Without a doubt Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to have a business online and earn a good amount of income. The good thing about it is that its passive income. You can earn money while resting, but before that, you need to work hard! unlike active income. In fact, according to research affiliate marketing will hit $8.2 billion in the US alone.

There is a 10.1% increase in affiliate marketing spend!

What is Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is the process by which an affiliate earns a commission for marketing another person’s or company’s products. The affiliate simply searches for a product they enjoy, then promotes that product, and earns a piece of the profit from each sale they make. The sales are tracked via affiliate links from one website to another. 

In order to start your affiliate program, make sure you always have a blog running and you are always providing good content for your readers. 84% of publishers benefit from affiliate marketing, according to Web Market Support. That means that this is huge potential for affiliates to earn a good amount of income. 



How To Start Affiliate Marketing Business

There are 3 main simple steps that you have to go through;

1. Picking A Product

There are many affiliate products to choose from but you will pick products depending on your niche

2. Create Content About Product

You will be expected to create valuable content through tutorials or reviews about the affiliate products. 

3. Drive Traffic To your Content

This is the crucial part because you have to drive traffic to your content. There are many ways to drive traffic especially by improving SEO (Search Engine Optimization) so that you rank higher on google making it easy for people to find your content online. You can also use Quora which is the best way to promote and market.

Let's look at the different types of products that you can promote so that you understand better.

Affiliate Marketing Models

Affiliate Marketing has two primary business models; cost per sale and cost per action.

1. Cost Per Sale affiliate marketing

From its name, this model is where you make money only if your audience buys something through your affiliate link.

2. Cost Per Action affiliate marketing

Also known as CPA, this model is comparatively easier than the cost per sale model because you don't need to make a sale to make a commission. Your audience just needs to take action like entering their name and email in the affiliate programs. But it's highly competitive. If you are a niche promoter it shouldn't be hard and you should have a site or landing page, run ads, you will convert a lot of visitors into customers as well.

Type of Products/Services To Promote

1. Digital Products


Digital products are intangible assets or pieces of media that can be sold or distributed repeatedly online without the need to replenish inventory. These products come in the form of downloadable or streamable files such as MP3s, PDFs, videos, plug-ins, and templates.
Digital Products that make substantial conversions include;
  • Membership for sites
  • Music & art
  • Licenses to use your digital assets
  • Digital templates or tool
  • Educational products like courses
To get the digital products you will need to visit some of the best networks and platforms and open accounts then start promoting them;
  • Awin
  • CJ Affiliate
  • Rakuten
  • Click Bank
  • ShareASale
2. Physical Products

Here's how you select a physical product for affiliate marketing:
  • Go to eCommerce giants like Amazon, eBay, or Alibaba
  • Search the product category
  • See the positive reviews
  • Select a solid product
3. Online Courses

Services may be based on software as a service (SAAS) or soft skills. You can promote a Saas product like  Canva or Semrush.

Sharing Links In Your Content

1. Blog Post

Blogs are an easier way to share affiliate links because you are writing articles. You just insert them in the blogs. You can also share banners that have affiliate links in your blog.
2. Youtube
Youtube is a good way to share content through video tutorials because people prefer watching videos to reading. So you get to share affiliate links below the videos that will direct people to affiliate programs.

3. Online Courses

Online courses are easy to create and you can actually create free courses and post them online. Free courses get thousands of students, so this would be a perfect opportunity for you to share your affiliate links.

Key Points To Take

  • Content is Key
  • Do not share your affiliate links with your followers directly.
  • Provide Valuable Content- Content can be a blog post, Youtube videos, Online Courses
  • After your content has been published and you have a followers base, you can start promoting your content on social media.

That’s it! I hope everything was simple and clear.

If you have any questions, Feel free to comment below.