DISCLOSURE: THIS POST MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS, MEANING I GET A COMMISSION IF YOU DECIDE TO MAKE A PURCHASE THROUGH MY LINKS, AT NO COST TO YOU. PLEASE READ MY DISCLOSURE FOR MORE INFO.

My very first affiliate sale paid me a commission of $65 and I could not believe my eyes because the product I promoted was not even a physical product and the customer paid less than $65 on sign up. 

Initially, I was not keen on doing affiliate marketing because I thought, why would I want to promote someone else’s products instead of creating my own products? But after reading other bloggers’ income reports I was inspired because the money they generate from affiliate commissions was even higher than the money they make from ads and own products. 

So I started reading up on how to start affiliate marketing, but many of the articles kept making reference to Michelle Schroeder’s course “Making sense of affiliate marketing” but I was reluctant to buy the course because I thought I can get all the information from Google. 

I spent weeks reading up and watching videos on affiliate marketing, but the information was just too overwhelming, it did not give me the confidence to start. Until I finally decided to buy Michelle Schroeder’s course and I don’t regret my decision. 

Had I not bought her course, I still would not have started on affiliate marketing and I would not have made the commissions that I have already made. I regret the time I wasted trying to figure things out myself because time wasted can never be regained.

Table of Contents

• Can you really make money with affiliate marketing?
• What is affiliate marketing?
• How much can affiliate marketers make?
• How affiliate marketing works?
• Benefits of affiliate marketing
• Cons of affiliate marketing
• How do affiliate marketers make money?
• How to start affiliate marketing
• Where To Find Affiliate Products To Promote?
• Affiliate marketing program examples
• How can I promote my affiliate for free?
• Final thoughts

Can you really make money with affiliate marketing?

I don’t trust many of the things I read online, especially articles on how to make money, but I have tried and tested affiliate marketing and it can be an easy way to make money. 

Michelle Schroeder makes $50 000 in affiliate commissions per month and she has made over $500 000 in commissions to date just on one affiliate product.

What is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate Marketing is when you promote products of third parties (Like Amazon, Booking.com, eBay, Etsy, etc) and get paid a commission for every sale that you made.

With affiliate marketing the great thing is that you won’t have to cold call potential customers; all you do is place an affiliate link on your website or blog or your social media account like (Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Pinterest, etc) and when someone clicks on that link and makes a purchase, you earn a commission.

The beauty of affiliate marketing is that it is risk-free, you don’t incur any costs whatsoever, and you don’t even need to ship any products to the customer; all you are doing is referring people to the merchant’s website. 

How much can affiliate marketers make?

When you are an affiliate marketer, you are your own boss. Some make $1000 per month, others $5000 per month. But Ling, the website owner of Finsavvy panda posted that she made $15 201 just in November 2020 from affiliate marketing.

And like I have already stated, Michelle Schroeder makes over $50 000 per month just on affiliate marketing.

How affiliate marketing works?

Affiliate Marketing is really simple, you just have to share your Affiliate link of the product, course, or service that you want to promote, and if someone purchases through that link, you will earn a commission.

To make things simple and easy to understand, I have created this graphic for you explaining how affiliate marketing works.

Let’s say you are knowledgeable on hair care products and there is a specific product that you are already using and think it can be helpful to other people.

You can check if this product can be purchased through Amazon, eBay or if the company that manufactures the product has an affiliate program. Then apply to join their affiliate network.

After getting accepted, you also will receive a unique page link that you can use to promote the product or service. 

So think of ways on how you can market the affiliate product to people (for free) so that it gets the maximum exposure without spending any cent. 

So if it is a hair care product, you can recommend it to your followers through your website or through your social media account like Tiktok, Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, and Pinterest and you put that unique link.

If a viewer or user clicks on your link and it takes them to the Amazon Site, and they purchase any product on Amazon within a certain timeframe i.e 30 days, you will earn a commission, even if they purchased a different product. 

And the good thing about Michelle’s course is that it teaches you how to market any product without seeming like you are making a sales pitch because that can turn people away.

Her course also shows you the requirements and disclosures that are necessary when promoting an affiliate product in order to comply with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). For example, if you are posting an affiliate product on social media you will have to write #sponsored on your post, else you might forfeit the commission. Or if you are promoting an affiliate product on a blog, there is a certain paragraph you have to insert.

Benefits of affiliate marketing

1. It’s free, no upfront investment

You don’t need to buy or create any products. You don’t even need to pay a joining fee or subscription fee.

Also, you can still promote affiliate products even if you do not have a website. 

2. It is less work than creating your own product

Affiliate marketing is less work because you don’t have to create the product, ship anything, handle cancellations, manage customer service, and more. Also with your own product, you are not sure if it will sell, but with an affiliate product, other people have already tested it.

3. It can be passive income

Affiliate income is great because you can create a post or a video that people can still view months later and still make money from it. 

I remember when I was in hospital, I was worried that I won’t be making money, but I had people buying through my affiliate links.

4. The list of products to promote is endless

There are so many different products, services, and companies to promote. 

Products you could promote to your audience include:

• Financial companies
• Cell phone apps
• Gaming products
• Digital products, such as online courses, ebooks, and more
• Any product you can think of on Amazon
• Travel booking websites
• Blog-related products, such as website design, website hosting, and more
• Clothing
• Home decor
• Outdoor gear such as bicycles, tents, backpacks, and more

5. Easy to scale

With affiliate marketing, you can significantly scale up your earnings without hiring extra resources. You can introduce new products to your current audience while your existing work continues to generate revenue in the background.

6. You can work from home.

With affiliate marketing, you can do it from anywhere, as long as you have an internet connection, it can be from your home, holiday destination, etc.

Cons of affiliate marketing

1. It is not a get rich quick scheme

It does have high returns, but it won’t happen overnight. You need to be willing to put in the upfront work and do it strategically. You can’t just place affiliate links and hope for the best. The content that you are creating needs to be quality and you must be solving a problem.

2. It’s commission based

Since affiliate marketing is commission-based, if you do not sell you do not make money. And because it is not your own product, you can’t get 100% of the revenue, you only just get a commission. 

3. You don’t have control over the decisions of the affiliate program

If for some reason the company you are marketing for closes down while money is being owed to you, it means you might not get paid. Or if they decide to reduce the commission rate, you can be adversely affected.

How do affiliate marketers make money?

Three common ways affiliates get paid include:

• Pay per sale, where you earn a commission for each sale you make.
• Pay per action, which earns you a commission for a specific action. For example, a newsletter signup, a click, contact request, form submission, etc. 
• Pay per install, where you are paid for every install generated from your website traffic. The goal of your content would be to promote mobile apps and software so that people download or install them.

How to start affiliate marketing

It is important to select a niche that you want to focus on so that you will be able to gain people’s trust in that particular niche. If later on, you feel like your niche is limiting you, you can always change. 

Here are some of the niches you could consider:

• Parenting 
• Food, Meal Planning, and Recipes
• Travel, Entertainment, and Eats
• Entrepreneurship and Business
• Healthy Eating
• Health, Fitness, Workout, and Exercises
• Relationships (Family, Marriage, Love, etc.)
• Personal Finance, Budgeting, and Money Matters
• Wedding Planning
• Food and Diet
• Home Renovations
• Arts, Crafts, and DIY Projects
• Sewing and Crocheting
• Upcycling, Thrifting, and Refurbishing
• Real Estate
• Beauty, Fashion, and Make-up
• Home Organizing or Decluttering
• Productivity and Time Management Hacks
• Self-Development or Self-Improvement
• Positive Mindset and Happiness
• Career and Personal Development
• Technology and Gadget Reviews
• Graphic Designing
• General Lifestyle

2. Find out which products the blogs or people in your niche are promoting

Check the affiliate products that the blogs in your niche are promoting. And then make a list of the ones you would be comfortable promoting so that you can apply to be accepted into the program.

Don’t only focus on the commission percentage of a product, but also focus on the quality of the product, because the product you are promoting should add some value to your audience and it should solve their problem.

3. Create content that can promote the affiliate product

Create content where you can place an affiliate link. It can be a review of a product, a tutorial on how to use the product, a recommendation, a comparison, etc. 

If it is a social media promotion, you can post an image of yourself holding or wearing that particular product. You will just need to find creative ways to get the product into the eyes of your target market. 

Where To Find Affiliate Products To Promote?

Once you have decided on your products, the next step is to find their affiliate programs and join them.

The easiest way to find an affiliate program is to type in Google the company’s name followed by the term “affiliate network”. If the company has an affiliate program then their page will pop up and you can easily signup for their affiliate program.

Some companies do have their own affiliate programs while others are a part of an affiliate network.

Affiliate marketing program examples

1. Amazon Associates – This is the easiest affiliate program to apply for and probably the easiest to promote because Amazon sells all types of products which caters for all niches. 
2. Ebay affiliate program – Ebay, similar to Amazon, sells different type of products which caters for most niches. 
3. Shopify – Shopify allows you to market their ecommerce platform.
4. Booking.com – I book almost all my holiday accommodation through booking.com. So if someone books through your affiliate link, you get a commission. 
5. Shareasale – There are many companies that are listed within Shareasale, and you can probably find at least a few companies within your niche that will allow you to promote their product.
6. Digit – Anyone with a Digit account can promote this service. Digit is a savings app and is better suited for finance and parenting niches. You could use it for a travel blog as well and promote it to your readers as a way to save for a vacation.
7. Survey Junkie – This is a survey company that you can promote to your audience.
8. Etsy – This Etsy is a great place to find all sorts of handmade items and you can earn a commission for each approved sale.

For a comprehensive list of affiliate programs that you can join based on your niche, you can check out Michelle’s course here. 

How can I promote my affiliate for free?

There are multiple ways to promote affiliate products for free, but for all these platforms, you need to build a following so that it can reach many people.

1. Promote On Your Blog

This is the best way to promote affiliate products for free because the income that you generate from a blog can be passive, unlike social media where the lifespan of a post is only a couple of hours. And with the correct SEO, it is searchable on google meaning that it will reach people that you don’t even know. 

And with a blog, you can collect people’s email addresses, so that you can sell to them again in the future, which is something that you cannot do on social media.

If you don’t already have a blog or don’t know what a blog is, check out my post on how to start a blog and make money. 

2. Pinterest

You can also promote your affiliate products for free by using Pinterest for business. Pinterest is both a social media platform and a visual search engine. So you create beautiful visuals and put in the affiliate link. Pinterest is how many bloggers and businesses drive their traffic and sales.

3. Youtube

Youtube is a free promotion platform that you can use to promote affiliate products. This platform even rewards you for posting content by paying you for the ads that play on your channel if your channel is eligible. Isn’t that great?

So you can do a product review or a how-to video or recommend a product and put the affiliate link on the description.

4. TikTok videos

Tiktok has really become popular. You can also create content and insert the affiliate link on your profile.

5. Instagram and Facebook

You can also promote your affiliate for free using the likes of Instagram and Facebook, which is also a popular option. 

6. Forums

You can also use forums like Quora, where people generally ask questions. You can answer questions and if there is a need for any product or service you can mention it with your affiliate link.

People from all over the world will read your answers and if they purchase products using your affiliate link, you will make a commission.

Final thoughts

Affiliate marketing does feel overwhelming and you might be scared to start, but I know exactly how you feel. But with the right tools like “Making Sense Of Affiliate Marketing” you can start making money sooner than you think. I made my first sale just hours after publishing my first post. The best time to start with affiliate marketing is today.

If you are still not convinced why you should start or how you should start then please go through Michelle’s course which covers everything when it comes to affiliate marketing, such as:

• What affiliate marketing is and how it works
• Why affiliate marketing is great
• The exact steps she’s taken to earn over $300,000 from a single blog post
• How to pick the right affiliate products to promote
• How to build trust and not lose followers
• Required disclosures that you need to know about
• How to increase conversions
• The one major tool you need for affiliate marketing
• Different strategies to use to promote your affiliate products

And if you have a blog, you stand better of being accepted into most affiliate programs because some of them don’t allow you to promote on social media. Read this step-by-step guide on how to start a blog.