For Those Who Are Beginners, Do Affiliate Marketing Step By Step Explains How It Works. We Give Examples So You Can Learn To Make Money Online Free From Home.
By the way, affiliate marketing is one of the easiest ways to make money online. You don’t handle the product, billing or the customer. You only market the product through content.
The Affiliate Marketing process can seem complicated; therefore we have broken it down into a step by step process. We will show you the steps of how it works both from the consumer (customers) perspective and from the affiliate marketer’s perspective.
What Is Affiliate Marketing?
According to Webster’s dictionary affiliate marketing is a marketing arrangement by which an online retailer pays commission to an external website for traffic or sales generated from its referrals.
Expanding on the definition we can say that affiliate marketing is a process. Because it is a process we can explain it using the step step approach.
Who Are The Affiliate Marketing Players?
There are four main players when it comes to products.
- The Maker
- The Marketer
- The Seller
- The Buyer
The Maker (Producer of the product)
For mass produced goods the maker is a manufacturer. For hand crafted goods, the maker is often the marketer and seller.
The Marketer
To decrease the need for in house salesmen, manufacturers or third party affiliate networks set up affiliate programs and pay commissions to affiliate marketers to promote the products. The affiliate marketer is motivated to present the facts, benefits and value of the products so online shoppers click on the link to buy.
The Seller
The seller may be the manufacturing company, a private owner and creator of the goods or a third party who adds a markup to the cost of the goods from the manufacturer.
The Buyer
The buyer is interested in products with quality at low cost. The details are important. The buyer wants to know the pros and cons so they can make a smart buying decision.
Each of the four players are part of the affiliate marketing process.
What Is The Affiliate Marketing Process Step By Step?
The easiest way to understand the affiliate marketing process is to look at it from the perspective of the Consumer and the Affiliate Marketer.
The Affiliate Marketing Process From The Eyes Of A Consumer (Customer)
The easiest way to understand the process is to start with the consumer (customer) because we have all shopped on the internet at least once. A few months ago I wanted to buy a outdoor smoker grill because I was having friends over for an evening meal. One of my other friends told me ribs taste so much better smoked. Since I wanted to impress my dinner guests, I wanted to buy and try smoker grilled rubs.
- 1) I really didn’t know much about smoker grills, so I asked my friend a little bit more to be sure buying an expensive grill like this was work it. Without hesitation my friend told me the taste is far superior.
- 2) So I went to my usual go to location (the internet) to find out more about them.
- 3) I wanted some answers to a lot of questions.
✓ Which one is best for ribs?✓ How big of a smoker I should buy?✓ How long it takes to smoke meat?✓ How long do they last and do they have a warranty?✓ How do they work?✓ Is there more than one type?
- 4) So I started searching in Google. Here’s what I found.
- 5) I am not ready to buy yet so did not click on the Shop for Top Rated Smoker For Ribs. Clicking on the smokers in the Shop Strip would have taken me directly to the specific smoker and wanted me to buy. Those are paid ads and they will not tell me much about cookers and what others think of them.
- 6) So I clicked on amazingribs.com. This is a website created and designed by someone. Maybe by some chance I can get some goodies here because it highlights a 2018 contest. But I was not able to find enough information. It was too much of a sales pitch.
- 7) So I clicked on SeriousEats.com. Paying under $500 will fit my budget. They suggested I don’t buy something under $500; so I am back to the drawing board.
- 8) This time I am going to search for Best Backyard Pellet Smoker. Here is the search results.
- 9) I see SeriousEats.com and amazing ribs.com came up again, but there also some other interesting ones which I will check out.
- 10) Grillsforever Best Pellet Smoker Review is the one I will check out. I found something very interesting. These two guys, Dan and Alex, are affiliate marketers with Amazon.
- 11) What do we know about them? They are ordinary guys who research grilling and smoking products. They are not the manufacturers. They don’t even have a cooking show. They just partnered together to create this website and earn some money.
- 12) They included a lot of information about the best pellet grills.
They even explain the different kinds of smoker grills, which is exactly what I was looking for earlier.
Their website is simple, but looks very professional. It is very well done. Notice how they build trust. I would suggest you bookmark the site for future reference.
- 13) These guys did such a nice job. They have also convinced me to check the Masterbuilt 20051311for the price.
- 14) Here’s what I found on Amazon. It is an Amazon Choice and it fits my budget.
Those are the 14 steps a shopper may go through when buying a product online.
What Were The 4 Steps The Affiliate Marketer Took?
For the consumer to see all of the steps shown above the affiliate marketer did some prior steps. They are explained in this section. They demonstrate how the product link is added to content so when clicked the affiliate gets credit and a commission.
- 1) So how did these guys get the Amazon link in their website? Let’s take a look. Since I am an Amazon affiliate I can show you.
- 2) First I sign into my Affiliate Account and then am taken to this page.
From there these guys choose which type of page link they wanted.
- 3) They chose to use the Site Strip which appears in the top left hand corner in Amazon.
They copied the code into their web page. They also copied the product image from Amazon.
- 4) At the end of the day they will see my purchase of a smoker, but they will not see my name or anything about me except that my purchase gave them an order. When Amazon ships the order they will know how much they earned from the sale. (Amazon publishes a Fee table by category so affiliates know how much they receive by product type.)
- 5) That’s all there is to it. At first it seems like there is a lot for the affiliate to do, but it doesn’t take long before the process goes quickly because it becomes second nature.
Affiliate Marketing Process From The Eyes An Affiliate Marketer
Since we have looked at the affiliate marketing process from the consumer’s view point; now it’s time to look at it from the affiliate marketer’s perspective.
The six basic steps include: Pick a topic; Build a website, Find an affiliate program, Do research, Create content, Expand and promote, and Watch the earnings come in.
Now for the details. The details below are still looking at the big picture, because understanding the basics is important to grasp first.
- Step 1 Pick A Topic (Niche)
The first time an affiliate marketer picks a topic, is the hardest because it is so easy to make the topic too board or too narrow. But after a few experiences, the selection process becomes easier. The best advice for choosing an interest is to pick a topic that you will not get tired of learning about and working on. The higher your interest for the first topic the better, because there is a lot to learn the first time around. Losing interest in the topic will certainly impact learning how to do the affiliate marketing process.
- Step 2 – Build A Website
If you have never done this before, it sounds impossible, right? Well guess what, software does the technical building. You just provide a domain name and choose a free theme layout.
The two easiest themes to choose for your first site are GeneratePress and Astra. I use Astra because it gives me the design options I want. Both WordPress themes are free, though they do have a Premium paid version as well. I only use the Astra Free version and am completely happy. One advantage Astra has over GeneratePress is that it is compatible with the ecommerce plugin WooCommerce (also free).
Since you have never done this before, let me give you a great video to watch. It actually only takes 30 seconds to build a new website.
If you are prompted to sign up to see the video, signup is free, so it is safe to sign up. No credit card is required. The free Video is found on the same server that houses all of the free WA training courses plus other resources. Feel free to take a look at all the resources available.
There are several ways you can customize the way your website looks, but even without customization it looks presentable. How much time you spend customizing your site is up to you. Only you know your schedule limitations and what is most important: using the generic design and moving forward or spending time customizing it. As for me, I would move forward to learn the process first then tweak things later.
- Step 3 Find Affiliate Programs
Signing up and using affiliate programs is FREE. This is how your website makes money. The Programs provide links; the links include a code unique to you so you get paid when someone clicks on it; you put the links on your pages and wait for visitors to click on them. (The detailed steps above the affiliate performed, show how it is done as an Amazon affiliate.) There are many Affiliate Programs for you to choose from. Some include big companies like Amazon or Walmart. Others include small business owners.
Take a quick peak to see what’s available to you and
how to pick a relevant affiliate program, but come back to the training soon. Before affiliate links can be used on the website, we need to write content articles.
- Step 4 Research and Create Content
People use the internet a lot to learn how to do something, how to fix a problem or how to find the best of something. What is amazing is that if we search long enough we will generally find what we are looking for. But how many times have you read an articles presented in a search and it is too shallow? This is where authority websites become highly important.
Make it your goal to find something you excel at or can learn and become an expert. Then share your knowledge on your website. Search engines favor those who write authority content. Why? Because visitors really like content that is worth making note of.
Another positive factor of good content is that it results in a decreased bounce rate on your articles and website. The lower your bounce rate and the longer visitors spend on your site, the more visitors the search engines will send your way because they know people are coming away satisfied. The more visitors, the more potential for sales and income. After all search engines have a business goal too: providing helpful targeted information.
Writing content is often tough for beginners though because they don’t know what kind of format to use.
As we noticed earlier in our walk through of my purchase of the smoker grill, comparing similar products is a very popular format. When you find a format that is appealing, bookmark the page. Usually the URL is something like the “Best Of”, “The Top 10”, or “The Best”.
- Step 5 Expand And Promote
Once your website is up (the Home Page (Front Page), About, Privacy Policy, and Contact Page, you can begin to expand and promote your site. There are many ways you can promote your site: share pictures, answer questions, participate in a forum, create a podcast, or ask to write a blog on someone else’s site to get more name recognition. Look for ways to let the world know about your “brand”.
Make your identity unique so people will remember your site and content. Create a logo that is unforgettable. Be consistent in what you do so people will be anticipating and waiting for your next new thing.
To reinforce what you learned today, why not think of a product you would like to buy? Search on the internet for details, see what websites appear in the search that are created by entrepreneurs. Take a look at how they present their niche idea. Getting ideas from others is a helpful way to learn what you can do and what has already been done.