Beginner's Guide to Affiliate Marketing: Understanding the Basics and Achieving Success

Imagine that all you need to start earning money online is simply a web page. You don't need to create your own products or offer a service. Sounds good? Let's say hello to affiliate marketing.

According to Statista , business spending on affiliate marketing reached $8.2 billion in the US in 2022. In addition, the Influencer Marketing Hub estimates that the industry will continue to grow to reach $15.7 billion by 2024.

If you start today, you will ensure a privileged position in the future to take advantage of the pull.

What's affiliates marketing?

Affiliate marketing is promoting the product or service of another company. So when someone buys through your affiliate link, you get a commission. These commissions are usually a percentage of the sale price or a fixed amount.

Why should you do affiliate marketing?

There are two reasons why it is interesting to consider the possibility of doing affiliate marketing:

1. Low cost and low risk

Starting a business can be risky and expensive. There are barriers to entry, initial costs for products, employees, equipment, rent, etc. With affiliate marketing, all you need is a website. And if it doesn't work? You will only have wasted some time and a little money.

2. Easy to scale

A typical seller only sells products from one company. As an affiliate marketer , you can promote products from many companies and earn commissions from all of them.

More information: How to start with affiliate marketing without money in 5 steps

How does affiliate marketing work?

By joining an affiliate program, the user receives a unique link that contains a tracking identifier. This allows the merchant to know through a tracker if you have sent customers or not.

Users who click on your link also store a small file called a cookie on their device. This file (usually) has an expiration date, so you will receive your commission even if the purchase is delayed.

Let's see an example of how it works:

1. (1)Someone visits your post about the best coats for winter.
2. (2)Clicks on the Amazon affiliate link of one of your recommendations.
3. (3)He closes the browser to go pick up his son at school.
4. (4)Come back to Amazon the next day to see the product again.
5. (5)Buy the recommended product, plus some ski equipment.

Thanks to the affiliate cookie that is stored on this person's device, you receive a commission for the recommended product and ski equipment.

How much money can you earn with affiliate marketing?

According to a survey by the Influencer Marketing Hub , the majority of affiliate marketers make less than $10,000 a year. 

However, about one in six (16.87%) earn $50,000 a year or more.

Rubén Alonso is a good example of an affiliate who earns a lot. His website, miposicionamientoweb.es, has generated more than €38,000 in affiliate commissions with his blog in the last year.

Nuria Cámaras, an SEO specialist who has done affiliate marketing in various niches, also showed in her annual summary that she had generated more than €19,000 in affiliate commissions.

In fact, there are those who earn these figures even per month. The latest report from Awin (one of the largest affiliate platforms out there) estimates that more than 77 million euros have been invested in affiliates in Spain alone.

However, keep in mind that these people have worked very hard building their brand. It has taken them years to get to that level. So it is advisable to manage expectations.

If you just started, your income could be these for a while:

You're not going to make much money at first, but don't let that discourage you.

The success of others tells you that with hard work, time, and the right knowledge, you too can reach those levels.

More information: This is what you can really earn with affiliate marketing

How to get started with affiliate marketing

Step 1. Choose your niche

Your niche is the category you want to talk about and promote.

To differentiate yourself from the large number of websites that exist today, my advice is to be specific. Instead of tackling a sector as broad as food, opt for a more specific niche, such as grilling. This will help you build a more targeted audience and may also help with SEO.

Here are four questions you can ask yourself to find a good niche:

1. (1)What am I really good at?
2. (2)What do I like to do?
3. (3)What am I curious about?
4. (4)What do others tell me that I'm good at?

It is very important to choose something that you are passionate about. You will have to generate a lot of content to be successful with affiliate marketing. If you choose something that you hate or don't really like, you're going to have a really hard time when things turn sour.

For this reason, when I made my first website, I chose to talk about one of my hobbies: breakdancing. And despite not knowing anything about marketing, it grew to about 2,000 monthly visits.

Step 2: Choose a content platform

You can do affiliate marketing on any platform:

• (1)Web
• (2)YouTube
• (3)Social networks (Instagram, TikTok, etc.)
• (4)newsletter
• (5)Podcast

Which method you choose will depend on your preferences and sometimes those of your niche. For example, people learning to breakdance will prefer videos. So even if you prefer to write, having a YouTube channel may be the best option.

That being said, we recommend building a website and using search engine optimization (SEO) to rank your content at the top of Google. This allows us to consistently generate passive search traffic, which translates into consistent clicks on affiliate links.

Step 3: Find affiliate programs you want to join

There are three main types of affiliate programs to choose from:

1. High Commission, Low Volume: Niche products with few buyers. For example, HubSpot only sells to businesses, but their affiliate program pays very well (100% first month and 15% monthly recurring commission).
2. Low Commission, High Volume: Products with high appeal, such as PS5 games. For example, Amazon only pays up to 10% commission. But the good thing is that they offer commissions on the total value of the purchase (and not only on the recommended product).

High Commission, High Volume: Expensive products with high appeal, eg credit cards. The problem is that these programs often attract affiliate marketers with a lot of experience and money who are willing to use fraudulent tactics.

Which affiliate program is right for you? It depends on your niche and level of expertise.

If you're targeting consumers directly, go for the second model: low pay, high volume. If you're targeting businesses, go for the former: high pay, low volume. The most popular programs are those related to software and hosting.

The best way to find these affiliate programs is through a Google search. Another option is to enter a competitor's affiliate web page in Ahrefs Site Explorer and access the Linked Domains report .

For example, I know that there are sites specialized in the motor sector such as autofacil.es. If we take a look at the Linked Domains report, we can see that this site links many times to the domain of rastrator.com, a car insurance comparator.

Step 4: Create quality content

If you want your affiliate site to work, you have to create high-quality content. Content in which your affiliate links fit naturally. Put some effort into it and make sure your content solves your readers' problems.

For example, if you write reviews, you should buy the product and try it. Use it for a while and report your findings.

That's what Wirecutter did in all his articles, which explains his success. For example, to find the best air purifiers, they tested more than 50 products:

Chus Naharro created this gadget blog where he tried many of them to tell his real experience, what they look like and how they help him in his day-to-day work or free time.

His blog was liked so much that now he also has a podcast and a newsletter about gadgets and other interesting products that he finds.

When you make content, don't just review Amazon's best-selling products. You can go a step further to ensure that the content solves the reader's problem.

If you don't have money to buy each product, you can always start with what you have at home. For example, if you start a craft blog, you can review the products and materials you already have.