Digital Marketing Blog: 9 Steps to Start An Affiliate Marketing Business

Wednesday, 10 March 2021

9 Steps to Start An Affiliate Marketing Business



 What you’ll find in this Guide 


In this guide, I've provided a number of resources based on my personal experience to help you get your own affiliate marketing business up and running.

 

We'll cover:


    Niche research

·       Keyword research

·       Webhosting

·       Content creation

·       Email Autoresponders

·       Traffic for your Site

·       Link tracking

·       Business Automation

·       Business Monitoring


Enjoy! And never hesitate to email me at mwapea@gmail.com with any

Questions :)

 

I created this quick and easy guide to help you get the run-through on how to start building a niche site for your online business.

 

Use this as a way to start organizing your plans for getting a niche site up and running. In the next few chapters, I’ll give you more information.

 

Let’s Dive In;


#1 Research Your Niche

A niche site is some kind of a  project or hobby site that can help you build the skills you need in a topic, you love while earning a bit of income.

 

Choosing the right niche can make or break your online business as a beginner and it is what is going to bring or not bring money. 

Some niches are evergreen while others are not…remember riches are in the niches

Decide what program, service, or product (a group of products) you want to promote.

You'll want to focus on something that is going to pay you enough commission that it's worth investing the time to build your site.


Here is a list of the most profitable niches and I recommend you choose from. After this, we go into keyword research


Related Article: Top 10 Profitable niches

·       Health and Fitness and weight loss

·       Health and wellness

·       Dating and relationships

·       Family Pets

·       Self-Improvement

·       Wealth building through investment

·       Earn money on the internet

·       Personal development

·       Pets and relationships

·       Personal Finance

·       Make Money Online

·       Beauty and Charm Therapies

·       Gadgets and technology

 

#2 Research Your Keywords

 

Keyword research is the most important part of your online business, when we come For content creation, you have to create content that your users are searching for.

 

And how do you know what they are searching for? By doing keyword research


There are free keyword research tools as well as Paid ones


And I will go through both.


You need 5 to 10 keywords for your website that you will rank for on Google, Bing, Yandex, and yahoo


Your keyword research is what is going to guide you as to what type of content you should create for your website.


 KeywordsEverywhere


 This is a  free tool that you install as a Chrome extension.


When you enter a search word or phrase in google search, Keywords Everywhere will show you approximate search volumes for that keyword and related keywords.


It's a great tool to start your keyword research with.


And you must look for keywords or phrases which have huge search volume and low competition

 Ahrefs

 After you've completed your keyword research in your chosen niche using

 KeywordsEverywhere, you should now copy & paste the list of keywords you exported on a spreadsheet

 Into Ahrefs to get the keyword difficulty (KD) and more accurate search volumes.

 

The most important thing you'll use this tool for is Keyword Difficulty Ranking. This tells you how difficult it will be to get ranked on Google for any keyword.

You can Start a 7-Day $7Trial of Ahrefs by clicking on this link.


Google keyword planner is another free tool from google. The Keyword Planner is meant for google AdWords, but also works fine with keyword research for your website.

 

Affiliate programs with good commissions


After you have finished your keyword research you have to sign up for affiliate networks that are related to the niche that you have chosen.

Related Article: The best affiliate programs for beginners

An affiliate network is a place where merchants and affiliates both signup, meet, and do business together


Setting up an account on the affiliate network is free.

After you are accepted into the affiliate network, then you can request to promote products and services from different merchants related to your niche.

A few merchants will ask you to pay to enter or promote their program, but you would rather go for the free ones.


You have to sign up for programs that are related to your niche. There are hundreds of affiliate networks.


Let's have a quick look at ;


Clickbank

Commission Junction

And Digistore24


ClickBank




ClickBank is the world’s largest marketplace for affiliates and digital products but it does not allow certain countries to participate in the affiliate program.

With millions of products in over 25 niche categories, ClickBank is a popular choice among affiliate marketers.



Clickbank has been around for a long time and boasts of Billions of dollars in sales each year.


It doesn't matter if you are a beginner or an advanced affiliate marketer, 


ClickBank is an excellent option to work with as an affiliate. 


Setting up an account is relatively simple, entry requirements are low, 


And once you’ve entered personal and payment information, you will be accepted as an affiliate and have access to a huge database of resources at your disposal.


For you to ethically promote and earn commissions.

Signup for the Clickbank affiliate program here


Commission Junction CJ




Commission junction has been around for the past two decades and many of the best companies are associated with CJ as advertisers. 


Commission Junction, more commonly known as CJ Affiliate, after it changed its name, has been helping affiliates and merchants for a very long time.


Possibly one of the oldest affiliate programs if no the oldest.


On the CJ platform, Affiliates are known as “publishers” within the CJ Affiliate network.


To be accepted as an affiliate with commission junction, you should have an already established website for you to be able to create an account.


If after 6 months you have not made a sale, CJ will deactivate your account for about 3 months before you can re-apply for the program

Signup as a publisher with Cj here


Digistore24






Digistore24 is from Germany and it operates worldwide in all the countries

including countries where ClickBank doesn’t operate. 

Like other networks, you can promote as well as sell on digistore24, as an affiliate or product seller respectively.

Their system has got tools to help you

  • Automate your affiliate marketing business
  • Optiumiuse your conversions as well as
  • Tools to grow your business

Signup here as an affiliate for free on digistore24


 #3 Create A Website


There two things that you need to understand here

A domain and Webhosting


Domain


A domain is simply a piece of land on the internet and it’s leased out at a minimum period of a year. Above that, you can pay for many years in the future. 


It's all up to you


You cannot have a website without a domain of some kind, be it a free domain or a subdomain

Lots of website builders and service providers offer free subdomains

For example, if you use a free website builder like wordpree.com


Your site address will be in the subdomain format as shown below 

yourbusinessname.wordpress.com


However, if you use a self-hosted domain (paid) your site address will be in the format shown below;

yourbusinessname.com


There are advantages of using a self-hosted domain compared to a free service.


And if you start with a free one due to budget, you are encouraged to migrate to a paid one as soon as possible.


You can purchase a domain separately or together with Webhosting at your preferred Webhosting site.


Some hosting sites like Bluehost will give you a free 1-year domain subscription, so you only pay for hosting for the first year.


When coming with the name of your self hosted domain you should use your keywords


To find a domain name that's as close as possible to the name of  the product or service that people are searching for and it should be easy to remember. 


If you want to purchase a domain separately or you want to migrate to a self-hosted domain I recommend you use GoDaddy.


Click here to find a domain from GoDaddy





 Webhosting

Once your content and files are ready, you will need to put them where people can find them. 


A place where you will be directing people, to consume your content.


This place is called a host, as it will be hosting your files and content hence the name Webhost.

 

Let’s dive in and have a look at some types of Webhosting sites


Bluehost





Powering Over 2 Million Websites Worldwide Bluehost is the perfect place to host your website; 


From shared hosting to personalized dedicated servers, Bluehost has got everything you need to bring your website to life.


FREE Domain for 1st year

FREE SSL Certificate Included

1-Click WordPress Install

24/7 Support

Click here to set up your site with Bluehost with a 1-year free domain subscription


Which plan is right for you?


There's no one-size-fits-all solution for web hosting. So we've got specific plans to fit your specific needs.


1. Shared

2. VPS

3. Dedicated


Bluehost also provides special hosting options for

WordPress and WooCommerce websites.

Get your WordPress website started right with site analytics,

traffic management, security, and backups all together in a

complete WordPress bundle.


Godaddy




Is the world’s #1 domain name registrar.


Godaddy offers everything your visitors need to create their own Web presence, all for up to 70% less than other competitors!

Expert service and support that’s available 24/7.


Groove Funnels



This is a platform I also highly recommend using to build your website for free.

It has the most advanced Search Engine Optimization functionality of any website building platform available today.

You can get it here FREE.


#4 Create Content

 Before your website goes live, you will need some content on your website, and here is what I recommend you do;


Use keywords to create your content -

·       Write 5 "articles", or have them written by an expert writer on Fiverr, it will cost you about $5 to write your article

Give the writer clear instructions such as Each article should be a minimum of 1,500.

Click here to hire an Expert on Fiverr 

 ·       Write 3, "How to…” in-depth tutorials on your niche or you can have them

 written by an expert on fiverr 

Click here to hire an expert on Fiverr

 ·       Write 3 List articles or have them written by a writer on Fiverr.

Click here to hire an Expert on Fiverr


#5 Setup Email Autoresponder


I am sure you have heard of the overused phrase that money is in the list, right?

Or is it Money is in the niches?

You need to have an email autoresponder, which is going to store your customer's emails.


Use it to communicate with your customers, or even promote products or send them a weekly newsletter.


You can send a weekly newsletter to your subscribers every time you produce an article for your blog, 


The article will be sent to your subscriber in form of a newsletter, this can be automated so you don't have to do it manually.


Getresponse





GetResponse is a powerful suite of marketing tools used globally by professionals, entrepreneurs, marketers, and blog writers.

Here is the list of features you will find on GetResponse ;

Email Marketing

Landing pages

Webinars

Marketing automation

Click here to signup for a free for 30 days trial 


 Aweber



Aweber is an email marketing app that allows you to do:

Email marketing

Landing page builder
Web push notifications
Email Automation
Segmentation

 

#6 Traffic to Your Site


A website without traffic is useless. If no one is coming to your website, no one will click on your affiliate links and you will not make any money.


You can get traffic to your website in two ways;

Through organic traffic which takes longer sometimes as long as even six months as opposed to paid traffic which is almost immediate or instant.


Organic Traffic


To get organic traffic you have to set up your site for search engine optimization (SEO) so that search engines Google, Bing, Yahoo, Yandex can find your website and your content when someone is searching your keyword.


This involves setting up keywords for your site, putting up readable content and not just any content but valuable content, acquiring backlinks, Meta tags etc.


Organic traffic in google takes long sometimes as long as six months.


Paid Traffic


Example of Paid traffic include google ad words (PPC), Solo ads from Udimy, and Fiverr, etc


With Google ad words, you only pay when someone clicks on your ad.


This is called pay per click (PPC).

 

Campaigns are set up to appear on Google's first page of Google's SERPs using a process of bidding for keywords.

 

look at the example below, for the search phrase, "how to create a website."


The letters "Ad" on each of these results indicates that this is an advert.



Udimi solo ads and Fiverr experts will send traffic to your links by charging you for clicks for example $100 for a hundred clicks.


A word of caution here, paid traffic may sometimes not convert and money may just be going down the drain if you don’t buy the right traffic.

 

#7 link Tracking 


Link tracking is the process of tracking your affiliate links. You need to know If the clicks you're receiving on the links are genuine.

 

Link tracking tools such as clickmagick will track your links eliminating the clicks which be influenced by bots. 


Click here to check clickmagick works


#8 Automation


Running an online business is no more different from a brick and mortar store or business. It requires you to work hard.


In an online business, there are too many moving parts that you have to make sure they are all moving accordingly.


To help you do this, their tools that help us to automate most of your works so that you concentrate on the most important tasks of your business.


Such as creating content, managing and  Monitoring paid ads, automated social media posts, etc.


You can also hire virtual assistants on Fiverr to help you with some of the tasks

Social Media posting can also be automated, and schedule your posts even a month or more in advance, 


I use a tool called contentstudio for content management  and scheduling 


Buffer is also a great tool for scheduling social media posts especially when you are on a budget


#9 Monitoring


After you have set up your business you will need to monitor the performance of your online business.

 

Monitoring will help you make informed decisions and adjust and make changes to your site and campaigns accordingly


These will include

·       Ad campaigns

·       CTR

·       Conversions

·       Impressions

·       Clicks


Some of the monitoring tools you can use are Google Search Console 

And Google Analytics.


Google Analytics


Learn more about google analytics in this video






Search Console


Learn more about search console in this video




 

Final thoughts

Hopefully, this guide has got you moving with your online business

If you need any questions or clarifications, feel free to drop me a message in the comments;


Good luck in all your online endeavors!

 

Resources

 

Here is a quick list of all the resources that I have mentioned in this guide.

They have a short description. to help you get what you want quickly.

Some are free and others you have to buy.


·       Wealthy affiliate – For Free Affiliate Marketing Course

·       Google KeywordPlanner – For Free Keyword Research

·       KeywordsEverywhere – Free Paid keyword research

·       Super Affiliate – For Free affiliate marketing Webinar on Paid Ads

·       Bluehost - For Webhosting

           Fiverr - For Website content creation

·       Convert Kit – For Email Autoresponder

·       Getresponse – For Email Autoresponder

·       Fiverr – For website Traffic

·       Clickmagick – For Link tracking

·       Udimy – For Solo Ads

·       Buffer - for Social Media Auto posts scheduling

·       Contentstudio – For content marketing and social media management

G   Groove Funnels - For  free websites and Funnels builder

      Godaddy - For Domain registration  


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