There are many ways people get into Affiliate Marketing.

Probably all began with an ad saying “Make money online”, “Know my secret for success”, “Work from home”, etc.

Therefore many people get into AM because they were looking for a way to make a few extra dollars to pay their bills.

The thing is that one way or the other, there is a lot of information about Internet Marketing, Referral Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Joint Ventures and so on.

We at JV Station want to help you understand what Affiliate Marketing is, and how to start with a simple model.

We are going to talk about what the first steps are needed to start in this type of business.

First of all, Wikipedia defines Affiliate Marketing as:

“...A type of performance-based marketing in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought by the affiliate's own marketing efforts.”

Finally, it means you get a reward, normally is a commission, if the client makes an action in the business.

This action can be a purchase, download something, or only by viewing it, all depends on the business model you select.

How does it work?

You have a blog, an email list or a very active social media account.

Then you go to an affiliate network (ClickBank, ShareASale, MunchEye, Amazon Affiliates, etc.) see a product 

that may be appealing to your client's database, copy the link they provide and you paste it on your blog post, social media, email blast, etc.

As a result that link, when clicked, installs a cookie on the buyer's web browser that informs the merchant (retailer, brand) that this potential client comes referred by you.

If the customer makes an action, normally a purchase, you get a previously fixed commission.

Each merchant has their own rules, some may take up to 60 days to pay you the commission, waiting to see if the product purchased is returned, or maybe getting them time to see if it was a legitimate sale and you didn't use any of those tools that try to cheat the system.

Affiliate Marketing Quick Guide

So, either because you want to make an extra dollar or maybe you want to make it your new main source of income, Affiliate Marketing can be the ladder to many other things, when working with this type of business model you gain many skills needed for any other digital or brick and mortar businesses.

This guide will briefly explain a regular path to start on affiliate marketing now.

• Find a niche
• Create your client´s base
• Choose what to “sell”.
• Promote your business
• Start all over again in another niche.

1)  Find a niche

A niche is a group of people, a piece of a market with a common goal, ideal or purchasing taste.

All experts agree on start working with a niche you like.

At the beginning, there are going to be a lot of hours working on your business, so if you don't like it, chances are you quit before any dollar gets into your bank.

Another reason to begin with a niche you like is that there is a big possibility that you already know the niche very well, if you do, it is easier to get empathy with your client’s base.

You need to seek to be the expert in your area, there is always a hole to fill on the internet, there is no age, educational level or gender that will define if your chances are pretty good or pretty bad.

Believe us, there is a market for everything on the Internet, yes, everything!

Tools to know how big is your selected niche for Affiliate Marketing

There are ways to know the numbers behind a business idea. On this section we will present you two options:

Facebook Insights (facebook.com/ads/audience-insights/). With this tool you can easily choose your audience.

Just play with the options: country, the age you think your niche has, gender and preferences.

If you want to see your broad audiences opportunities leave blank all the choices but the field “Interests”.

That way you may see demographics and other related information about any given market.

You can save that search for purchasing ads in the future on Facebook.

Google AdWords (https://adwords.google.com).

They have the Keyword Planner Tool, that helps you see data and amount of searches done monthly on any given word in any place of the world, by Google users.

It has many features; the tool can even recommend other keywords based on yours and those that others use.

2)  Creating your affiliate client’s base

Anyone on the internet business knows that the real business is people's data; databases have been always the key to success in the digital ground.

For the affiliate business you need to have a list of clients, this is where more effort needs to be given.

These are a few ways to get that list of clients:

With your already running blog/website or starting a new one: This option may help you get your customers by:

• Pasting the referral link in your posts. Let’s say your blog post is about dog food, then on the words naming brands that you recommend you can paste the referral link to the correspondent dog food brand.
• Telling your visitors to subscribe to the blog’s newsletter.
• Exchanging visitor’s email for an ebook or any other freebie from the blog.
• Telling them to follow your social accounts. That way you can reconnect with them in the future.

Your base of social media followers is also a database you can use to insert referral links into your posts; this practice is not always the best one.

Experts recommend that instead of pasting affiliate links directly to your social media, is better to write a blog post that has the link inside and then promote that post on your social media channels.

If you or your company own a list of emails you can use them to start your client’s base.

Just make sure you get that list legally, not buying it from anyone, and asking your list if they want to keep receiving your emails, and also giving a link to unsubscribe anytime.

You can use tools like MailChimp to automatize the work and to administer correctly your database.

3)  Choose what to promote

So, you have made your homework, first searched for your market niche and got a closer idea of what your audience is like.

Then you set up a blog, social media channels or email list of your potential clients.

Now is time to select what products or services from an affiliate merchant you may show or recommend to your database.

The best way is to use the services of a recognized affiliate network like Amazon, ShareASale, Muncheye, ClickBank, etc.

You can also check out the JVStation app to search for launches, past, present or future. From there you can access the merchant’s information.

Carefully put yourself in your client’s shoes, think of what offers may be a help for them, always think of what is best for them.

Then you can write a post around that product or see on which of your posts it may fit.

4)  Promote your Affiliate business

Now is the time to put your biggest efforts on getting traffic for your site. You need to use social media, SEO techniques, and to have a good and modern website.

Think now about getting paid traffic so you can drive people to your site and increase the chances of getting leads.

Options are Google AdWords, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram´s Ads.

Remember to choose the place where your audience is, do some research and make decisions fast.

Always is a good choice being active on forums, to give advice on Quora or Reddit, become one with your client.

5)  Start all over again in another niche.

You are finally here; everything is in place and running. Now is time to relax, but never quit working.

Keep track of your links, seek new niches, nurture and grow your client base and keep improving-.

Now you know the process, actions, and tools that are involved in starting an affiliate marketing business.,

Once you know the process, it is like riding a bicycle. Do it again.

Hope you like this post, what are we missing here? Any thoughts about affiliate marketing?

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JVStation Team