Affiliate Marketing for Beginners: How to Make Your First $1,000
This post may contain affiliate links where I may make a commission on purchases made through those links. For full details please see disclosure page.
In this post we are going to go over Affiliate Marketing for beginners, and how to make your first $1000!
Affiliate marketing can honestly sound too good to be true when you first come across it. As in, you’re telling me I can recommend something I already use or love and actually get paid real money for doing so? It feels like there must be a catch somewhere. But there really isn’t.
Affiliate marketing is one of the most beginner-friendly ways to start earning online once you understand how it works.
And here’s the best part: you don’t need a huge following, years of blogging experience, or some massive budget to get started. You can begin with the tools, audience and platforms you already have. Even if that’s just a basic blog or a small social media account!
That’s exactly how most people get to their first $1,000. They start small, are consistent, and focus on recommending things they genuinely use and love.
I know that $1,000 might feel like a huge amount if you’re just starting out. But when you break it down, it’s much more achievable than it looks!
This isn’t me saying you will make that $1000 today. Realistically it will take time to get there, but it all adds up. You also don’t know when those sales will exactly happen!
As a personal example, I had joined a new affiliate program a while back and had no sign ups for the first few weeks (completely normal!), and then randomly one day I had 2 people sign up less than 10 mins from each other, out of the blue!
For you, it could be that you sell 10 products that pay you $100 each, or 100 products that pay you $10 each. This can be the same product over and over, it doesn’t have to be different products. It all depends on your niche, your audience, and what you’re promoting through your affiliate links.
When you break it down like this, suddenly the whole process feels less overwhelming and more exciting!
The trick is to find products you use or love and start with price points you are comfortable with. You can always build up from there.
Affiliate marketing is by far my biggest (and favourite) way of making money online. And I want to show you how it can work for you too!
In this post, I’m breaking down exactly what affiliate marketing is, how it works, and the simple steps you can take right now to start working towards your first $1,000.
So grab a coffee (or your favourite snack), and let’s get into affiliate marketing!
What is Affiliate Marketing (And Why It’s Perfect for Beginners)?
Affiliate marketing is basically when you recommend a product or service you genuinely like, and when someone buys through your special affiliate link, you earn a commission. This could be as low as 2%, right up to 80% or more!
A real-life example would be that you purchase something, love it, rave about it to a friend, they see your excitement for it and decide to purchase it too. If you had your own link in the middle there, you would get paid for them making that purchase at no extra cost to them!
You connect people with things they need or want, and you get the commission for making the connection happen.
You’re not reaching out to sell people things, you’re just promoting or talking about the things you love, and if they want to click through your link to purchase, you get paid.
The reason it’s so good for beginners is that you don’t need to create your own products, deal with shipping or physical products, or handle customer service (as it’s not your product).
You’re simply sharing something you already believe in and love. Whether that’s a course that helped you, a tool you use every day, or a product you’d happily tell a friend about.
If you would share it or recommend it to a friend, you can recommend it to a larger audience and get paid to do so!
It’s low-risk (again, not your products), doesn’t need a huge budget to start, and can grow with you as your blog or online presence grows. That’s why so many people’s first income online comes from affiliate marketing. It’s simple, scalable, and really does work when you learn how to do it correctly.
How Affiliate Marketing Works (The Simple Breakdown)
Affiliate marketing might sound like a complicated or fancy term, but the actual process is super straightforward. It all comes down to three main steps:
- Join an affiliate program: This could be for a course, a product, or even something like web hosting. You apply to the brand/company, and once approved, you’ll get your own unique tracking link that you can share.
- Share your affiliate link: You can add this special link into your blog posts, emails, Pinterest pins, or social media. (Remember to check the rules as each program/brand can have different rules as to where you can share the links). When someone clicks your link, the brand knows that it was you that referred them. The link also takes the reader from your blog (for example) straight to their own shop/sales page, so that’s your part done!
- Earn commission when they buy: If that person makes a purchase, you get a percentage of the sale. Some are larger commissions than others, but you will find that out when you apply. Some programs even give recurring commissions (meaning you keep getting paid as long as the customer stays subscribed).
(Important note: Always remember to put disclaimers where you post affiliate links. You may have noticed that every blog post where I share even 1 affiliate link has a disclaimer at the top. Check out the top of this post for an example!)
That’s literally it. You don’t need to overcomplicate it at all. Affiliate marketing is just about recommending something you’d already talk about anyway, but with the bonus of getting paid for it. Tell me that’s not an amazing set up lol.
How to Choose Affiliate Programs That Actually Pay
This is one of the important parts to get right, but you can adapt as you gain more experience! Not all affiliate programs are created equal. Not in a bad way, they just work slightly differently to each other.
For example (as mentioned earlier) some may offer 2% commission, some may offer up to 80%. Some will give you a 24hr cookie period (the time you have between someone clicking your link to making a purchase, even if they come back later/a different day), whereas some can be 365 day cookie periods. There are programs with no payment threshold, and others you need to have a certain amount of commission in your account before you get paid.
Choosing programs that fit the criteria you want or need can just help streamline that process for you!
You don’t want to water yourself too thin but you can apply to/join as many affiliate programs as you like. So if you find out one you have joined isn’t giving you what you would like back, you are completely free to join another!
A few tips for choosing affiliate programs that will actually make you money, you need to choose programs that are:
- High quality: Only recommend things you’d happily use or buy yourself. Trust is everything and people can tell if you’re promoting something you have no real knowledge of.
- Good commission rates: Look for 20–50% commissions on digital products or courses. Physical products often pay less as there’s more overheads, so they can be harder to scale, but if you would rather promote these then you absolutely can, but the commission will be a lot lower.
- In-demand: Make sure it’s something your audience already wants.This will depend on your content/niche and your audience. If you talk about blogging, a blogging course you took and love would be an amazing idea. If you talk about travel, a travel service or physical packing products would be a great choice for you.
- Recurring options: Some programs (like software subscriptions) pay you every single month as long as your referral stays signed up. That means one sale can turn into long-term passive income. You may get less each month than a one off sign up (for example you may get $5 a month instead of a one off $40 sale) but over just a few months, you’ve already made more back!
Good examples of affiliate products you can promote are things like:
Blogging courses, Pinterest/marketing courses, email marketing software, web hosting, legal bundles ect!
The other thing to keep in mind is that some programs do require a website to link back to in your application. For some they are looking for a blog/youtube channel, some want a pinterest account or instagram profile so again you can find the ones that suit your content best.
How to Get People to See Your Affiliate Links
This is where most people get stuck. You can have the best affiliate products in the world, but if nobody’s seeing your links, you won’t make sales.
The good thing is that there are multiple ways to get eyes on your content and your links. Here are some traffic sources that work brilliantly for affiliate marketing:
- Blogging: SEO (the clicks from search engines) takes a little time to build up to a good amount, but once your posts rank on Google, they can send you free, consistent traffic for years. Having a blog gives you that website link that a lot of affiliate platforms ask for in their application. It also gives you an amazing way to show off/talk about the products/services you are promoting.
- Pinterest: This is one of the fastest ways to get traffic as a beginner. Or for anyone! Once you learn Pinterest, it is an incredible source of blog traffic. With the right pin designs and keywords, you can drive so many clicks to your blog posts every month.
- Email list: This is what is known as your warm audience. These are the people who have chosen to give you their email address for something you offered. This could be a freebie, ebook, checklist, or a voucher if you have an online store. Once someone’s subscribed, you can keep building trust and share affiliate links in a way that feels natural and helpful to those people.
The key thing to remember is that you don’t need millions of views.
You just need the right people seeing your links. A small, targeted audience beats a huge, random one every time. It’s all well and good having thousands of viewers seeing your links, but only those who are truly interested in your products/tools will consider buying.
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How to Build Trust (So People Click & Buy)
Here’s the truth and another mistake people often make. People don’t just buy because you dropped a link in the middle of a blog post. They buy because they trust you. And building that trust is what makes your affiliate links actually convert to sales.
Affiliate income can be passive absolutely, but throwing some links into a post and then doing nothing with it isn’t likely to reap many rewards.
There are a few ways you can help people want to click on those links!
A few simple ways to do this:
- Be honest: This is honestly so important. Share your real experiences with the product or service. If something has pros and cons, mention them both. People aren’t daft, and it’s much fairer for people to be able to make an informed decision as to if something is right for them. Readers respect honesty more than a perfect sales pitch!
- Show your passion and excitement: People can absolutely sense (and tell) when someone genuinely likes and uses something. If you truly love something, why wouldn’t you want to tell people how great it is! This is the best way to do affiliate marketing as it’s all real, and natural.
- Be consistent: The more your readers see you showing up with valuable content, the more they’ll trust your recommendations. It takes someone an average of 7 times of seeing something they want, before deciding to actually purchase. This number is much higher if someone isn’t interested at all the first time they see it. Of course you don’t want to spam or push your links, but you can promote them as much as you want.
Remember, people buy from people they like and trust. If your audience feels like they know you, they’ll happily click your link over a stranger’s they have never seen before.
Conclusion: Your First $1,000 is Closer Than You Think
Affiliate marketing might seem like this huge, complicated world, but honestly? It’s one of the simplest (in terms of strategy/set up) and most beginner-friendly ways to start making money online.
You don’t need a massive audience, you don’t need to create your own product, and you don’t need years of experience. You just need to share the products, tools and resources you already love, use and believe in.
The first $1,000 might feel like a dream to you right now, but it’s much closer than you think. A few solid blog posts, some pins driving traffic, and building trust with your readers can get you there faster.
When you’ve built the systems, it’s rinse and repeat. If one blog post and one affiliate program can make $1,000, imagine what 10 posts and 5 programs could do.
Once you hit it, it’s proof to yourself that if you can make $1,000… you can scale to $5,000, $10,000 and beyond.
The quickest and best way to make money with affiliate marketing, is just to get started. You can literally start as soon as today. Don;t feel that you can’t do it, you absolutely can, you just need to go for it 🙂
If you want even more information on affiliate marketing, you can check out this post here!
If you don’t feel affiliate marketing is totally right for you, I have a list of 47 different ways to make $100 a day which you can find here!
For more information on Digital Marketing as a whole and how to get started, check out that post here!
Feel free to leave any questions or comments in the box below!
Speak soon!
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