Learning affiliate marketing by reading about it is little more than daydreaming.
While reading about affiliate marketing may ignite a little intrigue, and you read the book again!
If you are serious, you need to actually do something.
I mean, if you are looking for affiliate marketing information then you can find just about all you need to get started without it costing you a penny!
What you should be doing is weighing up the options of what, and which resources you will need.
First up.
You are going to need a website. The most versatile website platform is WordPress.
The Beginners Guide to set up WordPress.
- Setting up WordPress for Google
- Writing SEO optimized content
- Using Images and Videos.
Setting up a WordPress Website.
Rather than reading about it, setting up WordPress can easily be set up in a couple of hours.
There is no coding to worry about, it is all basically point and click.
Rather than muddling around on your own following a video tutorial is a great way to set one up.
You need to pay for a Domain name first (around $15.00), plus hosting.
You can read up on some other good options, including themes here.
Writing SEO Optimized Content.
Okay I am no Neil Patel or Brian Dean when it comes to SEO.
I follow a few simple proven rules which work, and have done for years.
I call affiliate marketing“blogging with a motive”.
Search Engine Optimization is basically following a few rules.
- Keyword in the headline
- Keyword (or something very similar and related),in the first or second sentence
- A good meta description.
There are other things like backlinks, using other keywords in your content etc. and back in the day there was what was called (and still is to some extent), White hat and Black hat, methods of trying to get Googles attention.
Googles algorithms can pick up whether or not you are trying to game their system.
For example:- By stuffing keywords into your content, or picking whether you are writing to please a robot or a human.
It all starts with selecting the keywords for the subject of your article, or product if you are promoting a product.
There are tools you can utilize, but they need to be used in combination with other data from Google and other sources.
Obviously it is not something you are going to perfect overnight.
So there are a few challenges with SEO and you are not going to get every article on page 1 of Google.
But keep at it, the ones you have on page 1 can be earning you some cash, and you can always go back and reoptimize older articles.
Using Images and Videos.
Using relevant videos and images in your content is a great way to promote your article or products, and is also good for SEO.
The problem with images though is many are copyrighted and you need to pay if you are going to use them.
There are free sites like Pixabay, some Pinterest images are free to use, and some affiliate training platforms have free images you can use without crediting the source.
Wealthy Affiliate has over 1 million free images you can use.
Why do so many fail at Affiliate Marketing?
Ok, you have checked out the Stats. It is not that people fail, so much as, people-just-give-up.
Affiliate marketing is a lagging system.
You do an article on some product submit it to Google and it could be 6 months before Google gives it enough juice to appear where it is seen.
This is not true 100% of the time, but you have to expect it. If you get one that shows up in the Serps within a week or two then well done.
But if your just starting out you are on a learning curve, so don’t expect too much.
I will use myself as an example, and I am a paid up member of Wealthy Affiliate, so you would think I should know a few shortcuts.
I made very little for the first 2 years. To be honest I wasn’t putting the effort into it I should have either.
There are all sorts of reasons I can give. But essentially once my days work is done that is it. It had been that way for most of my life.
I’d make dinner, catch up on any paperwork I needed to, then hit the sack.
I am not one of those people who can operate on 3 or 4 hrs sleep a night.
On days off, if the day looked nice I had choices.
Load up my kayak and fishing rods and go up the river or down to the beach.
OR, stay at home, learn some more about affiliate marketing and write articles.
I am in that group of 98 out of a 100 who will choose to go fishing or kayaking or do anything else that involves socialising.
I knew affiliate marketing works, but I always had “better things to do”
It is not the failure rate that is a problem.
Most people are not suited or interested in trying to earn an income online.
Simple: It is just not suitable for everyone… period.
I still consider myself only marginally suited to it. I can still find reasons for preferring to do other stuff.
Some people are just not writers, or interested in doing videos (me), or putting themselves out there on social media (me again).
But I like Search engine optimization and using WordPress.
What changed my Attitude to Affiliate Marketing.
For me probably the “pandemic” lockdowns helped, as I had little choice other than to stay at home.
I stopped reading the emails showing how Igor, and his mates Steve or Rob made $253,567:23 in 2 weeks.
And decided on something that looked more realistic.
Even now, I am not up even up there with the $10,000 a month gurus.
But then, I never spent $8,999.99(?) on facebook ads, Pay Per Click marketing, Instagram and twitter either.
I just concentrated on selecting a good affiliate networks, and started putting out articles. Some bombed, some are orphaned and some are ok.
My last payment was $160.49. Which is ok by me, after buying a months worth of cat food I still have money in my pocket I didn’t have before.
The thing with my affiliate network (and many others), is, they don’t pay until 2 months after someone buys something.
They need to allow 30 days for the buyer to change their mind, and then 30 days for the vendor to pay the network.
Then they pay me! Less the cancelled orders of course.
Will AI Take-Over from Affiliate Marketers and other online Writers?
I don’t believe so…
Maybe in some places, but AI is more or less an encyclopedia of everything that has been written online over the years on any subject.
It has problems with accuracy and staying up to date. Open AI for instance has no data past 2021.
Its HTML and CSS coding is not accurate either. Some people say if AI were employed as a coder it would be sacked.
The widespread usage of internet didn’t come with a jobs doom and gloom as predicted either.
Conclusion.
You can spend all the time in the world learning about affiliate marketing, but unless you actually do something then nothing will happen.
The funny thing is, just like the everything else, the more things change in the online space, the more advances we see, the more things simply stay the same.
At the personal level the way to create change comes from a belief in yourself and a willingness to put in some hard yards when you do decide to get serious about changing your circumstances.
Editorial:–Any links on this page should be assumed to be affiliate links for which I may receive payment. This is at no cost to you. I am not an employee of any company mentioned and all opinions expressed here are mine and are not representative of any company.
Thanks for reading.
