Affiliate Marketing FAQ
This section is for people who are just starting out in Affiliate Marketing and have some questions.
I really Hope you can find your answers here! If not, please don’t hesitate to Contact Us.
General Questions
What is Affiliate Marketing?
A marketing arrangement by which an online retailer pays commission to an external website or person for traffic or sales generated from its referrals
The following image pretty much sums up the whole process:
There are 3 main parties involved in affiliate marketing – merchant/seller, affiliate and customer.
When the transaction takes places the customer gets the product they want, the seller makes a sale and the affiliate earns a commission by recommending a specific product to the customer.
One thing to keep in mind:
Affiliate marketing overlaps with Internet Marketing to a certain degree because affiliates often use different types of marketing skills to promote their affiliate websites/products. Some marketing skills that are related involve Social Media Marketing, Email Marketing, Paid Advertising, Content Marketing, Attraction Marketing, etc.
Why do Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways for you to earn a full-time passive income online.
8 Advantages of Having an Affiliate Marketing Business
- 1Source of Full-time passive income
- 2You can work from anywhere in the world
- 3Turn your passion into your business
- 4Fully flexible working schedule
- 5No prior knowledge required
- 6You don’t need to do selling in person
- 7You don’t need to produce your own products
- 8You don’t need to handle shipping & customer service
What are the downsides to Affiliate Marketing?
The biggest downside to affiliate marketing is the abuse of affiliate links caused by the increase of unethical people entering the industry.
Many of these people have the wrong mindset and are looking to capitalize as quick as possible. Once they learn a bit about affiliate marketing, they simply want to spam their affiliate links to as many people as possible.
However, people who abuse the use of affiliate links usually don’t make it far in this industry, because their tactics don’t work and they eventually quit.
This won’t be an issue for people who learn how to market the right way!
How long before I start making money?
Short answer..It Depends.
Everyone has different results. It all depends on how much time and effort are willing to put into your business.
Some people can start making money within a few weeks but that’s because they spent the time needed and put in the work.
What are the Affiliate Programs available?
There are 3 main types of Affiliate Programs:
Private Affiliate Program, Affiliate Network & Amazon Affiliate Program.
Private: Affiliate Programs are offered directly by the seller of the product. You’ll have to apply through their respective website/platform.
Affiliate Networks: These include platforms like Shareasale, ClickBank, JVZOO, Commission Junction, etc. These are the platforms which allow sellers and affiliates to connect and work together – Sellers to offer affiliate programs and Affiliates to look for affiliate programs/products to sell.
Amazon: Amazon is different from those affiliate networks, although similar in certain way. At its core, it’s an E-commerce platform which also offers affiliate opportunities.
As an affiliate (Amazon uses “associates”), you are able to promote any products available on Amazon. While you apply for separate affiliate programs/products on other affiliate networks.
(NOTE: Different platforms have different rules and conditions for affiliates and sellers. Be sure to familiarize yourself with their respective rules before you sell/promote.)
How much time do I need to invest in my business?
Depends on your schedule.
There’s no exact time you need to invest into your business. A few hours a day or a few hours a week. It’s totally up to you and depends on whether you have other commitments.
The fact is, the more time you spend on your business, the quicker you can see results and the more money you earn.
So, if you want to see better results and earnings, you should invest more time into your business, if possible.
What kind of products or services should I sell?
You can sell ANY products and services as long as they are relevant to your niche and they have an affiliate program.
Products and services can be classified into 2 main categories – Physical & Non-physical.
Physical products are very straightforward.
Non-physical products include tools, software, membership, eBooks, online course, etc.
The most important point is that your products and services be RELEVANT to your target market and they solve people’s problems.
Research has shown that digital products are the most popular products to sell online. Digital products generally refer to those non-physical products – eBooks, courses, etc.
Can I just buy traffic to promote my affiliate links?
No.
Buying traffic in order to monetize it is not as simple as one may think. If you don’t learn the basics, you will end up losing a lot of money.
Also, incase you haven’t notice, ads are getting more expensive.
Instead, create quality content and rank it in search engines. This is a free and long-term strategy to build a passive income.
Although it may take a longer time to see results, the rewards you’ll earn are worth it.
How much money can I make from Affiliate Marketing?
As much as you want!
(Provided that you will put in the necessary time and effort.)
The potential of affiliate marketing is really HUGE. Pat Flynn is a great example. He is one of the industry experts. In his monthly income report, you can see that he is earning at least $100k PER MONTH.
He is definitely the extreme example in this case. But I’ve seen a lot of people earning a Full-time income and living pretty damn good, traveling around the world by building a successful affiliate marketing business from home.
According to ConvertKit’s research, affiliate marketers had an average profit of $138,046 in 2016. While those who are not as experienced but are working hard in this industry had an average profit of $9,497 in 2016.
Listen..the potential is there. Once you’re set all up, your website will be running around the clock all while making you money.
Unlike the traditional paycheck you receive from your job every month, you can really “make money while you sleep”with affiliate marketing.
But you need to put in the necessary efforts for sure!
Should I pay for Online Marketing Training?
Not necessary BUT highly recommended
It’s 2022, almost all the information you need to build a successful online business can be acquired for free around the Internet.
However,
The information is all over the place and take you a lot longer to search and collect it. Plus you have to keep in mind the amount of misinformation as well.
If you are a complete beginner who wants to make money online, it’s best to have proper training. Or risk the likelihood of quitting before you build anything or see any results.
So, it’s still recommended to find expert training and that’s not always free.
Click Here to see the online affiliate training I highly recommend!
Can I promote products I’ve never used before?
Yes, BUT…
You have to be completely honest and state that you are reviewing/selling products from your own research and not from your personal experience in using them.
The key to success online is to be completely transparent and honest!
Although many people argue that you must purchase/use the product or service yourself before you can review and promote it to others, let’s be honest it’s really hard and expensive to own all the products you promote, especially you’re just getting started.
So, you can definitely sell products that you haven’t tried. But you need to research the product and be honest about it.
Another thing you can do is to reach out to people who have used the product before and ask them to write about their experience with the product.
As you become more experienced and have a higher budget, you should aim to own as much products and services as possible before reviewing and promoting them.
Will Affiliate Marketing ever become saturated?
Definitely not.
There’s a growing concern that since there are more and more people doing affiliate marketing online, will affiliate marketing become saturated one day?
This is actually a silly concern.
While it’s true that the number of affiliates are growing rapidly, don’t forget that the number of customers purchasing stuffs online are growing at a much faster pace.
With the advancement in technology, there are more and more people having access to various products. This means there are more and more potential customers every day.
Also, there are more and more markets being invented and discovered, plus the increase in influencer focused marketing only means the continued growth in affiliate marketing.
How will I succeed with so many competitors out there?
You will succeed if you stop worrying about competition and focus on doing the actual work!
This is a real concern, but not one that will help you achieve your goals.
Even if you have a lot of competitors in your niche, you can still make money because no two websites are the same. Different people have different opinions and different things to offer to their target audience.
In affiliate marketing, your job is to understand the needs of your target audience and offer them solutions.
As long as you can choose a good niche/target audience and market good solutions to them, you can make money.
Niche Questions
What is a Niche?
A niche is a specific area of marketing which has its own particular requirements, customers, and products..
Choosing a niche means choosing a group of people whom you want to help and create value for by meeting their wants and needs or by solving their problems.
How do I find a good niche?
You should consider these 4 rules when choosing a niche:
It should be very specific.
It must be profitable.
I’m not an expert in my niche. How do I get people to trust me?
You don’t need to be an absolute expert. You just need to be a relative expert.
In order to make money, you just need to know more than your target audience.
For example:
If you have a dog, you are way more experienced and knowledgeable in raising dogs than those who don’t have a dog, but want one. You don’t need to be a vet or animal expert, but since you have the experience of owning a dog, you can help others that want to own one as well.
And if you want to take your expertise further, you might be more knowledgable in raising a certain breed of dog.
As long as you have more experience and knowledge in a certain field, you are considered a relative expert for those who don’t have the knowledge.
General Website Questions
Subdomain vs Owning your domain?
A Domain name is the URL of your website.
A domain is similar to your home address, whereas your hosting is like your actual home.
Subdomain:
Usually FREE. It’ll generally look something like this:
Domain:
Paid. The cost varies from company to company.
A paid domain will look something like this:YourDomainName.com OR www.YourDomainName.com
The difference?
Subdomains: You Don’t Own
Domain: You Own
Also, subdomains don’t rank as well as regular domains and if they do..it’s usually short-lived. Plus, owning your own domain is so much better for branding purposes.
If you want the most affordable and quality service providers on the market. Below I’ve recommended the 2 providers I personally use for all my websites.
Difference between a Page/Post?
Page: A “Static” article. The article won’t be affected by the time published. Some examples are the About page & Contact Page. It’s best to publish evergreen content as pages.
Post: A regularly published Blog article. They will be displayed in your blogroll. As new blog posts are published, the older ones will be pushed down.
I’m not a tech person..I don’t know how to build websites.
Guess what..you don’t have to be.
WordPress is the most popular Content Management System (CMS) which allows people to manage and edit their websites in a user-friendly interface without them touching any coding.
Also..a little time on YouTube will teach you all you need to know.
Should my Homepage be a Blog or Static Page?
Using a static page on your homepage allows you to clearly tell your visitors upfront what they will expect from your website and whether this website is for them.
Using blogroll as your homepage doesn’t serve the purpose of telling your visitors what your website is about.
They would have to spend some time navigating around before they understand what your website is about.
Your homepage should deliver a clear message to your target audience, preferably with a call-to-action.
All in all, it’s totally up to you. I’ve seen successful affiliate marketers use both variations.
Content Creation Questions
How long should my article be?
I generally aim for 20% more than the average of the top 3 ranked articles for a specific search keyphrase.
A research by Neil Patel proves longer is better though:
This image shows that the average word count for contents rank at first position in search engine is around 2450 words.
Some people assume no one wants to read a longer article.
But the reality is that longer content tends to get more shares, more backlinks and more search engine trust.
Check out this post by Neil Patel on this topic. You’ll get inspired!
Do I need to be an expert content writer?
No.
Being a writer may give you some advantage when comes to writing content for your website, but it’s not guaranteed you’ll rank in the search engines.
In order to see success, you need to write content that is conversion focused! That means value packed and solves the reader’s problem.
There are skills that can be learned to help you write better content that sells. But if you aren’t that confident, you can always hire it out.
Can I post the same article to different places?
No.
This is definitely not acceptable because it will be deemed as duplicated content by search engines. The duplicated ones will be ranked low so it’s a waste of time.
It’s best to come up with your own original content every time!
How often should I post an article?
Depends on your schedule but the norm is one post per week.
How often you should write a post really depends on your time and your schedule. If you can write more, that’s definitely better.
Studies have shown that the norm is one post per week.
If you are posting at least once per week, you’re good.
If you’re not. It’ll just take a longer time for you to see results.
How many keywords should I target?
One keyword or phrase.
Can I copy content from different places?
No.
If Google finds out you’re doing this, which they most likely will, your website will be penalized. This usually comes in the form of not being able to rank well in search engines.
Bonus Tip
If you want to quote things from other websites, you can take screenshots instead of copying the part you want to share on your site.
Affiliate Growth Questions
What is the best source of website traffic?
Organic Search.
Organic search is the traffic from the search engines when your content is ranked well.
It is the best source of website traffic because it is totally free and once your content is ranked well, the traffic is passive and it’ll just keep on coming in.
The research done by Convertkit can prove this.
Research data by ConvertKit
The research shows that organic search is the number one traffic source for professional bloggers/affiliate marketers.
What is the best strategy to grow your audience?
Social Media.
Once again, Convertkit’s research shows that social media is the most popular way to grow audience.
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