What Is An Affiliate Marketer?

What is an affiliate marketer has got to be one of those simple explanations right?

Ultimately:

You put up links on a website and then you wait for the money to come in!

Sound right.

But as you all know (and to crank up the word count for this page) that is not true.

True affiliate marketers are hard to come by.

The true definition is:

Selling a product someone else has made and then getting a commission for that sale.

That is all.

It doesn't mean that you are selling products online.

If you are an online marketer, you are using the Internet to sell. It is a quick and responsive and very low cost medium, but it is still a sales channel out of many, nothing more.

It is the affiliate marketer definition which is actually masking peoples ability to do well. They believe it is an entity all of their own. I have read books that cover affiliate marketing that are 150+ pages of the first definition. They are endless. Unfortunately the information is wrong because they fail to give you the second definition. That is why things just don't work out just right and there is always some sort of "secret" that is perennially missing.

What is an affiliate marketer #1

So what do you do first?

Never find a product.

The first and zero step is to find an audience.

Finding an audience is the best step and stage that anyone can tell you. That is why content websites that are solely focused on one topic get all the traffic love. When you immerse yourself into a certain audience you will find their:

needs
wants
dislikes
loves

Remember too that you are an audience and you like certain hobbies and online stuff. So start there. What you will find (beyond 100%) is that if you do not like a topic you will not like the product and will never come across as someone who people can trust. Your sales will be poor. Sure you will make sales, anyone with enough money to throw at something will make money, but will make less money than they deserve.

So find that audience. If you like Nintendo game machines then there is a huge audience for that. Focusing in is helpful. So game machines are cool, but certain types of game machines will whittle down the audience even more. PS audience has different issues than XBox audiences - their differences are subtle but they are there.

Talk in community areas (Reddit, brand community forums, Youtube). Start to get a name out there and answer questions, pose questions (not selling ones).

What is an affiliate marketer #2

So what is the main problem or what do people love within that audience?

People will buy more of something if you are solving their problem. But they will also buy more if tyou are improving their life.

In the gaming arena it will be something on the lines of:

improved performance of a game
improved performance of the player
tricks/ tips
self cleaning/ maintaining their equipment

Again, you will hear many affiliate marketers talking about selling computers to gamers. Which is a silly idea to do initially unless you spend money on ads.

People will buy from someone they know or someone who knows what they are talking about.

If you write a link in a forum stating that you have a $3000 gaming computer for sale, people will not buy from you. They just won't. But...

If you show them screen shots of your set up compared to another set up and the visuals are completely amazing. Or if you state that you won different games more quickly that some of the people who have been playing for a long time. Orrrr, you show how quick you actually act within the game. Then people are going to be more interested.

People > need> product

But again. They just might not be interested. But you need to look around and find out their issues. It will become clear very soon what people want and don't want.

For example. One person sold tons of Madden NFL gaming books because they used those books to get better at the game. They showed and proved it. They were known in the community and their stats and results could easily be seen.

What is an affiliate marketer #3

Sometimes you might find that the product is not right for your market. But this is OK. There might be a few reasons:

you chose the wrong product. Happens. Just try another one similar and see if that helps
change the offer or how you are promoting it. Remember people- what is the product going to do for them?
you might be selling and not helping. This is why questions and answers are good for sales. It is why content sites are helpful. There is a minor reciprocation- you help me I'll help you. You give content away for free and you build up trust (which is Amazons main goal). No trust- no sales.

There we have number 4.

Number 4 could be a stumble for some. Is what you are offering actually what people are wanting. What I mean by that is if the product is the right type.

I have seen many people try to sell videos (yep videos) and not sell one. Maybe amazing content, but just not the right medium
Some people sell merch and unfortunately merch is not what people are after
I might want a complete set up of information but I am only offered the introduction ebook. Some people will pay more for something if offered and they know that it is better than the intro product

Then you have the affiliate sales page- that might be bad.

All of these factors can add up to what people are after and what is not being supplied.

But then you have to think how are you going to sell the your affiliate product? Are you going to redirect people to somewhere else? In some forums and websites you can not use affiliate links- that that will limit which platform you can use. What you can do is either:

directly link form your link to an article/ video etc on the product and what you have said. Some people send traffic to an email signup page. It backs up your thoughts and makes people who click on the link more "warm" to what you have to offer. You then send them to the affiliate page
directly link to the affiliate page. This is Ok as long as the page is good at converting, has a cookie/ tracking so that when the person come back if they leave the site the sale gets credited to you. Direct linking is good if there is trust- so direct linking to Amazon is good but studies have shown that warm traffic can be better.

Are you going to use a website, Youtube, Social, forums? This now depends on what you want and what you like. We covered this on another article. Roughly- chose a platform that you enjoy rather than one that is in favour.

What is an affiliate marketer #4

So what are steps to start to sell an affiliate product. Here are the list of stages in order

Step 1: Define Your Niche and Audience
Step 2: Choose the Right Affiliate Product
Step 3: Find the right platform
Step 4: How are you going to get people to that link or the page which is "promoting" the affiliate link. A lot of people use calendars to try and time promotional efforts with certain days of the week/ holiday events. Doing SEO and keywords is low hanging fruit picking and is a long term strategy. But vying for the top 10 of Google is iffy.
Step 5: Similar to step 4. Are you going to keep with one method of promotion (forums) or are you going to see if other methods are helpful? If you know that a product is going to come out then you can have a whole raft of content about what could that item could be about, previews, theories, your own thoughts.
Step 6: Tracking. If you do not track then stop everything because there is no point in continuing. Tracking makes promotion easier because you will be able to figure out where traffic comes from, where it goes around on your platform and where it leaks out of. You could be using Youtube exclusively but have no idea which video is sending you the most traffic. If you are paying for traffic then tracking is a 100% must. Google Analytics is the most common free online software out there.
Step 7: Trust. There can be no sale without trust. You will notice that when you buy online. the sales page will look iffy, the sales text is too salesy and there might be too pushy into sending you to a link. The best way to increase trust is to have a conversation. So comments on the affiliate content page is really helpful. Amazon increased conversion by having stars and by allowing people to comment on their purchase. Sometimes people dont care about 4 stars as long as they can see what the issues are. You can also guest blog (you post an article on another website)
Step 8: Compliance and Disclosure. FTC Guidelines: Ensure compliance with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines by clearly disclosing your affiliate relationships on your website and in your content. If you use affiliate links on Youtube you have to say so (many videos don't). You can't sell affiliate products through ebooks which are hosted on Amazon Kindle.
Step 9: Continuously Optimize. A/B Testing: Experiment with different strategies, content types, and different affiliate products. This also goes with monitoring trends and seeing what people are going to buy. As you start to get the hang of it you will realise that you can add more products and maybe more platforms to promote from. As time continues you can then start to outsource some time heavy tasks like content creation or social media promotion.