Many new affiliates have a hard time to build their businesses and start making money. Many of them give up after a while because they don’t get results.
However, there are two important things that you need to learn in affiliate marketing. If you understand them, you can save a lot of time and frustration.
Also, you can avoid 99% of bad advice on the internet. Poor information can be a part of the problem, but it’s a symptom of a bad attitude towards affiliate marketing.
So, here are the first two things you should know in affiliate marketing.
1. Affiliate marketing is a business.
You may think that you already know that affiliate marketing is a business. Most affiliates tell us that they want passive income or to stop the 9-5. But they treat it as another job.
If you treat affiliate marketing as a business, you would know the following rules:
Businesses take time: I have heard about many schemes that promise overnight earnings in various ways. Of course, they do not deliver the promised results but people keep buying them.
Most affiliate marketers do not believe that they will become rich overnight. But they expect to start earning money in one month or two, and they get too disappointed if it does not work yet.
Do you believe that full-time online marketers and experts have built their businesses in a few months?
All the big names are around for many years. They do a good job and build an audience consistently. If you want to duplicate their success, you need to stay active with a good attitude for years too.
The first thing you should know is patience. If you have patience and keep building for a long time, you can actually reach your goals.
Businesses take hard work: Many affiliates try to earn passive income from day one. Others want to outsource and hire people from day one. There is a third group that just search for tricks and loopholes.
It takes hard work to build a profitable business. I don’t know anyone who has achieved good results without taking action and doing the work.
There are no loopholes and tricks. Also, you cannot hire someone for a task when you don’t know how to give the right instructions.
Passive income is possible and achievable. But it comes last. A new online business will not generate passive income because you need to build it first.
In the beginning, you should forget about passive income, outsourcing, and loopholes, and do the work it takes.
2. You need a website:
When you want to learn how to make money with affiliate marketing, you can find many different ideas.
You can start with paid advertising, social media marketing, YouTube, email marketing, etc. There are many ways to get traffic and promote your links.
But I will be honest with you. If you don’t have a website, you will not get the results you deserve from your work.
A website can give you the three following advantages over your competition:
Build an audience: I know you can build a following on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and other platforms. However, a website should be the center of your work.
It can be a place that people visit only for your content. It adds credibility, builds trust, and you can send traffic from all the other sources to your website.
Then, you can add your links, email forms, and social media buttons. It does not mean that you can’t make money without a website, but it will be more difficult.
Lastly, your website is the only place on the internet that you can control. Social media change their algorithms, ban accounts for no reason, or lose their audience.
Your website will keep attracting visitors no matter what happens on other platforms, and no one can close it without your permission.
Become an authority: Most new affiliates start with an article. Then, they add a second one. After one-two months, they have added 10-20 articles or more.
Usually, the results will not be great in the beginning. But for each article, you need to research and write a few things about your niche.
If you keed doing these simple actions for a while, you will learn most topics in your niche and you will become a good writer.
Also, you will have so much content that search engines cannot ignore you anymore. If you create good and informative content for a long time, people will start to recognize you as an expert.
When you have a website, it’s easier to create quality content than social media and email marketing.
SEO Works: Building a website and doing SEO is not an easy option. But it’s a very profitable one.
Yes, you need to create quality content regularly. However, if you keep working, you will be rewarded.
Traffic from search engines is more targeted than any other free alternative. It’s the best long-term investment you can do for your business.
With the right keywords, you can get visitors that are highly interested in your products. You will have better conversions than any other alternatives. The only exception is email marketing, but you need targeted traffic to build your list too.
The best part is that you can get organic traffic for years, even from one keyword.
You find the keyword, create the article on that topic, and get ranked. You can remain on the first page until someone creates better content.
Conclusion
If you treat affiliate marketing as a business and build a website, you can expect much better results in the long-term.
There are no tricks, overnight successes, secret systems, and tools that do the work for you. The guys who claim the opposite just want to sell a product.
It takes work and patience. Without a long-term plan and mindset, you can’t go far. But if you have patience and do the work, your expectations will start to change.
Affiliate marketing is a very profitable business. Many big companies have created affiliate programs like Amazon, eBay, and Walmart. There are a lot of opportunities for new marketers.
The good news is that you have a choice. You can build a business and an audience or not.
Thanks for reading. You can leave any questions or comments about affiliate marketing below.