Affiliate marketing for beginners who are just getting started may seem complicated and difficult to execute. But to be honest, once you get the basics down, there is not much to it.
Affiliate marketing is fairly easy to get started with, and in most cases, you don’t even have to spend any money to get started. Not to mention, there are even ways to earn money affiliate marketing without a website.
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If you are a beginners, affiliate marketing may seem complicated and though to master. But affiliate marketing works in a simple way. You (the affiliate) promote someone else’s product, and for every sale/lead you make, you get a commission. Now, of course there are different kinds of affiliate marketing, but all of them are based on this idea.
This 10 steps process will guide you through the process of getting started in affiliate marketing as a newbie and actually making money.
1. Pick a product to promote
There are many good affiliate networks for newbies. Go to ClickBank or Commission Junction or any other affiliate marketing network and pick a product to promote. Pick a product that is hot and selling well. Although, that would mean you will have a lot of competition, at the same time it means it will be much easier for you to make sales as a beginner.
2. Get to know the product you want to promote
I personally think its best to buy the product you want to promote. Doing so, will give you access to the product which helps you learn all about it. And if you decide to promote the product, you will have a much better chance of convincing people to buy the product since you can outline the benefits of the product much better than anyone how hasn’t had access to the product.
3. Write a sales letter
Now that you have become familiar with the product, use what you have learned to write your sales letter. The easiest way to write a killer sales latter is to simply use bullet points and point out the problems people have in your specific niche and tell them how this product will solve their problem. It really is as simple as that.
4. Create a free internet radio show
Go to BlogTalkRadio and register for a free account. BlogTalkRadio is basically a tool which allows anyone to create an internet radio show. No, you are not doing it to become a radio host! You are doing this simply because such contents are indexed by Google within hours.
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Your radio show doesn’t have to be anything sophisticated. You can simply read out your sales latter. Make sure you use your main keywords throughout the show.
Don’t forget to add your affiliate link at the end of your show, so your audience will know where to go. Your recording will also be used as a free offer to attract potential buyers. Simply upload the mp3 of your radio show to your web host.
5. Create a one page site
Now, put up a quick one page site using WordPress or whatever blogging platforms you prefer. Create a short article (using your sales latter) and offer your MP3 to visitors as a free download. At the end of the article include your affiliate link where people can buy the product you are promoting.
If the MP3 you created and are giving away to visitors for free is good and provide useful information, many of those visitors will be enticed to buy the product you are promoting since they know you provide quality stuff.
6. Promote your site
These days there are online forums related to just about any subject. Find a few good and trusted forums related to the product you are promoting. Place a link in your signature section that directs people to your blog.
Make sure you let people know you are giving away a free mp3 download about the subject. Start participating in those forums. Be helpful and build a reputation for yourself as an authority in your niche.
7. Use social networking sites to promote
You can also use social networking sites to promote your site. Register with as many social networking sites as you can and place a link back to your blog in your profile. Ping and bookmark your profile URLs for a faster indexing.
Now, find a few quality and useful articles about becoming debt free and post their links on your social networking accounts. Do this a few times, then post a link pointing to your own blog. Repeat this process over and over again.
This process will get people thinking about becoming debt free, so when you do send them to your blog, they are ready to download your free MP3. Which will get them even more ready to visit your affiliate link and buy the product you are promoting.
8. Promote your site through blog commenting
You want to promote your blog and build backlinks to it as much as you can. Another good way to build backlinks and get some traffic to your blog is through related blogs.
Find financial related blogs, especially blogs that talk about debt and becoming debt free. Visit as many as you can and leave genuine comments. Include your blogs URL in the URL box.
9. Build your list
At this points, you probably have made a few sales. Use some of that money to sign up for an auto-responder account. This step can be done depending either in the beginning of this process or after you have made a few sales.
If you have the money for it, sign up for an auto-responder before you start giving away your free MP3 and in exchange for the free MP3 download, capture people’s names and emails addresses.
This will help you build a list of people who you know are interested in the product you are promoting. So the next time you have a better product you want to promote, all you have to do is send them an email with a link to the product sales page.
10. Keep building backlinks and driving traffic to your site
From this point on, your job is to build backlinks and drive traffic to your sales page (blog). You can use paid methods like buying ad space, or using Google AdWords and other advertising methods, or use free methods like blog commenting, submitting articles to article directories (with a link pointing back to your blog at the end of the article), social networking with people interested in your niche and so on.
This is the basics of making money as an affiliate marketer. You can adjust the steps based on your own needs and niche. Of course, just like any other business, whether online or offline, it takes real work and dedication to succeed as an affiliate marketer.
Remember, finishing strong and actually making money with affiliate marketing is the real hard part, otherwise everybody knows how to start affiliate marketing.