Affiliate Marketing: What Is It, How Does It Work And Why Do I Recommend It For Beginners?

We all surf the internet almost every day probably way too much for different reasons. And you’ve certainly have come across affiliate marketing if your interest has been finding ways to make money online.

Maybe you have been scammed several times in your quest to make money online to replace your job or supplement your income stream. So, that may have made you cynical about affiliate marketing and wondering whether it’s also a scam or you don’t know how it actually works.

If you’re of the former, I understand your scepticism but I can fully assure you that it’s not a scam. It’s one of the best ways I’ve ever come across in making money online since I recovered from my scam experience and other failures.

I’ve been working part-time with this affiliate marketing concept and I’m happy for the multiple income streams I’ve created. Its sustainability has the potential to bring in consistent income monthly working anytime and at any place you want which is more of the reason why I think it’s a good start for beginners.

So, do stay with me as I show you exactly how to do it.

What Is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing from Google dictionary “is a marketing arrangement by which an online retailer pays a commission to an external website for traffic or sales generated from its referrals”. In brief, it’s receiving commissions for helping companies make sales by promoting their products and services.

Studies have predicted that affiliate marketing will be worth $6.8 billion by 2021 looking at the rate the industry is booming. This is because more and more brands or companies are using the affiliate marketing system which presents bigger opportunities for affiliates.

There is a countless number of companies willing to pay people to promote their products and earn commissions. Just to name a few; Amazon, Clickbank, Commission Junction, eBay, Wallmart, ShareASale, MaxBounty and a whole lot more. With the increasing number of companies adopting this system of marketing means it’s evergreen for you to make money.

How Do You Go About It?

Many people who get overwhelmed by this opportunity end up dropping affiliate links on social media thinking that how it works. Most failures have been from that kind of school of thought. You could make something though from this approach if you have a huge social following like a celebrity.

But it doesn’t work for everyone like that.

However, the most sustainable approach is having your own website. That’s what I use to promote products and services to earn commissions from companies.

I get visitors to my site through Google, Yahoo and Bing search which cost me nothing. I mean it’s free traffic which is equivalent to money if they purchase products that I promote from the company.

To give you a clearer picture of the whole system, take the time to go through the below flow diagram.

So, in a nutshell…….

• Have an interest or niche to write content on
• Build a website that you can promote products on
• Get visitors to your site for the information you provide
• Promote products or services which are of value to them
• They make a purchase through your affiliate link and voila, a commission

The greatest feeling in this industry is to make a sale. The excitement is awesome even if it’s small.

Unlimited Affiliate Marketing Opportunities At A Click Away

You’re now aware that the affiliate marketing industry is booming and I think it will forever increase. It’s a win-win situation here because both parties make money.

Come to think of it……the money you make is dependent on the number of sales you help a company to make. If you lead more people to make a purchase from the company, the owner makes more money and your commissions also increase.

Tell me, which business owner doesn’t want high sales? They even motivate you to bring in more sales and therefore, no one loses.

Starting off, you can promote any products you want and make more sales if you know how to do it well and where to get higher commissions. Any product can make you money, for example……..

TV’s, cooking utensils, computers, jewellery, dresses, guitar, books, pens, chairs, food, weight loss product and a whole lot more than you can think of.

Find ideas on which product to actually promote sometimes come from the affiliate program you join. These affiliate programs are mostly free because you’re helping them make more sales. Let me take you through some examples……..

#1. Amazon

The most popular and largest affiliate program you would ever find in the world. You might probably have heard of them or purchased a product from them.

Several affiliate marketers are making huge sums of money consistently every month being an Amazon Associate. You can virtually find any product that comes to mind to promote and earn a commission.

On Amazon, you find their product arranged in categories which makes it easier to find products of high purchasing demand to promote. And bear in mind, this is just one of several affiliate programs on the internet.

#2. ClickBank

ClickBank may not be at shoulder-to-shoulder with Amazon but it’s one of the good examples of affiliate programs. They don’t deal with physical products like the Amazon. The affiliate programs are digital products.

Digital products are by far one of the high commission products to promote. This is because there’s no shipping fee or whatsoever to incur extra charges. Most affiliate marketers make millions of dollars from digital product programs because it fetches more money than physical products.

There are so many products to promote here as you can see on the menu. You could earn as high as %50 – %70 commissions. You take a look at the snapshot.

I can go on and on with other affiliate programs but that’s not the main focus here. This is to give you more insights.

Why Is Affiliate Marketing Good For Beginners?

There are other ways to make money on the internet but why is affiliate marketing a better option for beginners? If you can recall, I’ve shown you the unlimited earning potential and how it’s going to boom in the coming years because more brands are now adopting it.

Not only is affiliate marketing sustainable, but the benefits it brings are enormous and risk-free. I and many other online marketers consider it the best start for beginners for a number of reasons……

#1. Little to no start-up cost

Affiliate marketing is super easy to start and extremely affordable for anyone irrespective of your income or experience. It’s far cheaper than starting a grocery store or a backyard garden. Most of the affiliate programs don’t cost a dime to participate.

And the advancement of technology makes it less complicated with just clicking of buttons here and there. You don’t need to be a tech-savvy to manage a website……all that you need is a domain and hosting which is more affordable in our time than ever.

To be an expert in it, you may want a good training to hold your hands and systematically teach you the nitty-gritty of affiliate marketing. You can actually get started for free and I will show you how and where to educate yourself more.

#2. You don’t have to create your own product or service

Just recall what you’ve learned so far about affiliate marketing, all that you do is promote good and proven products that sell. Provide help to people who are searching for information on the product and direct them to where to get it. That’s all!

Your work is done and commissions are paid to you when sales are made. It’s as simple as that and you don’t need to have your own product. Although most top-level online marketers create a digital product of education and tools to earn more money, you don’t have to worry yourself with that.

You just promote and make commissions.

#3. Work at home or anywhere

You don’t have to confine yourself to an environment or room to do it. You can do it anywhere provided there’s an internet. This takes off many restrictions and time of reporting to work not to talk of being stuck in traffic.

You’re totally free and a boss of your own with working schedules that suits you. Isn’t that amazing?

Several Upsides

There are a lot more upsides which are not only good to all beginner but every affiliate marketer irrespective of the level of experience.

You don’t have to get stuck with any product like other business models. If you’re bored promoting a product, you just drop it and go for others that will benefit. You have nothing to lose too if a merchant of product you’re promoting closes down. You just shift to a different merchant which has the same product.

No one gets to dictate to you the product to promote and you don’t have to handle anything with customers. For example when someone uses your affiliate link to get to Amazon, eBay or Wallmart, your work is done. You don’t have to worry about the delivery of the product. Not at all! That’s not your headache.

Does Affiliate Marketing Really Work?

YES! Affiliate marketing works and several people are making millions of dollars every single year. In fact, we live in the era of affiliate marketing, the art of recommending a good product you use or have used before to a friend or someone else. It’s something we even do everyday unawares…..do you remember recommending a particular phone, laptop, dress, shoe, restaurant, hotel or something to a friend or colleague? 

That’s what affiliate marketing is all about, unlike those instances where you got no remuneration from the company for directing your friend to them, you’re going to be paid commissions doing exactly that. Just to share a few successes of individuals whom affiliate marketing is making them full-time income……they’ve fired their Bosses!

#1. The story of Sarah Titus

From theworkathomewoman.com, the authors interviewed Sarah Titus, a single mom who blogged her way to seven (7) figures. Years ago, Sarah was strangled with a debt of about $30k and barely had a place she could call home. Her quest for financial breakthrough sent her on the road of affiliate marketing which wasn’t a bed of roses but rewards greatly.

Now, Sarah Titus makes 7 figures a year in revenue and teaches others with her over 21 years of experience online. This is what she says, “It’s CAKE to make money online, the REAL issue is not to hustle your butts off to do it.” So making money with affiliate marketing works if you’re willing to learn how to do it and implement.

#2. Jim and Rick of IncomeScool.com

These are two good friends from senior high school who left their careers to do blogging fully, implementing the strategies in affiliate marketing to make millions. Jim after obtaining his legal license gave up practicing law whiles Ricky left his professional job to master affiliate marketing. 

Now, they have over 13 websites of different businesses that are making them millions of dollars. In fact, these two have been of great help to me through their YouTube Channel with their SEO tips. From the successes they’ve chalked, they now share their experience with several others who want to start the affiliate marketing business at IncomeSchool.com.  

#3. Vitaliy, founder of howtomakehonestmoneyonline.com

Vitaliy is the owner of howtomakehonestmoneyonline.com who started off in 2005 to search for ways to make money online. He spent 2-3 years of his life on survey sites, writing ebooks and other methods which led to no success until he met Wealthy Affiliate in 2008. 

That’s when he started his affiliate marketing journey and since then he’s found the right gem to make honest money online. He also makes 7 figures a year. I’m glad to have met him on Wealthy Affiliate training platform to learn from his experience. 

#4. Meet Eddy “with a Y”, owner of workathomenoscams.com

He’s been of great help to me since I started my online journey. He also started off on survey sites, MLM’s, smartphone apps and anything that coughs make-money-online but didn’t find any results. He simply puts, they can’t pay the bills so a better option was needed. 

That was when he also stumbled on Wealthy Affiliate platform where he made the decision to start an affiliate marketing business online. He makes 6 figures and all have been the journey in affiliate marketing. On the Wealthy Affiliate platform, I’ve got the chance to connect with him and learn from his experience. 

I could go on and on, providing you with several success stories of people who took action and never sat on the fence. They unlearned, learned and relearned to have these successes which are a no-brainer for anyone to achieve provided you are willing to work it out.

My over one year of experience in this journey has proved to me that affiliate marketing is the best deal I’ve made working on part-time as a graduate student.

But Know This….It’s Not a Get-Rich-Quick Scheme

You’re thrilled by the potentials of affiliate marketing, right?

It’s indeed awesome, but before you jump on the train of affiliate marketing get the understanding that it’s not a get-rich-quick scheme. If it were that super easy, then everyone would be doing it. That’s the hard truth……

So, if you’re of the “microwave mindset”, then this is not for you. A business that generates passive income is not built overnight. I’m talking of a business that stopping your job over it is possible. It takes consistency and hard work, which is worth the returns when the reward starting flowing in.

The compounding effect of this marketing strategy works so amazingly that a long time effort can pay you consistently in the future. It works so great that you can’t shake off the feeling.

I’ve been in this affiliate marketing business for a while and reviewed several affiliate training scam programs. I’ve also read about others who have been pursued in court by FTC and shut down eventually so you have to be careful how you get started. Of course, you would need a proven training program to guide you unless you want to spend years figuring out yourself.

That’s likely to take you long years of time wastage but I know people would want to fall into the hands of training programs with a proven record which is what I’ll be discussing next.

Recommendation To Start Right!

There are definitely several ways to kick start in affiliate marketing but I’ll share with you two recommendations because that’s what I know works based on my experience.

I didn’t know how to get started sometime back when I wanted to make money online. I fell for several scams and almost gave up in my search until I stumbled on a legitimate training program that works. It was a turning point for me and that program is Wealthy Affiliate.

Recommendation #1: My Favourite And Great Place For Beginners

Wealthy Affiliate is an affiliate training program that teaches you how to make money by promoting products and provides you with the tools to do it. They’ve taught me everything I know today and in my opinion, a great place out there to start off. The program provides you with state-of-the-art tools and all-in-one package including everything you need to start and succeed in your affiliate marketing journey like I’m doing.

The package you get includes but not excluded to;

• Step-by-step, action-packed training with a lot of tutorial videos which is a no-brainer for even a basic school child to follow
• State-Of-The-Art tools to get you started and build your business (one free website + hosting and a lot more)
• A Supportive Community of like-minded people always ready to help you succeed. 24/7 live chat to address your questions that you never get stuck or feel alone.
• And a whole lot more which you’ll get to know by clicking here (NO Credit Card Needed!). 

Why Do I Recommend Wealthy Affiliate?

I’ve directed several beginners with the interest of starting affiliate marketing to Wealthy Affiliate. This is because their program is legitimate, risk-free and I’m living proof that it works considering my own results. You’ll deliver results with the training.

To put the many reasons in 3 points why Wealthy Affiliate is a great place to start, I would say it’s simple, affordable and the support is awesome.

#1. It’s Simply Simple and Newbie Friendly

Starting off as a beginner, a program that takes you by the hand to show you how to build your business is essential to your success. They provide you step by step training and you’re not left in the middle of anywhere to figure out things yourself. It couldn’t get any better than this.

The tasks outlined for you in every lesson makes it simple for beginners to not only understand but implement it to your website. With this, all that you’re to focus on is promoting the products you’re interested to bring in sales.

#2. It’s Affordable and Risk-free

If you’re on the fence to get started because of money, then relax. Wealthy Affiliate provides you with free access to test things out. You might have come across free trials of product for a week or month but what Wealthy Affiliate offers is unheard of.

You can be a free member for the rest of your life and no strings attached. You see…it’s risk-free because they don’t even ask your credit card information. On top of that, you get 2 free websites plus hosting….in addition to a whole lot more that I can’t list off-head.

Their “test our system” offer is what encouraged me to take that bold step. I was sceptical because of being a victim of scams and I’m glad to have done that looking back now. You might want to create your risk-free account to see for yourself.

#3. The Support Is Awesome

One of the things which have made me stick with the training is the amazing support from their tech team and the community. That has been the backbone of my growth and success with the platform.

Their site support which is the tech team cares and understands how it feels for one to be frustrated in business when it comes to technical issues with your website. They’re on the alert, 24/7 to respond to you. It’s not like an automatic bot as some programs use. You have real people responding to your issues and helping you solve them.

To talk of response time, it’s simply amazing. All my queries have taken less than an hour for replies and in the worst case, not more than 24 hours. I couldn’t ask for more. It’s awesome!

I addition to that, Wealthy Affiliate has a live and engaging community of likeminded people always ready to help in times of need. You have people at different levels of experience from all over the world to assist you in a live chat. You also have a private message option where you can personally send messages to the founders, members and me to help you out.

It has given me the opportunity to network, learn from others and generate new business ideas. I can assure you this…you’ll love the community.

<< Create Your RISK-FREE Account Here! >>

NB: Some countries are excluded from membership on Wealthy Affiliate so if you happen to be in that country then your best option is my #2 recommendation (the next one). 

Recommendation #2: Income School’s Project 24

Project 24 is also an affiliate training program designed out of the experience of Jim and Ricky who are generating millions of dollars from over 13 websites they have built. The training is organized to help anyone irrespective of your affiliate marketing experience to build your very own online business from the ground up to an advanced level. 

The name Project 24 is used to connote the possibility of replacing your full-time job with affiliate marketing if you can give them 24 months to teach you. I’ve learned a lot from the founders of this training program and never plans to leave the community that comes with this platform.

Here are the things you’re going to get in short;

• A step-by-step video training with a working timeline to keep you on track within the 24 months to make a full-time income
• A lively, supportive community of individuals who share a common vision with you….replacing your full-time income job where you can always network and ask for help. I’m also there to help you if you decide to join. 
• Podcasts of Jim and Rick sharing with you their scalability experience and how to manage your finances as an affiliate marketer……a topic rarely talked about by most gurus of affiliate marketing

Why Do I Recommend Income School’s Project 24?

Project 24 presents quite a bit different approach from most affiliate training programs but the core information remains the same. Like Wealthy Affiliate, they all teach you purely SEO strategies which is the best way to build a long-lasting online business…..it’s what Google search engine loves.

Although Wealthy Affiliate has more features than Project 24, it’s great because of these reasons: 

#1. Great For Beginners and Advanced Level Affiliate Marketers

The training is systematically structured to take a newbie in affiliate marketing from scratch to a level where you can be independent. The owners do well to ensure that you implement what you’re taught by providing you with a working timeline that keeps you on course. 

If you have an existing website and you’re not bringing money to the table, this training can transition it into a money-making business. There’s actually one podcast where the founders share with you how they increased their monthly earnings from $2,000 to $8,000 with some monetization strategies. 

#2. Entrepreneurial Supports That Makes You Feel At Home

Project 24 also comes with a community of like-minded entrepreneurs which is more like a forum where you get to share your problems for people with experience to help you. To succeed in this business, you need a community like that to not only support you but learn from their experience, draw strength from success stories of some when the going gets tough.

Wealthy Affiliate provides several support channels than Project 24 but the community is also helpful. You’ll find the founders, Jim and Rick on the forum too always answering questions that go unanswered in the thread and so you’re also covered

#3. Has An Unconventional Approach That Delivers Results

Following the training of these founders have opened my eyes to other strategies in scaling up my online business and how to do research for my contents. One thing I’ve come to agree with them is doing your keyword research from the source that’s Google rather than using several keyword research tools. 

This is something that got me glued to Jim and Rick’s training on their YouTube channel which has been of great help to me. They really know their stuff. 

<< Create Your Account At Income School Project 24 Here! >>

My Conclusion on Affiliate Marketing 

If you’re thinking of starting an affiliate business, it’s now or never because it works and delivers results to those who engage in it. Before I started, I wandered on the internet looking for a magic button to push here and there to bring in the money but that never happened. Those shiny objects and get-rich-quick schemes ended me on a lean purse rather than fattening it. 

I closed my doors to these shiny objects over a year ago to start my affiliate marketing business and I’ve never looked back. It hasn’t been an easy journey as a graduate student doing it alongside my research but it’s worth what I’ve learnt in the process and the future prospects (the results are REAL!).

I’m not promising you a magic button that will change your income overnight, but a system which is worth building to replace your full-time income. It requires hard work, consistency and learning which doesn’t break a bone. 

Having a well structured and tested training that delivers results is the best way to start right. 

What Are You To Do Now? Take Action!!

I’ve explained to you my #1 recommended way to create multiple streams of income through affiliate marketing, shown you the proof that it works for others, me as you’re on my site and it will work for you too. You know that with the FREE Starter Account of Wealthy Affiliate there is no way to lose, NO Credit Card Needed, you are 100% protected and safe to start your affiliate marketing business.

Here’s what you and I both know, one year from today you will certainly arrive. The question is where? That is your decision to make right now.

Click on the link below to either start your affiliate marketing business or get more information. 

Wealthy Affiliate (WA)

               

Income School’s Project 24

               

Do you have any questions or clarifications about the above? Drop it in the comment box below if any and I’ll be glad to connect with you.

                             Share it, if you like it! ?

Your friend,

Derrick