Q: How do I earn in affiliate marketing?
Probably the best and easiest way to get an affiliate marketing business off the ground is to start uploading videos to YouTube.
Pick a topic that you have some enthusiasm for and that’s in a niche where there are people willing to spend money.
Add your affiliate links into your videos and into your (text) video description.
I’d also recommend that you create a separate landing page to collect email addresses and also link to that from your video description.
Example landing page that you could link to from your video description
YouTube videos have a long lifespan and, over time, you’ll get more and more viewers.
That will bring in some sales and signups to your email list.
Once you have people on your list, start off by sending them valuable information.
Don’t just hit them with one sales pitch after another.
It’s not something you’d appreciate as an email subscriber, so why would they?
Then keep making videos.
Do it as regularly as you can. Consistency and focus are central to success in this business.
Don’t expect fast results.
Too many courses and internet marketing products make false promises about how you’ll be making money a week from now.
This is a slow-burn business.
It can be months before you start to get any real traction.
So don’t set yourself up for failure by expecting to quickly make bank.
Video isn’t for everyone, for a variety of reasons, and if the idea of appearing on camera scares the living daylights out of you, then there are other ways to do affiliate marketing – through blogging or paid advertising, for instance.
I don’t agree that the Your First Funnel Challenge is the best course out there even though it has some great bonuses.
I’ve been through it and it’s geared more towards product owners who want to build sales funnels for their businesses rather than Average Joe affiliate marketers.
I found one of the presenters irritatingly over-the-top in his presentations.
Americans will probably be ok with that style but it’ll wind up Europeans.
I found his coaching style counter-productive, so much so that I didn’t want to watch him any more.
I would suggest that you get a good mentor.
It’ll shave a huge amount of time off your learning process.
It’s far better to replicate a successful person than to try and reinvent the wheel:
Before you pick a mentor, you need to decide what way you’re going to promote offers – (YouTube, blogging, paid ads, etc) and then find a mentor and course that’s focused on that promotional strategy.
There are a number of resources here to look at that should help.
Once you find your mentor and course, you need to stick with them until you master what they teach.
Going through a course once and thinking you’re now an expert won’t cut it.
You will make mistakes (we all do).
Things won’t always work out (it happens to all of us).
You’ll feel despondent and feel like you’ve wasted your time when the money doesn’t start rolling in as soon as you’d hoped (we’ve all been there).
What sets the successful affiliate marketers apart from the unsuccessful ones is dedication, self-discipline and consistency.
Dedication plays its part when you’re pushing through the barriers; jumping through the hoops and over the hurdles; seeing obstacles as challenges to overcome rather than deal-breakers that stop you in your tracks.
Self-discipline and focus enter the picture when you ignore all the new shiny products and courses you’ll be exposed to that promise the sun, moon and stars (and divert you from your current path).
Consistency means doing the work day in, day out, even when you don’t want to.
Because if you start to slip here, you’ll find more and more reasons not to put in the work and you’ll end up being another failed marketer.
If you’re interested in talking more about options, you can reach out to me on Messenger.
I originally answered this question over on Quora.
All the best,
Gary Nugent
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P.S.: Don't forget, if you want to create an internet income of your own, here's one of my recommended ways to do that:
