What is Affiliate Online Marketing?

You’ve probably clicked on an affiliate link while browsing the internet looking for answers to your questions, solutions to your problems, or products you want to buy.

You may have read a great review of a windproof travel umbrella, clicked on the ‘’see more here’’ and found yourself on Amazon, and bought the item. Well, the person who wrote that great review receives a commission on your purchase…

This is affiliate online marketing in action and a clever business model with a low barrier to entry. You can have your dream business, make good money, and choose where and when you work. But like starting any business it has challenges. So let’s look at what it is and how you can succeed.

What’s Coming Up?

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1. What is Affiliate Online Marketing – in a nutshell

Affiliate Online Marketing is a marketing model where the affiliate creates informative helpful content with links to a company’s product or service. This can be through a blog, website content, video, social media, or podcast, etc. If this link leads to a sale for the company, then the affiliate earns a commission. Affiliates can be huge corporations, e.g. Tripadvisor to tiny niche blogs.

2. Here’s Why I Like Affiliate Online Marketing

It’s easy to get started and fine if you have limited time.

It’s low cost to start and low risk compared to other business models.

Unlike selling products online you don’t have to deal with a mountain of products and stock-taking over your house!

You can create content and build an audience, e.g. by writing, making videos, creating podcasts, and posting on social media (or all of the above).

You don’t have to be a 25-year-old tech whizz. Affiliate marketing is great for any age, any situation – for the over 50s you might be ready to retire, already retired, looking to replace a stressful job, or want your own business (with no boss!)

You don’t need much money to start and you can work when you want (from home or a tropical beach!) so long as you have the internet.

3. How do I Start?

The best way to start online affiliate marketing is with your own niche blog. You’ll write regularly and consistently about a specific topic (the niche) you’re passionate about. You’ll offer valuable information and build an audience. You’ll also target a specific audience, e.g. by gender, age, interest, or geography.

So a niche is a topic, not a product and you’ll be helping solve specific problems for a specific group (your audience).

For example, Essential Tips for New Mountain Bikers. So, you’ve created a more targeted focus (only beginners) and then you can write about helpful quality tips and what they need to have a great experience. You’ll then also review products you believe are the best in the field that align with your content.

Don’t worry if you’re not an amazing writer – just write in a conversational and casual style in your own unique voice. Just be yourself!

4. My Travel Website Example

On my travel website, if I’m writing about a unique place to stay in Sydney, e.g. a tiny house, I’ll link to that accommodation with my affiliate code. If someone books a stay then I earn a commission.

I’ve even found that travel insurance and rental car bookings have higher commissions so I make more money from them.

So think about the commission and the products. Will cat food generate enough income for a blog on cats? What about big-ticket items? If you’re writing about outdoor living, how about RVs?

Here’s a tip for you: Google loves blogs that publish regularly and often, e.g. 3-5 times per week at 4 pm (or whatever time works for you).

5. How do I choose a Niche?

You choose a subject you enjoy, know about, or maybe want to know more about.

But do your research to see if there’s a demand for the products or services in that niche.

Also, check that there are affiliate programs for that niche, e.g. you can search Amazon for products related to that niche

Narrowing your focus to a specific niche for a specific audience lowers the competition as you grow your blog.

Your niche is a topic you’re willing to spend months creating content. I can’t bore you after a few weeks because you need a lot of time to attract an audience.

Maybe it’s a passion, for example, gardening, photography, computer gaming, a sport, golf or tennis, or a product – home security, shoes, and cars (these are all successful niche ideas).

Fitness, health, and wealth are all top searches online. These are high-emotion subjects for your readers, maybe they want to lose weight healthily, learn how to manage their money and reduce their debts, or are interested in herbal remedies.

Let’s Look for a Specific Niche

So, rather than gardening which is too broad a subject (and too competitive), how about Vegetable Gardening in Pots?
Love photography? Then what do Wildlife Photography Tips sound like for a niche subject?
You’ve just started eating vegan meals – what about Vegan Desserts?
If you enjoy camping, how about camping tips?

Tools to Search for Niches

Google Trends is always a good place to see what’s trending up. You can also see if the topic is seasonal.

Jaaxy gives you the current hot niche topics for Alexa, Google, X (formerly Twitter), and Amazon Best Sellers.

Wordstream is run by Google. You get a free keyword niche finder tool (requires a sign-up)

I use the Writesonic AI to generate blog ideas, content generation, and lots of writing help (try it for free, and then there’s an affordable monthly fee)

I’ve put a list of 20 successful niches for you at the end of this post…

Here’s the great team at Income School teaching you how to start a niche site

6. How Do I Succeed?

The idea for a successful Niche Website is that your blog posts offer quality content that helps people…you’ll solve their problems…and they’ll learn to trust you as you build authority on the topic.

For your Blog Posts, you could Create

A personal testimonial
Top 10 or 20 Lists, e.g. Top 20 Easiest Vegetables to Grow in a Pot
Best of Lists
How to…?, What is…? E.g. How to Heal Golfer’s Elbow Quickly
Interview a person related to the product you promote
Review products
Answer questions, for example, what is the best camera lens for nature photography?

Long-Tail Keywords

See how those searches above are more than one or two words.

These are called long-tail keywords and as a successful niche affiliate, you use these keywords to succeed in your niche.

Who searches for one word?! Usually, people will search for a sentence a question, or at least 2 or 3 words on Google (or Bing).

These keywords will drive organic traffic (free) to your blog. You want your blog on page 1 of Google searches, not page 10.

But it’s also no good trying to get on page 1 of a Google search with ‘’best shoes.’’ You’ll be up against huge companies like Nike. How about ‘’Best Shoes for Achilles Tendonitis 20….(with the current year – so you’re always current).

See More Affiliate Marketing Help

7. How Can I Make Money?

As you build out your blog, adding helpful content, top 10 lists, and reviews you’ll add affiliate links, banners, and widgets, and over time people will click on these links and purchase products and services.

Each month your visitor numbers will increase and you should have 1,000 monthly page views by Month 4.

The formula is: if you write 3 blog posts a week at 1,500 words each, you should get a full-time income in 12-18 months.

What is Affiliate Online Marketing? Well, this isn’t a get-rich-quick-scheme.
Think of it as more of a marathon than a sprint.

It also depends on the quality of your visitors. Do you know your audience really well? Do you know what they need help with?

You can advertise and also get your content out to the world for free – Pinterest, Quora, Reddit, and Podcasting are great for sharing new content.

8. Writing Reviews

These are the ‘bread and butter’ for many affiliates and earn good money. But if you review a product don’t always write positive reviews. If you don’t like a product (or the online reviews are bad), tell your readers and be honest.

Make sure you still link to that product because some people may still want to buy it. But you can recommend an alternative product that you believe is a better purchase.

So, once you’re creating quality content you can add affiliate links to your content. These can be in the form of text links, banners, and widgets.

9. How Do I Get Paid?

You can choose from different ways of getting paid. Here are some popular options:

Cost Per Sale: you get paid for every sale made after the visitor to your site clicks on your affiliate link (with your special code embedded) and buys something from the company (merchant).

Cost Per Action: as an affiliate you drive traffic to an offer from the merchant, this could be a banner on your blog or a text link, recommending readers take an action e.g. to sign up for an ebook, fill out a form, or register for an offer. You’re paid for each completed action, e.g. $3.00

Membership Referrals: you get paid if someone signs up through your affiliate link. And from then on if they remain a member you get a commission on their fees. These recurring income streams are the gift that keeps on giving!

Sell Your Own E-Book: why not produce a handy book that your readers will enjoy, will pay you some extra income, and build more trust?

10. What do I Need for Affiliate Marketing?

a. Start your Niche Blog

I recommend WordPress – this is the most popular website creation platform. It’s a bit of a learning curve at the start but nowadays it’s much easier to use with the block layout and you’ll have your blog looking professional in no time.

With WordPress, you’re in complete control with customizable options for layouts.

b. Website Theme and Host

You’ll need a website theme and a host. I recommend Generate Press Theme (the free version is great – I’m using it on this blog) and Hostinger is a very popular hosting service.

It stands out for its reliable performance, user-friendly interface, and budget-friendly plans, for both beginners and experienced website owners.

My websites are hosted by Wealthy Affiliate which offers a full range of services from hosting, 24/7 technical support, community support, editing suite, training, classes, game-changing hubs, and a lot more.

You can read my Wealthy Affiliate Review here.

c. Other Types of Website Services

The following offer hosting, their own themes, and charge a monthly fee but you have fewer options for customization than WordPress.

Some of these are Weebly (read my Weebly Review here), Wix, Shopify (better for an online shop), and Blogger.

d. Create a Lead Capture Funnel

Add a desirable offer on your site called a Lead magnet. It could be a really helpful free e-book, trial subscription, or even a physical gift.

This gets people’s attention and interest, then they desire this offer, and then they take action. This is called the AIDA marketing strategy and it’s the journey you want the customer to take (through the funnel).

From there they’ll sign up with their e-mail address to get the e-book or click on the button to take up the offer.

Here’s an example from Mailchimp, an e-mail marketing service:

To help you create funnels you can sign up for a free service called Funneljoy. It’s a “free landing page and sales funnel builder for marketers and entrepreneurs.”

Automation helps you on your affiliate online marketing journey.

e. Use an E-mail Marketing Service

Build your list and send out your news, industry news, affiliate offers, a link to your latest blog post, and other helpful tips. Popular e-mail services are Aweber, ActiveCampaign, and MailerLite.

f. Promote your Website

You can promote your blog posts for free by answering questions on Quora with a link to your blog. The links can be within the answer (by hyperlink which is a highlighted word or sentence) or at the end of the answer.

Tip: make sure your answers are 500+ words long, content is king on Quora!

You can also add the URL of your website to your credential which appears below your name and above your answer.

If you have time have a go at producing your own Youtube videos. Canva has a free video editor and maker.

How about Pinterest? This is a growing search engine that can bring in good traffic when you pin images, videos, and products from your site and also from other people’s boards and websites.

Aim for pinning 80% of your content and 20% from other boards and websites. Over time this creates a following. Canva is the place where I create my pins too!

What I love about Pinterest is that your pins may also turn up on a Google search.

g. Find Affiliate Programs to Join

Here are some Popular Affiliate Networks:

CJ.com
Clickbank
Flexoffers
Shareasale
Travelpayouts
Commission Factory
Or individual company’s affiliate programs, like Amazon Associates

You then choose which products from a merchant (company) you want to review or promote on your blog or website.

On Affiliate Networks: The Affiliate is the Publisher,
while the Company/Merchant is the Advertiser

h. How to Find a Merchant – An Example

If you’re writing about Tips for Nature Photography, you could review a camera or lens.

On Shareasale, I’ve popped in ‘photography’ under Find Merchants, and 257 results have appeared. So you could apply to the companies (merchants) you want to promote on your website.

Each merchant will supply affiliates with banners, widgets, text links, etc that you can add to your website. Each link is unique to you and will track any sales you create.

11. Top Tips to Help You Succeed in Affiliate Online Marketing

Write your goals first:

work out how many articles you will write per week, and when you’ll write
what days and times will you publish. E.g. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 3 pm
now work out where and when you will promote these posts
e.g. each week answer 2 Quora questions and pin 5 times on Pinterest.

Initially, I recommend you start writing helpful content with no affiliate links three times a week.

For example, 10 articles that are questions with answers (How to…? What is…?) Write regularly and consistently and each article should be 1,350 – 1,500 words.

Publish Consistently

Depending on how much time you have you should aim to publish 3-5 times a week (ideally at the same time every week – google loves this!)

So your useful content is generating organic traffic and at the same time building an audience. After these 10 articles start adding affiliate links.

You may not see much money for 18 months on your journey to a profitable niche website. So don’t leave your job immediately – take the first months to learn, grow your knowledge, and write.

Google takes time to trust you too.

Don’t give up! This is the single biggest reason why bloggers fail – they give up too soon. When you see your first payments appear you’ll feel excited and motivated. You’ll start to feel closer to that tropical island lifestyle!

Your articles are like fine wine – over time they’ll mature and some will do well while others might not.

Improve Your Posts

But the beauty of websites is that you can edit the failing articles and see the improvement in your statistics.

Add more valuable content
Add a video
Add images
Link to an external high authority site
Link from older more established articles on your site to this article
Add a FAQ to the end of the post

12. Key Takeaways

Decide on a website theme and host
Choose your niche and your audience
Join affiliate programs that blend well with your niche
Write write write and optimize each article (more on that in future posts)
Stay focused, stay consistent
Drive traffic to your affiliate site (Quora, Pinterest, Youtube)
Create a Lead Capture Funnel
Build your list
Write with honesty and integrity so you get clicks on the affiliate links
Convert those clicks to sales
Rinse and repeat

I hope this has answered your question on ‘What is Affiliate Online Marketing.’ It’s a great way to start your own small business with few upfront costs and very low risk. If you’re willing to put in the time then you’ll create a successful business for years to come.

As promised here are some Niche Ideas to get you started!

To find out how to look for Sub-niches read this: How to Choose a Niche for Your Blog

Hiking
Camping
Sports
Health
Cooking
Finance
Insurance
Automotive
Tools
Beauty
CBD products
Investing
Solar
Nutrition
Personal development
Education
Credit cards
Fashion
Herbal products
Car Rental

P.S. To make things easier for you Wealthy Affiliate offers invaluable lessons on how to create a blog, all things WordPress, Google Analytics, and how to start writing. You can also buy your domain name from them and host your websites there too. Wealthy Affiliate is an all-in-one service! This is where I host my websites. You can join for FREE and start learning…