There are affiliate links in this article on lucrative affiliate marketing tips for beginners, which means if you make a purchase through these links, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Read the full disclaimer here.
You probably already know there are hundreds of posts with a title just like this one.
“9 Lucrative Affiliate Marketing Tips for Beginners” is just another one of those pages where some guy reckons he’s better than us at doing what we are all trying to do… make money online.
Well this is going to be different…
Here’s how:
I’m not going to pretend I know it all.
In fact, I would imagine a lot of people reading this will know more about the topic than I do.
The further and further you read into this website the more you will realise I only offer “ready to use” tips that I have learnt from my own experience.
So shall we?…
#1 Be More Honest Than a Dude on Truth Serem
Call a sale a sale!
Tell your beautiful readers that you will get a commission if they buy from your link. Obviously, explain that it doesn’t affect the price of what they are buying but be HONEST that it will benefit you.
The same goes if you’ve tried or not tried the product. Explain your reasons why you are writing about it or promoting it.
In my “starry-eyed” former non-Internet-marketing days I used to believe the best way to sell was to slip a sale in without the customer noticing.
Drift back to a time when you ended up spending more money than you planned. You know like when the checkout guy at McDonald’s offers you the large portion without telling you it’s extra money…
In actual fact, this is maybe the worst way to do it!
People are NOT stupid!
After you hand over your money in McDonald’s you realise… “eurgh I fell for it again!”
And do you notice how the distrust makes you feel?
However, can you recall a time when a friend found an awesome deal and told you about it? Or a great film they saw at the cinema? They didn’t sell anything to you they genuinely tried to help. Because when people trust you it’s not selling, it’s just like letting a friend know about an awesome deal.
Are you beginning to see how HONESTY sells?
Affiliate marketing should be a long game about helping people… not trying to make a quick buck.
#2 Create VALUE… for FREE
Do people really want freebies?
…Is a frogs ass watertight?
Wouldn’t it be amazing if someone could solve YOUR problems?
If you create value that someone really wants then people will TRUST you.
How can you create freebies?
- Blog post
- Youtube video
- Podcast
- Infographics
From Visually.
If you really solve someone’s problems you can create a freebie in exchange for their email address such as:
- Cheatsheet
- e-book
- Email course (a great way to start for newbies)
- Something packaged in a different way i.e. blog post come video/ audio
- A “giveaway”
Focus on adding REAL value to people for FREE as much as you possibly can. That way your readers will keep coming back and… you guessed it… TRUST you!
#3 START with a Free Autoresponder
Have you heard that ConvertKit is the best autoresponder? Yeah, so have I from everyone that uses ConvertKit… guess what people who use Aweber recommend? BINGO… Aweber!
I have tried and tested the following autoresponders (there are loads more):
- Mailchimp
- Getresponse
- MailerLite
- ConvertKit
- Aweber
Do you know how many email subscribers I had when I tried these out?… 3 (one was me, and one was Sarah, my wife)
The truth is it doesn’t matter which one you START with… so DON’T throw your money away!!
Use a FREE one:
- MailerLite
- MailChimp
Both of these are completely FREE every month until you get over 1,000 email addresses (MailChimp is now 2,000!) And then it’s easy to export your email addresses to another autoresponder if you outgrow this.
Guess what…
It is hard to get 1,000 email addresses!!
I personally use ConvertKit (this is an affiliate link) as it offers so much more and is far easier to use than the free programs. But until you have a sizeable email list don’t convert (see what I did there!)
These “email marketing gurus” who tell you how easy it is to get email addresses using their FREE 2-page e-book… are lying!
As you absorb this information you’ll notice that adding REAL VALUE wins at affiliate marketing!… 100% of the time.
As you can imagine, getting the first 1,000 is the hardest part and it gets easier after that.
#4 Find Out What People Say About Your Product in Minutes
What if you have found a product you can be an affiliate for, but you’re still not sure if people will like it?
Use mention to literally see what others are saying about it!
Mention is a social media monitoring website that you can use for FREE.
This is what people are saying about Wealthy Affiliate…
Learn the positive honest lifestyle of earning for life.
And this is what people are saying about Banners Broker…
Selling unregistered securities at best, and outright fraud at worst.
A quick 2-minute search on “mention” shows me which product I would be happy being an affiliate of and what product I would steer clear of!
#5 Make Sure Your Links WORK
Do you remember a time at school when you got all excited about a school trip, only to find out it’s been cancelled?
That is the feeling you will give your readers if your link doesn’t work.
Don’t worry though! I have found another SIMPLE way to make sure your links are as good as gold…
Use the check my links extension on Chrome to find any broken links on your website (yes it’s free).
Find out how this works in more detail here.
Are you beginning to notice how these affiliate marketing tips for beginners could help you?
#6 Get More Traffic with a Keyword Research Tool
“Eh hum… what the frick is a Keyword?”
Oh, I’m so glad you asked!
A Keyword is a particular word or a phrase that helps search engines match a particular search to a website…
Complex stuff right?
No, not really! It basically means your title, subtitles and tags on that page form your keyword(s)… Simples!
Of course, you’ve heard that “you shouldn’t even think about SEO until you’ve blogged for 6 months!”
This is baloney!
You may have heard the jargon “sandboxing” before. It simply means Google won’t promote your website until it’s about 6 months old.
Yes, Google only ranks your website higher after 6 months of existence because thousands of websites are being created (and abandoned) every day. They are trying to separate the wheat from the chaff you see!
However, if you can spend time finding less competitive keywords now, you can potentially get loadsa traffic in the future.
And guess what?…
Keyword research tools are a massive TIME SAVER.
Hold on a minute… what is SEO?
Sorry, my bad! This means Search Engine Optimisation… basically, it means making your website easier to find on search engines.
Here’s WHY this is important:
Read “How to Find Keywords for your Website” to learn some of the best tips and tricks for getting your content ranked.
You can do keyword research manually on Google but I use the Jaaxy Keyword Research for free with my membership at Wealthy Affiliate.
#7 Improve Your Rankings for FREE with Moz
Moz shows the domain authority of a website.
What’s the domain authority (DA)?
It’s a search engine ranking score that predicts how well a website will rank on a search engine’s results page.
Simply put…
Imagine someone types in “how to make money online” into Google.
A website with a DA of 97 will be more likely to be on page 1 of the search results than a website with a DA of 13.
So if you type in your Keyword into Google check what the general score is of the competing websites. If this is similar to your websites DA then you should be good to compete for page 1… If you’re way off, I would recommend finding another Keyword to use.
This is a search for make money online…
This is a search for make money online with affiliate marketing…
As you can see the websites DA that you are competing with are much lower when your keyword is more specific.
Notice that there is a website with a DA of 21 in the first screenshot. If you make a GREAT post with specific keywords that people are searching for then it is possible to get your website on page 1 of Google with a lower DA.
#8 Choose Amazing Products to Sell
This is the last but not least for affiliate marketing tips for beginners…
Picture yourself five years from now… You are the best copywriter (person who writes to sell) in the world. You have an amazing website and your audience really trusts you.
Now imagine you try to sell them a dog poo in a paper bag…
The point is… don’t sell s#*!
If you are promoting something, I do believe you should try it out, or at least trust someone that has.
Make sure you are completely happy with the product and you are clear on what value it adds.
However, if you’re writing a review about something that you would not recommend, by all means, be HONEST and state why you’re writing that review!
#9 Pitfalls to Avoid when Starting Affiliate Marketing
When does affiliate marketing fail?
- Bombarding your followers with requests to try the product
- Promote products in irrelevant groups and forums
- Emailing and messaging your audience multiple times a day
- Missing opportunities e.g. holiday seasons to promote Christmas cards
- Not researching the right target audience for the product or service
- Failing to provide all the information needed to buy the product
- Not enough social presence
- Give up too soon
Don’t believe me? Give any of these a try and see how well they go down.
Affiliate Marketing Tips for Beginners Summary
Affiliate marketing is NOT a get rich quick scheme.
It is a business.
You probably already know that there are ways you can fast track your progress in any business.
As this article ends, you have learned that using a training program is a must if you want to save time and learn from people who have a proven track record.
Each and every day that you go without using a training program is going to be time wasted in getting your online business running properly.
Just remember, the key to success is to provide value.
Chuck a comment below about what your favourite tip is or if you have your tips please share them too! Or you can message me directly here.
Keep changing for the better,
Mike
P.S. Click here to learn about how real people have used affiliate marketing to earn over $2,000 a month from home.
thanks for the information
No problem,
Let me know if you have any questions.
good one keep it up
Thanks Varun,
Let me know if there’s anything I can help you with
Hi Mike,
Excellent article. Maybe you can help with my two problems.
1: How do I get people to actually opt into my email list?
I have an opt in form on my website and I’ve written a ‘long copy’ to try and persuade them to see the value of what I’m offering. But people just aren’t taking action.
2: How do I get traffic from Pinterest?
Should I just pin my own stuff or do I need to pin the content of others to my boards? I can’t see the logic in diluting my boards with other peoples’ pins?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Dan
Hi Dan,
Thanks for reading and thanks for your questions!
1. I’ve found making specific opt-in forms related to the content I’m writing about has been very effective i.e. a personal finance statement template on my post about how we save £30,000 and travel or the hypnotic cheatsheet on the hypnotic writing review.
I always ask myself is there some way I can add more value that won’t be as easy to put into a blog post and think of simple freebies that could be added in (a great one is an email course sign up for something)
I will be writing a more in-depth post about this soon (stay tuned!)
2. check out this post
https://maketimeonline.com/the-top-4-secret-pinterest-hacks
Pinterest is basically like Google (it is user to content focused)
It’s much better than other social media for driving traffic to blog posts as they can be found months (or years) after pinning.
Getting onto other people’s group boards basically means their followers can see your pins, so if you’re new and you get onto a board with over 10k followers, they can all see your pins when you pin on this board.
Check out the link above for more info about this!
Please do let me know if I can answer anything else.
Thanks again,
Mike
Wow, this article is so so useful and just what I was looking for. I am very new to affiliate marketing and always look for something that will benefit me and teaches me how to do things. If someone is thinking of starting affiliate marketing, this article is a must for them. Thank you for sharing this amazing post.
Thanks for the kind words Sarah,
Do let me know if you have any questions.
Take care,
Mike
Some great pointers here that I look forward to using 🙂
Very informative post and loving your sense of humour! Thank you!
Thanks so much, Nicole. I hope it was helpful for you!
Please get in touch if you have any questions
Mike
This is really good content. I like the aspect of saying the plain truth when you review a product. I’ve had the problem of not wanting to make reviews due to conflict of interest. Though building lists is not simple, it seems the biggest money is actually in list-building.
Very true about list building.
So many BIG time online marketers say they regret not focusing on their list sooner. I think that says it all
Take care,
Mike
Thanks for that Mike, social media is a tough one for me. I enjoy creating the content but have a hell of a time trying to market it.
Pinterest is something that I’ll have to force myself to learn.
Thanks for your help,
Dan
Yeah I’m starting to see some good results from Pinterest.
This article may help…
https://maketimeonline.com/the-top-4-secret-pinterest-hacks