Affiliate Marketing has been time tested and proven to be a viable method of creating passive income.  Most online marketers engage in Affiliate marketing for these reasons:

• Low cost of entry (usually free)
• You don’t have to create your own product
• No shipping or warehousing needed
• As a third party you don’t have direct contact with customers. 
• Unlimited income potential
• Runs 24/7 for you.
• No commuting or traveling required. Work from home.

The biggest hurdle to affiliate marketing is generating and driving consistent traffic.

Drive Traffic

The best way to promote affiliate programs is through niche content blogging through your own website. From there you can then employ paid social media ads.

To make money with affiliate marketing you have to drive a constant flow of traffic to your affiliate links. This is the biggest hurdle to overcome and the key to your success in any affiliate marketing program. 

The trick to driving traffic is to publish your affiliate link in as many social media sites as possible by incorporating the link inside something of value (i.e. blog, article, video, webinar) and using paying ads.

Some popular websites you can publish to include:

• Blogger
• EzineArticles
• Squidoo
• HubPages
• WetPaint
• Twitter
• WikiHow
• Associated Content
• Knol
• Quora
• Steps To Success

Set up your website. This doesn’t have to be complicated. However, there’s a right way and a wrong way to doing this. Initially, I tried using Wix.com but I really didn’t know what I was doing. I did manage to set up a site but I quickly realized that having a site wasn’t enough.

There was the whole issue of SEO set up that I didn’t know much about. Then I started researching affiliate marketing sites and realized many of them were on WordPress.

Again, I had no clue how to set up a WP site. Discovering WealthyAffiliate solved it for me because it was totally FREE and all the backend SEO pack included:

• Advanced support for e-commerce
• Video SEO Module
• SEO for Categories, Tags and Custom Taxonomies
• Access to Video Screencasts
• Access to Premium Support Forums
• Access to the Knowledge Center

I didn’t have to worry about any of that stuff. In fact, within a week, my site was indexed by Google. Basically, that means that Google knows you now exist. 

Today, I have two WP sites built through WealthyAffiliate. Oh yeah, they’ve been around for over ten years and provide in-depth training on how to start and build out your affiliate website from beginners to advanced. It’s all there. 

4 Steps To Success

1. Choose your affiliate product. Since I was new, I started with WA affiliate product because it’s reoccurring (like a monthly subscription) which means you get paid monthly too. Also because I absolutely fell in love with their program and have been using it nearly two years now and have heard so many other members succeed. When you’re ready to expand your list of affiliate products, consider joining sites like ClickBank or Commission Junction. 
2. Create and publish valuable content that others within your niche will want to read. This could also include product reviews. Put your affiliate link within the content where it makes sense to do so. Don’t bombard your readers. No more than two affiliate links per blog is what I follow.
3. Utilize social media. Aside from the most popular options (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram) also consider using Pinterest, Orkut, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit to drive more traffic.
4. Set up a sales funnel. You’ll need to set up a sales funnel which will help you collect and maintain a customer list. This list is invaluable as you can then nurture each one and keep them coming back to your website, thus increasing sales. The more you grow your funnel, the bigger your sales. Personally, I use GetResponse for this. It starts with my opt-in-form and then sends subscribers to a drip campaign, giving them news, tips, and strategies for online success. I also alert them to new blog content as I publish them using push-notification plugins. 

Wrapping It All Up

By now, you’ve probably realized there is no real secret to success in affiliate marketing. Just proven steps you must employ to achieve the same success that thousands of others have attained. 

The biggest factor, and what often trips people up is their level of PATIENCE. This is not an overnight thing, nor is it something you do once in a while. If you’re serious about building an online business and passive income, you have to pay your dues. It’s a business, not a hobby. That is, put in all the hours, learn as you go, understand it’s a process we all must go through. 

Remember, the key to a successful affiliate marketing online business is TRAFFIC. The more traffic you can drive to your affiliate links, the more sales you’ll generate.

Leave A Comment

Hey! Don’t be a stranger. Ask a question or share your own experiences with affiliate marketing. Let me know what you think about the information I’ve provided here.