There’s a well known saying: “Good things come to those who wait”………… well unfortunately when it comes to making money online this is not true. If you want to make money online then you are going to have to take action – hustle, be creative and make things happen for yourself. You will need to make determined & informed choices towards making money online. Anybody can do this – just as long as they take action. Just as long as they make an effort and make that first step.
The good news is you don’t need a Phd in Marketing to make money online. Lots of ordinary people – men, women, young and old are making money online from affiliate marketing. You can join them – you just need to take action and make things happen…
“Things may come to those who wait, but only things left by those who hustle.” Abraham Lincoln
You can read as many how to guides, case studies, tutorials and biographies of successful business men & women, but if you don’t follow up that newly learnt knowledge with action, then it’s all been in vain. Get busy doing, and stop being busy wishing.
Running an online business takes a lot of dedication and work – especially in the early days. It needs to be treated like a real business. If you set up an affiliate website then you will have the opportunity to make money online, without the hassle of having to hold any stock or make deliveries, etc. Its something that you can start in your spare time, and has the potential the grow and earn you some serious money, at a pace you are comfortable with and in full control.
So, following on from Part 1 of our Beginners Guide To Affiliate Marketing, if you have been taking action, you will have already completed the following steps towards making money online:
- Already decided on which niche market you are going to target
- Already chosen & purchased a domain name
- Already purchased web hosting
- Already setup your website – designed by yourself, somebody else e.g. a web designer or are using WordPress
What’s the next step to becoming a successful affiliate?
Once you have completed the above steps, then next on your to do list is:
- Join UK affiliate marketing networks
- Decide which product/services you will promote
- Decide which retailers to partner up with & how
UK Affiliate Networks
Firstly, we recommend you join all of the major UK Affiliate Networks. These will have thousands of Merchants (online retailers) whose products/services you can promote, including Merchants in a variety of sectors i.e. travel, fashion, bingo, gadgets, finance, etc such as Marks & Spencers, Expedia, Cloggs, Dixons, BT, Sky TV, Nike, Apple, etc, etc.
While some Merchants may only have an in-house affiliate program from which you can promote them, it’s always best to look at the affiliate networks first, since many major brands will have affiliate programs with them.
Products / Services
One of the most important decisions to making money online is deciding which market niche you are going to target. Once you have decided which niche is worth pursing, you will have to narrow down the products/services you will focus on. Plus you will have to decide which Merchant(s) (retailers that provide those products/services) you will partner up with.
The great thing about having an affiliate site is that you can earn money by helping to generate sales – but at the same time you’re not responsible for holding any stock, processing payments, arranging deliveries or dealing with customer support issues. As an affiliate you would simply let the Merchant deal with all of that.
Factors you will need to consider when deciding which products/services to promote are:
- Which products are popular?
- Which type of products are people looking for?
- Would you buy it?
- Choose a product/service that you are interested in promoting e.g. shoes, rugby, makeup, sunglasses, furniture, etc?
- Choose a fairly niche product/service i.e. don’t promote worldwide travel destinations, instead maybe choose to promote holidays to Tenerife, etc. Don’t promote something too broad.
- Not selling at a very low price, otherwise your commission may not be worthwhile.
- Consider doing some keyword analysis to help you decide
It’s up to you how many products you promote. You can promote just one product, or ten or twenty or hundreds or even thousands. There are thousands of products/services for you to promote e.g. golf clubs, shoes, holidays, makeup, fitness equipment, furniture, tennis rackets, dog collars, rabbit hutches, etc, etc…Whatever product/service you choose to promote, it is highly recommended that you choose something you are interested in and that you have a knowledge & passion for – otherwise your enthusiasm for working on your affiliate site might not last long.
Merchants
Once you have decided which product/service you are going to promote, then next step is deciding which Merchant you will partner up with i.e. who are you going to link to on your affiliate website e.g. if you have an affiliate site promoting shoes, are you going to have affiliate links pointing to https://www.tessuti.co.uk/ ??
It is up to you how many Merchants you partner with. For example, if ten Merchants sell the product you promote, then you could link to them all – maybe listing them by price, thereby offering price comparison for you site visitors, showing them where they can buy the product at the cheapest price.
For example, shoe affiliate website ‘All The Shoes’ links to numerous Merchants, showing website visitors where they can buy UGG boots at the cheapest prices. Visitors just click the GO buttons, which are linked to the Merchant listed e.g. Cloggs:
However, it’s possible only one Merchant sells the product you promote, so in that case you would have no other choice but to partner with them.
If there are a large number of Merchants that sell the product you promote, then some factors you need to consider when deciding which ones to work with will be:
- How much can you earn with them i.e. what price do they sell their product at and what commission % will they reward you with?
- Does the Merchant have an attractive, professional looking website?
- Would you buy from them?
- How well does their website convert?
- Which affiliate network are they with? This will determine how easy it is to set up links, etc.
- How quickly do they validate your sales?
- How quickly will they pay you?
- Do they communicate regularly with affiliates i.e. offering discount codes, product info, incentives, etc?
When you have decided which Merchant(s) you want to join, then all you have to do is login to the affiliate network they are signed up with and apply to join their affiliate program. For example, in addition to our in-house program, Easyspace has our affiliate program with the affiliate network Commission Junction – which you can join by clicking on the link below:
Easyspace Affiliate Program – Commission Junction
Apart from checking the Merchants listed on a particular Affiliate Network, another option to find Merchants who sell the product/service you want to promote is to do a search in Google – either by then name of the product or by the Merchants name.
For example, if you want to find Merchants that sell UGG boots then type into Google “UGG boots” and from the websites listed that are online retailsers e.g. Cloggs, click onto their homepages and look arounf their site to see if they have an affiliate program you can join.
Find Merchants with Google
Alternatively, if you already know a Merchant that you want to work with, and you want to know if they run an affiliate program then you can either search for them in the list of Affiliate Networks – or you can type the Merchants name + “affiliates” into google, and hopefully you will find out if your Merchant of choice has one. For example, imagine you have decided you are going to setup an affiliate website that promotes holidays to a particular destination e.g. New York, and you want to partner up with LastMinute.com, then you can find out if they have an affiliate program by typing into google: “lastminute affiliates” – the results Google list include a special “affiliates” page that Last Minute has created:
Lastly, don’t forget that you can simply visit a Merchants website and have a look around their site to see if they have a link e.g. “Affiliates”. Many Merchants have such a link at the bottom of their homepage. If you can’t find one then the Merchants may not have an affiliate program – but keep in mind that some Merchants prefer to keep a low profile for their affiliate program, which is one reason you should always search the Affiliate networks to see their list of Merchants.
You can find out more about the easyspace affiliate program, at the ‘Affiliates’ area of our website: https://www.easyspace.com/affiliates
Many Merchants will approve you automatically, however for some you may need to wait a few days. I would advise having your website live before applying, since many Merchants like to look at the website on which you will be promoting them – to ensure it is suitable.
Once your application to join a Merchants affiliate program is approved, you will then be able to access your unique affiliate links/banners and add them to your website. When your affiliate links are added to your website, then you are a step closer to making money online.
Summary
Once you have joined all the major UK Affiliate Networks, decided which product/services you will promote, and joined the affiliate programs of Merchants that sell them, the next step is to get your website noticed, and that means promoting your website.
If nobody visits your website then you won’t be making any money. So, in our Beginners Guide To Affiliate Marketing (Part 3) (coming soon) we will show you a number of ways you can get people visiting your website.
Do you have a hobby? What are you passionate about? Lots of people are earning money online. You can join them too. You just need to take action – so hurry up and get your domain name registered, get you web hosting for your website and start creating your online business today.
If you purchase web hosting with easyspace it starts at only £2.25 per month – and we’ll even give you a FREE domain name with it! Get busy doing, and stop being busy wishing.
