Affiliate marketing is simply promoting other people's products or services in exchange for a commission.

It could be a commission for every visitor you send to an advertiser's site or when someone buys a product through your affiliate link.

How do I get affiliate links?

Before you can start affiliate marketing, you must join an affiliate program or an affiliate network.

Ultimately, you will receive an affiliate link from the advertiser, which you then try to promote through countless channels.

What products are there for affiliate marketing?

There are millions of products you can promote as an affiliate, from physical goods to digital services. You can promote anything from Amazon products to the latest iPhone.

Above all, look for relevant products that fit your chosen niche. I will explain to you later how that works exactly.

How do I start with affiliate marketing?

How can you start with affiliate marketing? How do you become a successful affiliate marketer?

Let's look at all the steps.

1 | Choose your industry

First, you need to decide which industry you want to work in. Choose an industry you know. Where your passion lies and what you have a lot to say about.

You can promote anything. Insurance, dog food, weight loss programs, or online courses. It doesn't matter when it works. The best choice is to promote such products that you know well and it's easy for you to write about them. Choose an industry where your passion lies.

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2| Find affiliate programs

The next step is to find affiliate programs for products or services within your chosen industry. You can do this by searching online, or by contacting companies directly and asking if they have an affiliate program. In my experience, almost every company is open to getting 'free' customers from you for a certain commission. Be bold, knock on companies' doors, and find your partners.

3 | Create a foundation

Although you are free to choose and you can promote your affiliate links through numerous channels, I recommend that you create an affiliate website. The easiest way to do this is with a program like Weebly
 

You create a foundation on your website. Yes, it is also possible on social media, but your website remains yours. Ultimately, you want to build something that will provide you with structural income.

4 | Research the buying process

Research what motivates your target group to buy a product or service. What information do they need, what considerations do they make and how can you help them in their purchasing process?

For example, consider topics such as 'The best sandwich makers of 2025', The most beautiful television - Philips vs Samsung', etc.

5 | Create a content strategy

The key to a successful affiliate website is the content. You need to create content that is relevant, interesting, and engaging for your target audience. This content should align with your chosen industry and the customer's purchasing process.

To create a strong content strategy, go through the following steps:

• Keyword research
• Keyword analysis
• Compiling the content strategy

6 | The first cent of yours

Once you have made a content strategy, you can start writing blogs or SEO texts. Try to work from themes. First, write all articles on certain theme A and then continue with theme B. When determining the topics and writing your articles, consider how to choose the affiliate links.

Ultimately, you don't just want to share knowledge and provide your visitors with valuable content, but above all, you have to get them moving to your site and click your affiliate links. Before starting writing, think about how you can best accomplish this issue.

7 | Promote your website

After you've written a few articles, it's time to promote your website. There are a few urgent ways to do it:

• SEO
• Social Media
• Content marketing
• Online advertising etc.
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8 | Create a network

Make sure that once your website gets a few hundred visitors a month, you start building your network. You can do it by starting with email marketing and list building. You give your visitors something for free in exchange for their name and email address information. It can be a free product, e-book, or white paper.

9 | Create your product

Even if you don't have any products right now and don't want to sell products right away, you would be wise to take this step. Why?

Because you have your products online easily.

Whatever industry you've started your affiliate marketing adventure in, there is always an additional revenue model to consider.

Here are some things that will surely be useful:

Write six consecutive blogs on the subject, bundle the content, and

sell the-e-book.

Think if you can sell something else, a supporting product, booklet, manual, videos, or extra tips.

Suppose I have an affiliate website that focuses on selling a breadmaker.

Why wouldn't I immediately sell an e-book for €4.99 with the 39 tastiest sandwich recipes?

It may not feel like the right strategy at the moment, but it will make a difference.

10 | Work with a growth accelerator

If you have an online product in your hands, even if you sell it for only €4.99, you have already taken the first step toward fast growth.

If you don't have an online product, read on. The effect of a growth accelerator will surprise you.

What does a growth accelerator do with your affiliate income? The Growth Accelerator is a small purchase, purely intended to launch free advertising campaigns and grow faster.

So, you start with the basics and provide an environment where you can easily sell digital products.

11 | What Is A Sales Godfather

A sales Godfather is an irrefutable takeover bid made to a target company by an acquirer. A Sales Godfather is a purchase that can't be refused. It is such a good offer or nice product that no one will refuse it.

With a Sales Godfather, you can start your growth accelerator. If you don't have a good Sales Godfather, your growth accelerator will never really get off the ground.

How do you come up with your own Sales Godfather?

Think about a product that is highly valuable to your visitors and is inexpensive. The Sales Godfather is not about making a profit immediately, but about earning just enough.

The smarter and better your Godfather, the faster your affiliate income, and income in general, will grow.

How can your affiliate income grow faster with the SG?

Come up with a product (preferably digital) with a high margin, but a low purchase price. How low this amount should be depends on your industry.

Make sure your SG fits your affiliate products so well that visitors cannot refuse it.

Think of it a bit like the shoe polish at that one good shoe store. You've just scored those cool sneakers and before you know it you're not only paying for your sneakers, but also that one protective spray.

This is what you also want on your website.

I will explain to you why and how this works exactly in the next step.

12 | Advertise Free

For this advertising technique, you need the right foundation and an SG. Do these terms mean nothing to you? Then view the previous tips on this page.

Once you have your SG and foundation ready, the fun can begin.

You start by finding out your conversion rate on the landing page where you sell your SG.

Once you have a clear idea of this percentage, you can start calculating your visitor value.

Calculate your visitor value

Suppose you manage to send 100 visitors per month to your website and have a conversion rate of 1%, how many customers will you get?

1% of 100 = 1.

You know that for every 100 visitors you get 1 customer.

What is the price of your SG now?

Suppose you sell your SG for €9.95. How much is each visitor worth to you?

You earn €9.95 per 100 visitors, so you divide €9.95 by 100 = €0.0995.

In the example above, each visitor is worth just under 10 cents to you.

Suppose you now advertise at 5 cents per click, then you make a profit and advertise for free, as it were.

But it gets better.

What happens if you continuously improve your landing page and you achieve not 1%, but 7% conversion?

Then you can spend more than 7 times as much per visitor. You will then not get 1 customer for every 100 visitors, but 7.

Therefore, make sure that conversion optimization is regularly included in your agenda.

Once you have gotten your conversion rate as high as possible, continue with the next step.

13 | Use funnels

Within online marketing, we know two types of funnels:

Sales Funnel

Marketing Funnel

In the previous steps, you have already laid the right foundation, created a Sales Godfather, and discovered the idea of free advertising and now it is time for you to start with affiliate marketing.

You first promote your SG via a funnel. If someone has purchased your SG, you automatically redirect him to a page with various (affiliate) products.

I explain how you can work with these types of funnels in the video.

14 | Conclusion

Taking care of your affiliate income is tough in the beginning. But if you are willing to take the steps and work for it, you too can earn a nice living from it. In any case, make sure you enjoy it. Choose an industry or topic that you like to talk about and that you work on every day. Stay close to yourself and make sure you enjoy what you do.