What Do You Need To Start An Affiliate Marketing Business?

(This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on a link to the Merchant’s site and purchase something I may earn a commission.The price you pay will be the same if you went to the Merchant’s site directly.)

Your question, “What do you need to start an affiliate marketing business?” implies you know what Affiliate Marketing is. But you’re not sure what you need. (For a refresher on Affiliate Marketing click here.) You can also learn more about Affiliate Marketing on Wikipedia

Am I correct to assume you want to create an online asset that once successfully completed, will keep paying you over and over again long after you created it? Much like an author or recording artist collecting royalties whenever someone buys their product.

In Affiliate Marketing you earn a commission whenever someone looking for a product finds your helpful article on your Affiliate Marketing website and makes a purchase through an affiliate link you provide. Your website works for you 24/7.

Isn’t it cool earning money while you’re sleeping? More power to you for thinking this way. There are a lot of people who want to earn passive income, but not many who have the wisdom to take action. You are a rare individual cut above the rest.

This is the right place to find the answer to your question. I’m making you this promise. Not only will I show you exactly what you need but I will also reveal to you a place where you can find everything you need to start and run your online business under one roof as it were. An online roof that is!

Think about all the time you will save. If you are working full time you don’t have the luxury of researching and finding where you need to go to put all the pieces together. More importantly, you want everything to work together like a precision money making machine.

Items You Need For An Affiliate Marketing Business

The following is a list of 15 items you will need to build an Affiliate Marketing Business. If you are not familiar with any of them don’t worry. We shall be exploring each of them in sufficient detail so that you can understand how all of this works.

  • Niche
  • Domain Name
  • Website
  • Tools & Analysis
  • Keyword Research
  • Content
  • Hosting
  • Security
  • SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
  • Traffic
  • Funnels
  • Landing Pages
  • Affiliate Link
  • Customer
  • Training

 

 

Affiliate Business Flowchart

Let’s arrange the above items into a logical sequence to create an Affiliate Business Flowchart. I’m doing this because some individuals learn more effectively using visual aids.

Let’s review each of these functions as they relate to each other and their contribution to the success of an Affiliate Marketing business. I have capitalized and emboldened each of these elements in the text below for your convenience.

How These Elements Connect With Each Other

The starting point is the NICHE. Here is where the products you decide to promote are things you are passionate about. Keep it narrow so you can provide the best advice to your customers to help them make a buying decision. The end point is a sale to a CUSTOMER. Like any business you earn an income when a sale is made by a customer. Keep it in your mind that customers prefer to buy rather than be sold.

In between there are several steps and processes that take place. Much Ike a journey. In order to go from A to E you need to pass B, C and D. The blue arrows show the flow of activity from one step to another.

Let’s look at each of these items and discuss how they relate to each other.

Once your Niche is established, this helps in the creation of a DOMAIN NAME. This could consist of some form of your niche. Or it could be something completely different. The Domain Name flows into the creation of your WEBSITE. CONTENT is added to your website in the form of articles. KEYWORD RESEARCH is conducted to find phrases that will rank you high in the various search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo. The word or phrase you enter into the search window of a search engine like Google or Bing is defined as a Keyword. When you write articles the title you choose is critical. You want that to be a phrase your potential customers will use when they wish to find your article and your niche.

SECURITY features protect your website from scams and misuse by others. Your website needs HOSTING by a third party so that anyone can access it on the Internet. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is used to make it easy for potential customers to find your website or article. You should know that although your website has a unique URL each article has a unique URL too.

When people find your website or articles, this is called TRAFFIC. The people in the traffic are channeled into FUNNELS to arrive at your LANDING PAGE.

This is where one of several actions can take place.

  • The visitor is not ready to buy yet so you offer them a freeby in exchange to leave you their contact information
  • You ask them for comments and questions they may have before they make a buying decision.
  • They are ready to buy and click an AFFILIATE LINK that takes them to the purchasing process

As your CUSTOMER they make a purchase you get paid. In the middle of all this action there is TRAINING you need in order to create a successful business.

Just like an engineer, doctor, lawyer or musician needs to develop the right skills to succeed, an Affiliate Marketer also needs to go through intensive TRAINING so you are taught the skills and know what to do to make all this work.

Along the way you will need several TOOLS and ANALYSIS to construct your website and to analyze its performance. This is critical in order to create a professional looking and performing website as well as to know how it is performing to meet your goals. Tweaks may be necessary to improve performance and this can only be done by understanding what your strengths and weaknesses are. Just like in any other business.

Do not forget that this is a business just like Amazon or Walmart. They constantly monitor their performance to make sure their goals are met. And so should you. But don’t worry about this now as you can learn all these tools of the trade.

Seven Advantages

However there are SEVEN huge benefits that help you hit your target with Affiliate Marketing!

  1. You do not need to invest anywhere near what is required for these other professions. I will show you how you can get trained for as little as $1 or less per day!
  2. The learning curve is nowhere as steep as these other professions.
  3. All you need to attract potential customers is to create an engaging and helpful series of blog posts.
  4. Once you create an income stream you can leverage it to create even more income streams with less effort.
  5. You can learn at your own pace.
  6. You can do business anywhere you have a computer, your phone or tablet and connection to the Internet.
  7. You can have access to successful Affiliate Marketers who will help you along the way.

My Promise

As promised, I will now reveal to you where you can find everything you need under one roof to learn about, start and conduct your business. And you can check it out for free, no credit card required.

For one whole week you will have access to EVERYTHING. The first 10 lessons of the Online Entrepreneur Certification will walk you through the process of selecting your niche and building your first website. There are another 10 Bootcamp lessons that are also free.

Although you can stay on for free as long as you wish, access will be limited. The following matrix shows what is and isn’t available after the first week. My recommendation is to upgrade to a Premium Member for $49 a month. You will receive an offer it you upgrade within the first week you will pay only $19 for the following month before the $49 a month kicks in.

By deciding to apply for the annual subscription it will cost you less than $1 a DAY!  You can transfer to the annual subscription plan anytime.

Here is the portal to this amazing world of Affiliiate Marketing called Wealthy Affiliate. There are almost 2 million members who are benefiting from this platform in learning all about Affiliate Marketing, having access to the WordPress website building tools as well as the security features to make sure your website is always running. The community is second to none where people helping people to succeed is the norm. You will find that out when you register.

Click the Create Your Account button at the bottom and I will see you on the other side as your mentor.

Sign Up Portal

9 thoughts on “What Do You Need To Start An Affiliate Marketing Business?”

  1. Hello Edwin,

    Thank you for this well set out and step by step introduction to affiliate marketing. This is a great article to read for anyone looking to start their own online business. I like that it is in bite size pieces and easy to understand, your flow charts and images help to make it all look very straightforward.

    You mention that the learning curve is not so steep as other ways of earning an income, would you say it is possible for a complete novice to start a business in this way? Is it as technically easy as it sounds to build a website?

    Thank you

    Louise

    1. Hi Louise, 

      Thanks for your great comments on my article. Glad that you liked the flowchart. You also asked a very good question regarding if a complete novice can start an Affiliate Marketing Business. The answer is NO. If they do not know what to do it will end up a big mess. 

      However, if the novice can have access to a platform that provides them with everything they need including high quality training, the answer is a BIG YES! 

      I know of just one place that has a platform where the novice can get everything they need. It is called Wealthy Affiliate. I happen to be a member. When I started I hardly knew anything about niches, building websites, setting everything for SEO etc. There are many novices who have graduated into successful affiliate marketers.

      Here is the link they can sign up:

      I wish you all the best Louise in your affiliate marketing business.

      Edwin

  2. Everyone is looking for various means of earning some money. Affiliate marketing is one that has been effective to generate some money online. 

    In starting this business, most people find it hard getting a niche that is profitable for them that they can also carry over with time. That is the first and most pressing thing. 

    Secondly, the content of our site is one we need to work on to be engaging. 

    Lastly traffic to our site is another thing we need to get flowing to enable money coming in. 

    Good training is required for all this to come through. 

    Best regards.

  3. Hi Edwin, 

    I must say that this article is very helpful and informative. People often think that they need a thousand things to start an online business, in this case, affiliate marketing. It is way cheaper to start an online business than offline, but I think that the most important thing is time. After we set up the foundation, time will do the rest.

    1. Hi Danijel,

      You got that right. It’s how effectively we use our time that is the most important thing, since the financial cost is rather low.

      Thanks for your insight.

      Edwin

  4. ananda soultravel

    What an amazing flow chart you made for Affiliate Marketing. You are right, most people love the visual aids when they are learning something new. I am one of them. I can also vouch for the training you recommend. I have been learning at Wealthy Affiliate and it is a serious One Stop Shop to show people like you and me how you can build a successful online affiliate business. Literally they have everything you need to start your business. Good luck to all other readers and to you. Love Nanda

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