How to Start Affiliate Marketing in 2022 A Complete Guide?

 

Affiliate marketing is a hot topic nowadays, and why not it would be? According to a survey in 2021, one out of six affiliate marketers has earned about 50 thousands dollar. 

Most people think affiliate marketing is an easy way to instantly make a lot of money. In a way, it is; affiliate marketers can earn a good amount of money in a shorter period, but only those who follow a proper strategy, and it's not as easy as it seems. 

Those who don't have any strategy usually fail because they don't know how to start affiliate marketing. 

That's the reason why we're here to help you out in starting a successful affiliate marketing business. We'll help you make an effective strategy containing niche research, platform selection, and content creation. Let's head towards the topic. 

How to Start Affiliate Marketing? 5 Simple Steps 

Here are the five simple steps to start an affiliate marketing business successfully.  

Find a Micro Niche

Starting an affiliate marketing business randomly selecting a micro-niche is a rookie move. Both situations will affect the sales, which is not a good thing for business. 

Yes, we understand that finding a profitable niche is challenging, but it's not impossible. You only need to take care of a few things, like never choosing a broader and seasonal niche. 

 

Difference Between a Niche and Micro Niche

The biggest mistake beginners make is they choose a big niche. For instance, the pet food niche is broader. When you search about it on Google, you'll understand that it has high competition, and big sites are ranking on the top pages.

At the same time, a micro-niche will be more beneficial for your business. Instead of starting an affiliate business with a pet food niche, you can choose the niche "best dog food," "fish food," and so on. 

Seasonal Vs. Evergreen Niche

Make sure that the niche you're choosing is an evergreen niche. An example is "winter jackets," it is a micro niche, but it's seasonal. 

As shown in the picture below, the keyword "winter jackets" trend isn't high throughout the year. It only appears in the hype at one time.

In contrast, the "dog food" trend has an everlasting appeal. It doesn't have ups and downs, so it's an evergreen niche.  

The same is for "valentine's gifts," which will only work in February. That's why it's always better to go with an evergreen niche, so you'll get profit the whole year. 

Pro Tip: Use Google Trend and write the micro-niche in the search bar. Choose Past 12 months of data and click on search; you'll see the search trend of niche. If it has several ups and downs, it's better to go with another niche. 

Research About Niche 

You can't do niche research manually without keyword research tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, Moz, or Uber Suggests. Don't worry; we're not suggesting purchasing the subscription plan of all tools; just pick anyone and do complete research. 

Once you get the tool, think about the business you're going to start, then niche down. The keyword research tool will show you the SEO difficulty and search volume. 

SEO difficulty represents how much it is difficult to rank on a particular keyword. While search volume means how many people search that particular keyword or micro-niche in a month. 

For your ease, we'll share the images of our research about how you can do in-depth research to find micro-niche for websites or blogs using Ubersuggest. 

Note: Use the Ahref keyword research tool for Youtube keyword research. 

 

How to Do Research for Micro Niche?

Type the keyword or main niche in the search bar, like we’re using "printers." 

See printer is a broader niche with 550,000 search volume and 87 SEO difficulty score. It's not wise to choose this niche because of high competition. Therefore, scroll down the page and find micro-niche. 

We've done a little more research and found the micro-niche of printers, "sublimation printers." 

Now the competition is low, with 78 SEO difficulty scores and the search volume is high, about 165,000. 

Do a little more research in the same way and try to find a micro niche with lower SEO difficulty than 78. That's how you can niche down and find a profitable micro-niche with high search volume and low SEO difficulty score. 

Note: It's up to you which keyword research tool you want to use. We've used Ubersuggest; you can go with Ahref or other tools. 

Think About Your Platform 

Remember, it's not necessary to make a blog to start an affiliate marketing business. You can also use other platforms to promote your affiliate marketing business. 

Best Platforms for Affiliate Marketing 

Here are examples of some famous platforms for affiliate marketing. 

• Youtube Channels: You need to make content in the form of video and add links in the description. If your content is powerful, the audience will surely purchase the product. 
• Social Media: It's an effective way of promoting affiliate products, particularly those who have loyal followers and can convince people to buy a product. 

Create Powerful Content 

The most important thing you need is powerful content that motivates the audience to purchase products. Websites or youtube channels that don't have this type of content usually fail. 

That's why we suggest you provide value to the reader through the content as much as possible. Instead of directly writing about a product or recommending it, share reasons how the product can make their life easy. 

For instance, the topic "What kind of food does a German Shepherd need?" is good as it answers a common question that rings the bell in almost every German Shepherd owner's mind. 

The best part is you can promote the German Shepherd foods in the content, which will generate profit, so it's a win-win situation. Other than that, you can also write comparison articles and compare two different products. 

How to Find Topic to Create Content? 

Are you also thinking about the question: how to find the topic to create content? Well, you’re not the only one, other content creators are also worried about this issue. Fortunately, now we’ve tools like answerthepublic.com that makes our work quite easy. 

What you’ve to do is go to the website and write your query or niche.  We wrote “food for german shepherd” and got numerous content ideas that you can see in the picture below. 

Follow the Tips to Increase Your Affiliate Sales

Here are the tips that can increase your affiliate sales. Make sure to follow all for the best results. 

• Don't write a long intro in articles or videos. 
• Write a short, engaging intro to capture the audience's attention. 
• Write for your targeted audience. 
• Use catchy headings and titles for youtube videos. 
• Add CTA (call to action) in the content. 
• Motivate your audience to subscribe to the Newsletter. 
• Use a comparison table in the content. 
• Make sure to write honest reviews of products. 
• You can advertise the products or content with Google Advertisement service or Facebook ads. 
• Build an email list of the audience. 
• Add infographics and product images to the content. 
• Write SEO-optimized content. 

Frequently Asked Questions 

Is affiliate marketing profitable? 

Yes, affiliate marketing is profitable; it's one of the best ways to earn thousands of dollars. You only need to understand how you can make an effective strategy. 

How to start affiliate marketing free? 

We don't think starting an affiliate marketing business without investment is a good idea. In case you don't have the money, you can start by investing a small amount. Like the process of making a youtube channel is free. You can make the channel and start creating free content. 

How to start affiliate marketing step by step?

Here's how you can start affiliate marketing step-by-step. 

• Do proper niche research. 
• Find a profitable micro-niche. 
• Choose a platform to start an affiliate marketing business. 
• Create powerful content to attract the audience. 
• Post content regularly. 

How to start affiliate marketing without a website?

You can start affiliate marketing without a website through a youtube channel, social media accounts, email marketing, and so on. 

What are the best affiliate marketing programs? 

Here are the best affiliate marketing programs. 

• Amazon associate program. 
• SEMrush. 
• Click bank. 
• eBay partner program. 
• Crypto Hopper. 
• CJ Affiliate. 

Final Words

We hope you've found the answer to "How to start affiliate marketing." You can start with one platform like a website or on multiple platforms; it is totally up to you. 

Both ways are good, but starting with one platform is easy, particularly for those who don't have a team because you don't have to make content for multiple platforms.

Just ensure you're not starting with multiple niches or a broader niche. The reason is competition is high, and the chances are your website, Youtube channel, etc. will not become successful.