How To Earn Money As An Affiliate? Discover The Initial Steps

10 Tips For Those Who Are Starting to Sell Digital Products! 

If you are here it is because you are wondering how to earn money as an affiliate? Pay attention because we will show you the initial steps you must follow to start earning extra income with this activity.

And first of all, rest assured that it is possible to create your own business as an affiliate by promoting other people's products on the Internet.

This type of work has been highly sought after in recent years. Mainly by those who have sales skills, want to work online and on their own, but without the need to create a digital product.

The problem is that many people don't know where to start. How to become an affiliate? What should be considered when choosing a product? What are the best dissemination channels?

If you have identified yourself with this profile and want to know how to start, keep reading this post. You will discover the initial steps to start selling online right now .

IMPORTANT NOTE: This Guide May Be Outdated. To Get 2022 Updated Version With Up To Date Tips → Click Here

First of all, what is an affiliate?

If you still don't know what an affiliate is and what it does, it's time to learn about this type of work.

An affiliate is a person who promotes and recommends the products of other people (known as Producers), whether physical or digital. To do this, it promotes the links of the products that are available on sales platforms.

Every time a sale is made using this link, the affiliate receives a predetermined commission.

In addition to extensive knowledge in sales techniques , affiliates are also experts in the digital market and create strategies to increase their sales.

This happens because they constantly study the market and everything related to marketing to promote a product.

This profession was well known mainly after the creation of the Amazon affiliate program, which allowed the dissemination and sale of products on the Internet to reach a global scale.

But it was only in the year 2000 that affiliate marketing became more widely known and became a reality all over the world.

At this time, people understood the advantages of promoting third-party products and realized how this sales model was economically advantageous, in addition to being free of great risks.

In addition, the improvements of the available tools and the creation of other affiliate programs made this market grow not only focused on the sale of physical products, but mainly on digital products, such as online courses and ebooks.

It is important to remember that there are some prohibited practices in the Affiliate market, such as the spread of SPAM, the sale of unattainable promises and the misuse of tools. 

If you want to know more about the subject, consult our Manual of Good Practices for Producers and Affiliates .

How to earn money as an Affiliate in 10 steps

If you are interested in this profession and want to start working on the Internet, see the initial steps to earn money as an affiliate.

1. Learn about the digital market

If you want to work on the Internet, the first step, before anything else, is to study and learn everything about the digital market.

You must understand how online sales work, what resources you can use to promote products, who your competitors are and, above all, what is on the rise.

Believe it, it is possible to earn money as an affiliate even if you are not very familiar with the digital market, as long as you dedicate yourself and want to learn more about this area.

Working as an affiliate is something that depends a lot on you and your willpower. In the end, it is you who needs to dedicate some time of your day to study and learn about this profession.

The affiliate market is constantly growing, so it is essential that you do not miss anything that happens in the digital market, always taking into consideration the needs of your business.

A good suggestion is to follow marketing blogs and YouTube channels that talk about the digital market.

In addition to being free, they belong to people who already know the market. Then the tips you will find can help you a lot.

To earn money as an Affiliate you need a lot of dedication, especially at the beginning, given the lack of experience, but it is totally possible to learn what is necessary about the digital world from the beginning and generate good profits.

2. Study the best marketing techniques

Do you remember that at the beginning of this post we said that to earn money as an affiliate it was important that you be skilled in sales?

Since your mission is to promote and recommend other people's products, it is essential that you understand everything about marketing.

But do not think that only those who already know the dissemination strategies can start selling online.

As in tip 1, it is possible to study marketing techniques and learn everything that involves sales skills.

It may seem like an impossible challenge for those who start in this world of Affiliates, but the Internet is full of quality and easily accessible content that works as study material to make those first sales.

There are several digital marketing courses that teach you from beginner techniques to the most advanced ones, and you can find some that are even free. So there is no excuse not to learn how to make sales online.

3. Define the buyer person of your business

To create effective sales strategies, you need to know who you are communicating with and who your ideal customer is.

For this reason, it is important to know in depth the characteristics of your niche, your target audience, and above all, your buyer persona.

Digital marketing, unlike traditional marketing, requires much more personalized and segmented strategies. Therefore, the definition of the buyer person is the main point to carry out a good segmentation.

It is more than a semi-fictional representation of your ideal client. In other words: to create it, you must collect data from your real customers, and then define your buyer person or avatar.

Putting it into practice, you will have a clearer vision of who your ideal client is and what they expect from your business. Thus, you can plan your actions more objectively and put the customer first, which is very important for success.

If you haven't created yours yet, discover how to create a buyer persona for your business !

4. Choose your market niche

Once you are inside the most relevant about the digital universe and understand more deeply the affiliate market, it is time to define your niche.

Remember in the first tip we said you need to understand what's up in the market? Therefore, this is one of the most important steps when choosing your niche market .

This is very important when you choose your area of ​​action.

It is clear that you should think about the topics that you like and the areas with which you identify the most. But it is possible that you have an interest in various niches and think about what is trending, that can help you a lot to choose the area in which you will act.

Think about your skills and hobbies, because this way you can promote a product with which you are already familiar and you will talk about a topic that you already have a good command of.

But, in addition, do a search in Google Trends and find out what are the most searched topics on the Internet. This way you will be able to understand if the area in which you plan to work can even be lucrative.

But beware! We are not saying here that if you choose an area that is not trending it means that you are not going to sell.

Your sales depend on how you spread and promote your proposal and for whom you create your marketing actions. Therefore, even if your niche is not very sought after, with the right actions and a well-engaged audience, you can earn money as an affiliate.

5. Choose a good affiliate program

It is useless to learn everything about selling online, if you are not part of a good affiliate program.

This happens because it is in the program that you will find all the necessary tools to boost your sales, in addition, of course, to the products that you will promote.

There are several online platforms that have an affiliate program , so it can be difficult to choose the one that you will use.

To help you, we have prepared the main characteristics that an affiliate program should have:

Large number of registered digital products;

Good commissions;

Possibility of selling anywhere in the world;

Easy to find the product that best suits you;

Evaluation of the products to find out which ones have the most sales potential;

Product information provided by the Producer so you know exactly what you are promoting;

Possibility of creating special offers, such as bonuses in ebook format, infographics or any other material that you want to give to buyers;

Flexibility to create your own campaigns and adapt them according to your audience;

Guarantee of receipt of sales commissions made;

Ease of finding outreach materials ready to use and available by the Producer;

Real-time reports so you can follow all the information about your sales and thus be able to measure your performance.

6. Define what product you are going to sell

Before putting your outreach skills to work, you need to assess which product will give you the best return.

We are not only talking about the popularity of the product, but about some criteria that must be taken into account and that directly influence your performance as an Affiliate.

Some points that you should evaluate:

Number of outreach materials available to use

It is important to know, for example, the number of alternative pages available by the Producer and if the product has a registered domain.

This way you can better understand who is the audience you need to work with.

Structured offer

See if the offer of the product you have chosen convinces you.

Also, make sure that the offer has all the stages well built in order to better show your audience that this product really delivers the value they are looking for.

product temperature

Think about the strategies you will use when choosing the product you want to sell. This will help you define what is the best temperature for you.

For example:

If you are a specialist in buying traffic, it is possible to choose a product with a slightly lower temperature, since you will be investing in paid ads.

Now, if you already have an audience, look for a product with the elevated temperature, since you are more likely to be able to sell it to your audience.

Analyze the seasonality of the product

Do you remember that we talked about searching Google Trends, and what are the topics that are most on the rise?

Understanding the seasonality of a product is very important when choosing the product you are going to promote, as it will help you understand if the sale will be momentary or recurring.

In addition, you will be able to understand what is the best time of the year to promote the product you have chosen.

Affiliate Support

Prioritize the products with which you have easy access to the Producer.

Thus, whenever you have any questions, you can quickly contact someone who understands more about the product.

Set commission

Understand the rule by which you will earn commissions as a result of the sales you make. This way you will know exactly when to count a sale, if it is on the first or last click, for example.

Build trust

Finally, choose a product that you really trust. This way, it will be much easier to talk about what you are promoting.

Don't think about just making money as an affiliate.

Choose a product that provides value to who is buying and that can even become a lasting business for you.

7. Promote products on the internet

With the product link you can start promoting!

But do not think that this is an easy task. Do you remember that we talked about learning about the digital market, studying digital marketing techniques and defining the buyer person?

All this will be reflected when you promote the product . Anyway, there is no point in disclosing the links and expecting great things. It takes focus, planning and strategy to earn positive returns and survive in this market.

Not to mention that your goal should always be to grow and make more sales!

To do this, you must gain prominence and trust in the digital market. This is what we call authority . That is, achieve enough presence and relevance so that your sales automatically increase.

But how do you build authority? With digital presence, content marketing and perseverance. Therefore:

Create social media profiles that make sense for your business;

Create a website, a blog and publish frequent content that solves the doubts of the clients;

Answer all questions from potential buyers and maintain an open channel and close relationship with them;

Capture emails from users and send them frequent communications;

Don't just think about selling, you have to offer valuable content and good experiences to those who interact with your business;

Know the right time to disclose the product! Each person is ready to buy at a specific time and marketing and sales strategies will help you find the right time to make the sale.

Regarding content formats, the ideal is to diversify. Write texts with tips and information to help your buyer persona, but also create shorter videos that arouse more interest and become more interactive.

With these tips, you will be able to build your name in the digital market, increase your followers and customer loyalty and, of course, grow your business!

8. Make a business plan

The business plan is a great way to structure analyses, objectives and goals that will improve your workflow and consequently help you achieve more sales.

With this planning, you will be able to identify what is working well in the business, what could be improved, and you will have a broader vision so that you can find the right solutions to the problems that arise.

You will organize all the fundamental areas such as marketing, finance and operations in a single plan, which will also make it easier for you to connect between each of these areas.

With good planning, you will be really prepared to earn money as an Affiliate in the best way!

9. Avoid SPAM and questionable practices

You probably don't like receiving SPAM from brands you don't know in your email, just as you wouldn't like them to start a WhatsApp sales group without your consent or buy something that doesn't deliver on what was promised.

These practices are extremely damaging to the image of your business, contributing to potential customers not being interested in your product, not feeling safe buying from you and ending up unsubscribing from email and social networks.

In addition to losing recognition, you will also risk having your accounts banned if you don't use best practices and violate the platform's rules. This is a big obstacle for your work.

We know that there is an expectation of getting a lot of sales and commissions, but it is not worth risking your reputation. You will get more results if you act carefully, respecting your clients and applying techniques that really work.

10 Track your results

A business without analysis hides many unresolved problems!

Monitor the results regularly. Check the performance of the content of your campaigns, observe the opening data of your email, analyze the conversion metrics and see how many people were interested in the product you are offering.

As an Affiliate, it is very important that you pay attention to the metrics related to sales through your link, so you will find the best way to offer your product to the public or even understand if it is worth continuing to sell it.

With all this information, you will be able to understand what you need to change, act faster and more assertively, invest less, obtain more results and waste less time with any problem.

Start earning money as an affiliate

These are the first steps you need to take to start working as an affiliate.

As you must have noticed, anyone who is willing to learn more about the digital market and wants to develop online sales techniques can promote products on the Internet.

Promoting digital products is a great way to start your own business and still work from wherever you want.

What did you think of these initial tips?

If you want to take the next step, read this post that will teach you how to make your first sale as an affiliate to start right now.

Good sales!