Introduction
As someone interested in earning money online, I decided to give affiliate marketing a try as a complete beginner. Affiliate marketing is where you promote other company’s products and get a commission for each sale you drive.
Over the past 6 months, I was able to generate over $26,000 in commissions through a single affiliate network called Impact. You can see the proof of my earnings here:
In this detailed case study, I’ll be sharing the top 5 most important lessons I learned about affiliate marketing as a beginner that allowed me to earn over $26K in less than a year.
Here’s a quick overview of what I’ll cover:
- The importance of having a content strategy
- Why you should focus on one niche
- How to track your performance
- Tips for maximizing your commissions
- The need for ongoing education
My goal is to provide actionable tips to help other beginners succeed with affiliate marketing. I made many mistakes early on, so hopefully you can learn from my experience!
Let’s get started…
Lesson #1: Have a Content Strategy
The first crucial lesson I learned is that having a solid content marketing strategy is the foundation of results with affiliate marketing.
When I first started, I didn’t realize just how important content was. I thought I could simply promote affiliate links and make sales.
But in reality, you need content to attract potential buyers and drive traffic to your affiliate offers.
There are two main approaches to content marketing for affiliate sites:
1. Organic Content
This involves creating free content like blog posts, videos, podcasts, etc.
The main pro of organic content is it can lead to passive income if created correctly. For example, evergreen blog posts can continue generating affiliate commissions for years.
However, a con is it takes more time upfront to create content and wait for organic search traffic. But the income can be well worth it long-term.
2. Paid Advertising
Examples are Facebook ads, Google Ads, native ads, etc.
The pro here is you can get traffic and commissions much faster. But once you stop running ads, the income will likely stop as well.
So in summary, organic content takes more work upfront but leads to passive income while paid ads offer faster initial results but require an ongoing ad budget.
Based on my experience, I’d recommend using a mix of both organic and paid traffic when starting out with affiliate marketing. Focus on keyword research and creating evergreen, useful content while also running paid ads to get some quick traction.
Lesson #2: Stick to One Niche at First
Another mistake I made early on was promoting too many different products from every industry imaginable.
For instance, on a network like Impact there are thousands of companies you can partner with from VPNs, to saas tools, to fitness products and more.
It’s tempting as a beginner to want to promote all these companies at once to maximize your income potential.
However, I soon learned it’s much better to focus on just one niche at first.
There are a few key reasons for this:
- You can deeply understand your target audience for that niche
- You can tailor your content strategy around that niche
- You can identify the top converting affiliate programs in that space
- You can reuse content ideas across different posts
Let’s say you focus on promoting web hosting deals as an affiliate.
You can create in-depth guides about how to choose the best web host, top hosts for certain sites, deals & coupons, and so on.
Whereas if you’re promoting random products from 10 different industries, it’s much harder to provide focused value and build authority.
So in summary, stick to one niche that you’re genuinely passionate about at first as an affiliate marketer. Once you find success in one space, you can gradually branch out later.
Lesson #3: Track Your Performance
Once I started actively promoting affiliate products and seeing some initial success, I quickly realized the importance of tracking my performance.
There were times when the amount of clicks or commissions I was owed didn’t seem to match up with what the affiliate network was reporting.
That’s why it’s crucial as an affiliate to track metrics like:
- Clicks per day
- Impressions
- Conversions
- EPC (earnings per click)
- ROI
This serves two main purposes:
It allows you to catch any discrepancies and ensure you get paid accurately. Networks can make mistakes with tracking.
It enables you to optimize your affiliate strategy by identifying which content and offers are performing best.
For tracking clicks and conversions, I recommend using URL shorteners like bit.ly. This provides easy click tracking for all your links.
Most affiliate networks provide dashboard stats, so be sure to monitor those regularly as well. Don’t leave potential earnings on the table.
Lesson #4: Use Promotions and Coupons
Another great tip I learned from top affiliate marketers is to take advantage of promotions, deals and coupon codes whenever possible.
This can significantly increase your affiliate commission rates.
For example, a standard commission for an online store might be 5% per sale.
But during the holiday season, they might run a promotion offering 10% commissions.
Or, they might offer inflated commissions if you promote a special coupon code or discounted product specifically.
So before promoting any affiliate product:
- See if they have any time-sensitive promotions to take advantage of
- Check if they offer higher commissions for new affiliates
This allows you to maximize your earnings from the very start.
Platforms like Impact make it easy to find brands running special deals for affiliates. But be sure to check the affiliate area inside individual stores as well.
Promotions are a simple way to boost your commissions without needing more traffic.
Lesson #5: Never Stop Learning
My final lesson that has served me well is to never stop learning and educating yourself on affiliate marketing strategies.
Even after you see initial success, there are always new tactics and technologies to leverage.
For example:
- Using chatbots to boost engagement
- Implementing referral programs
- Automating processes with macros
- Building email lists and funnels
- Testing new traffic sources like Quora and Pinterest
To summarize, affiliate marketing is a continuous learning curve. You need to stay up-to-date on the latest trends and test new strategies.
Some ways to continue educating yourself include:
- Reading blogs and forums
- Watching updated YouTube tutorials
- Joining affiliate marketing groups on Facebook
- Taking online courses
- Going to live events and webinars
I learned more in my second and third year as an affiliate than I did in my entire first year. Growth comes from constantly expanding your knowledge.
So if you’re new, take the time to learn the fundamentals first. But also be open to implementing new tactics to keep boosting your commissions. Knowledge truly pays off in this industry.
Conclusion
In the end, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I was able to earn through affiliate marketing as a complete beginner.
But this success didn’t come overnight. It required patience, persistence and being open to learning.
Hopefully the top 5 lessons I shared in this post will help you shortcut some common affiliate marketing mistakes I made.
To quickly recap:
- Have an organic and paid content strategy
- Stick to one niche at first
- Track all performance metrics
- Use promotions and deals
- Never stop learning new tactics
Implementing these tips can help any beginner go from zero to over $25K per year as an affiliate marketer. But results do take consistent effort.
Thanks for reading and let me know if you have any other affiliate marketing questions!