So here’s my freelance affiliate guide. I’ve been an affiliate for over 10 years now. I wanted to write a guide which included the things I wish I had known when I got started. If I had read this guide 10 (or so) years ago, it would have given me a much better start in affiliate marketing.
For years I struggled with affiliate marketing. When I started I was pretty desperate and in a lot of debt. So I tried to do everything for free. This means it took much longer and I was often finding out information which was unconnected.
This often sent me on wild good chases, jumping from one strategy to another, losing momentum as I did. This is known as “shiny object syndrome”! When you’re new as an affiliate you’re bound to sign up to many email lists and find out information from lots of sources. While this can be helpful it can also be confusing. Information overload is a real thing in affiliate marketing. When you’re confused, you don’t know which path to choose. As a result you’re likely to do nothing!
Freelance Affiliate Guide
Affiliate marketing is a great business when it’s working for you. But to get to this stage requires a lot of work initially without obvious rewards. That’s why around 95% of new affiliates will quit. They simply don’t see the bigger picture.
Those who stick at it do see the bigger picture. Imagine sales coming in every single day on complete autopilot and you’re getting close to what affiliate marketing can be like. But at first it simply isn’t like this. There’s lots to learn and figure out and you don’t get paid for just figuring it out. You only get paid when you make a sale. So if you’re desperate for cash, affiliate marketing might not be right for you unless you have the patience to make it though this beginning phase while you’re learning.
I like the analogy of the Chinese bamboo tree in terms of how an affiliate business can grow. Initially, with the Chinese bamboo tree, there’s a gestation period of a few years – yes years – before the plant even breaks through the soil. But if you water it and give it the nutrients it needs to grow, once it breaks the soil it can grow 90 feet in a matter of a few weeks!
That’s not to say you won’t make a sale for years. You can make sales very quickly depending on your marketing choice. But to make sales consistently and in your sleep will take some consistent effort. This is tough when you don’t see the immediate rewards!
Freelance Affiliate Guide – Products
When I started out as an affiliate marketer I made a lot of mistakes. I choose the wrong kinds of products to promote for a start. I used Amazon and eBay myself so it seemed a natural progression as an affiliate to promote products through their affiliate programs. But they both pay only tiny commissions. So when I eventually made my first sale, it was for peanuts! What I didn’t know was that I could have promoted other products which paid much more such as:
- Subscription affiliate products – which pay recurring commissions
- High ticket affiliate products – pay larger than average commission $500+
Just this knowledge could have shaved years of my affiliate journey! So you’re welcome! When I started promoting high value products instead of low value ones, I started making real progress. Before I only struggled. Digital products too pay much more than physical ones. Most physical products will pay between 1% and 10% commissions whereas digital products pay 30%-40%. Here again you can save yourself a heap of time.
If the same work is involved selling any affiliate product online (which is often the case), why would you sell products which only pay tiny amounts?
Freelance Affiliate Guide – Alignment
Another important thing to mention here is the alignment you have between your affiliate products and yourself. Not only that, but it’s wise to choose products you’re actually fanatical about, if you get fanatical about anything! This is something I struggled with for years. I would spend hour upon hour building websites for products I didn’t care a hoot about. They all failed. When I found something I could get behind, everything changed because I believed in what I was doing wholeheartedly.
If you go about your affiliate business in a whimsical way, with no alignment with who you are and what you believe in, it’s a much more difficult journey. It’s also easier to quit. With affiliate marketing you can expect to do more than you think to break through and start making those nice sales. When you are uncertain, or unsure of your path, this is so much more difficult.
Find a strategy and a product you can stick to and your success is much more likely. Make sure you’re in alignment and there’s no doubt in your mind before you begin. That way, you’re going to have the necessary follow-though to make a success of it.
Freelance Affiliate Guide – Marketing Methods
Whatever your marketing method is, you need to be persistent until you make your first sale. Stick with a single method until you master it. Here’s another mistake I made on my journey! I jumped from one thing to another, never quite getting any traction with any.
It wasn’t until I found my passion for blogging that things really changed. I made the odd sale here and there. But until I chose my path and got busy in it, I was always looking for results before I was off the blocks! This of course led to procrastination and inactivity. Which led to zero sales! Focus on the activities you do every day, and make some good habits. Don’t look at your results until you have them. Keep an eye on what you’re doing every day.
Here’s a few marketing methods you can choose as an affiliate:
- Blogging – takes some time so you’ll need to be patient and have a passion for your topic.
- Paid marketing – is fast but you’ll need to test and measure using ad budget. If you don’t have an ad budget to learn with, this isn’t going to work. Expect to invest money while learning, before you find a method which is profitable.
- Email marketing – most affiliates will have an email list of subscribers who they sell their products too. This is definitely recommended. Get a free autoresponder for affiliate marketing.
- Social media – many affiliates find their own marketing methods using social media platforms such as Facebook. Of course you can use paid marketing on many platforms too, and there’s a few unpaid social media marketing strategies you can use as well.
Products & Blogging
Aligning your products with your audience is key to success as a freelance affiliate marketer. With a blog, for example, you want to attract people to your website who are going to be interested in your product/s. Trying to sell a motorcycle tyre from a hotel reception isn’t going to work. The same is true from a website. Despite this, many new affiliates will try and sell something from a site which is unsuitable for that particular website.
Knowing your target audience in affiliate marketing is pretty important here. Your target audience is the small sub-section of the online marketplace who will be interested in what you have to sell. So if your most passionate topic to write about is motorcycles, you’ll need some related product on your site which is suitable for the people you will attract.
Your “customer avatar” is your perfect customer. It defines them with exacting detail and if you can get clear on this, you’ll shave years off your affiliate struggles.
You can easily attract the wrong audience with affiliate marketing and not sell any of your affiliate products. So all your work is wasted if you’re unable to sell, no matter how hard you work! Working smart is therefore the most important aspect of affiliate marketing since you’re only getting paid when you make a sale!
Summary
Ok so that’s a lot of information so here’s a quick summary of some of the most important aspects I feel I should have known sooner as an affiliate:
- Affiliates only earn when they sell – it’s performance related pay. This means you can earn a potentially unlimited amount of money. But it also means you can earn nothing. It’s therefore important to work smart, not just hard.
- Using high ticket and subscription products will mean you can make more for your efforts when you do make those sales. This was game changing for me!
- Choose a topic and product you can fully get behind and embrace. If you’re half hearted about your product and what you’re doing, you’re likely to quit too early. If you’re creating content you need passion for your subject.
- Learn who you are talking to – your customer avatar is the “perfect customer”. Know this and you’ll save heaps of wasted time and effort
- Build an email list of subscribers – with a list you have greater control over your audience. Without one you are forever working on getting traffic – either through creating content or paying for it directly.
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