The Ultimate Affiliate Marketing Guide for Beginners

Affiliate marketing is one of the most powerful ways to generate an income online. But before we explore the huge potential of affiliate marketing, we need to lay the groundwork for everything else to come, and set you up for affiliate marketing success!

We have an affiliate program for ThemeDev as well. But we will get to that later.

Thousands of people search this term online regularly in order to make money. You will find thousands of articles on it. However, you will not find a real scenario.

So, as we also have an affiliate program, we decided to come out with real actionable tips so that people can start affiliate marketing the real way.

What Is Affiliate Marketing, Really?

Affiliate marketing is the process of earning a commission by promoting another company’s product (or service). You find a product, promote it to others, and earn a piece of the profit for each sale that you make.

The best part is that you don’t have to spend the time and money to create your own products, because someone else has already done the hard work. You can begin making money as an affiliate as soon as you have a place to recommend products, whether that’s a website you have, a podcast, or even on social media.

How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

First, you have to find a company or product that you want to promote. You need to select a product or service that you believe will be relevant to your blog’s topic and useful for your audience. The product or company you choose will be called a ‘Merchant’.

Next, you have to partner up with the company by joining their partner program. This makes you their ‘Affiliate’. Some companies also use the terms associates, partners, etc.

How to Start Affiliate Marketing, Tips for Beginners

Not too difficult, right? Just like running your own small business, becoming a successful affiliate takes dedication and discipline. Use the following step-by-step guide to start your affiliate marketing business.

So, we are going to give you all the basic tips you need to start your marketing right away. So bear with us.

Create a Website

First and foremost, you need to create a website of your own. Don’t worry, you don’t need to learn web development. With WordPress and its huge range of plugins creating a website is now child’s play.

Choose a cool domain name with a smart hosting plan. You can look at companies like,

1. Kinsta
2. Bluehost
3. Hostgator
4. Namecheap
5. WP Engine
6. Cloudways

They will all provide the tools you will need to create your very own website.

Select Affiliate Products and Services to Promote

There are many ways to find products and companies that you can partner up with as an affiliate. Here are some of the easiest ways to find the products you can promote.

1. Become an affiliate for products you already use

First, you need to look at the products and services that you already use and find useful. This makes it easy for you to convince your users about the product since you already know the pros and cons.

2. Join Bigger Affiliate Networks

Another way to find products to promote is by joining affiliate networks. These websites act as a middleman between affiliate marketers and merchants.

You will notice that many products and companies that you want to partner with already use an affiliate network. This helps you quickly find a lot of products that you can start promoting on your website.

3. Do the Necessary Research

Affiliate marketing is a highly competitive field. There are so many writers writing about the same product. In order to stand out, you need to have all the right ideas about the product or niche you chose

And to achieve that you need to conduct extensive research. Also, find out what other writers are writing. Try to find out what they are missing. WordPress industry is popular for its support forum.

4. Reach out to Companies

If you really want to promote a product but can’t find any information about their affiliate program, then you can simply ask them via email.

Some companies may not be actively promoting their affiliate program. If they have an affiliate program, then they can invite you to join.

5. Keep your audience in mind

Keep your website’s audience and their interests in mind when choosing the product. For example, if you run a fashion blog, then you would want to promote fashion accessories, clothing, and similar products that your audience would want to buy.

Affiliate Program for ThemeDev

As an example, one of our highest commission earner spent his earnings for a family vacation at Maldives. Imagine what you can do!

1. Upto $200 commission from a single sale
2. Dedicated mentorship from experts
3. Weekly follow up and tips via email
4. Frequent offers and promotions
5. Large amounts of creative for you!
6. Real-time sales reporting