Welcome to the Wealthy University blog post series!

In the first part of this series, we’ll introduce you to the world of online affiliate marketing and how you can become a successful affiliate marketer. We’ll cover the basics of how affiliate marketing works, how you can get started, and the different types of affiliate marketing you can do.

The Basics Of Affiliate Marketing

Before you can become an affiliate marketer, you’ll need to understand a few key points regarding this form of marketing.

To begin with, all affiliate marketing is based on a ‘‘trustworthy relationship’’ between the merchant (company) and the buyer (individual or business). As the name would suggest, the merchant will usually pay the affiliate (your company) a commission when a sale is made via the affiliate link you provide (typically within an article or blog post).

In other words, if someone clicks on a link and makes a purchase after reading your blog post, you’ll earn a commission. Sometimes this can be a bit complicated, so let’s look at a real life example.

Say you are a car dealer and you want to promote a car manufacturer’s products via text ads or banner ads on your blogs and websites. You’ve established a relationship with the car manufacturer and they’ve given you an affiliate ID to use within your content. Now whenever you write about a vehicle and include an affiliate link, you’ll earn a commission when a purchase is made via that link.

There are also different types of affiliate marketing, such as performance-based affiliate marketing and affiliate marketing with retention. Let’s take a quick look at each one.

Traditional Affiliate Marketing

The most traditional type of affiliate marketing is Pay Per Click or PPC. In this type of affiliate marketing, you’ll earn a commission when an internet user clicks on a sponsored link or ad that appears in a search engine listing.

Often, these ads are placed on popular websites so that they can attract as many clicks as possible. Sometimes, you’ll find ads on social media sites as well (such as Twitter).

You determine how much you’re going to earn based on how many clicks a certain ad or link receives. You don’t need to run ads to generate sales, but you do need to promote relevant content to receive good results.

Retention-Based Affiliate Marketing

This is an evolving type of affiliate marketing where you’ll earn a commission when a user takes a specific action (such as making a purchase) after reading your content. For example, if you are a fitness instructor and you write about weight loss, you might want to consider promoting a weight loss product or service that you believe in. If someone clicks on a weight loss product and makes a purchase after reading your blog post, you’ll earn a commission.

This kind of affiliate marketing can be tricky because you’ll need to find a product that is within your expertise to promote. You’ll also need to pick an affiliate network that is reputable and offers a lot of products to choose from. Building a list of products you’ll want to promote is also a good idea so that you don’t get stuck with just one product. Lastly, make sure that the product you choose is within your target audience’s reach.

Performance-Based Affiliate Marketing

With this type of affiliate marketing, you’re paid based on the results of a specific action (e.g., purchase, click, or review). For example, if you’re an online photographer and you write about wedding photography, you might want to consider promoting a photography service to entice potential customers to click on your affiliate link.

Often, these types of products are B2C (business to consumer) brands that want to grow their audience. With performance-based affiliate marketing, you’ll need to pick a product that is already proven to be successful and choose a reputable affiliate network.

Choosing The Right Niche

When you’re choosing a niche for your blog, make sure that there’s enough audience interested in your topic. In other words, do your research and learn as much as you can about your chosen topic. Once you know enough, you can start building content around that topic. This will also help you find the right affiliate products to promote.

When choosing affiliate products to promote, you’ll need to consider whether your audience is more interested in the product or service you’re promoting. For example, if you’re an affiliate marketer for shoes and you promote a specific brand of shoe, you’ll need to consider whether your audience is more interested in women’s or men’s shoes. In this case, you could potentially promote both, but you may want to choose one over the other. This will depend on your blog’s niche.

How To Get Started

There are a variety of ways to get started as an affiliate marketer, from hiring a virtual assistant to handle all the heavy lifting to simply setting up a few blogs to test the waters.

If you’re looking for a simple way to get started, you can always opt for affiliate marketing for sports teams where you’ll promote a range of products (e.g., jerseys, shoes, and hats) related to your favorite sports team. There’s also product reviews (aka ‘‘crunching’’) where you’ll investigate a particular product and then write a review explaining how it works and why you believe it to be useful or needed. This can be a powerful tool to promote a product since it gives the reader a clear idea of what the product is and why they might need it. In the case of the Golden State Warriors, for example, you could potentially write a blog post about the best jerseys for men or women (or both) and then include an affiliate link for a specific product (e.g., a youth Warrior jersey).

You’ll want to develop content for a variety of platforms (i.e., websites and mobile apps) so that you can reach the largest audience possible. This entails making regular blog posts for your own websites and maintaining a social media account (with a following) for your personal profile. Make sure to use your platform of choice (i.e., Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram) to promote your content and connect with potential customers and other industry individuals.

Different Types Of Affiliate Marketing

Depending on your expertise, you can also try your hand at other types of affiliate marketing. For example, if you’re a writer specializing in lifestyle or fashion, you could potentially promote a range of products (e.g., apparel, accessories, and home products) related to your chosen topic. Or, if you’re specialized in cooking, you could promote a range of products (e.g., kitchen appliances, spices, and baking ingredients) related to your hobbies. Developing expertise in this area can translate to more success as an affiliate marketer.