Get Started in Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate Marketing A-Z
1. Affiliate Marketing A-Z
Estimated time: 10:55 minutes
(Completed)2. Affiliate Marketing 101
Estimated time: 14:53 minutes
(Completed) (Completed) (Completed) (Completed)3. Get Started in Affiliate Marketing
Estimated time: 11:23 minutes
(Completed)4. Choosing Products and Services to Promote
Estimated time: 13:16 minutes
(Completed) (Completed)5. Build Your Web Presence and Create Valuable Content
Estimated time: 14:37 minutes
(Completed) (Completed) (Completed)6. Conclusion and Next Steps
Estimated time: 08:55 minutes
Module 2 – Get Started in Affiliate Marketing
After gaining a basic knowledge of affiliate marketing and starting to think about how you will apply it to your business, the first step is defining your niche.
It's almost impossible to earn money targeting a broad audience with affiliate links that feature random products. You need to get specific: Defining your niche is all about finding products or services to promote that will appeal to a small, specialized segment of the population.
Define Your Niche
To define your niche, you need to examine the two components that make up a niche: the audience and the product or service.
If you already have an audience, think about products and services that will appeal to them. The process is reversed if you are starting from scratch. Explore topics and products you are passionate about and build an audience around that.
Market to an Existing Audience
If you have a small business, blog, mailing list, or a large network, think about topics and their related products and services that generally would appeal to this group, and the one thing you all have in common. For example, you are a business coach and you have built a mailing list of small business owners who want to learn more about leadership.
Analyze Your Audience
However, your work isn't done. It's not enough to simply focus on 'small business owners' and 'leadership'. That is still very broad when it comes to affiliate marketing. You will need to dig deeper and analyze your audience and what content or shared interest drew them to you in the first place.
The key to getting people to click on your affiliate links is understanding who they are, focusing on:
⦁ Demographics: age, location, education level, marital status, occupation, etc.
⦁ Psychographics: wants, values, needs, hobbies, goals, areas that they need help, etc.
⦁ The content, shared interests, or business offering that drew them to you:
⦁ Examine why your audience follows you, signs up for your free content, or has purchased from you in the past.
⦁ What kind content appeals to them?
⦁ What is their level of expertise?
⦁ What types of questions do they ask and how do they interact with you?
Your next step is to put all of this information together. For example, let's say you observed that most of the people on your list are 25-34-year-old single males who want to launch an online business. They consistently sign up for free content about building leadership skills and supplementing their income while growing their business. Many of them have university degrees unrelated to their current job and earn less than 50k a year.
At this point, you will be able to start building an audience profile and gain an understanding of what they want, which will give you the information you need to define your niche.
You Can Start from Scratch
If you don't have a business or established audience, explore niche possibilities by first looking at a topic that you are passionate about and related products, focusing on:
⦁ Products, services, or brands that are unique, new, or under-represented online.
⦁ A specific product you are passionate about and have had success with. For example, you joined an online fitness program and it helped you get into the best shape of your life. You are the perfect candidate to become a coach and get an affiliate link, promoting add-on products and memberships to the site, along with related fitness products from other brands.
⦁ A special interest or hobby.
⦁ An area of expertise, for example a subject you have researched extensively (from your educational background, previous career, personal experience, or even a health issue you are dealing with).
Narrow Your Audience
Once you've identified a niche that you are passionate about and have personal experience with (e.g., transitioning from a 9-5 job to a freelancing career), you need to start thinking about who you want to target: Recent college grads who were unprepared for a 9-5 job? Parents on parental leave who aren't ready to go back to work while balancing childcare? People who find themselves bored and dissatisfied mid-career?
When you are first starting out in affiliate marketing, it is best to keep it simple. Think about your own story and why you chose this niche. Who would your story resonate with? Start out by targeting people who are like you. As you grow, you can expand your audience or product offering (or both) but at first, do what you know.
Important Factors to Consider When Defining Your Niche
Is the niche you are considering profitable?
Can this niche generate sales from a small, specialized segment of the population (not just follows)? You can find any number of groups on social media that bring people together around a common interest. But if that thing that brings you all together can't be monetized, then you shouldn't make it your marketing niche. For instance, your alien research group is enthusiastic, engaged, and passionate, but what products (that have an affiliate program) can you recommend that they purchase?
Does keyword research support choosing this niche?
A keyword or keyword phrase is what you type into a search engine, like Google, when you are looking for information. That's also referred to as "organic" traffic to a website and it's a great way to see if your niche will be profitable. Are people doing organic searches for your niche? Or is your niche too saturated, with lots of competition? You can use a tool like Ubersuggest to see how many searches there are for a keyword or keyword phrase related your niche ideas, and what people are paying to advertise inside those search results. When people are paying to advertise, it usually means the people who are searching the keyword are buyers. And that means it could be a profitable niche for you, especially if there isn't too much competition already.
What unique value do you bring to this niche?
In other words, why you? Why should you be the person to share these links? Your connection to the niche has to be authentic or else your audience won't take your recommendations seriously.
Can you generate enough content around this niche?
Are you truly passionate about the products and services within this niche? You may have experience and expertise within a particular niche, but do you love it? You will need to generate content around this niche consistently, for an extended period of time. Knowledge won't carry you through the difficult times, only a passion and love for the topic will.
Action Steps:
⦁ If you have an existing audience, use your Action Guide to conduct a review. Write down as much as you can about the following areas:
⦁ Demographics - age, location, education level, marital status, occupation, etc. Helpful tools include Facebook Audience Insights, Instagram's Insights, and Google Analytics for your blog or website.
⦁ Psychographics - wants, values, needs, hobbies, goals, areas that they need help, etc. Psychographic information may be more difficult to obtain, but take the time to read your comments section, make note of which blog posts have generated the most likes, etc.
⦁ Content, shared interests, or business offering that drew them to you.
⦁ Examine why your audience follows you, signs up for your free content, or has purchased from you in the past.
⦁ What kind content appeals to them?
⦁ What is their level of expertise?
⦁ What types of questions do they ask and how do they interact with you?
⦁ Make a list subjects and topics that you are passionate about and related products and services.
⦁ Reflect on the above answers and write down 5 niche ideas. Brainstorm at least 3 content ideas around each. If you find it easy to generate ideas, this is a good sign that you can produce enough content around it.
Action Steps cont:
⦁ Make sure your ideas will be profitable.
⦁ Search affiliate programs related to your niche ideas in Google. Search [idea] + affiliate programs and see what comes up.
⦁ Do some keyword research using a tool like Ubersuggest and take note of search volume and CPC (or "cost per click").
⦁ What value do you uniquely bring to your niche ideas? List reasons why people would click an affiliate link that you share (e.g. "I am a fitness instructor whose transformation has inspired my audience so they would respect, and be excited by, my recommendation to join an online fitness program.")
After gaining a basic knowledge of affiliate marketing and starting to think about how you will apply it to your business, the first step is defining your niche.
It's almost impossible to earn money targeting a broad audience with affiliate links that feature random products. You need to get specific: Defining your niche is all about finding products or services to promote that will appeal to a small, specialized segment of the population.
Define Your Niche
To define your niche, you need to examine the two components that make up a niche: the audience and the product or service.
If you already have an audience, think about products and services that will appeal to them. The process is reversed if you are starting from scratch. Explore topics and products you are passionate about and build an audience around that.
Market to an Existing Audience
If you have a small business, blog, mailing list, or a large network, think about topics and their related products and services that generally would appeal to this group, and the one thing you all have in common. For example, you are a business coach and you have built a mailing list of small business owners who want to learn more about leadership.
Analyze Your Audience
However, your work isn't done. It's not enough to simply focus on 'small business owners' and 'leadership'. That is still very broad when it comes to affiliate marketing. You will need to dig deeper and analyze your audience and what content or shared interest drew them to you in the first place.
The key to getting people to click on your affiliate links is understanding who they are, focusing on:
⦁ Demographics: age, location, education level, marital status, occupation, etc.
⦁ Psychographics: wants, values, needs, hobbies, goals, areas that they need help, etc.
⦁ The content, shared interests, or business offering that drew them to you:
⦁ Examine why your audience follows you, signs up for your free content, or has purchased from you in the past.
⦁ What kind content appeals to them?
⦁ What is their level of expertise?
⦁ What types of questions do they ask and how do they interact with you?
Your next step is to put all of this information together. For example, let's say you observed that most of the people on your list are 25-34-year-old single males who want to launch an online business. They consistently sign up for free content about building leadership skills and supplementing their income while growing their business. Many of them have university degrees unrelated to their current job and earn less than 50k a year.
At this point, you will be able to start building an audience profile and gain an understanding of what they want, which will give you the information you need to define your niche.
You Can Start from Scratch
If you don't have a business or established audience, explore niche possibilities by first looking at a topic that you are passionate about and related products, focusing on:
⦁ Products, services, or brands that are unique, new, or under-represented online.
⦁ A specific product you are passionate about and have had success with. For example, you joined an online fitness program and it helped you get into the best shape of your life. You are the perfect candidate to become a coach and get an affiliate link, promoting add-on products and memberships to the site, along with related fitness products from other brands.
⦁ A special interest or hobby.
⦁ An area of expertise, for example a subject you have researched extensively (from your educational background, previous career, personal experience, or even a health issue you are dealing with).
Narrow Your Audience
Once you've identified a niche that you are passionate about and have personal experience with (e.g., transitioning from a 9-5 job to a freelancing career), you need to start thinking about who you want to target: Recent college grads who were unprepared for a 9-5 job? Parents on parental leave who aren't ready to go back to work while balancing childcare? People who find themselves bored and dissatisfied mid-career?
When you are first starting out in affiliate marketing, it is best to keep it simple. Think about your own story and why you chose this niche. Who would your story resonate with? Start out by targeting people who are like you. As you grow, you can expand your audience or product offering (or both) but at first, do what you know.
Important Factors to Consider When Defining Your Niche
Is the niche you are considering profitable?
Can this niche generate sales from a small, specialized segment of the population (not just follows)? You can find any number of groups on social media that bring people together around a common interest. But if that thing that brings you all together can't be monetized, then you shouldn't make it your marketing niche. For instance, your alien research group is enthusiastic, engaged, and passionate, but what products (that have an affiliate program) can you recommend that they purchase?
Does keyword research support choosing this niche?
A keyword or keyword phrase is what you type into a search engine, like Google, when you are looking for information. That's also referred to as "organic" traffic to a website and it's a great way to see if your niche will be profitable. Are people doing organic searches for your niche? Or is your niche too saturated, with lots of competition? You can use a tool like Ubersuggest to see how many searches there are for a keyword or keyword phrase related your niche ideas, and what people are paying to advertise inside those search results. When people are paying to advertise, it usually means the people who are searching the keyword are buyers. And that means it could be a profitable niche for you, especially if there isn't too much competition already.
What unique value do you bring to this niche?
In other words, why you? Why should you be the person to share these links? Your connection to the niche has to be authentic or else your audience won't take your recommendations seriously.
Can you generate enough content around this niche?
Are you truly passionate about the products and services within this niche? You may have experience and expertise within a particular niche, but do you love it? You will need to generate content around this niche consistently, for an extended period of time. Knowledge won't carry you through the difficult times, only a passion and love for the topic will.
Action Steps:
⦁ If you have an existing audience, use your Action Guide to conduct a review. Write down as much as you can about the following areas:
⦁ Demographics - age, location, education level, marital status, occupation, etc. Helpful tools include Facebook Audience Insights, Instagram's Insights, and Google Analytics for your blog or website.
⦁ Psychographics - wants, values, needs, hobbies, goals, areas that they need help, etc. Psychographic information may be more difficult to obtain, but take the time to read your comments section, make note of which blog posts have generated the most likes, etc.
⦁ Content, shared interests, or business offering that drew them to you.
⦁ Examine why your audience follows you, signs up for your free content, or has purchased from you in the past.
⦁ What kind content appeals to them?
⦁ What is their level of expertise?
⦁ What types of questions do they ask and how do they interact with you?
⦁ Make a list subjects and topics that you are passionate about and related products and services.
⦁ Reflect on the above answers and write down 5 niche ideas. Brainstorm at least 3 content ideas around each. If you find it easy to generate ideas, this is a good sign that you can produce enough content around it.
Action Steps cont:
⦁ Make sure your ideas will be profitable.
⦁ Search affiliate programs related to your niche ideas in Google. Search [idea] + affiliate programs and see what comes up.
⦁ Do some keyword research using a tool like Ubersuggest and take note of search volume and CPC (or "cost per click").
⦁ What value do you uniquely bring to your niche ideas? List reasons why people would click an affiliate link that you share (e.g. "I am a fitness instructor whose transformation has inspired my audience so they would respect, and be excited by, my recommendation to join an online fitness program.")
