There are some affiliate marketing tips that beginners tend to ignore. I would not say that they are secrets because many people mention them, but many beginners don’t use them.
If you use these affiliate marketing tips, you will definitely start making some progress over-time. There are no shortcuts or anything that will allow you to avoid doing the work. They will help you to become more effective with your efforts.
Below, you can read nine great tips that you can start using today:
1. Build A Website If You Don’t Already Have One
I apply all these affiliate marketing tips in my daily life. So, let’s start with the most obvious option.
You are on my website and read my content. I really appreciate that. However, it’s time to build your own website if you don’t already have one. If someone tells you that you don’t need a website, then he probably wants to sell something.
The truth is that every successful internet marketer that I know has a website. It does not mean that they don’t use other traffic and income sources that does not require a website.
There are affiliate marketers that focus on Instagram or YouTube. However, most of them have a website to convert that traffic into money. You can find big names that have built their reputation offline to do the same thing. They build a website and publish content regularly.
It may sound like a complicated thing to do, but it does not take over a few minutes to build your first site. A website will be the center of marketing efforts. If you have an Instagram account, you can add a link to your website. If you want to build a sales funnel, you will add it to your website.
You can decide on your strategy over time. It’s up to you to focus on social media marketing, paid traffic, or just grow your website by adding content.
Lastly, there are many ways to make money from a website. Most options than any other platform. If you use social media, it’s difficult to use affiliate links directly and have to deal with the rules of each platform. Also, most advertising programs are created to work with websites. If you don’t have a website, you lose traffic and revenue opportunities.
2. Choose Your Niche Wisely
If someone earns money in a specific niche, you can get into that niche and earn money as well if you follow a similar strategy. There is no doubt about that.
However, beginners have a hard time getting any traffic in highly competitive niches. Niches with too much competition are all the marketing niches, fitness and health, and dating niches. People want to make money, have a nice body, and good relationships. So, most people see these niches as opportunities and get into them.
Most beginner affiliates get excited from the successes of other experts and try to copy them. So, most new affiliates get into the marketing niche or the make money online niche that has created the most experts and superstar marketers. I am guilty of this mistake too. When I got started online, I wanted other people’s successes and started promoting online programs that help beginners to make money.
Of course, every niche can work, and there are sub-niches enough for everyone. However, it takes more time and effort to get results when you have a lot of competition. If you find a low-competition niche about a hobby or an interest, you can start earning money much faster with the same amount of effort. I don’t promise that something will work or not. Many factors will determine a good niche for you.
I would suggest the marketing niches only for people who already know what it takes to succeed. In this case, they are aware of the competition and can choose if they want to go for it.
If you have already started with a specific niche and have put some effort, it better to stick to it. You can find opportunities everywhere, and it’s important to focus on something.
3. Learn How To Make Keyword Research and Find Content Ideas
Whether you like SEO or not, keywords are important to get traffic from search engines. Most pieces of content and every online ad should focus on specific keywords. Not targeting keywords at all means that you leave money on the table.
My suggestion is to use a keyword tool that has exact metrics about the amount of traffic and the competition of each keyword. I use Jaaxy, which is the keyword tool of Wealthy Affiliate. It also gives multiple suggestions for each keyword that you search for.
Free keyword tools don’t include metrics and data that will help you to make better decisions. However, for two good free keyword tools, you can check Keyword.io and google autocomplete. Every time that you type something on Google, you can see relevant suggestions that you can use as keywords.
For other content ideas, you can use popular topics in your niche, even if you don’t need data for them. If something works and get attention, you can’t lose by targeting the specific topic. On the other hand, creating content without targeting a keyword at all, it is content that you create for you and not for your audience. The only exception is when you can write about something helpful but can’t find a keyword for that. In this case, you can write it anyway.
4. Optimize Your Content For Search Engines
If you have selected some keywords and created content for them, you need to optimize for search engines. It’s a step that you can take even if you don’t publish content on your own website.
Some basic SEO can apply on YouTube, Quora, Reddit, LinkedIn, and other online websites that allow you to create content. Optimize your content means that you use the keyword in your posts.
There are some specific placements that improve your rankings, and it is easy to use them. First, an article starts with a title. The title must be more than a keyword because it must look appealing to other people, but you must include the keyword.
Next, you must use it on the main body of the content. It’s important to include the keyword in the first 50-100 words and in some subheadings of the article. However, adding keywords in the content must not harm the readability of the content. It must look natural to the reader first and then do your best for the search engines.
Lastly, you can include the keyword on the permalink, meta title, and meta description. There is no reason to let these placements without a keyword because they don’t affect the actual content.
If you don’t follow any SEO rules in existing articles, you can update them and follow these instructions. They will not make miracles to your rankings, but you can expect improvements once search engines crawl the updated pages.
5. You Need Support
This is a mindset tip, but it’s an important one. It’s not easy to be productive if nobody supports you. When people start a new business, whether it is affiliate marketing or something else, their environment tries to stop them. Don’t get surprised if your friends and family don’t agree with your business ideas.
You need people to support you if you don’t want doubts and worries to popup in your mind. There are social media groups, online communities, and forums where you can find like-minded people and discuss your ideas.
You can also meet more experienced people on the internet that already have done what you want to achieve. These guys may help you if they like you.
When it comes to affiliate marketing, a community can keep you accountable if you allow them to do that, help you when you have problems, and keep you updated with the latest trends. People tend to discuss the important things in their businesses. There are many online communities to choose from. I am a member of Wealthy Affiliate and an active member of that community.
6. Promote Great Products
Your results as an affiliate marketer depend on the quality of your content and the products you promote. If you want to go one step further, the way you promote your products matters as well.
If we assume that you get some traffic, then you have many options to earn money. There are unlimited affiliate programs that you can join, grab your affiliate links, and recommend them to your visitors. When you promote low-quality products, your conversions will be low. People don’t want to spend money on average things unless.
My suggestion here is to find the best products in your niche and then promote them when they are relevant to your content. These products will help your target audience, and you will make money. It’s a win-win situation when all the parts are happy.
When you promote a product, you should keep it real. Some affiliate marketers and gurus exaggerate the quality of the products to make more sales. If you do that, you actually mislead other people. It can work in the short-term, but your audience will start complaining and will never buy your suggestions again.
If your target audience trusts you whether they are readers on a website or subscribers of an email list, they will buy the products you promote over and over again. This is the kind of relationship that you want to build with your target audience.
7. Be Consistent With Your Efforts
When you learn about a strategy, go out there and apply it. If you don’t take action consistently, your marketing efforts will not grow enough to give results.
I know that many fake gurus promise an easy way to do things or a shortcut. But the truth is that every real strategy takes some work and time. The only way to keep doing the right things for a long time is to decide to be consistent.
If you start today and your 9 to 5 job is the only source of your income, you shouldn’t quit your job yet. It’s a long-term process. It took me six months to make my first sale and this is common for new affiliates.
8. Learn Your Target Audience
Many people suggest doing what you love in marketing and business. When this tip comes from the right people, they suggest following your passion or build a business about your hobbies because you already know your target audience. If you love playing golf, you can understand the problems and the habits of a golfer without research or reading about it.
However, there is a negative when you follow your passion. If your passion turns into a business that takes work and discipline, you may don’t like it anymore. It’s just a warning.
The good news is that you can learn any target audience by doing your research and communicating with people in your niche. I mentioned earlier that there are many online communities. If you participate in a forum, soon you will learn most of the problems in your niche and the products that solve these problems.
Also, there are some questions that you can use to find the ideal buyer for the products you promote:
- What are the demographics of your target audience (age, gender, location, income, family status, education, etc.)
- What are the pain points of your target audience?
- How can you help them to solve these problems?
- What are their challenges and frustrations?
- Where can you find them on the internet?
- What are their hobbies?
Of course, you can create your own questions based on your niche. If you want to focus on one thing, you should focus on how you can help them. Once you know how to help them, you can be sure that you know your audience.
9. Help People
Affiliate marketers must help people to solve problems and find what they are looking for on the internet. If you help people through your content and suggestions, you don’t have to worry about getting traffic and earning money. It will happen as a natural result of this process.
Many of the tips above are important as building a website, SEO, keyword research, and getting support. In my opinion, affiliate marketers must not neglect any of these tips. However, if you don’t help people with your content, you will have a harder time to apply all the above effectively.
It is ok if you don’t know how to help others yet. You can consider it while you create content or choose a product to promote. There are parts of the business that are irrelevant to helping, but your content and promotions must be for them. The more you give, the more you get.
Conclusion
Hopefully, you will apply some of these affiliate marketing tips. Building a website is a priority for me and a great way to start a long-term business. For the next step, you can read about Wealthy Affiliate that is a top affiliate program that includes hosting for websites and a premium keyword tool.