Here’s a 7-step guide to help entrepreneurs understand how to grow a passive income business online through affiliate marketing. It is one of the FASTEST ways to earn HUGE commissions 24/7.
Now keep in mind, this guide and affiliate marketing are not get-rich-quick schemes. This takes dedication, consistency and hard work. What follows are the basics to point you in the right direction.
This guide contains affiliate links from which I earn a commission if you decide to click through, take action, & sign up.
Let’s start with…
What is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is promoting other companies’ products and earning a commission when someone buys that product or service through an affiliate link.
So why affiliate marketing?
- You don’t have to create a product or service
- You have zero to low start-up cost
- You can make money even as a beginner
- You can start promoting and learn quickly
- You can choose almost any market or niche
- You can develop and scale your passive income into a viable business
The list above are the top reasons why people start affiliate marketing businesses.
STEP 1: CHOOSE YOUR NICHE
Niche… Basically you pick a topic you can focus on in a specific category.
For example, the topic “DIETS” is too broad. You want to “niche down” and choose something more specific like “KETO DIET”. This will allow you to target a specific customer that’s interested in this specific type of diet. Being SPECIFIC increases your chances at a sale, allows you to provide more product offerings in that niche, AND increases your chances for overall success.
2 Tips for Success with a Niche:
- Pick a PROFITABLE niche that you ENJOY.
- Stay CONSISTENT with your efforts… PERIOD.
HERE’S THE BIGGEST MISTAKE PEOPLE MAKE:
Many affiliate marketers fail due to lack of consistency. Don’t use a niche just for the sake of making money! Make sure you’re passionate about the topic so you’ll create great content regularly to drive traffic and get paid. If you’re not passionate about it, you won’t put in the work. This is true with anything in life.
When you find a product or service that you love, has high demand, high commissions, and a good reputation, you’re setting yourself up for SUCCESS and FINANCIAL FREEDOM.
For my #1 recommended affiliate marketing training, go here.
STEP 2: PICK A PRODUCT OR PROGRAM TO PROMOTE
There are three types of affiliate programs to choose from:
- High paying, low-volume affiliate programs. These are affiliate programs for niche products with high payouts. Clickfunnels is a good example of this type of affiliate program. They pay up to a 40% commission to all their affiliate referrals and 5% on all sales made through the affiliates you refer.
- Low-paying high-volume affiliate programs. These are affiliate programs that pay lower commission rates for products that have high sales volume. Amazon’s affiliate program falls into this category. You can make up to 10% on products from Amazon, but you need to generate high volume to make good money.
- High paying, high-volume affiliate programs. These are programs that sell products with massive consumer interest and pay high commissions. An example here would be a credit card affiliate program. People view credit cards as a necessity, and most keep their credit cards for years, even decades.
Whatever you do, make sure your decision on which affiliate program you choose is based on your passion for the niche and your level of expertise.
And if you need additional training with the product or service you’re promoting, GET IT! Your customers and sales will thank you for it!
STEP 3: SET UP YOUR SALES FUNNEL
Once you’ve picked your product, you will need to set up a system that guides your potential customers along a shopping journey that leads them from just thinking about purchasing to ultimately buying your product or service. This means SALES, and sales means MONEY! This is where you’re going to NEED a sales funnel.
So what exactly is a sales funnel? A sales funnel is a step-by-step process that allows you to bring your potential customer one step closer to your offer and make a BUY decision through a series of marketing actions like automated emails, videos, articles and landing pages that will DO the selling for you.
With a well-made sales funnel, you can continue to generate new leads and sales on autopilot while you focus on growing your business, providing great service, or upgrading your products. It’s your silent salesperson… if there ever was such a thing!
The best way to convert traffic into money is to CREATE a sales funnel with a landing page that has an IRRESISTIBLE call to action (CTA). This CTA helps you capture valuable customer information that BUILDS your email list and TAKES your customers on a step-by-step process through their shopping journey. And an email list is the lifeline of your business. More on that in a moment. But first…
CLICKFUNNELS is the best software for building out sales funnels and landing pages. Click here to sign up for your free 14-day trial.
STEP 4: BUILD RELATIONSHIPS WITH YOUR EMAIL LIST
This is the BIGGEST SECRET to MASSIVE SUCCESS in any business.
If you’ve done any type of marketing in the past, I’m sure you’ve heard: “The money is in the list.”
Your email list IS your biggest asset. It is your Holy Grail of business tools. It helps you increase sales, helps people see your value, and builds a stronger business you can be proud of. You’ll need to get an email autoresponder to help with this step, for sure. I recommend GetResponse, and you can sign up here.
When you use autoresponders, a lot of your email marketing gets automated. When you set things up correctly, subscribers receive key messages from your business without you having to manually send these messages out. So the main benefit of autoresponders is clear: They save you time (a ton of it), and time is money!
Most affiliate products have a series of emails already created for you to copy and paste into your autoresponder. You’ll want to start with those when promoting, and then you’ll definitely want to add your own messaging to those sequences and continue building those relationships beyond that. Create emails that are educational, entertaining or inspirational or a combination of the three. Keep your subscribers hooked!
Make sure you’re not spamming! That’s not the point. You want to consistently remind your subscribers that you’re a valuable resource to help them solve their problems. And you can include videos, images, articles and include links to products you’re promoting that relate to your email’s subject.
Now you’re BUILDING A BRAND that your following can KNOW, LIKE & TRUST. After all, that’s who we all buy from, right? If you approach your subscribers with this in mind, they will continue to value your recommendations and buy from you for years to come.
P.S: NOW YOU’RE BECOMING A SUPER MARKETING MACHINE! CONGRATULATIONS! KEEP GOING!
STEP 5: PICK A PLATFORM & CREATE, CREATE, CREATE!
Technically, you can make money with affiliate marketing on any platform. Here are my favorites to get started: Tik-Tok, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, and a blog. The best thing… they’re FREE! Well, except for a well-branded blog.
Just pick one at first and establish a rhythm with putting out content and building your audience. Tik-Tok is a great place to start for that…
- It’s easy.
- You don’t need to make it a massive production.
- Those videos are SHORT…
- And you can even repurpose them on other platforms with the right tools to remove the Tik-Tok watermark.
Make them fun and entertaining and educational. As you get more comfortable with creating content, branch out into other platforms to really expand your reach and increase your income-earning potential.
Go for quality content, not quantity. Posting a quality piece once a day is much better than posting a ton of times per day with crappy content. Does your audience really deserve that?
STEP 6: EXPAND YOUR EMPIRE THROUGH SOPHISTICATION
Once you determine the free platforms above you want to grow your business on (and you have, in fact, done that), then it’s time to get more sophisticated. I recommend branching out into SEO for both your blog posts and website, as well as for your YouTube channel. The growth there is not as fast, especially when it comes to blogs, which is why it’s step six, but it is DEFINITELY for the long-term life of your business.
Google Ads is another great way to get a good bang for your buck, and Google even has FREE courses available for you to learn how to do that. Bing is another search engine you may not want to forget about either, especially if you’re marketing to a more mature crowd.
But first things first. Do all that you can for free. As your money starts coming in, definitely reinvest it back into your business and yourself. It’s far more valuable than any fancy watch or flashy car you can buy. Those break down and are expensive to repair. Educating and reinvesting in your business can only make your world a better place.
PS: Something less sexy… Put about 30% of your earnings away for taxes. Yes, Uncle Sam wants his cut of the action, too!
STEP 7: F.O.C.U.S. (FOLLOW ONE COURSE UNTIL SUCCESS)
Affiliate marketing CAN make you a LEGITIMATE MILLIONAIRE. AND it does take hard work, consistency, and dedication. Stay the course!
If you apply these FUNDAMENTALS to your business, the results can be LIFE-CHANGING! MANY people who TRY affiliate marketing aren’t willing to put in the work or they simply give up too soon when they don’t see immediate success. Don’t let this be you!
Set realistic expectations in the beginning. As with anything new, there is a learning curve. Just make small adjustments along the way as you learn. Yes, you’re going to encounter obstacles. That’s perfectly normal when you’re pursuing anything that has HUGE INCOME POTENTIAL. YOU HAVE THAT POTENTIAL.
You CAN be GREAT and have ANYTHING you want. ANYTHING!
Affiliate marketing, like any learning process, is an ongoing effort. Learn and improve as you go.
Dedicate your energy to becoming successful like a pro athlete! Be consistent and allocate the time it takes to be successful. And above all, remember to have fun!
Cheers to your success!
