Are you interested in how to make money in affiliate marketing in 2017?
Yes?
Then you have to read this article!
I am going to tell you what affiliate marketing is and how you can make a full-time income from it!
What Qualifies Me To Write This Article?
I have multiple affiliate websites, like this one, that make money every single day.
Most of them are not even maintained or updated anymore, but they still bring in sweet profit.
That’s what I call real passive income. It does take time and work, but once you have reached a certain point, you can sit back and relax a bit.
The money will continue flowing.
On this website, Online Jedis, I talk about how I make my money. And how you can do it, too!
Affiliate marketing is my main source of income.
That’s the reason why I know what I am talking about!
Do you want to start making money online, too?
Keep reading and you will know where and how to start.
I promise!
What Is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is the best way to start an online business.
It is cheap and there are no real risks involved.
All you need is a website and knowledge of affiliate marketing.
You then choose a niche (or topic) and start blogging about it.
Once your site is filled with some content, you go out and find an affiliate partner.
An affiliate partner is someone who pays you commissions every time you sell one of his products for him.
Let’s say your site is about body building (it really can be anything) and you write an article about protein shakes.
Your partner is selling those protein shakes. All you need to do is linking to those shakes by using your personal affiliate link.
Whenever someone clicks on your link and buys from your partner, you will get paid.
And that’s what affiliate marketing is.
You promote products from your partners and get a commission for every sale you made.
Here’s What You Need To Get Started In Affiliate Marketing
First, you will need a website.
I recommend using WordPress as it is super easy to build a professional website with it.
If you don’t have any experience in this, read my article about how to build a website for free.
Once your website is up and running, you have to fill it with content.
That content needs to be related to your niche and products. In your articles, you will link either directly to the products or you a review of that product you wrote before.
It is highly recommended to not spamming affiliate links. Google can notice that and your posts will rank badly.
When you have fleshed out your website, you need visitors.
My favorite way of getting traffic is by using SEO. With good SEO, you rank high on Google and people will find your site naturally.
Of course, you can pay for traffic as well, but that is absolutely not necessary!
Read my SEO guide here.
And that’s all that is necessary to make money in affiliate marketing.
A quick summary of what you really need:
- A website with (SEO optimized) articles
- Affiliate partners
- Links to products of your partners
- Visitors to your website
As you see, there is not much investment involved to get started.
All you need to pay for is the website domain and hosting.
A domain costs around $13 USD for a year. Hosting starts at around $5 USD a month.
So for a full year, you only need to pay around $73 USD.
And you can make hundreds if not thousands of dollars a month.
Important Disclaimer:
To make that money you need to work at least a few months if you are a complete beginner.
The way I make money online is by building a real business.
It is not a get rich quick scheme.
Hard work is necessary!
You also need a lot of knowledge. Only if you know what you are doing, is it as easy as I say it is.
It is important that you have quality content on your website.
If you don’t write articles that help your visitors, you won’t make any sales.
I can show you how it is done!
Are you ready to start your online journey?
Choose Which Type Of Affiliate Site You Want To Build
There are thousands of niches you can choose from.
Any interest or hobby is a potential niche.
There are, however, two different types of affiliate sites:
“Mini-Niche Sites” and “Authority Sites”.
Both types make money by advertising products of your affiliate partners, but there are some big differences:
1. Mini-Niche Sites
If you want your first paycheck relatively fast, this kind of site is for you.
A mini-niche site focuses on a small range of products in a narrow niche.
Let’s say you choose “induction cookware sets” as your niche.
See how that is a rather narrow niche? All you can write about are those sets and maybe how to use and clean them.
A mini-niche site should have the main keyword “induction cookware sets” in the domain name. So, before you even start building your website, make sure a good and a memorable name is available.
Additionally, you have to check out your competition and look for good keywords.
With such a focused side, you can make money rather fast.
Actually, you can start earning from it within a month.
But you need to know what you are doing!
Sounds complicated?
Watch how the aforementioned niche website is built step by step here (work in progress):
2. Authority Sites
Authority sites are for those who want to build a site that can reap rewards forever.
They are huge sites that can have unlimited posts and products. There is just no end to things you can write about there.
Take my website “My Archery Corner” as an example.
Do you think I will ever not find an archery related topic to write about? Do you think that there is a limited number of archery products out there I can promote?
No, there are thousands of products and topics.
I will never run short of ideas to blog about.
And that what makes this website an authority site!
It is broader and you can scale it up as much as you want.
A mini-niche site is limited. There is only so much you can talk about “induction cookware sets”.
However, it does take a bit longer to earn money with an authority site. Therefore, you can make more money and for an unlimited time with it.
Build an authority site and you have to work harder and longer.
It took about 3 months before I made my first sale with my authority site.
But once you have a big site with hundreds of articles, you have a constant flow of income.
With mini-niche sites, you have to keep building new sites continuously to keep making money.
Which road you choose is up to you, of course.
Both are a genuine and fun way of making money.
How To Find Affiliate Programs
We have the basics covered now.
Now it’s time to find an affiliate partner, so you can get started promoting products.
One big partner is Amazon itself.
I highly recommend every beginner to start with Amazon (sign up here).
It is a well-trusted site and almost everybody knows it.
It is also easy to join them! You only need a website with a few articles (3-5 articles is enough) and they will accept your application.
After you have been accepted you have 90 days to make a sale.
If you fail, they will cancel your partnership, but you can apply for it again.
Amazon is not the best partner in terms of commission rates and cookie duration (how long you make sales after someone clicked on your link).
Once your site is a bit bigger and looks professional, you can send applications to other partners.
To find those, simply type “your niche + affiliate program” into Google and you will find loads of partners.
Research them well before you apply, though!
You will send traffic to them! So, their online store has to be really good and trustworthy.
I wasted a lot of time and money by sending people to bad stores.
Don’t do that mistake!
Also, know that you never have to pay for joining an affiliate program!
If they ask you to pay first, you know that they are not legit!
Affiliate programs are free to join!
Let’s sum this up quickly, too:
Checklist for finding affiliate programs (besides Amazon):
- Type “your niche + affiliate program” into Google
- Make sure their store looks trustworthy and professional (loads fast, etc.)
- The affiliate program has to be free to join
- Check how much % they pay for each sale
Pros And Cons Of Affiliate Marketing
To get the whole picture, let’s take a look at the pros and cons:
Pros of affiliate marketing:
- Extremely low starting costs and therefore no real risks
- All you need is a laptop/PC and an internet connection
- No storing or shipping of goods (your partner takes care of that)
- No customer support needed (your partner takes care of that)
- After your initial work, it can turn into passive income
- You can build as many sites = income streams as you want
Cons of affiliate marketing:
- Relatively low commissions (usually between 1-10% of the product price – digital products can have much higher rates)
- It takes time and hard work (at least 3 months, but can take up to years for a beginner)
Affiliate marketing is for those who are not afraid to work hard for their goals.
Just think of it like a business in the real world.
Before you even start a business, you have to educate yourself. Most successful business people studied years at a university before they got a job.
It’s the same here.
Without proper education and knowledge, you will not become the next success story.
Are you willing to put in the hard work and time?
If your answer is “YES!” can help you make your dreams come true.
Just keep on reading:
The #1 Source For Future Affiliate Marketers
When I started online a few years back, I had no knowledge at all!
I knew some basic HTML and WordPress.
But that’s not enough to become a successful affiliate marketer.
I fell to a few scams and didn’t earn a dime.
Then, I found a wonderful community that teaches affiliate marketing and other ways of making money online.
I joined and I am still a member of that group.
It taught me everything I know about online marketing!
It made my dreams become reality and I am earning real money online every single day!
You can try it for free and decide for yourself:
Ready To Get Started?
I hope I was able to answer the question “How To Make Money in Affiliate Marketing in 2017?”.
Now it is up to you to make the most out of it!
Take action!
Now is the time to to get the ball rolling.
Imagine that in a few months from now, you might be looking back to this moment and realize that you made the right decision!
How do you feel about this?
Are you ready to go?
Let me know in the comments below and I will get back to you.
All the best,
Moritz
