I use affiliate links and may recieve a small commision on purchase. This does not affect your cost. Read more about me
If you write articles or create any form of content, then you can make money online with an affiliate program. It is a passive way of making money. All it will take is for you to do the initial setup, and you can get rewarded for creating content.
Before I continue, it is important I state that affiliate marketing is not a get-rich scheme. It is a career on its own. It requires your input of time, effort, and money to building a sustainable business. With a platform like Wealthy Affiliate to learn and access necessary tools.
Let me guide you through how to make money online with an affiliate program. I will explain the concept of affiliate marketing, site some key marketers that have made money with affiliate marketing, and show you how to successively make money with the marketing model.
Table of Contents
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketingis the form of marketing where you earn a commission for promoting a product. You can promote products via any means, but here, we will be concerned with promoting products by creating content. This content can be in the form of text, course, articles, video, or any form of broadcast.
Let us break it down further.
When you write or talk about a product, and someone makes a purchase due to your engagement. You deserve to earn a commission. Let say you benefited from a health product and you decided to share your experience with a friend. If your friend decides to buy the product after your interaction, you deserve to earn a commission.
It is the exact thing that we do when we write or create videos and refer to products via links. When people buy via these links, then you can make money online with an affiliate program or product.
That said, let us see some examples of folks who are making a sustainable income via affiliate marketing.
Testimonies of People who Make Money Online with an Affiliate Program
1. Ralph’s Testimony
Let us start with ralph’s testimony; I decided to research his journey into affiliate marketing to help you see the true story. Ralph joined the wealthy Affiliate in September 2016 to learn and develop his skills in affiliate marketing.
He made his first $4.5 in Mar 2017 and was able to grow the business to his business to a $100,000 annual income in 2018.
Click here to read Ralph’s financials in 2018
2. Jessica’s Testimony
Jessica is a fellow affiliate marketer from Alaska; she has a deep interest in pets and nutrition. I know of two of her websites; one focused on micronutrients, where she deals with causes and how to handle deficiencies, and the other deals with cat health and behavior.
She reviews supplements for dogs. She joined Wealthy Affiliate in 2016 and has been able to grow her business above a four-digit business. In 2018 she made close to $1,000 from wealthy affiliates, above $300 USD from Amazon.
Although her story as of 2018 is not that of six figures, I feel it is good we know it is a journey of commitment and dedication.
Click here to read Jessica’s Financials in 2018
3. Grace aka LittleMama’s testimony and 4th year Anniversary
What caught my attention is how she has grown her business to over six figures within four years. She started in September 2016 and made little or nothing from her blog. Her honesty in accepting that she did not put in enough effort until 2017 amazed me.
She started writing articles and posting on her blog daily in 2017, and she started seeing green lights in 2018 when she closed the year with more than $40,000 as total income.
I loved her assertion when she admitted that you do not start making significant income in affiliate marketing until you have gained enough trust. The vehicle for driving this trust is content creation. She admits that content is king, irrespective of the kind of content you create. Whether it is video or text content, it is the only way you can drive traffic to your blog.
Click here to read how Little mama made $40,000 with the aid of the WEALTHY Affiliate.
4. Dylanrieger built two websites and sold for $40,000 and $30,000
While we have seen some folks who have built their affiliate business from zero to six-figure business, let us look at someone who does not stop at building affiliate businesses but sells his website – Dylanrieger. Dylanrieger sold two of his website within 2years for $70,000 to the same person.
Let us see a little of Dylanrieger’s story.
He joined Wealthy Affiliate in 2015, bent his head into the training to learn the rudiment of affiliate marketing. His first 2years were no bed of roses.
It was a time of unlocking the secrets with wealthy affiliate training. Between 2016 and 2020, he has created three websites that earned not less than $2,000 monthly. On top of that, he has sold two of his websites. The first sold for $40,000and second for $30,000. Click here to read more from Dylanrieger.
The key to making money Online with an Affiliate Program
I have explained the concept of affiliate marketing and cited some key examples of affiliate marketers who started their business from zero to more than six figures. If you think affiliate marketing is for you and you want to commit to building a successful affiliate marketing business, let us take a look at three essentials to succeed as an affiliate marketer.
- Find a Niche or a Market of interest that is profitable
- Learn to build content and drive traffic to your blog.
- Find products or services to promote
How to Find a Profitable Niche Market
As an affiliate marketer, the first thing is selecting a niche market. A niche market is a specific set of audiences that will be interested in your product. Selecting a particular niche will help you build content in a particular market.
The secret is discovering an underserved market in your point of interest that is profitable. I want you to note three things that can help you select a profitable niche.
- The niche must be in your point of interest
- You must select an underserved market. A market with reduced competition.
- You must be able to ascertain the profitability of your selected niche market.
Build an Audience
For you to make money via affiliate marketing, you need an audience. You need people to buy the product; else, you will not be earning any commission. In case you do not have an audience yet, it does not call for worries. You can always start from scratch.
The first step is determining the kind of medium you intend to use for propagation. Are you going to use a blog, social media, or videos on YouTube or Vimeo? The most important thing to building an audience to make money online with an affiliate program is to create engaging content.
Content is king. You need to learn to create optimized and engaging content. This is one of those things Kyle dealt with in the online entrepreneur course. He demonstrated how to use Jaaxy to select keywords and how to place this keyword within your content in such a way to gain use engagement and also search engine optimization.
Find Products or services to promote
Marketing in any form starts with finding products to sell. As an affiliate marketer, you must find a product to promote. It is your responsibility to ensure that the products you promote are original and genuine. You should promote products you have tested, that way, you can gain and keep your follower’s trust and confidence.
Let us assume you are a dog lover and finds a marketer that writes on dogs. After reading some of his content, you decided to subscribe to his email list. At the onset, his advice was good and helpful in taking care of your dogs, but suddenly you received advice on a supplement or feed additive that probably killed your beloved pet.
I know the next thing will be to unsubscribe from his list.
But if you find products from the marketer’s list that consistently solves your problems, then you are good to go. The most important thing is that you must look for products that are trustworthy and highly reliable.
Find and Join an Affiliate Program
Once you have started creating content and found the kind of products you want to sell, the next is joining an affiliate program. You can join an individual affiliate program or an affiliate network.
Let me explain the difference.
Individual Affiliate program
Many companies have their individual affiliate program where they create affiliate products and reward systems for their products. They may have strict requirements and screening processes, but it is always important you apply to many of them. Later you can filter those once where you will have active participation.
Affiliate networks
There are some companies that are responsible for coordinating affiliate programs for other organizations. They take responsibility for providing publishers for other companies. A good example is the CJ (formerly known as commission junction) and Clickbank.
They are a collection of several affiliate programs, from low pay to high pay affiliate programs. They make it easier for publishers to find and select the program of their choice.
In conclusion, Affiliate marketing is a career on its own. If you want to succeed as an affiliate marketer, you need to pursue it as such. You need a platform where you can learn and network with like minds. Wealthy Affiliate is a tested and trusted platform well-suited for both beginners and professionals.
Top of it is their hosting platform and keyword research tool. They make available a robust hosting platform (SiteRubix) for their members. As a member of the Wealthy Affiliate, you can host ten websites free on their platform. And also, you gain access to a keyword research tool that is précised when it comes to researching keywords and writing content for SEO.
If you are thinking of taking the bull by the horn and you still have questions. Kindly use our comment section, and I will respond to all your questions.