Start An Affiliate Marketing Business From Scratch In 6 Simple Steps
I started my affiliate marketing business from scratch because I spent SSSOOOO much money on useless resources that I did not need or use. Eventually I didn’t have any money in my pockets and nothing to show for it. Have you ever done this?
Affiliate marketing is one of the few things you can do that requires little to no money, in order to make money. It is almost like making money appear from out of thin air from nothing. For me personally, I always get super excited when I see a commission because I know it didn’t cost me anything to generate it.
This is what I do every single time that I start an affiliate marketing business from scratch that was brand new. This doesn’t change at all, no matter what niche you are working in, because the concept is always the same.
I believe that every business needs to incorporate affiliate marketing and anyone can do it. Once you get the concept down, the details really doesn’t matter because the details for your business will work itself out.
Choose Your Product
I recently saw someone showing off their affiliate marketing skills on youtube and they were showcasing how they make money selling a “nose-snorter” that helps the customer sleep at night. This was pure genius! I would’ve never found out about that product on my own if it wasn’t for that young lady’s video.
However, I know that she found this great niche because she was most likely doing some deep research in order to find this hot product. She does a lot of things with fitness and traveling,
so that affiliate product is perfect for her target audience!
Just like I teach to my students, you always want to pick a product that is proven to sale for BEST results. This product is definitely proven to sale.
You must be able to take a few minutes from your free time to dig and excavate the winning affiliate products that are waiting to be uncovered. Sure, promote some of the products that the whole affiliate marketing community knows about, but also take the time to find those golden nuggets that seem to be hidden from the average affiliate marketer.
All of that to say, finding a product is your first step. You find a good product that is proven to sale, all of the other things should fall into place when you start an affiliate marketing business from scratch. Let’s move on to the next steps…
Create Autoresponder Email Sequence
Part of starting an affiliate marketing business from scratch, the PROPER WAY is creating something that lasts forever. It’s great to generate some big profits, but it’s even better to create a business that produces passive income for the longevity of it’s lifespan in business.
In order to do this, you have to use something called an autoresponder. The autoresponder is a platform that allows you to collect emails, and send out emails to that database of users. You can schedule out your emails to be sent on specific days, or you can even send them out yourself to specific people.
You want to use this because you want to lighten your workload by automating the process. If you’ve read any of my previous blog posts or watched any of my videos on YouTube, you will know that I am a huge advocate of making more of a loyal customers with the customer base that you have instead of always looking for new customers.
If I can focus on having 100 customers to spend $1000 in a year, that is a 6-figure income. This is far better than trying to sell $1000 product to new customers over and over again.
Here are a number of links (affiliate links) to autoresponders out there that I can recommend for you to use:
Convertkit
Getresponse
ActiveCampaign
Aweber
Actionetics
Warning: If you’re just starting an affiliate marketing business from scratch as a beginner and you’re in the make money online niche, I recommend that you start out with Aweber and then switch over to a more complex autoresponder later. All autoresponders do not necessarily like people in the MMO niche because they can beconsidered as spammers. Aweber does not check the content of your emails in the beginning uses of it’s services. All of the others do.
Content Creation
Gary Vaynerchuk is one of the most known and notorious content creators in our lifetime who is killing it in the online space. He’s known for a reason.
Sure, he’s exciting to listen to and fun to watch. He’s very charismatic, and can articulate his views very well. But that is not what helps keep him at the mind of every other marketer so that he could be quoted as consistently as he does. It is because he is a huge content creator!
Gary V. puts out so much content that you see this guy almost everywhere.
I’m not saying that you have to build up so much content that you are literally everywhere like Gary V, but I am saying that you have to be consistent at putting out valued information that help other people.
You will notice that once you put out this high-valued content, and you set it up so that it can be found on your desired traffic platform (that is the next step below), your results will begin to flow on autopilot.
Choose Traffic Platforms
I love talking about traffic. Lead generation is one of my favorite things to talk about because this is what takes your business to the next level. There’s a saying out there that whoever markets the best, that person will win their market. After seeing that in action, I firmly believe that notion myself.
In this blog though, we’re going to keep things nice and simple. We are going to talk about using paid and free traffic in order to grow your business with affiliate product sales and conversions.
Free Methods
There are a ton of free methods out that you can take advantage of. I don’t know how to only give you one or two sentences as a description for each method if I name them all. I have to be detailed because I love to be thorough in my teaching. So for that reason, I am going to give you 2 of the most profitable free methods that is working well for me.
Youtube
I have recently made Youtube as my main traffic source. Why? Because at the time of writing in this blog post, this is probably the best free source that is out right now on the internet where you can generate tons of sales with affiliate products.
Everyone is not comfortable with getting on the camera in order to make YouTube videos. Don’t worry, because I was not comfortable with getting on the camera for about 2 years. That is why I wasn’t getting consistent results…until I got my first sale! It was on like donkey kong after that.
You can create videos with your face on it, you can create powerpoint presentations, or you can recommend your desktop with a simple voiceover. Either way, you just create a video and then place a relateable affiliate product under that video. In 6 Reasons Why Every Business Needs Affiliate Marketing, I go into details of how easy it is to find affiliate products that convert well by being the solution to someone’s problem.
Blogs
I have a number of blogs and I strongly believe that every business should have one. Like youtube, once you create the content one time, it stays on the platform forever. This means that the content you create is going to be working for you while you’re asleep. In other words, when you’re not working on your business, the business is working for you.
It is a little difficult for me to consistently pump out new articles all of the time since I don’t have a team just yet, but I know that once I put in the hard work by creating an awesome blog article one time, I will not have to do it again. It will do the work for me.
Blog posts are also huge because it provides trust and credibility like no other free traffic source. Those who land on your website have the chance to research who you are. Since you have a ton of content on a subject matter, you will be positioned as an expert.
Paid Methods
As much as I love free methods, I really enjoy messing around with paid methods for traffic. This is what can take you from $1000 per month to $10,000 per month, literally in 30 days or less.
Facebook Ads
Facebook ads it probably the hottest thing going right now when it comes to paid methods for traffic. However, just because something is flashy and everyone uses, it doesn’t mean that it is the best thing to use for your business. Facebook adds on the other hand does seem to work for every business in any market, but you have to market a little differently. This will take a good amount of research but it is worth it.
Solo Ads
If you want to grow your business the fastest way, be able to track your results and get sales almost instantly, solo ads is the best way to go. I consistently buy traffic with solo ads almost every week. I can test out my funnels to see if they work well or not, and I don’t have to break the bank in order to do so because solo ads are relatively affordable.
The downside to solo ads is that I do not recommend for every single business because it may be hard to find solo ads vendors for the specific niche. I would love to go into more detail about solo ads since I use them so often, but instead, I’ve created awesome video tutorials on them. I provided some below. You can either watch them inside this blog, or you open it in youtube so you can watch it on youtube itself.
Create Landing Page
With the way that internet users are going, it is imperative to know how to create and integrate landing pages with your affiliate marketing. Consumers have gotten smarter to online marketers, thus they have become numb to clicking something and being directed to some type of offer. They are looking for something of value in order to be converted into a paying customers. This is what landing pages accomplish.
I have a few landing pages on my website. If you check out my FREE Affiliate Marketing Power Toolkit, you will see a landing page. You have the chance to download it, and it converts well because I am providing value to the customer. In exchange, they have to give me their email address so I can send them the freebie that I am giving away. It is too irresistible for the customer to not take advantage of my offer.
This is a necessary step because not only are they landing on your page, but since you have now collected their email address, they are your customer forever. You can send offer to them whenever you feel like it and you don’t have to worry about losing your customer to a bad offer like a business owner would if they didn’t implement using a landing page. To do this, you need Landing Page software.
-Landing Page Software
-Leadpages
-Clickfunnels
I currently use Clickfunnels and I love it. It took me a long time to try it because it comes with the price tag of $97/month! I’ve never paid for such a tool that costs so much. I’ve always found ways around it. I tried it out at the recommendation of one of my business mentors Bailey Richert, and now that I’ve implemented it in my business, there is no turning back.
If $97/month is a little too steep for you, I completely understand. It’s quite the commitment to make. When I first started out in the internet marketing space, I used a tool called Profitbuilder. I still use it actually, and it is a one time payment of $67.
Profitbuilder is a great landing page software if you want to do some simple funnels and what-not. However, Clickfunnels has way more options for the more complex funnels. If you’re just starting out like I did, Profitbuilder will be great. Make a little money, step you game up, and then use Clickfunnels.
Collect Commissions
Collecting commissions is the most rewarding and best part of affiliate marketing. When you see that your efforts and hard work are repaid to you in in monetary terms, it is one of the most rewarding feelings. It’s like hitting the lottery!
Learning how to start an affiliate marketing business from scratch, may seem like an endless road when you first begin. You’re building a foundation and the results are not coming in fast enough, but with a little consistency, the results will begin to overflow. And when this happens, the commission checks begin raining down.
