How to Start in Affiliate Marketing: an Easy Step-by-Step Guide

With this easy step-by-step guide, we will explain how to get started. You will learn all about affiliate marketing and one of its most popular types, CPA marketing.

• Step 1. Learn the Vocabulary.
• Step 2. Choose your Niche and Generate Relevant Content
• Step 3. Join Affiliate Programs
• Step 4. Select Offers to Promote
• Step 5. Get Traffic
• Step 6. Analyse and Optimize

Step 1. Learn the Vocabulary.

The questions newbies ask most often are, "How does affiliate marketing work?" "What is an affiliate program?" To answer them, let's start with the basic vocabulary.
An Affiliate Program is a marketing practice where affiliates earn commissions for referring customers to advertisers' websites. For example, if blog readers click on the link and buy something, the blog owner gets paid.
CPA Marketing, or Cost Per Action Marketing, is a popular type of Affiliate Marketing where you don't have to make a sale to get paid. As the name suggests, the referred visitor should perform a certain action, such as providing their email address, downloading an app, signing up for a newsletter, etc.
There are four core players:

• The Advertiser (also known as the Retailer, Brand, Vendor) is the business which is selling the products being promoted.
• The Publisher (also known as the Affiliate) is the person who is promoting the products by sharing referral links to merchant pages.
• The Consumer (the Lead) is someone who clicks on the links and performs target actions, such as signing up for a service, getting an app or ordering a product.
• The Affiliate Network (or the CPA Network) is an intermediary that connects the Merchant and the Publisher. It helps online retailers reach a bigger audience by letting online publishers promote their offers.

An Offer is what publishers promote and advertisers sell. It may be an app, a service subscription, a physical product, etc.

Check out how it works:

Step 2. Choose your Niche and Generate Relevant Content

According to Bill Gates, content is king. In the world of digital advertising, if you wish to be successful, you should be able to produce unique and engaging content. And here's the major tip: don't try to write about everything at once. Choose your target audience and niche. Let it be something you are passionate about or something you are an expert in. It would be a good idea to generate content relevant to the most popular CPA niches:

• Weight Loss / Fitness
• Mobile Apps
• Dating
• Finance
• Education / Self-Help
• Loans
• Games
• Gambling

You can browse what offers Networks have in all niches in our Affbank filters panel in the Offers Search

Step 3. Join Affiliate Programs

At this point, you might be asking, how to join an affiliate program? Once you have a great website or blog (or you 're ready to buy traffic) it's time to monetize it! First, you need to find suitable CPA or Affiliate Networks and affiliate programs. The best CPA include:

• PeerFly(friendly for newbies, great support)
• AdCombo (friendly for newbies, great Health&Beauty offers)
• MaxBounty(friendly for newbies)
• CPAlead (wide offers choice)
• Mobidea(friendly for newbies, nice support)

There are many more out there. Before joining a network, try researching its reputation. Is it reliable? Does it pay on time? What is the commission amount? The service Affbank.com has reviews on most CPA and Affiliate networks.

Then, you need to apply for CPA networks and get accepted. At this step, you should prove your value as a Publisher who will be able to generate real leads. Honesty is the best policy here. Always provide true information about yourself and your website. Describe your niche and the traffic sources you'll be using. Don't be afraid to say you are a newbie in cost per action marketing.

Once your application is submitted, the network will get back to you within 24-48 hours to verify the information you have provided. You don't actually have to wait so long. Give them a call yourself if you want to be approved more quickly. Stay confident during the interview. Remember that if you are not a scammer, you have nothing to fear. If you have been rejected by one of the networks, do not despair. Make sure you know the reason why it happened to use this information to your benefit when applying for other networks.

 

Step 4. Select Offers to Promote

Full article about How to choose a product to promote.

Once you become an affiliate, you can choose the offers to promote on your website or blog. Make sure the offers you select are relevant to your niche. For example, if you run a Health and Fitness blog, it's only natural to advertise vitamins and weight loss supplements. Do a bit of research and determine which offers are most popular with your target audience. It is very important that you love products you are going to promote. So you choose niche where you feel comfortable.

You will be assigned an affiliate manager who will help you get started. Do not hesitate to ask them any questions regarding your CPA campaigns!

Full article about How to choose a product to promote.

Step 5. Get Traffic Paid and Free

Traffic? People! Think like people you would like to sell your products. Think like them. What do they need? The secret key - it is that sometimes people buy products they really don 't need. Make them think that they can't live whithout your product! You need to have visitors on your website/blog/channel to sell them the products.
But EVERY traffic source needs to be explored and tested. Some of traffic sources here:

SOCIAL (free, paid)

• You can create Facebook group, Youtube channel, Twitter Page, Instagram profile, Pinterest account and promote Offers there. Check our tips for you ⇒ How to monetize Facebook Traffic
• You can Buy a group on Facebook, channel on Youtube or just advertising on Facebook

SEARCH TRAFFIC (free)

People come from such Search Engines as Google, Bingo, Yahoo etc. to your website. You get free traffic (make sure you learned about SEO optimization ) The best way to get to page one of Google is to start writing right now, you will need a lot of content to show Google you are worth being there.

CONTEXTUAL ADVERTISING (paid)

You can promote products on Google Adwords, BingAds, Yahoo Gemini Check it  ⇒ TIps about working with Google Adwords

BUY TRAFFIC IN NETWORKS(paid)

You can buy quality traffic at Mgid, Adnow, Revcontent (not adult traffic) and PlugRush (adult) and other Networks which will send traffic to the products you promote, choose them here according to reviews.

THEMATIC FORUMS, BLOGS (free)

Find some forums or blogs which suit product you promote and start writing articles about it, where you can post your affiliate link. Once people trust you - they start buying products you recommend! Also while commenting s others article post your affiliate links in the signature!

And more and more traffic source... ⇒ Traffic Types and Traffic Sources

The more people read your blog or visit your website, the more leads you will be able to provide, so treat this step very seriously. This deserves a huge post on its own, but let's summarize the major points:

• Traffic starts with great content. Fill your website or blog with unique, valuable and easy to read information! Don 't copy the text, write about what you love and just be yourself!
• Do keyword analysis. Use the words that increase traffic. Google Adwords will help you with it.
• Always have your target audience in mind. Think like your people.
• Use social media to build a community around your blog or website. But don't copy content for every Social Network. Be different in every place :) Check the schedule of best time for posting on Social Media.
• Write guest posts, comment on other blogs. Share it on Social.
• Optimize your website navigation, interlink your posts.
• Make your content easy to share.

Step 6. Analyse and Optimize

To make the most of cost per action marketing, you should learn how to track your website performance and CPA campaigns. It is crucial to understand what brings you profit, and what doesn't!

You should keep an eye on the following issues:

• The offers that convert best
• The pages that convert best
• The keywords that convert best
• Your best traffic sources
• Types of ads that convert best
• Ad positions that work best

Google Analytics is the best free tool to track your website performance and see which posts attract more traffic. You might also need to get paid software like ThriveTracker or Voluum to be able to track your revenue, sales and conversions.

We hope that these tips have given you an idea of how to be an affiliate marketer. Don't forget to always stay updated on the subject and join our Blog and Webmasters/Marketers community to get advice and share your experience!

We have prepared for you ► Affbank Training which starts from the article "How to become an Online Advertiser?" (Is the Internet Marketing can become a real income for you?)

We will be happy to see your reviews and your wishes for the next articles!

P.S. Please keep always in mind - taking a little action each day moves you forward

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