a blog post and use it as an opportunity to really hype up your post. When you start your newsletter, establish the goals you want to meet. This has to do with the amount of traffic you want to your blog, the engagement you want with your readers, and how you want to send out your content. The more readers are interested, the more traffic you're going to have coming into your blog.

Write your newsletter with care. Regardless of whether your newsletter is going to new or existing readers you want it to be well-crafted and comprehensive. Check your letter for typos and use a conversational tone when speaking to your audience. Make sure you include your call to action. Ask your reader to click a button that says “click here for more information” or something along those lines. Your call to action is how you are going to get your readers to come back to your website and become customers.

Step 6- Repeat the process

Once you find a niche and content that works for you and starts to bring you sales, repeat your process. The more dedication you put into your work, the better. Making sure your newsletter is going out to people often, and readers are staying up to date with your content makes all the difference in the world. When first creating your blog, it’s normal to not get a lot of viewers straight away. Don’t give up. The more you promote your blog through other platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, the easier it is for other people to find your blog.

WordPress has a lot of tools to help you begin your affiliate marketing blog and run it without a struggle. Even if you’ve never worked with any free blogging platform and are just a beginner you can easily create a blog page for yourself that will be efficient and simple to run.

If you’ve enjoyed this step-by-step guide on creating an affiliate marketing blog consider checking out this free webclass to learn more strategies to apply to your business including how to make multiple high-ticket affiliate commissions each month marketing valuable products people already want to buy.

5 Steps To Becoming An Affiliate Marketer Using Youtube

November 8, 2020 by David Sharpe Leave a Comment

Do you work a full time job but feel like it just isn’t enough for you to be making money successfully? If you answered yes to that question, stick around. In this guide you’re going to learn the five easy steps to becoming a successful affiliate marketer on Youtube.

By including affiliate links to products in the description of your Youtube channel and reviewing the products linked, you are able to make money. This is done when someone makes a purchase using your affiliate link. You then receive a small commission for the sale.

Step 1- Choose the product you want to review

When selecting a product to review you want to make sure it is a product that you would recommend to a buyer. Your audience needs to not only believe you love the product, but also believe that this product is something that you actually use. A good way to do this is to focus on something you love. For example, a lot of Youtube channels exist for makeup tutorials. The person leading the tutorial will not only show themselves using the product in the video, but also spend time talking about the product and why they love it. When you scroll to the bottom of the video, you’ll find a list of the products they used and a link to buy them. These are the affiliate links.

You need to find something you are passionate about to talk about. Someone who is passionate about reading books may review books with an affiliate link in the description to the book. Someone who is passionate about cooking may include links to the appliances used in their videos, so on and so forth. Luckily Youtube is a widely used platform for almost any hobby or interest you could think of. There is likely an entire section of Youtube dedicated to whatever your specific topic you want to review. You just have to find the right audience.

Get the idea?

The audience you are going to be speaking to is on Youtube for one of 4 reasons: to learn more about products they enjoy, to figure out how to DIY something, to choose an item to put their money towards, and to enjoy whatever it is they are viewing. To understand that more, you need to break those down.

Viewers who want to learn more about products they enjoy-

Because of the vast amount of videos on Youtube and the ability to find videos on just about anything, most people go to YouTube as a learning source. Not just to research, but just to learn in general about things they like. It’s almost like a huge online video encyclopedia.

Viewers who want to learn to DIY something

These people are looking for video instructions on how to do or create something. Let’s bring back the makeup example- if someone’s prom night is coming up and they want to learn how to do a smokey eye look, they’d probably go to Youtube and search something simple like “how to do smokey eye” and a list of tutorials would pop up. In this case they’d probably want to know what brands of makeup to use and what specific shades or tools to use.

The viewers who already know they are looking to make a purchase

The people who fit into this category already know they are wanting to put their money towards a product. Now they need to do their research to find out exactly what product they want to purchase. What better way to do so than by watching a variety of videos on what type of product they need to see what best suits their needs. They want to know which product will bring them the most bang for their buck.

The people who want to enjoy what they are viewing because they like it

This is the final category of people who are on Youtube. They are simply there just to check out the content that they enjoy watching. Whether that be sports, books, makeup, software, clothing, etc. These people want to know just enjoy the video. If they find themselves interested enough, they may scroll down and click on one of your affiliate links and make a purchase.

Step 2- Choose an affiliate program that best suits your content

Once you’ve figured out what type of videos you want to create and what type of products to review, the next step is to choose an affiliate program. There are tons of affiliate programs out there. If you have a company in mind they likely have an affiliate program. The way to find this out would be to simply go to your google search bar and type in the company name with ‘affiliate program’ and hopefully it will pop up. If not, try to find contact information for the company and send an email to ask if there is an affiliate program for that company.

One of the easiest affiliate programs out there to become a part of is Amazon Associates. This is a great way to get started in an affiliate program because all you need to do it is an Amazon account. It is easy to sign up, you just visit the Amazon Associates homepage, build a profile, and from there you choose your products to create your affiliate links. For a more detailed guide on how to do this, visit this guide from Hubspot which will walk you through a detailed step-by-step guide to creating an Amazon Associates account.

Step 3- Creating your Youtube channel

Setting up a Youtube channel is simple, fast, and easy. All you need is a Gmail account to get started. Once you’ve created your Gmail account you’re going to want to head to Youtube and click on your profile icon and under that click “Create channel”. Once you do this, select “get started” which will bring up a pop up where you will choose what type of channel you are creating. After this, you will then input information about your channel, such as profile photo, channel description, and media links. Then click save and continue, and now you can upload videos to your channel.

When creating your Youtube channel there are some things you want to remember as you upload content. Upload a trailer video. This should be a short 2-3 minute video that will play automatically when someone opens your channel. Once you start creating videos it is good to organize them by topic. This way you are able to create sub-themes and shorter videos around each sub-theme and topic. This also helps with navigation on your channel so people can find what they are looking for easier and are more likely to stay on your channel longer.

Title your videos something that is going to draw your viewers to watch it. You could have great content but it won’t matter unless people click on it and view it. Which is why a good title is so important. Another important aspect of this process is your video thumbnail, the cover photo for your video that someone will see before they click on it. Professional content creators create their own thumbnail and then upload them to their video so that they can choose what it will look like when someone views it on Youtube.

When creating videos, instruct your viewers to like, comment, and subscribe to your channel. Once they have subscribed to your channel they will get notifications through Youtube and through email when you’ve uploaded a new video.The likes and comments on your videos help get your content in the search engines. The tags on your videos are another way to help more people be able to find your videos. Don’t just tag the product or category that you are talking about. Also mix in some broader tags to make your videos more likely to show up in a search.

Step 4- Inserting your affiliate links

Once you get affiliate links to the products you want to talk about in your video, you will then make your video and insert the affiliate links into your description. When inserting the links, you should put them in the beginning of your description. If they are the first thing someone sees in your description, they are more likely to click on it.

When putting affiliate links, you can also include links to the type of computer you are using, the type of camera, microphone, etc. If they like the quality of your videos and want to do some Youtube-ing themselves, they just may click on the links to what you use to get their computer and supplies.

When putting your affiliate links in your description, you want to make sure that you tell your audience in your video where to find your links. It is very important that you tell your viewers that the links are in fact affiliate links and that you will get a commission from them if they click on them or purchase the products. This is something especially important because it is a legal requirement.

Step 5- Collect your commissions

Collect your commissions from sales and clicks and continue to repeat and practice these things in all of your videos. The more content you upload, the more viewers you will have. It may take a little time at first to get started and get viewers. The more dedication you put forth, the more viewers you will have and the more sales you will get commissions from to collect.

If you enjoyed this guide on how to get started with affiliate marketing through Youtube, consider checking out our free online webclass to learn more affiliate secrets.