With the growth of technology and the increasing popularity of IT professions, more and more people are showing interest in online earning. Not surprisingly, many people are starting to consider affiliate marketing as a way to earn income, as anyone can learn this niche. Affiliate marketing comes in different types: cryptocurrency, traffic, betting and others.
In this article, let’s talk about affiliate marketing for a beginner, tell you how to enter the sphere and start earning.
Affiliate marketing is the process of acquiring traffic on one platform and then redirecting it to another in order to resell it. For example, when a user sees an advertisement, clicks on a link to a store’s website and places an order, the affiliate who ran the advertising campaign and brought that customer receives a reward – a fixed amount or a percentage of the purchase. Ideally, this amount should exceed the advertising costs. The difference between the costs and income is the net profit. The essence of affiliate marketing is to buy traffic at a low price and sell it more expensive.
A logical question arises: where to get traffic? The most popular sources include targeted advertising in social networks, Google Ads, Yandex Advertising Network and Direct, SEO promotion, as well as native advertising through posts in communities and channels in Telegram and mobile applications. You can also attract traffic for free through your groups or YouTube channel.
However, not all products and services can be advertised online without restrictions. There are different types of offers (goods or services) to promote, and you can work with different niches. While ordinary goods have almost no restrictions, for example, advertising of dating, gambling, betting and casino, cryptocurrency and adult content faces high risks of blocking. Nevertheless, it is quite possible to master these niches if you carefully study the rules of the platforms you choose to promote.
Where to get an offer?
You can find companies that offer advertising through referral links, which is one of the easiest ways to find them. To get a referral link, you need to choose a company with a referral program, sign up and get the link. Then simply paste it in the process of creating an advertising campaign.
Referral systems can vary in terms of payouts: some offer additional percentages of user spending. Such offers are attractive because you can earn a percentage of all purchases by users who come through your link. This is especially interesting for advertisers looking to create passive income, as you continue to earn revenue even after the ad campaign ends. Many affiliates prefer to look for offers through CPA networks. Usually, such networks offer lists of popular offers that you can start your path in affiliate marketing with.
When choosing an offer in an affiliate program, such points are important:
- Payout model. The most expensive offer is not always the best. It is more difficult to promote it, so it is rewarded higher.
- Analyze which offers are at the top. You can request this information from your personal manager. Often affiliates make a selection of the best offers, the information is available.
- Look at the restrictions on the offerer. There can be restrictions on the type of traffic, age, region or GEO. Carefully read the types of prohibited traffic. If you miss something, you risk losing profit.
- Analyze the statistics.
Three key factors are also worth looking at:
- EPC/eCPC
- CR
- Rate
These parameters will help you estimate the potential revenue from traffic to a particular offer. You should also avoid focusing on one offer: it is better to choose several different ones and analyze them by semantics. Your task is to check the frequency of requests for a particular product or service. If there are not enough requests, it is better to choose an offer with a higher demand.
If you are just starting out in affiliate marketing, we recommend focusing on offers that are at the peak of popularity or starting to gain popularity. You should not think that there are good and bad offers. Any advertising offer can bring good conversions and income if you already have experience in affiliate marketing. At the initial stage, it is better to pay attention to the most popular offers that are oriented to a wide audience. Over time, you will gain experience and will be able to promote any products and services with positive results.
Traffic Sources
After choosing an offer, the next question arises: where to look for traffic? There are two types of sources: paid and free. Let’s start with the free sites.
Free sources
Social networks are one of the most popular sources of traffic, and many advertisers prefer to start there. There are several ways to attract traffic:
- Creating a group or account. This method requires a significant time investment to develop, as well as regular creation of useful content to grow your account or group. It is especially common among business owners offering specific products or services. However, many affiliates find ways to use this approach to their advantage, such as advertising products from China using referral links.
- Comments. You can participate in themed groups and leave comments advertising a product. However, this method has its disadvantages: administrators can delete such comments, and social network moderators can suspect you of spamming and block your account. Although you can create many fake profiles, Internet users prefer to trust real “live” accounts with photos and activity.
- Barter. Large bloggers usually demand monetary remuneration for advertising, but you can find small blogs and negotiate barter advertising. In this case, you will need to offer the blogger a product or service. However, this method has three main problems: a long search for bloggers willing to barter; the need to provide a product or service; and no guarantee that the blogger will provide reliable statistics – there is a risk of spoofing.
Another popular way is personal websites.
You can create a website and regularly publish useful content on a blog. This option is more suitable for those who promote a specific product or service, or work in a specific niche. Websites will only be useful if you have decided on a niche.
To increase traffic, you can analyze semantics. Find key queries in search engines and use them in your content. This will help to raise your site in the rankings and attract more potential customers.
Free methods have some significant disadvantages:
- Promotion time. Promotion takes a lot of time, especially in the highly competitive Internet marketing landscape. You will need quality and interesting content, as well as time to promote successfully.
- Lack of guarantees. The high level of competition means that every advertiser is trying to stand out. To attract viewers’ attention, you need to understand marketing trends and create really high-quality content. Otherwise, it will be difficult for you to break through the competition and start earning.
- Traffic quality. Free traffic doesn’t always guarantee quality.
Paid sources
Ad networks act as intermediaries between affiliates and publishers. If you’re just starting out, we recommend starting your affiliate marketing journey with ad networks. Let’s take a look at the key advantages:
- Getting quality traffic. Many ad networks cooperate only with proven publishers, which guarantees that only real users will see your ads.
- Variety of advertising formats. For beginners, the opportunity to experiment with different formats is a significant plus. You can choose the format that is most convenient for you and start earning on ads that you understand.
- Access to statistics. You can track the results of your campaigns, which allows you to optimize creatives and improve efficiency.
- Additional tools. Some ad networks offer additional resources to improve traffic quality, optimize campaigns, and automate processes.
- Customize targeting. You can customize targeting to specific audiences, which allows you to reach potential customers more accurately.
Tips for newcomers to affiliate marketing
Many beginners can avoid mistakes if they follow certain tips. We share the most effective and necessary ones.
- Do not take out loans, do not borrow money.
You will lose everything, and you will owe money. Especially if you are a beginner. Money is better to allocate from your personal budget, and so that it does not hit the pocket.
- Work in one direction.
At the initial stage, you can test at least all options. But only in order to come to a particular one and start developing in it. It is a bad idea to work with everything at once.
- Test.
Testing is very important, even mandatory. With the help of tests you will be able to understand what gives results, and what is better to remove. There are so many jokes about this topic in the arbitrage field for a reason!
- Study the target audience.
To properly set up an advertising campaign, you must understand the interests of your target audience. To do this, you will have to study it, read different materials and watch cases.
- Constantly evolve.
Constant development is important in affiliate marketing. If you stop and relax, there is a good chance that you will fall down. Learn, read different sources, follow cases and news.
- Observe the law.
If you earn money abroad, you need to confirm the legality of transactions, this procedure is called “currency control”. You collect certificates and send them to the bank – and after a while you will receive the money you earned.
Conclusion
You are a beginner and your task is not to be afraid of mistakes. Try, experiment, and you will definitely find your style of work and vertical that allows you to earn good money in affiliate marketing. You need to get practical experience and it’s not just taking a course or reading a million theories from articles. You need to do your first launch to understand how it works, invest your first budget and track your first metrics. It will be very cool if you are lucky enough to make money right away, but it’s better not to be under any illusions – affiliate marketing is not a button to make money, it’s a 24/7 job that will pay off over time if your efforts are well spent.
We wish you patience, well, and good luck!
