If you are reading this, chances are you've heard about affiliate marketing and wonder if it's worth the time to sign up for an affiliate program.
The answer is YES!
In this guide, I will walk through how to choose the right affiliate program, and some of the tips I use on my sites so that you can get more sales.
How To Choose An Affiliate Program
Align Your Target Audience's Buying Power To The Price Of The Product You Are Promoting
The first step in choosing an affiliate program to promote is determining your target audience's "buying power," or how likely they are able to buy what you're selling without any financial hardship on their part.
This will help determine which potential partners would be best suited for your site.
You want to align yourself with a company that sells products at different price points so that no matter where somebody falls within your targeted demographic range, they'll always find something suited for their budget.
Here's a real-life example.
When I started this blog, I made the biggest mistake of not properly training my VA about the target audience and the target audience's "buying power."
The first 100 posts were outsourced, and so is the keyword research. Most of the posts were about legit and low-paying online side jobs.
This resulted in a lot of visitors "looking for a job/side job."
When someone is looking for a job, chances are high that they need money.
And because they need the money, these are the people who have limited resources to spend, let alone have the patience to grow a passive income online.
This scenario resulted in low conversation rates.
The conversion rate is the percentage of people who took an action. The easiest metric to measure in blogging would be how many people actually took action in whatever "funnel" I brought them into.
A funnel is an idea of turning lots of unknown people who might "potentially" be interested in your content - in this case, my blogging courses where I mention programs that involve spending money.
To turn them into actual referrals or sales, I needed to put them through a series of steps (several FREE blogging courses, since it was too late to define their buying power).
So lesson learned: the next time you start up your blog with outsourced VA work (or even if it's you writing the posts), make sure to clearly define the target audience's buying power.
It'll help avoid situations like mine where I had ranking posts about low-paying side jobs, but later discovered that none of these visitors could afford the services offered by programs I promote, due to financial hardships.
Now, here's how to align your target audience's buying power:
If you go back to my target audience lesson, you'll see that my target audience Jay, is interested in blogging but he doesn't like to write.
That is why I looked for and tested several programs that can help him solve his problem, and ended up with Jarvis.ai (previously called Conversion.ai).
Jarvis is quite "expensive" ($29/mo. for 20,000 words written) for someone who has no money. But for an audience like Jay, who has the mindset to grow a blog, $29/mo. is a no-brainer.
The whole Content Creation Course I created is to help Jay learn how to write blog posts, and other content without actually writing so much. Once Jay sees the value of the product, he'll move heaven and earth to afford it. LOL.
Here are some of the posts I have written for Jay:
And many more!
Produce content that your target audience not only NEEDs but most especially, CAN AFFORD or WILL DO ANYTHING TO AFFORD.
P.S. If you are wondering if the outsourced articles were "wasted," of course not! However, now realizing the buying power of the people reading them, only 1 out of 10 have them.
As a result, most of the traffic (visitors) on those articles are now monetized thru third-party display ads.
Advice For Newbies Who Are Just Starting Out
1
Promote only one affiliate program at a time.
The best way to grow an audience when starting out with affiliate marketing is by providing quality content that gives value for FREE.
This will allow them to return back to your site again, and again without giving up on you so quickly.
2
When writing about products or services from different brands (product comparison reviews), remember what exactly they offer as some of the things that distinguish them from others like them (e.g. product selling points).
Remembering this information helps provide more value than just mentioning specs alone, because it also helps readers understand the product and what it can do for them.
3
When it comes to the Amazon Affiliate program, researching Amazon products should take up much less time than trying different products one at a time.
This also means having higher profits without spending so much time figuring out how they work.
4
When it comes to affiliate programs that will pay you recurring commissions for life (i.e. as long as your referral is paying subscription fees, you get a portion of their payment as referral fees), it would pay to be INVOLVED in the product or service itself.
That is because, in involved affiliate marketing, you actually get to use and experience the benefits of what you are promoting.
It's not just about making a one-time commission.
Getting involved in the product or service you are promoting has the benefit of helping you to grow your audience over time because they will also be able to see what benefits it can provide to them.
5
Know how the affiliate programs work so you don't get scammed into paying money upfront with no return on investment (i.e., there needs to be proof that people have successfully used it).
This means if someone or a company is offering an "affiliate program" but asking for payment upfront, that is a red flag.
Affiliate programs that work are ones where you can earn commissions without any upfront costs.
Also, getting rich in affiliate marketing doesn't happen overnight. It will take some time before seeing results because of the nature of how affiliate marketing works.
This process requires patience but there's also less risk involved as long as people understand what they're signing up for.
6
Set a monetary goal for each affiliate program.
While it is good to focus on one affiliate program at a time, set a goal on how much you want to earn from them before you start to diversify.
Think of these affiliate programs as your employers. You "work" for them and they pay you commissions in return. However, nobody knows what will happen in the future.
A real-life example is when Airbnb "paused" their affiliate program for almost one and a half years because of the CoronaVirus. Imagine if that is your only source of income! That's like getting laid off effective immediately.
Another example is promoting Amazon full-time. While it is a stable company, their commission structure used to be better in the past, where they pay up to 8% when you reach a certain number of sales.
Over the years, Amazon's commission structures changed. Baby products used to pay more back when I was just starting out, but now, they are down to 4.5% commission.
It's going to change again in the future. If it goes up, good for us Amazon affiliate marketers. But if it goes down again, what happens to people relying solely on Amazon commissions?
So here's a suggestion. Choose up to 3 affiliate programs you are willing to work with. Set a monetary goal for each.
Let's say, my first affiliate program of choice is Jarvis.ai.
That's because, of all the problems my target audience has, being a non-writer is probably the most difficult to solve.
By aligning the affiliate program to Jay's problems, you'll easily "sell" the product you are promoting.
You can reach this goal by providing more help on how to use the tool to make his life easier.
Once you reach the monetary goal you have with your first affiliate program (for example $1,000/month commission), proceed with your second choice.
Again, make sure that the program you are promoting solves the problem of your target audience.
Rinse. Repeat.
It's solely up to you if you want to promote more affiliate programs when you are "done" with your third choice. However, spreading yourself thinly will result in burn out!
It's better to focus on a few affiliate programs that provide your target audience with the most value, and promote them consistently than to spread yourself too thin by promoting unfamiliar products or services.
By doing so, you'll also have an easier time ranking for keywords related to those specific affiliate programs, which will eventually lead to more sales.
7
Know what you're getting into (yes, read the fine print!). How much do they pay their affiliates on average per sale? Check what percentage of sales will you make if you sell one item through them each day.
How many customers would it take to get your $1,000/month from that company alone? How often are commissions paid out? Monthly? Quarterly?
As long as you are willing to do some work, there shouldn't be any problems when looking for new affiliate marketing opportunities!
A lot can change in the future in terms of affiliate programs' commissions - so, never put all your eggs in one basket!
What Are The Benefits Of Joining An Affiliate Program?
As mentioned above, working for an affiliate program doesn't lock you into any long-term commitments or contracts.
You can quit at any time, which is a huge benefit for many people who are looking to make some quick cash on the side (they just grab their affiliate links and share them to social media, email, or personal messages).
It's also not uncommon to have your payouts increased based on performance. For example, with the Jarvis.ai affiliate program, they increase the commissions of the top 10 affiliates from 30% to 40% recurring commission for life!
Also, with affiliate programs, you can promote even competing companies, like eBay and Amazon. You can say, "check the price on eBay or check the price on Amazon." And they wouldn't care. As long as their affiliates are promoting them.
Joining affiliate programs is like choosing which employer to work with, instead of the usual process in normal jobs, where employers are the ones choosing the employees.
The Best Way To Get Started With Your New Affiliate Account
Look for a swipe file or guides on how you can promote them. Good affiliate programs should guide you about the ideal target audience they have, and how best to promote them.
If for any reason they don't have enough helpful guides in their database, the best way is to use the product itself and make your own guides.
Go back to your target audience and clearly define how the product will solve your target audience's problem.
In the example I mentioned above, the whole Content Creation Course I created is dedicated to solving one of my target audience's problems - non-writers' solution to producing written content.
Align the product's magic to solve your target audience's pain points and you're on your way to make some sales.
Common Newbie Mistake
The most common mistake people make when starting out in their new position as an affiliate marketer is not setting up tracking codes.
The first thing someone should do before promoting any product on their website is set up a "tracking" code, otherwise, it will be impossible to see how successful (or unsuccessful) one's campaign has been.
If someone is not sure how to set up tracking codes, they can check the affiliate program's help section.
This is especially helpful if you are sharing any of the program's blog posts/pages and want to make sure that you are credited if that visitor ends up availing the product or services.
Conclusion
It is important to note because it may take some time before anyone will be able to see any traffic on one's newbie website (especially if you are using pure Google SEO), it is crucial to set a long-term goal, and then check progress over time.
Align with a partner that you can trust. This is a must for anyone who wants to be successful with affiliate marketing long-term.
It also helps to try out different types of affiliate programs in order to get a feel for what type you are most comfortable with, as well.
The best way to find out which company suits your needs is by researching the companies and visiting their websites - but make sure to not just read through the information on these sites either!
Clearly define a personal monetary goal, set a timeline, and check progress over time! Monitor them closely, and work hard by yourself or enlisting help if needed.
Affiliate marketing success doesn't happen overnight. It's something that takes patience but will pay off eventually.
