Affiliate marketing has gained appeal as a low-cost business growth plan. This marketing strategy is ideal for small businesses since it increases revenue with less expense and work. From single-item shops to giant corporations, almost every major eCommerce store has an affiliate program or is part of an affiliate network. 

Nowadays, thousands of independent creators, entrepreneurs, and online publications use affiliate marketing to drive tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue every single year.

And according to Statista, spending on affiliate marketing programs by businesses is going to boost up this year and will grow to $8.2 billion in the US this year. That's up 76% in the last 6 years alone.

But, if you think you can get a slice of this billion-dollar pie by slapping a few affiliate links here and there, you are wrong.

Today I will share with you 7 key points that most beginners skip in the starting and fail to see the financial results they were promised by countless blogs and videos on the internet.

So, read all the points carefully and follow them to get success in your affiliate marketing business in 2022.



What Is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a business model where brands share revenue with publishers and content creators in exchange for leads and sales.

It works similarly to a salesperson being paid a commission for a successful sale. The more sales you make the more money you earn. 

Affiliate marketing is really just a quick way to offer products and services without having to create your own products and services.

Affiliate commissions can range from cents on the dollar to hundreds of dollars per referral.

If you do this right, affiliate marketing could help you earn more than your current job.

Affiliate marketing is really a great way through which you can start your own online business from the comfort of your home.

Now, as you know about affiliate marketing, let's see the 7 common key points that beginners skip and never get success in affiliate marketing.

1.    Choose a niche based on research

The biggest, open secret to affiliate marketing is that your earning potential is highly dependent on the niche you choose, what kind of audience you want to serve, the types of products that the audience needs to buy. So you need to know what to look for in a niche before launching your affiliate marketing business.

Rushing to catch the latest fads can lead to trouble when these trends end faster than they appear (fidget spinners, anyone?).

Doing niche research is the best thing you can do to make sure your affiliate business has high earning potential and will make money for years to come.

In the process, you'll analyze the competitive landscape, learn about affiliate programs available in your niche, and be able to create a sustainable affiliate marketing strategy and content plan.

If you're looking for niche ideas, there are plenty of free niche research tools that will help you get the ball rolling. Like,

• Google Trends – Trending topics and searches, organized by geography

• Answer Socrates – Find out which questions people type into Google

• Exploding Topics – A Google Trends alternative with curated results

That said, if you're starting affiliate marketing with no money or a small budget, I recommend picking a topic you're passionate about. That way, you won't get bored or hate your niche when you're writing 50+ articles on the topic.

But a topic you like isn't enough — it needs to be able to make money.

Again, tools like Google Trends are good for vetting niches that you discover and making sure they're not just passing trends. In all likelihood, you're going to want to choose an evergreen niche that generates income all year, every year.

Finally, it's also important to understand the competition to find your entry point into the market.

You might want to start a blog about web hosting (one of the most lucrative affiliate niches), but the amount of capital and content it takes to compete might be out of reach for beginners.

Look for medium-competition niches, where there are a few established players, but you can better serve a smaller audience, distinguish yourself, and expand later on.

For example, instead of "web hosting" for everyone, you could start with "salon website builder" and focus on teaching professionals in the beauty industry. By starting a niche, you can build a tight-knit community around your brand and even gain an advantage in ranking on Google.

2.    Choose the right platform

With a niche in mind, it's time to decide where to host your affiliate content and what type of content you want to create.

There are two main choices for affiliates starting: a website or a YouTube channel.

YouTube can be an excellent place to grow an audience, build a brand, and promote affiliate products to an audience that trusts your recommendations.

But there are some downsides to starting with only a YouTube channel:

  • The video takes longer to produce than written content: Which limits the amount of content you can create when starting your project.
  • Videos are harder to outsource: Especially if you're the face of the channel, it means you'll need to be involved with every video.
  • Harder to grow your email list: YouTube doesn't have a built-in way to collect email subscribers. Yet email is one of the most effective channels for affiliate marketing.
  • YouTube channels tend to make less affiliate money: There's simply more friction to getting clicks on your affiliate links from a video compared to a well-optimized blog post.

Ultimately, it's great to have both a website and YouTube. Embedding videos on an affiliate website is also an excellent way to boost conversion. But if you're a total beginner, you'll probably find it easier to start affiliate marketing with a blog.

3.    Pick profitable affiliate programs

Signing up for affiliate programs is easy. But spreading yourself too thin is one of the top affiliate marketing mistakes beginners make.

You want to start with a finite number of affiliate programs with good commissions, solid conversions, and reliable demand.

Here are three key ways to pick a good affiliate program:

First, assess earning potential

Affiliate programs vary greatly in terms of the pay scale. Some programs offer a few cents per conversion. Others pay out hundreds of dollars for a single lead.

Programs with lower payouts are often easier to join and promote, which makes them appealing but requires a higher number of sales for the same amount of revenue.

Here are the three main ways to make your affiliate math "work out":
  1. High volume, low commissions: This includes most Amazon affiliate sites. To earn $5,000 per month from 5% commissions, you need to generate $100,000 in revenue for Amazon. If the average customer spends $100, that's 1,000 orders to reach $5K in earnings. To do well here, you usually need a lot of traffic (meaning, a lot of content). 
  2. Low volume, high commissions: For example, luxury affiliate programs (expensive watches or luxury fashion) and photography affiliate programs (expensive camera equipment). Both are more niche, but require fewer conversions to reach a revenue goal. 
  3. High volume, high commissions (...and high competition): Financial affiliate programs (like credit cards and bank accounts), or SaaS affiliate programs (like web hosting and email marketing tools) are both good examples. These programs are so profitable, you may struggle to compete.
While you're at it, check the affiliate program's cookie duration. Longer cookie durations (over 30 days) give you time to get your audience to a buying decision.

Shorter cookie periods can still be effective for those customers who have already decided to buy. If you choose to work with programs with shorter cookie durations, be sure that your content targets people later in the buying journey.

Second, assess the competition
Some competition can be a good sign. If other people are doing well in the niche, there's a good chance you can too. The easiest way to find competitors is to simply google for the kinds of search terms you'd love your website to show up for.

Then, check which affiliate programs your competitors are promoting most heavily on those pages. Find out what terms they offer, and how to join the program.

This is one of the most effective ways to vet affiliate programs, as long as your competitors are further along than you are.

Third, evaluate brand alignment and reputation
You are building your brand and image at the same time as you're promoting the products and services of other businesses. Be selective in choosing who you represent. Working with businesses that don't align with your brand leads to audience mistrust and harms your brand long term.

You also want to check that the brand you're promoting is likely to convert. That means looking at their sales pages, mobile-friendly design, and other online reviews. Think about what you would consider when buying the product as a consumer.

Now that you've selected some affiliate programs in your well-researched niche, it's time to create content.

4.    Create optimized affiliate content

None of the previous steps matter if you don't have high-quality content that converts.

Creating content for affiliate marketing is more than simply adding links to an existing blog post. You need to help your audience decide on a product or service, directly on your website, through strong copywriting and appealing design.

Some examples of high-converting affiliate marketing content include:

·    Product reviews: Nearly 97% of consumers look at online reviews before making a purchase decision, so product reviews are a staple amongst affiliate marketers.

·    Product roundups: Roundups based on a specific theme or category lead different readers to relevant products and diversify your revenue away from a single link.

·    Product comparisons These are similar to product reviews but place similar products side-by-side to highlight pros and cons. Product comparisons are extremely helpful to orient audiences.

·    Tutorials: Tutorials are an opportunity to highlight exactly how a product works in an easy step-by-step process. Customers are likely to trust and buy a product when they can see exactly how it will work for them.

·    Ebooks: Topics don't always fit into a nice blog post or email. This is where ebooks come in. They allow you to do a deep dive into a topic. As a bonus, you can use the ebook as a lead magnet to build your email list.

No matter which content types you choose, don't forget to include an affiliate disclosure that informs your audience that you may earn a commission if they buy from your links.

5.    Drive traffic to your affiliate site

Now it's time to drive traffic to your carefully selected offer. This can be done through social media platforms, SEO blog posts, and email lists.

The key is you want to either reach people who are looking to buy or capture their email addresses to educate and inform readers before prompting the purchase.

Social media sites like Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest, and Reddit are all great free traffic sources for affiliate marketing, but they do require some time and effort to make work.

But the most successful affiliates also invest in growing traffic through SEO.

By targeting buyer intent keywords, you can reach visitors who are heading to Google right before making a purchase. Using this technique, it's much easier to get clicks on your affiliate links and earn commissions than trying to sell to people who aren't ready to buy.

Another free traffic source we can't recommend enough is affiliate marketing through email.

The direct nature of emails means tailored messages are delivered straight to your prospects' inboxes. This helps them learn more about a product and moves them towards a buying decision.

Email works great for regular product curations, sharing time-sensitive deals, and reinforcing your top recommendations to your audience.

6.    Build a simple affiliate marketing funnel

An affiliate marketing funnel is a carefully laid out process that guides users from the start of their buyer journey to the point where they are repeat customers.

Funnels are critical if you need to take an audience who isn't ready to buy (such as most visitors from Pinterest or other "inspiration"-based channels), and warm them up to your brand and offer.

By using a funnel, the reader sticks with you through all the stages of the buyer's journey. Even if they joined you weeks or months before they're ready to make a purchase.

Here's how you can visualize the buyer's journey;

The buyer's journey consists of four main stages:

·    Awareness: The prospect notices and identifies their problem

·    Consideration: The prospect considers possible solutions to their problem

·    Conversion: The prospect makes a purchase decision and thereby becomes a customer

·    Loyalty: A positive customer experience leads to trust and repeat purchases


7.    The buyer's journey consists of four main stages:

Finally, it's time to talk track.

Proper tracking is one of the most important aspects of successful affiliate marketing.

It's the difference between fumbling around aimlessly in the dark for your keys or taking a step back and turning on a light switch.

Giving yourself visibility into what's working and what isn't in your affiliate marketing strategy is what helps you make more money, faster, and with fewer pieces of content.

And there is no better time than the very beginning of your affiliate website to set up a system that will scale with you. 

So, today I have shared with you the seven important steps that most affiliate marketers forget to follow in the beginning.

You just have to remember to follow these steps and work consistently to get success.

Always remember that, 

"Today is difficult, Tomorrow is more difficult. But the day after tomorrow is beautiful and most of the people die tomorrow evening."

So, never lose hope and keep trying no matter what happens.