How To Make Your First Sale Online As An Affiliate Marketer And Many, Many, More In The Future! This Is Your In – Depth Study Manual Disguised As A Blog Post:).
How to make your first sale online as an affiliate marketer
Hi Jay here it is nice to meet you my new blog reader.
I have been in the affiliate marketing game for 12 + years now since 2006 to be exact.
In these 12 + years as an affiliate marketer there has been a lots of ups and downs, but mostly ups, do to my perseverance, and learning everything I can about affiliate marketing and how to make the most money possible as an affiliate marketer.
If I did not know something in my early stages I would google it, watch a YouTube video, Or visit popular forums in my niche like the warriorforum to find answers to my questions.
All this is fine and dandy, but it is very time-consuming.
That I learned a bit later on through a lot of trial and error.
That is why I highly recommend affiliate marketing training or coaching from someone who is already successful in the business.
Because the right training can literally shed years of frustration, and wasted time, off of your learning curve for a very small investment.
The more you learn the more you earn my friends.
These are wise words.
But, in the mean time I am going to help you to at least get started, and then some.
I am here to save you a lot of time and frustration as you start your affiliate marketing journey.
So, you do not make the same time-consuming, costly mistakes that I did when I was new to the affiliate marketing game.
I learned a lot throughout my 12 + years as an affiliate marketer, and I continue to learn to this day.
But, the knowledge I have accumulated throughout the years can help you greatly, to make your first sale online as an affiliate marketer, and many many more in the future as you build your affiliate marketing business.
I have also made quite a bit of money online as an affiliate marketer throughout the years, and I want to help you to get started, and working towards doing the same.
You will not see no goofy fake money screenshots here.
What you will see is rock solid advice and videos to get you started on the right path to making your first sale as an affiliate marketer.
So, let me ask you this question?
Want to save massive amounts of time?
Want to make some money online?
Want to pay off some extra bills?
Want to build a nice side income?
Or, you may even want to turn affiliate marketing into a lucrative full-time job that you can do from the comfort of your own home.
Whatever route that you choose affiliate marketing when done properly can get you there.
Let me help you on your journey to making your first sale online, and many more in the future in this how-to blog post that many internet marketers would charge a pretty penny for, but I am giving this information to you for free.
I will take the liberty to put a full resources section below this blog post for all the products that that I use that can help you on your affiliate marketing journey as well.
So let’s dive in!
So what is affiliate marketing? How do I make money as an affiliate marketer?
Let me give you a quick rundown of affiliate marketing, how it works, and how you’re going to make money as an affiliate marketer.
Affiliate marketing comes in two different business models you could say.
The first model of affiliate marketing is traditional affiliate marketing where you get paid by sending customers to a sales page, through your affiliate link, then if they make a purchase, you get paid a commission for referring that sale through your affiliate link.
Commissions can range from 4% all the way up to 100% depending on what you are promoting.
Digital or information products pay a lot higher commissions that are usually in the ballpark of 50 all the way up to 100% commissions.
Physical products like if you sign up to be an Amazon associate generally pay much less but they have there own set of advantages as well.
Yes, Amazon has the biggest affiliate program in the world and everybody knows who Amazon is they are a household name.
I will cover digital and physical affiliate products later in this blog post.
But, let’s move on here.
The second model of affiliate marketing is CPA marketing or cost per action marketing.
In this model of affiliate marketing you are not paid for sale, you are paid for a particular action that the vendor wants you as the affiliate to perform.
For example:
Say there is a lawyer affiliate program that you are promoting, that wants you the affiliate to send your leads to a sign up page where the lead can get more information on drunk driving, or needs a lawyer to help with her drunk driving case.
If you send a lead to the lawyers opt in page where the lead enters their first and last name to give more information then you are paid a commission.
Say the commission for leads is $20 per lead.
You just made $20 by sending a qualified lead to that particular lawyers opt in page, where he can follow up with that lead and potentially get himself a paying client, that could be worth thousands to him or her.
So, this was just one scenario I came up with there are tons of niches, and products, that you can promote as a CPA or cost per action affiliate.
You are paid for leads not sales!
They can be even downloads, filling out a survey, or signing up to someone’s email list to learn more.
These are all the various avenues to make money as a CPA affiliate marketer.
Maxbounty, and Peerfly are two very reputable cost per action affiliate marketing programs that you can sign up for free to find cost per action affiliate products to promote.
I myself prefer the traditional affiliate marketing route, but there are a ton of affiliates that make a lot of money as cost per action affiliates.
So the choice is yours!
You can even do both business models and see which one performs the best for your particular needs.
Let’s get into the good stuff how to make money as an affiliate marketer step by step getting started.
The first thing you will want to do as a greenhorn affiliate marketer is to learn the very basics.
You are gonna want to know what affiliate programs to sign up with?
You are going to want to know how to create an affiliate hoplink link so you can get paid?
You are going to want to at least think about starting a blog or website?
Is a blog or website mandatory? No, but it is highly recommended!
What are some ways to drive traffic to your affiliate links, blog or website?
And The Most Important Aspect Of Affiliate Marketing Is Starting And Building An Email List Once You Have The Basics Down And Some Sales Under Your Belt Or Garter:)
So What Affiliate Programs Should I sign Up For To Find Potentially Lucrative Affiliate Programs To Promote?
Okay, so what affiliate programs should you sign up for?
If you want to go the digital affiliate program route I highly suggest Clickbank because they are the biggest digital affiliate network in the world, covering many niches, and they have paid out billions of dollars since their inception in 1997.
1997 is dinosaur years in terms of how fast the Internet moves and has been around.
Clickbank has tens of thousands of affiliate products for you to promote in every niche pretty much under the sun that you can earn commissions on.
Clickbank also has tens of thousands of affiliates Worldwide looking for quality products to promote and make money with.
To sign up as an affiliate marketer for Clickbank all you have to do is go to their sign-up page, enter your personal information such as your name, your address, etc…
Pretty basic stuff.
As a new affiliate with Clickbank when you meet their payment threshold, which is I think five sales, then you are sent a check to your home address.
After you meet that initial payment threshold then you are paid on every sale that you make as an affiliate.
You are then given the option to even have direct deposit into your bank account if you so choose, granted that you are in the United States or Canada or one of the countries that Clickbank allows direct deposits for.
Clickbank products generally pay 50 to 75% affiliate commissions.
And as a Clickbank affiliate you get paid on all upsells, which are related products that are offered to a customer after the initial purchase.
Clickbank is awesome, and it is a United States company located in Boise Idaho.
So, if you are looking to promote digital products like ebooks, courses, downloads, apps, training courses, or anything in between that is digital in nature.
Then Clickbank should be your #1 go to affiliate network to find whatever it is that you are looking for.
So go sign up for clickbank and find some affiliate products to promote.
Here is a how to video on how to make money with Clickbank that became very popular on Youtube that you can watch.
Let’s move onto talking about an affiliate program named JVZoo now shall we;)
JVzoo is one of my all-time favorite affiliate programs.
JVzoo is great if you are in the Internet marketing – make money online niche.
JVzoo does have a lot of other niches besides the Internet marketing make money online niche as well, but a bulk of their promotions is for the Internet marketing niche.
JVzoo has two ways for affiliates to get paid affiliate commissions.
Generally new affiliates are put on delayed commissions where they are paid after the refund period Is over which is usually 30 days.
Once you get some sales under your belt as a JVzoo affiliate the product vendors will start to put you on instant commissions, where you will get paid instant commissions directly to your PayPal account.
JVzoo affiliates whether delayed or instant get paid through PayPal, so make sure you set up a PayPal business account which is free, so you can collect your affiliate commissions once you do start making sales.
Granted you stick with affiliate marketing and you are not a quitter, crybaby, or whiner that thinks the World owes them something.
Phew, glad I got that off my chest:)
Anyways,
JVzoo for me is awesome because I like instant payments for every sale that I make.
Here is a JVZoo tutorial video that I put together for you that shows you how to get started making money with JVZoo and how to find a good product to promote as an affiliate.
Moving on here,
For those of you that want to go the physical product route then Amazon is the three headed monster Dragon that you are going to want to sign up with.
To sign up as an Amazon affiliate go to the Amazon Associates program.
Type Amazon associate program into Google and it will pop up.
No rocket science involved;)
Follow the basic directions to sign up by creating an Amazon account, payment information, etc.
Pretty easy cut and dry stuff similar to signing up with Clickbank.
Amazon affiliates get paid anywhere from 4% to 15% affiliate commissions for successfully referring a sale to whatever Amazon product that they are promoting.
Yes, the commissions are lower than digital products, but Amazon is a household name, and once people buy the initial product, they tend to buy a lot more, and you get credit for every sale that you generate.
Amazon is also the master of the upsell.
Which means more money in your pockets for you the referring affiliate.
The Amazon Associates program is filled with promotional material that you can use to market any one of the millions of products that are available for purchase on the Amazon affiliate network.
So, if you wanted to start an e-commerce store and add Amazon affiliate products to it to promote as an affiliate so you can monetize your site, than that would be one way to go.
Find a lucrative niche that you are interested i,n where there is money to be made in, and monetize your website or blog with related Amazon affiliate products.
So, if the Amazon Associates program sounds like something you’re interested in head on over and sign up and find some products to promote and get the ball rolling.
If you want to be a cost per action affiliate or CPA affiliate.
That I discussed previously above in this blog post, where you are paid not for the sale, but for every action that a lead performs for a vendors product that you are promoting.
Your next step would be to head on over to Max bounty, and Peerfly and sign up for their CPA affiliate network to find some offers to promote.
So How Do You Create An Affiliate Hoplink So You Can Get Paid As An Affiliate?
I created this tutorial video about six years ago but it is still very, very, relevant today.
The Internet changes fast but some things remain the same such as the basics.
I use the same exact techniques today for creating an affiliate hoplink as I did when this video was created six years ago.
I will leave the video below so you can watch at your convenience.
A video is a lot better to learn from than just a plain blog post so that is why I am mixing content, and video together because people learn in different ways.
Okay, so you’re done watching the video above about how to create an affiliate hoplink properly, so you have the the basics of how to get started as an affiliate marketer and make money online.
Kudos to you that you made it this far maybe you are a born entrepreneur in the making:)
One thing I would like to add to look more professional is you should definitely buy a link cloaker you can click here to check out the affiliate link cloaker that I personally use, or just type in affiliate link cloakers, and pick the software up at your convenience if you choose to.
Affiliate link cloakers hide your affiliate link, look more professional, and in turn will make you more sales in the long run.
Link cloakers are optional, not mandatory, but all professional affiliates as well as bloggers pretty much use them.
They are pretty much a must when you start to build an email list and start sending broadcasts to your subscribers.
But that is another blog post altogether.
Now The Really Good Stuff Should You Start A Website Or A Blog?
I highly recommend that you start your own website or blog because it is your own peace of Internet real estate that no one can take away from you.
All you have to do is pay the few bucks a month in hosting charges, and you are locked and loaded, and ready for some serious business.
If you cannot afford the couple bucks a month it takes to run a blog or a website you probably shouldn’t be in business for yourself to begin with.
That is dirt cheap to start a business of any sort whether it be online or off.
That is the power of the Internet in 2018 – the Internet has opened countless doors, and countless opportunities for the average Joe to make a living online.
Or, at least make a nice side income on top of your full-time job if you so choose.
Anyway you slice it the choice is yours, and the ball is now in your court.
Let’s play ball!
Here are some reasons why I recommend that you start a website or blog.
You control it!
You have a a site to send your leads your latest products or services, or even your latest blog posts that you have published in your niche.
You have a place to build your email list which is where 90% of the money that you make online will come from.
Your own blog or website will make you look more professional in the eyes of your customers.
Having a website or blog is just smart business period!
The first thing that you are going to want to do before you start a website or blog is research a good domain name for your new business.
Your domain name is your internet real estate address like Facebook.com Youtube.com etc…
Here is a tutorial video on how to pick a domain name using Godaddy as an example:
If you want to learn how to set up a WordPress blog properly, I have a very in depth blog post that shows you how to do everything from A through Z located on the very top menu bar of this blog where you will see the post on how to start a WordPress blog.
You can also choose to start your own e-commerce site.
Many affiliates choose this path nowadays do to the billions of dollars that are generated yearly through e-commerce giants like Amazon etc.
Affiliates want their piece of the pie and who can blame them?
E-commerce is booming online!
Just take a look around you, in your local neighborhood, of big chain franchises that are now going out of business, because online stores like Amazon are basically taking over the world.
The world is shifting, like it or not, and has been for some time to online shopping.
The question is are you going to shift or change with it?
If you choose the e-commerce route over starting a blog or website than that is fine.
They are both excellent routes to make money online, if you are motivated, and ready to work on your business on a consistent basis as time permits.
If you want to start your own e-commerce store, and go that route, perhaps you will choose to be an Amazon associate, and build an e-commerce site revolving around Amazon products, which is a good idea, especially if it’s niche specific.
Opening up an e-commerce store as an affiliate, or even selling your own products on your e-commerce store, is an excellent way to make money online.
If you want a free 14 day trial to my recommended e-commerce store builder then click here I’ll leave you a link.
This e-commerce store builder is super easy to use, and is brought to you by one of the biggest names in e-commerce.
That is why I recommend it to my blog readers because of the ease of use, and the longevity of the platform.
Either way that you choose, they are both excellent ways to make money online.
You really can’t go wrong either way, it is just a personal preference on the route that you choose to take.
How To Drive Traffic To Your Affiliate Offers? So You Can Make Some Money:)
There are so many ways to drive traffic to your affiliate offers it’s ridiculous.
The Internet is a huge, huge, place!
But, as an affiliate marketer you want to find the ideal prospects who would be interested in buying whatever product that you are promoting.
Ask yourself these questions?
Where would my potential client, prospect, or buyer be hanging out.
Maybe they are hanging out on popular forums in your niche.
If so, maybe you should join that particular forum for free, and add a signature link directly to your affiliate product if the forum allows it, or point your potential customers to a blog post that is talking about that particular product or service that you are promoting.
If you have a budget, you may even want to advertise on that particular forum that has a lot of people who would be interested in whatever it is that you are promoting as an affiliate.
Social networking – Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Instagram, twitter, and Google plus are just some of the ways that you can reach your next potential sale.
You can start a Facebook fan page that revolves around your chosen niche, and lead your prospects back to your blog or website.
Or, you can even link directly to the affiliate product that you are promoting on Facebook granted that you have a link cloaker that you are using that disguises you affiliate link.
Some affiliate links on Facebook will work without a link cloaker but most of them will be blocked by Facebooks system.
LinkedIn – LinkedIn is my personal favorite social networking site for business professionals, because it is just that business professionals who are there to network, and do business.
You will not find a lot of silly stuff like cat videos, funny videos, or dogs doing silly stuff on LinkedIn.
Yes, ha ha they are hilarious but they will not make you any money.
That silly stuff is for people with the Facebook messing around mindset who are just there for fun, and not business.
I forgot to mention that the average income for a LinkedIn user is 75K per year and that is just average, a lot of Linkedin users make much, much, more.
Do you see how LinkedIn can be a gold mine for your online business?
People that use that site mean business, and they have money to spend.
Sounds like the ideal clientele that I would be looking for my Internet business wouldn’t you agree?
That is why Linkedin is a great way to reach potential buyers.
Twitter – I am not an expert on Twitter., I know the basics as well as a few cool tricks that are fairly common knowledge, like how to put a hashtag before your keywords so that you show up in search for your Tweets etc…
Example: I love being an #affiliate #marketer
Example: Thanks for reading my blog post you #sexy #beast.
hash tag sexy beast raaaahhhhh;)
You liked that sexy beast part didn’t you:) lol
Back to business my sexy beasts:)
You should also add images in your Tweets because they will catch more peoples attention and be shared more often etc….
Pinterest: If you are promoting anything related to a primarily female based audience then you are going to want to start advertising for free on Pinterest.
Women love Pinterest more than shopping for shoes.
This site is a goldmine for women related affiliate products.
Getting Traffic From Blogging –
Getting traffic from your blog in the form of blogging about your chosen niche, or maybe doing a review of an affiliate product that you are promoting, is a great free way to drive traffic to your blog or affiliate offers.
When you first start a blog getting your blog post to the top of the search engines will take a little bit of effort on your part, depending on how competitive your chosen niche is.
But, with proper search engine optimization you can have your blog posts ranking fairly quickly.
You need to post unique content that is not published anywhere else on the Internet to get ranked in the search engines.
Do not copy and paste other people’s work and claim it as your own it is called plagiarism, it is illegal, and you will be hurting your blog greatly in the process.
Post helpful content that helps your blog readers solve a problem of some sort that they are having, or give an honest unbiased product review of an affiliate product that you are promoting.
Longer blog posts of 2000+ words that meet these criteria seem to rank the best in the search engines based on my research.
You will also want to get relevant backlinks to your blog from major sites like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, forums in your niche, and relevant authority sites.
Blog commenting on the top blogs in your niche, with a link back to your blog, works wonders for free traffic and SEO purposes.
If you are the first to comment on a popular blog post you will be amazed at how much free traffic you can really get.
Just make sure you write relevant, well thought out blog comments, for maximum click through rates over to your blog.
If you follow these blogging tips there will be a lot of free traffic coming your way.
Youtube For Tons Of Free Traffic –
The link I just highlighted titled YouTube for tons of free traffic is a link to my personal YouTube channel where I have almost 14,000 subscribers that I have built up over the years doing simple screenshot tutorial videos.
I myself do not want to make silly videos, do pranks, do podcasts type videos, or anything in between that gets a ridiculous amount of views.
Well, those are all great things I mentioned above but not my thing.
Heck, if you want to be the next YouTube star then by all means go for it some of those guys and girls make a ton of money just from their YouTube channels.
But, I talk about affiliate marketing, Internet marketing, making money online, and various product reviews of the products that I have used throughout the years to help build my business etc.
I do helpful YouTube videos with the link in the description box that leads people back to my blog, or my various squeeze pages that I use to build my email list, and get leads for my business.
Anyway that you plan on using YouTube, Youtube is probably the best source of free traffic when used properly on the Internet, bar none!
So, add YouTube marketing to your free affiliate marketing traffic campaigns.
See the signup form at the top of my blog for a ton of free traffic sources that I did not cover in this blog post.
Why Starting An Email List Will Be The Best Investment You Ever Make For Your Online Business
Like I said previously in this blog post, about 90% of the money that I make online comes directly from my email list, so it is critically important to start an email list as soon as possible once you get the basics of affiliate marketing down, and get a few sales under your belt.
Your very first step will be finding a legitimate email service provider that’s been around for years, that has all the bells and whistles and tools, and has a high deliverability rate.
I have been with a company called Aweber for about eight years now, so I can speak very highly of them, based on my extended period of being a customer of theirs.
Aweber has made me a lot of money online plain and simple.
So, if you are looking for a great email service provider then look no further than who I use based on my 8 years of experience as a customer of theirs.
You can get one month free with no strings attached by clicking here and joining through my link.
That was step one.
Step two is learning how to properly build and grow your email list.
I like to give away a freebie in the form of an e-book, private blog post, or even a tutorial video that over delivers in value, and has your visitors jaws hitting the floor saying to themselves.
Is he really giving away this information for free?
God bless you Jay! God bless you!
Obviously, I am being dramatic but you get the point.
I have to have it, equals new subscriber on your email list.
When you over deliver in value with the free stuff that you give away, you are not only bringing good karma to the World, you are also going to build your email list that much faster.
So, only put out quality products to give away as a freebie to build your email list.
If you want some excellent email marketing training that shows you how to do all this stuff from A through Z then click here this training help you out a lot.
The money is in the email list people.
Trust me when I say this.
Here’s a helpful video called email marketing for beginners where I go over some more points of email marketing to help you to better understand it.
So, The Question Still Remains How Do You Make Your First Sale Online As An Affiliate Marketer?
Well, it is a combination of all the strategies that I mentioned in this blog post.
But, if I had to tell you a few of my favorite strategies they would be #1 email marketing make sure you build you list and recommend related affiliate products to your list.
If you need help on how to start your own email list then click here and check this out.
If you do not need help, and want to learn on your own, and waste a ton of time, you can go that route too:) I did that but it was stupid as hell.
My second favorite way would be through Facebook because I am assuming that you have a Facebook account.
Everyone has a Facebook account right dumb question:)
Heck, recommend a product to your grandma, your mom, your dad, your auntie, your ex, and even your cousin to the 5th power so you can see your first sale online and verify for yourself that this affiliate marketing stuff is for real.
Maybe they like cooking.
Sign up for Clickbank and find related cooking products to recommend, gardening, home improvement, the list goes on and on.
Just brainstorm, and get your chosen affiliate products out there, so you can get a few sales under your belt.
I remember my first affiliate commission back in 2007 it was a Clickbank product on how to get rid of man boobs.
I remember thinking at the time men are weird creatures.
I know because I am one, I bet this product would sell well and it did.
I even promoted a product that showed men how to make there penises bigger naturally through exercises they could do at home.
And no I do not have that problem shame on you for thinking that!
Lol, in all seriousness though a lot of men do, and will pay for any problem that needs some fixing.
And that is where you the affiliate come into play.
Your job is to find a great product that solves your customers problems and get that product in front of them.
You help them, and you make money from your efforts.
Affiliate marketing is a win, win, for everyone involved.
I hope you enjoyed this blog post, it took me a long time to put together for you, so if you can share it with a friend on your favorite social networking site as a thank you, I would really appreciate the gesture:)
P.S. I left some of my helpful resources that I mentioned inside this blog post on the link below for your convenience.
In Conclusion, And What To Expect From Your Affiliate Marketing Journey:
Affiliate marketing can be a roller coaster ride of various ups and downs that you will endure throughout the years if you stick with it.
The rewards of affiliate marketing can bear a lot of fruit, sometimes a lot of headache, when you get really good at it the sales start pouring in like that broken dam in New Orleans following that hurricane.
There are some slow times, sometimes you will be living high on the hog, and sometimes the sales will just be trickling in at a snails pace.
But, as silly as it sounds, sometimes you need this snails pace to realize that you need to kick your ass in gear and figure out why you’re not selling as much is you should be as an affiliate.
Affiliate marketing is a multibillion dollar yearly legitimate business model that has been around since pretty much the invention of the Internet, and is growing by leaps and bounds year by year.
The Internet has changed the way we can make money in the 21st century.
No longer do we have to be confined to the spaces of a 9-5 job of punching a time clock if we choose not to.
The Internet has unlocked the doors to amazing opportunities that did not exist in our grandparents era.
I chuckle nowadays when I hear people saying you can really make money on the Internet?
I answer come on Fred Flintstone this isn’t bedrock anymore get with the times buddy.
Do you have a strong work ethic?
Do you like a challenge?
Do you like learning new things?
Do you have an Internet connection?
Then you just may have what it takes to be a great affiliate marketer one day.
The Internet has created a ton of Internet millionaires throughout the years.
Who knows maybe you will be the next Internet millionaire!
Only time will tell but one thing is for certain it will never happen if you do not get started.
To your online success, Jay
Helpful Resources I Discussed In This Blog Post To Help You On Your Affiliate Marketing Journey.
Click here and check out everything that can help you out, so I do not clog up this helpful blog post with unnecessary links.
Trust me this page is worth your time.
Good luck on your journey, and cheers to your first sale online, and many more in the future.
Jay:)