Trust me when I tell you that this might be the only answer you will ever need to follow through because it is based on personal experience and over a decade of testing and learning what works in affiliate marketing.
I assume you already know what affiliate marketing is so I won’t bore you with that but go straight into the meat of the matter.
This post is about affiliate marketing in the internet marketing niche using Clickbank, JVZoo and Warriorplus for the most part. So if you are more interested in Amazon affiliate marketing and other similar platforms… this might not apply.
But before I go on to tell you how to start affiliate marketing. I would like to share my own personal story of how I started and hopefully that would help guide.
MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
I have always been obsessed with making money online. I believe it’s that beacon of light to anyone’s finances.
The idea of getting a degree is all well and good in the beginning till you figure out you have only spent your whole life working and not living.
It doesn’t hurt to have a source of income from a business you can carry about on a laptop anywhere you go.
So I decided I would succeed one way or another through this internet marketing thing starting off with affiliate marketing as it is the easiest to jump on.
When I was done with high school, years ago. I would usually spend all my time surfing the internet in a cyber cafe trying to find how to make money online.
But my quest never got to an expected end and the reason is I had the wrong mindset, and I was not consistent.
I ended up getting on every email list online that promised the next magical click button that could make me money while I sat on my couch watching the latest movie in my pyjamas.
My email ended up getting filled with hundreds of thousands of emails from hundreds of so called gurus.
At some point I gave up on the email and asked yahoo to close my account because the emails were so many I did not even know which was which or who was who.
After my account was closed I gave up on making money online and decided to push for real life hustles.
I spent another 7 years on one job or another but nothing really made sense because all I was doing was working to pay bills…nothing else.
Something inside me kept reminding me of my dream to be successful online because I just plain hated the life I was living.
I hated my job so much and it was in these moments I felt the worst in my life.
And to add more salt to injury. COVID hit and the lockdown posed a threat to the same job I hated, but it was my only source of income and I had to start looking for alternatives.
Then it hit me. If I was making money online now, I would not be worried about losing my job because I could take my business anywhere.
That was when I started to question myself,
- Why I was yet to find out what worked online after all these years?
- If this was the life I would live forever?
Then it dawned on me, in addition to my inconsistency, one of the things I did in the past that led me to my struggle to make a dime online was my unwillingness to pay for anything.
Instead, I would subscribe to get a free ebook that claimed to teach some awesome method and try to figure things out on my own.
You would know, if you have ever subscribed to any free email list in the past, you are given access to a free ebook that gives you some information or sometimes a bird’s eye view of how to make money with a certain method and then introduce a paid version that goes in depth.
Well for me, I never paid for any. I tried to figure it out on my own and that costs me years of time wasting.
It was there and then I made up my mind to find a mentor or someone whom I could at least follow step by step.
So, I decided to start my search again on how to make money online just to see what has been happening all this time I have been away. That’s when I bumped into an internet marketing expert who had a course on affiliate marketing.
The price of the course was way above what I had at the time, so I chatted an old friend of mine who lent me some cash and helped me pay for it.
I went through the course thoroughly and for some reason I valued it, because it was paid for.
Long story short, I tried one of the methods in the course and made my first affiliate commission, which was $14.03.
This might be little but this was the propellant I needed. I was so excited about my new found success and this triggered so much enthusiasm to make more and I decided to repeat the process which made me over $1000 that same year after selling off my site on Flippa for an extra $500.
Here is a screenshot of some of my earnings.
This is nothing, compared to what most top affiliates make.
Top affiliates make 6 figures in most cases (more on this in the bonus section).
Sorry to bore you with my story but it’s just to let you know that without consistency you cannot succeed in affiliate marketing.
Brace yourself for failure and time wasting if you chose to figure things out on your own, and follow any guru out there without a clear plan regarding what you want to achieve.
It’s fine to learn as much as possible from as many gurus as you can, but make sure they are teaching the different parts of what you wish to succeed in affiliate marketing.
For instance one guru might be good at copywriting and another with email marketing, another with paid ads, another with SEO. But before you get started you really need to map out where you wish to go and the tools you need to get there.
Let me give you some advise. Please dispose the word FREE from your mindset. It is a time waster. Anything FREE sucks.
This is a business, treat it as one.
In the offline world, you don’t start a company for free. Whether it is the registration of your LLC, getting your office location, the service or product you intend to sell. Nothing comes free.
So do not assume just because this business is online, then everything should be free. Nope, it doesn’t work that way.
With that being said you need money to make money. If you don’t have the funds you need to save it up (not borrow) somehow. If you do not have access to funds, get a job and save up the cash you need to invest in this business.
2 SKILLS YOU NEED TO LEARN
Now here is a bird’s eye view of 2 skills you really need to get started and succeed in affiliate marketing.
You need to;
- Learn everything about traffic
- You need to learn copywriting.
Everything you learn from every guru is summed up in these 2 skills. Once you get them under your belt, you will not only be a successful affiliate marketer but an internet marketing guru as well.
Having read and watched so many tutorials I have purchased over the years. I have come to understand that all of them touch on these 2 skills in one way or another.
No matter what method most gurus claim to teach.
Everything still boils down to the fact that you need to drive traffic and apply copywriting skills in order to make the sales.
Now lets touch on both skills a bit.
1. Pick a traffic method
First you need to pick a traffic method. In my experience, there are lots of them and can be quite confusing. Like I said, Anything FREE sucks.
So focus on paid traffic if you want to succeed faster. Here are the 2 traffic sources I recommend. Google and Facebook. Focus on either (not both) and learn all you can about it.
There are many courses out there. Some are freely available on both platforms. Start there and learn all you can.
For Google, I recommend you start learning all you can about Google ads through their certification course. For Facebook, their meta blueprint free online course is a great start.
SAVING THE TRAFFIC
What I mean by saving that traffic is getting the traffic to your email list.
This is so important, as it saves you money in the long run.
Let me paint a scenario…
If you send traffic to an offer you are promoting.
There is every possibility the person will not buy at that very moment and what this means is, in order to get that person to buy you will need to run more paid ads (more money spending) to get them to finally buy. If not, you would have lost that potential customer forever.
But when you get the person to subscribe to your list, you save that traffic and you can reach out to the person to promote any offer anytime you want, without the need to pay Facebook or Google over and over again.
Once you understand how the traffic method works. Then you need understand how to save that traffic and that is where copywriting comes in. Under copywriting, focus on email copywriting.
You will come across how to set up squeeze pages that actually convert. Setting up a squeeze page is really not a skill per se. A 10 year old can have one set up in minutes as there a gazillion templates out there.
The main skill is copywriting, writing the text or creating video that propels visitors to take the action you want them to take.
So learn copywriting as much as possible. A simple search on Google will help you find the right books to get started with.
HOW YOU GET STARTED WITH AFFILIATE MARKETING
Now here are the steps in a nutshell assuming you have those essential skills under your belt.
1. Find an offer that converts by using cbengine’s tool to find top selling offers on ClickBank.
2. Apply your traffic skills and build your email list in the process.
3. Apply your copywriting skills to get them to buy through your link.
That is how to get started with affiliate marketing. But this is not over… I told you this might be the only information you will ever need in affiliate marketing. So permit me to go the extra mile to show you how to become an super affiliate marketer.
BONUS – How To Become An Super Affiliate Marketer
This is what I mean by becoming a super affiliate marketer…. when your earnings look something like this.
Now I am going to show you the most powerful way to run this business that will guarantee this type of income and at least 6 figures in less than a year.
When I say less than a year it could be, in the next 1 month, 11 months, 3 months. It all depends on your willingness to put in the work and funds to make it work. (remember anything free sucks).
Now, this is a secret most gurus are hesitant about revealing as this is their bread and butter and they need to keep making money off you with their latest awesome trick.
With this method you can make money while you sleep (for real you can), but it isn’t done by clicking a buttons. It takes actual work. If you are not ready to do the work in order to make these 6 figure numbers. Then you can stop reading at this point and simply stick to the information I have given so far.
But if you really want to role with the big boys in affiliate marketing, then you really really need to listen to (actually read) what I am about to reveal to you.
I paid a guru for this information. He sat me one on one and told me this exact method.
He said what they do is this….
They do not run ads to build a list to promote offers (at least not any more). What they do is they build a BUYERS’ LIST.
Now this list are people who actually buy something from them. Whether its an ebook, a software or video course.
Now when these people buy this product. They are automatically added to their email list that is when they run their affiliate marketing business because these buyers trust their recommendations.
There is more value from a buyers’ list than a normal list you get from any traffic method.
Now, here is how it works.
You create a product and you get a joint venture partner to partner with you to promote your product to an army of affiliate marketers.
You launch the product and over a period of about 7 days or so you could be making 5 to 6 figures IF your product is great and you have a good JV partner.
Yes I said a week.
Of course before then you would have taken as long as 2 to 6 months building your product.
But once you have succeeded in selling your product to numerous customers. Then you can start your affiliate marketing business and this could make you thousands of dollars a week (if you know your copywriting).
Trust me when I say, this is the way these gurus make millions online. Check out muncheye and see numerous products being launched every week. This is the exact strategy they implement.
When you start out as an affiliate using the first method I revealed to you. Then you are only making 50% commissions each time YOU are able to make a sale.
Following the method in this bonus section you are making 50% on every sale numerous affiliates are making for you while still building a buyers’ list and while still running a more powerful affiliate marketing business that is sure to make sales.
So how do you make this your thing. How do you become the super affiliate marketer and go on to make 6 figures while you sleep?
There are just 2 major steps. The rest are more like sub-steps of sorts. So here they are:
1. First you need to create your own product. You will need a budget of at least $3000 to create a digital product like a software (which sells best) or a course about a method that worked for you.
2. You need to find a JV partner who helps launch products on JVZoo, Warriorplus and Clickbank to partner with you. Without this you might as well forget about this business because they are the traffic method you need to make those sales.
You can find them on Facebook by searching for any group that has to do with product launches on ClickBank, JVzoo or Warriorplus.
Now the sad but true thing is:
- These JV partners are also top internet marketing gurus and they will not have time for you or ever respond to your messages.
- You might not have a single idea on how to create a product, or one that sells.
- You might not have any idea how to get started at all.
To bypass these issues I highly recommend you get on this free webinar where you learn
- All you need set up with your first digital product fast
- Get a JV to partner with you to promote your digital product increasing your chances of making those 6 figures.
I do hope you found this useful. Sorry it’s a long read. Best of luck.