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How to Become an Affiliate Marketer: What You Need to Know

David Sharpe bio

Everyone wants to make money online, and there are several ways to do that. Yet, if you don't have time to create a product or offer a service, it might be rather tricky.

That's where affiliate marketing comes in!

As an affiliate marketer, you can start making money by advertising products for other companies. You make a percentage of each sale that comes from someone clicking your link and making a purchase.

You can even make money while you're sleeping. Affiliate marketing is the dream for so many people.

Be sure to keep reading for our guide on everything you need to know to become an affiliate marketer.

Choose Your Platform

If you're asking yourself, “how do I become an affiliate marketer?” The first step is choosing your platform.

Affiliate marketing works on nearly any social media platform that you can gain a following. Some people find success on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, even Facebook.

Yet, one of the best places for affiliate marketers is starting a blog. A blog with your own domain can cost a small amount each month, yet with affiliate marketing, you'll find that it pays itself off in the end.

Even amateur blogs can make money doing affiliate marketing. Don't think that because you don't have astounding photoshop skills or HTML skills that you can't be successful. There are ways that you can use the skills and equipment that you do have to make a fantastic blog and start making money.

One of the biggest things you need to know in the online marketing world is that you need to disclose when you're using an affiliate link. In fact, the FTC requires you to do so. You'll need to make sure that you let your audience know that you make a commission from the purchase, but it won't cost them any extra money.

You Need a Niche and Target Audience

One of the best things about becoming an affiliate marketer is that you can promote products that you like and enjoy using. You'll be creating content all about these products, so you're going to want to make sure you pick a niche that you're interested in.

Finding your niche is critical because it will help you decide the type of audience you will attract.

Ask yourself a few questions when trying to find your niche. What are you most interested in? What are you passionate about and could persuade people into buying?

There are tons of different niches that people choose when affiliate marketing. You could pick technology, sports, beauty, home interior, or so much more! Be sure to pick something that suits you and your interests. That way, you won't get bored when looking for more products and creating content.

Find the Right Programs

The most significant part of becoming an affiliate marketer is finding the right programs to join so that you can get paid.

You'll have a better idea of the programs you need to join after you know what products you want to promote within your niche. There are tons of different affiliate networks that you can join even as a brand new affiliate marketer.

One of the easiest programs to get into is the Amazon Associates Program. All you need to do is sign up and link all the social media channels that you will be advertising on. Once you're approved, then you can search Amazon and get personalized links for the products that you want to promote.

Other affiliate networks will offer additional products that are not from Amazon. Make sure to do your research and see which programs fit the products within your niche the best.

Make a Schedule to Post Quality Content

If you know anything about digital marketing, you know that it is going to take time and dedication for you to grow an audience. One way to ensure that your content will eventually take-off is by creating a posting schedule for yourself.

Take Zeb's story, for example, he is an affiliate marketer that works for only three hours a day. That's because he has created a schedule for himself in advance and knows exactly what kinds of content he wants to post and when.

Another thing that you should think about when posting content is that it is about quality and not quantity. You want your audience to read your blog posts and be persuaded to click on your links to make a purchase. Yet, if your writing isn't persuasive, then they might click off or not want to buy anything.

You might think you can make a post feature tons of different products and hope that one sticks. Yet, if you create a piece of content with value, more people will be likely to buy the products you recommend.

Get More Traffic to Your Blog

The best way for affiliate marketers to get paid is by getting more traffic to their page. The more people that see your content and your links, then the better the chance of them purchasing from your link.

Yet, how do you get more traffic to your blog?

By using digital marketing methods! By combining SEO, email marketing, and social media marketing, you'll start to find more traffic coming to your website.

Some people even invest some of their money into paid ads. When they do this, they can ensure that their target audience will be exposed to their ads and find their blog.

You won't be able to put affiliate links into a paid ad, but you can link to your landing page to attract more traffic to your page.

Becoming an Affiliate Marketer

Your journey to become an affiliate marketer won't happen overnight.

It is going to take time and effort to build up an audience and promote the products that people are going to want to buy. Yet, once you do, you'll find that affiliate marketing is one of the best passive income sources you can find.

If you want to start becoming an affiliate marketer, then we have the tools to help you. Be sure to check out this free video to learn how to make high ticket commissions and supercharge your earnings

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How To Grow Your Affiliate Marketing Traffic By 10x

David Sharpe bio

 

Spencer Mecham is a client who has not only mastered having multiple platforms to work off of, but has also mastered bringing income to those multiple platforms. We recently interviewed him on our morning show, Wake Up Legendary, to learn about how he turns his multiple streams of traffic into income.

From the very beginning of Spencer’s affiliate marketing career he found himself worried about his social media accounts being shut down. He decided that after an Instagram account along with a Youtube account being shut down it was time to work off of multiple platforms. 

 

When Spencer finds a new platform to work off of, he masters the platform to the best of his ability and then writes down a system for it. Once he’s written down how it works and what he wants out of it, he then passes it along to someone he’s hired to work on his account on each platform. 

 

Outsourcing Quality People To Help You Create Quality Content

 

He can’t operate a Youtube channel, instagram account, Tik Tik, blog, Facebook group, email list, etc. all by himself. He typically hires multiple people to help him do things like edit videos and thumbnails. When hiring someone on, Spencer says to not be afraid to move through people. He likes to have weekly meetings and follow up with the people he has hired. He wants to make sure that anyone he has hired is on the same page as him. 

 

Spencer will typically give practice tasks for anyone who he is considering for the job and makes sure they know what they’re doing. He typically hires three people at a time. Two of them work full time and one of them works part time. 

 

Outlining And Scripting Videos To Cater To Youtube’s Algorithm

 

Spencer outlines each video before filming it, and has passed on the outline job to one of the editors he hired. This creates less work for him so that he has more time to focus on other tasks in his day. The outlines he makes for his videos aren’t just what topics he’ll be speaking about, but includes an entire script for the video. He caters to Youtube’s algorithm by scripting the video and deciding what A roll and B roll go into each video.

 

Youtube tracks how long each person who views a video is watching it for. If someone is viewing a video for just a moment and clicks out of it, Youtube won’t push it into the algorithm. If a video is watched most of or all the way through often, it is more likely to come up first in the search results or be suggested to watch next by Youtube.  “A high click rate and a high watch time equals a viral Youtube video,” Spencer said.

 

In order for Spencer to keep his videos from being clicked out of too soon, he began using a tactic that would keep people watching until the end- curiosity. 

 

When scripting videos, Spencer spends a lot of time planning. He plans out how they’re going to generate the curiosity factor that runs throughout the video that keeps people watching. “A high click through rate and a high watch time equals a viral youtube video,” Spencer said. Since catering his videos to Youtube’s algorithm, he has grown his Youtube channel to 43,000 subscribers. 

 

Create Unique Content That Generates Value And Curiosity

 

Spencer says that in order to get more views on videos, take a unique approach to the videos you create. Instead of doing ‘10 ways to make money with x’ Spencer says that a more unique approach would be to spend 8 hours clicking through sites, or take surveys for 5 hours straight and do a video on that experience. That generates a story with the videos and gives the viewer something more to connect to rather than a generic video.

 

Spencer says to get comfortable on camera it’s okay to go generic videos but as you get more into it to begin throwing in the experiment style videos where you document the process of something like taking surveys or watching a particular type of video.

 

Don’t Waste Time Editing Videos If You Can Outsource A Skilled Editor

 

When he first started making Youtube videos, Spencer spent a lot of time editing them. He found that it was easier and a better use of his time to hire someone to edit his videos for him. This way someone else who had more skill than him could do ten times what he could edit on a video. 

 

He watches a bunch of videos and writes down what he likes about them. Then he hires someone and gives them that list with five example videos he’s found that he likes. Spencer has found the cheapest video editor for himself has been about a hundred dollars, but there are sites like Fiverr where you are able to hire someone for cheaper, though the quality may differ. 

 

Videos that you create can still blow up without a bunch of fancy editing. When Spencer was starting out, he did a few videos where he shared his screen and those have gotten over 300,000 views. 

Spencer’s Youtube channel @Buildapreneur

 

Visualize What Your Business Can Grow To And Move To Multiple Platforms For More Income 

 

Spencer’s Tik Tok, Youtube, Facebook group, and blog are his main streams of income. His project manager does the pictures, categorizing, and outline for his blog and then sends that over to his blog writers. 

 

Spencer turns his Youtube videos into blog posts and bases posts off of certain keywords to drive in more traffic. When repurposing his youtube videos onto his blog, he also re-purposes his Tik Tok videos into Youtube videos. He edits the Tik Tok logo off of them and turns them into something called Youtube Shorts, a new program similar to Tik Tok. By doing this he grew more subscribers because once you hashtag a 60 second or less Youtube video with #shorts it is pushed into the algorithm. Youtube is testing Shorts in the United States and pushes videos into the Shorts algorithm to test how well they are performing.

 

Structure Tik Tok Videos To Hook Your Viewers

         

     Spencer’s Tik Tok @spencerhacks

The Tik Tok algorithm is very similar to the Youtube algorithm. Spencer uses the same curiosity factor from Youtube to keep his viewers watching his videos. He structures his videos so that the viewer doesn't really understand what he’s trying to tell them in the video until thirty to sixty seconds in. Once the viewer has reached that point, they’re been watching the video for so long that it doesn't matter if they scroll out of it. 

 

Spencer hooks his viewer and strings them along in the video. He shows his viewer the process and in the end explains the point. This allows him to keep the curiosity going as long as he can in the video. He uses terminology in his videos that keeps the viewer hooked and gives them something to think about while they watch.

 

It’s important to differentiate yourself from people on Tik Tok who make videos from similar videos. People don’t want to watch the same video over and over again. When starting your video, say that it’s something different than what your viewer has seen before. That way they want to keep their eyes glued to the screen in suspense. 

 

If you enjoyed this article and want to learn more affiliate marketing secrets like the ones Spencer shared with us here, watch this free video while access is still free.

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The Exact Plan To Succeed In Affiliate Marketing In 3 Just Hours A Day

David Sharpe bio

Zeb Summers started off the year as an IT Manager, but after 15 years of hard work was laid off when Covid hit. Instead of deciding to go back to corporate America, he took the leap to turn his affiliate marketing side hustle into a full-time career. He wanted to do something that gave him full control of his time. As a 45 year old father of 2, he was looking to get some time back to spend with his family. 

Zeb loves affiliate marketing and has grown a passion for it, which is why he decided to do it full time. By full time I’m not talking 8 hours of labor each day. Full time as in 3 hours of work each day, and the rest of the day to spend with his family and do whatever he wants. 

We recently had him on our morning show, Wake Up Legendary to talk about his strategy for success. So what is Zeb’s strategy for success?

Planning A Month At A Time To Focus On Money Producing Activities

When Zeb first started his full time affiliate marketing career, he felt he wasn’t producing the results that he should be. He began focusing all his time on money producing activities. He plans out his schedule a month at a time, and makes weekly and daily schedules for himself.

He schedules everything he wants to do in his 3 hour work window in his planner. He does this by focusing on certain things each day. For example, one day may be a planning day for his Tik  Tok videos, and the next may be a day where he creates his Tik Tok videos. 

One key to this process Zeb feels, is getting a good night’s sleep. The human brain cannot function to its fullest potential without a good amount of sleep. Whenever Zeb feels like he has an idea for the next day, he always makes sure to write it down. By writing it down, it helps him to sleep better because he doesn’t have to think about it while he’s trying to sleep.

Zeb creates 3-12 Tik Toks to post throughout each day along with creating Youtube videos. He plans out each video and it’s headline. Planning is a huge factor in keeping his work day to only 3 hours. 

Create Goals For Yourself To Accomplish And Create To-Do Lists To Keep Track of Them 

Zeb takes his goals for the month and the week and divides them down into weekly, then daily goals. He creates an amount he wants to make for the month. He then decides how many emails he has to send, how many Tik Toks he has to create, and how many sales he has to make to get the commission. 

Once he has created his monthly goals, he takes them down to weekly goals. Every week he knows he has to send out a certain number of emails each day, a certain number of Tik Tok’s, and a certain number of customers to follow up with each day. 

But he doesn’t stop there…

Zeb says that once he breaks down his goals into daily goals, the magic starts to happen. Zeb says he has to tune into his daily goals and be self disciplined and present. 

“It’s not about taking action, it’s about taking daily action,” Zeb said. 

He starts off each day writing emails to his email lists. Sometimes he spends up to an hour writing emails and interacting with his email list. He creates a goal number of emails to write and sticks to that goal. 

He wants to humanize himself to his customers and stay present because that’s something that is very important in affiliate marketing. The more authenticity you show, the more your customers can relate to you and build trust with you.

He also creates a goal amount of Tik Tok videos and Youtube videos to create. Once he’s planned out and created those videos, he spends his 3 hour work day creating those videos to be readily available to post throughout the day. 

[Image description] Zeb’s Tik Tok @zebsummers

One great tool for this that Zeb uses, is Trello. Trello is a planning website that allows you to create to-do lists and organize different lists to check tasks off of. Trello also shows you a percentage of how much you have completed each day and can refresh so that you have a clear list of tasks to plan for each day you’re working. 

Zeb typically uses a pen and paper for his planning. For more tech savvy people, Trello has a mobile app. Another useful tool is the notepad or calendar on your phone or computer. 

Becoming The Creator And Tracking Your Progress

Zeb always says that at the beginning you can’t focus on the money. He says to focus on creating the foundation and creating content. Once you create the content, the money will come. At first, it’s hard to figure out where to start. He says that when starting out create goals for yourself and get out of your comfort zone. 

He says to take 60 to 90 days and track the progress that you are making. Focus on your goal and track the progress of your videos and work. If you aren’t meeting your goal, take a few steps back and figure out what exactly you need to do to meet that goal. 

The money might not flow in at first so it’s important to make a realistic goal for yourself that you can track. Once you’ve reached your goal you can assess what you did that month to reach that goal and continue to repeat and tweak that process. 

 

In the beginning when you’re creating your baseline, it’s important to consistently do content creation in a channel or two, such as Youtube, Facebook, Tik Tok, or your email list. Once you’ve succeeded in making content, you can track what is working and do more of it. 

When Things Don’t Go As Planned, Keep Moving Forward

When a day doesn’t go as planned, Zeb says to always keep moving forward. “You’re going to be on top of the mountain and you’re going to be in the pit of despair,” Zeb said. It’s important to move forward and try your best to not let the little things bother you. 

You don’t have to get analytical to keep track of your progress. Just simply writing things down and keeping track of them is enough when starting out to monitor what’s working and what isn’t. Don’t give up even if it feels like you’re not being successful. Behind an unsuccessful day could be a thousand dollar day, but you won’t know unless you stick it out. 

Would you like to find a profitable business you can do from home so you can bring in much more substantial income? If so, I recommend you watch this free video which will walk you through our #1 recommended way to earn money online from home.

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