Affiliate Marketing for Dummies in 2020: All You Need to Know is HERE!
There is plenty of material available on the internet about affiliate marketing for dummies. Some materials are useful and really explain things very well while other materials are not.
They explain things such as niche, keyword etc that are not clear for most people, especially for beginners in affiliate marketing.
That’s why I decided to write my own guide on affiliate marketing for dummies in 2018 and I believe it will help some of you understand this topic in an easier way and possibly start making money.
I will try to explain everything step-by-step so you can feel confident what to do and how to do.
If you still have questions you can always send me a message or leave your comment in the comment box below and I will respond back within a few hours.
Why affiliate marketing?
If you are reading this article it means you’re totally new to affiliate marketing.
My goal is to help you understand why you need affiliate marketing and what you can do with it.
I will explain everything in easy terms and will show you the steps you need to take in order to be successful in affiliate marketing.
You don’t need to spend money. What I’m going to explain and show is FREE. You can start without spending a single dollar.
But I will also show you the difference between free and paid membership. And YOU will decide what you want and which path to take.
Everything will be completely up to you.
Is affiliate marketing for you?
First of all, I want to explain in a few words that affiliate marketing is not an easy path. It’s a huge industry that involves thousands of affiliate marketers making a solid income online.
Some of them have already fired their boss while others still woking hard to fire their boss some day. I’m one of them.
I still can’t quit my job but I’m making a solid monthly income. The harder you work the better and faster will be your results.
Affiliate marketing is for hard workers only. It’s not a comfort zone.
If you think you will be spending 1,2 hours per week and making a lot of money you are deeply mistaken.
Prepare to work hard and treat your affiliate marketing business like your regular job. If you work you make money. If you don’t work you don’t make money.
The difference from a regular job is that when you work as an affiliate marketer you work for yourself. You work as many hours as you want.
You take a rest when you want. You are financially independent. You are your own boss.
And finally through affiliate marketing you can make WAY more money than from a regular job.
Affiliate marketing step-by-step
So, in order to become successful in affiliate marketing you need to join the right community that will help you achieve your financial online goals.
The program I’m going to talk about is in fact the best affiliate marketing program for beginners.
Because without community you can’t do it. With the right community you will get:
- Support
- Motivation (success stories)
- New ideas on how to grow your business
- Sharing of experience
All these aspects are extremely important for your success online. Without community you will lose motivation very fast and as a result of that you won’t achieve your financial goals online.
So, the first thing you need in order to start your affiliate marketing career online is joining the community HERE.
It’s the same community I got my start back in 2013. The good news is that you can join it absolutely FREE! If you like it you can upgrade your account. It’s totally optional.
Upon joining the community you are recommended to set up your profile and add a picture of yours, and some info about yourself.
The CEO of WA, Kyle will personally welcome you and offer his personal support. I will be there too welcoming you. It’s a great experience.
I’m sure you will love the community and members that care about you and everyone tries to help when you need support with your business.
Once it’s done you need to click on the green “Get Started” button and start watching 10 free lessons that will explain to you what affiliate marketing is all about.
These 10 lessons are totally free and designed to help people like you to get an idea of how affiliate marketing looks like and what you are going to do to start making money online.
Here is a breakdown of the first FREE level of the Certification Course on affiliate marketing:
Level 1: Getting Started!
- Getting Rolling!
- Understanding How to Make Money Online
- Choose a Niche
- Building Your OWN niche website
- Setting up Your Website
- Getting Your Site Ready for Search Engines
- Creating Your Initial Website Content
- Creating Custom Menus on Your Website
- Understanding Keywords, The Start of Your Content
- Congratulations and Your Next Steps
Don’t worry! These lessons are very easy to understand and there is also a homework to be done.
You will never be overwhelmed because you will be doing one thing at a time. And there is a caring community behind you.
Whenever you have a question you can ask it and get help within second or minutes. You will never get stuck. I’m inside the community every day.
Most likely I will answer your question or at least someone will do it.
After watching these free lessons you will decide if you want to continue to stay as a free member or upgrade to a premium membership account.
The truth is that you can stay as a free member for as long as you want.
But access to live chat, support will not be available after 7 days. Without support it will be very difficult to achieve your financial goals.
Other 4 advanced levels of the certification course are also available for premium members only.
The difference in success rate between free and premium members is huge. And it’s not surprising because advanced level gives you way more knowledge on affiliate marketing.
It gives you more opportunities, advanced tricks, methods, support etc. For more information on the difference of WA membership premium vs. free you can learn HERE.
Your new affiliate marketing life
Now I will explain to you how your daily affiliate marketing life will look like once you’ve decided to join the community and start your new affiliate marketing life.
Because affiliate marketing will change your life if you take it seriously. You can start making a solid income per month. Here is the proof of my income.
Your income can be less or WAY higher than mine. There are members inside the community that are making WAY more than what I’m making.
I’m not the most successful affiliate marketer to be honest.
If you decide to stay as a free member your opportunities as an affiliate marketer will be very limited but still you can make money if you take action on what you learn and do it consistently.
Those who quit after first 2 months never experience any success. Affiliate marketing is for goal oriented and hard working people ONLY.
As a free member, after watching free lessons you can continue to use WA search box in order too find topics just like you do it on Google.
For example, you can type these terms in the search box:
- Affiliate marketing
- How to promote affiliate products/programs
- Build a website
- Customize a website
- Creating menus
- Website plugins
- Installing Google analytics
- Installing Google webmaster
- Keyword research
- Social media
- How to create content for a website
- Success stories
- How to record a video
- Youtube channel
Etc.
This will give you access to a ton of FREE trainings created by other premium members who are already successful members and are making money from affiliate marketing.
This will allow you to understand how affiliate marketing works and how to make money online.
But since you will be a free member you will have to search and find all these trainings by yourself.
It will NOT be in systematical order and that’s why it will be very difficult for me to explain to you what is first and what is second.
That’s why upgrading to a premium account is highly recommended for you.
Of course, if you upgrade I will earn from you a small commission BUT it won’t affect you in any way. It’s not important to be honest.
It’s important for YOU because you are going to learn affiliate marketing the easy way and you will be making money as a result of that. Of course, your success is not guaranteed.
But I can guarantee that IF you learn and take action YOU will make money. But I can’t tell you how much you will make.
Because everyone’s experience is different. You can make several thousand dollars per month or just a few hundred bucks. Everything depends on your efforts.
If you decide to upgrade to a premium account you will immediately get access to the rest part of the certification course. See the screenshot above.
- Level 2: Building Your Own Traffic Producing Website.
- Level 3: Making Money!
- Level 4: Mastering Social Engagement.
- Level 5: Achieving Maximum Success Through Content Creation.
Here is the breakdown of what you are going to learn as a premium member of WA:
Level 2: Building Your Own Traffic Producing Website
- Your own domain, your brand
- Move on over, My brand has arrived
- Creating keyword rich content
- Setting up a domain
- The traffic breakdown
- Making use of visuals Understanding the low hanging fruit
- Making face as a real person
- Amplifying your Google love with Google plus
- Boosting your WA ranks
Level 3: Making Money!
- Understanding the money in online business
- Understanding affiliate programs/networks
- Relevant affiliate programs are everywhere
- Adding affiliate links to Your pages
- Instant access to a MILLION products
- Leveraging product reviews
- Getting paid for ads on your site
- Earning pennies or dollars?
- A brilliant way to track&understand your traffic
- With help comes financial success
Level 4: Mastering Social Engagement
- What does social engagement mean to your business
- Making your website a place of engagement
- Using Facebook the right way
- Pinterest & the visual social hemisphere
- Incorporating a sound tweeting campaign
- Google plus or minus?
- The benefit of being social at WA
- Make your campaigns social branding animals
- Using the Wealthy Affiliate social community
- You cannot be a master at everything
Level 5: Achieving Maximum Success Through Content Creation
- Content is your business
- Setting up Google webmaster tools
- Improving indexing times and speeds
- People need to read your content
- A year is a short period of time, Yet BIG for business
- Writing within a devised plan architecture
- Writing your content with conversion intent
- Injecting comments with intent
- Bing and Yahoo, They are still the 33%
- Articulating a PLAN for the months and year ahead
This is a complete breakdown of the certification course you can take advantage of if you decide to upgrade your account to premium.
This certification course is really great for beginners.
Everything will be clear for you and you will be building your business online that will start making you a solid monthly income over time.
As I said, after each lesson you will be required to complete a task. This will help you achieve your goals much faster with the kind of support the community provides you with.
Everything inside the community is FREE. There is only one purchase and that’s a domain name for your website.
You can buy it from any other place or inside the community. The domain will cost you $14 per year.
This is a requirement for your business. Because your website must have a name. Because it’s going to be your brand in the future.
Practical steps in affiliate marketing
The main idea of going through this certification course on affiliate marketing is to teach you to become an affiliate marketer and choose the path for making money online.
Path means you will be promoting product/programs as an affiliate.
For this to become possible you need to choose a niche ( field of interest). Once you’ve chosen the niche you need to find products related to that niche which can be anything.
It can be basketball accessories, iPhone, iPhone accessories, earphones, plant pots, console games etc. Niches are different, products are different, paths are different.
For example, today one member contacted me and asked my advice on what I think about “planting vegetables or fruits in pots” niche.
I immediately checked it through Jaaxy keyword tool and found the following keywords:
- Planting vegetables in pots
- Planting fruits in pots
- Planting flowers in pots
- Planting seeds in pots
- Planting potatoes in pots
have some search volume but it’s not that big to be honest. Everything that comes to your mind as a niche idea should be checked through keyword tool. Why?
Because keyword tool allows you to understand how many people search for any specific term (keyword) using Google.
If there is a huge volume for it you can choose it as your niche. If this volume is not big enough then that niche will be unprofitable.
Simply because there are not enough people that search for it and it means you won’t be able to make many sales as a result.
Your site will be making a very small income. So, when checking “planting vegetables” keyword I found another great keyword, such as “plant pots” which can be a great niche idea.
I suggested that member to create a blog (website) about planting vegetables and fruits, flowers etc and at the same time promote plant pots.
Because there is a high chance that this audience will be interested in this product, i.e. (plant pots).
This is just one example for you so you can understand what affiliate marketing means and how it works.
And BTW I found plant pots on Amazon which means you can join their Amazon Associate program and start promoting the products.
1. As a member of this community you will be watching lessons and then you will decide what product (niche) to choose and create a website around.
2. Once you’ve decided what to choose you will use keyword tool to know exactly if there is enough search volume and potential in your chosen niche.
3. You will choose a domain name for your website
4. After that you will set up a website, customize it
5. You will be creating content for your website. You will be writing articles, tutorials, product reviews on the topic you have interest in and by doing so you will be educating people (audience) looking for that information on Google. You will be driving that audience to your website, educating them and possibly making sales. This is how affiliate marketing works. Very simple but very powerful.
Don’t worry about finding products to promote. There are various places you can join as an affiliate and start promoting for free. Here is a list of places where you can join as an affiliate:
- Clickbank
- JVZoo
- Warrior Plus
- Shareasale
- Commission Junction
- Amazon
- Wallmart
- Jet
- Target
- Bestbuy
As you probably understand, there is no perfect training or program in the world. That’s why inside the community there is a live training program that educates you in the most advanced way possible.
Every week new live webinar is released on the most burning topic important for your affiliate marketing business.
The live coach Jay will be educating you and you will have the opportunity to ask questions live every single week. The topics are different, from building a website to making money.
Here is a short list of live weekly webinars:
Website:
- Troubleshooting & Fixing Website Errors
- WordPress: Images, Video & Media Management
- Elements That Build Site Trust
- Summer Hot Seat: Have Your Website Reviewed
- WordPress: Themes and the Appearance of Your Website
Landing page:
- How to Promote Your Landing Page
- Building a Proper Review Page That Converts
- How to Use Landing Pages Effectively
- Let’s Build a Landing Page LIVE!
Niche Research:
- WA LIVE Niche Case Study Series: Week 1 of 4
- WA LIVE Niche Case Study Series: Week 2 of 4
- WA LIVE Niche Case Study Series: Week 3 of 4
- WA LIVE Niche Case Study Series: Week 4 of 4
- How I Research a New Niche
- The Basics to Advanced Market Research
SEO (search engine optimization):
- Tips on Improving a Site’s Ranking
- Internal Linking Strategies for Rankings
- 10 Steps Required for Top Google Rankings
- How to Recover from Poor Results in Google
- Elements That Rank Local Websites
Email marketing strategy:
- Email Marketing Walkthrough
- Getting Started with Email Marketing 2016
- The Simplicity of Growing Your Email List
- Email Marketing 2018: 1st Steps to List Building
Keyword research:
- Finding Keyword Opportunities in Google Search Console
- Finding Content Opportunities From Related Keywords
- Building a Massive List of Awesome Keywords
- Commercial Keywords vs Interest Keywords
Content strategy:
- Content Topic Brain Dump
- Preparing Your Content for Traffic
- Ways to Get Your Content Noticed
- Creating a Long Term Content Strategy
- Giving Old Content a New SEO Life
- Evergreen Content Walkthrough
- Effective Use of Images in Content
- Writing Awesome Lengthy Authoritative Content
Social media strategy:
- Like a BOSS: Social Media Management
- WordPress: Comments, Engagement & Advanced Tips
- Planning out a Social Media Schedule
- Facebook Ads: Working with Local Businesses
- Facebook Ads: Creating Awesome Ads
- Google Plus Awesomeness – Traffic, Tools & Rankings
- Branding & Traffic with Google+ Communities Social Media Breakdown
Video marketing strategy:
- Dominating SERPs with Video
- SEO Video
- SEO: How to Rank in YouTube Search
- Evergreen Strategies to Rank YouTube Videos
- Step-by-Step: Promoting with YouTube
Hot Seat, Questions&Answers:
- 2017 WA Summer Hot Seat!
- Hot Seat 2017!
- MAY the Niche Force be With You
- Summer Hot Seat: Have Your Website Reviewed by Jay
- Spring Fling Hot Seat!
- Content & Conversion Hot Seat
- Holiday HotSeat! Get Your Website Reviewed
Conversion optimization and Tracking:
- From Traffic to Conversion – A Walkthrough
- Beginner’s Guide to Google Analytics
- Styling Elements for Increased Conversions
- Content & Conversion Hot Seat
- How to Boost Your Conversions & Sales
- Tracking Social Metrics in Analytics
- Understanding Your Audience
- Writing Awesome Reviews for Conversions
Local marketing strategy:
- Local Marketing: Client Acquisition by Not Selling
- Running a Successful Local Marketing Business
- The Perfect Local Landing Page
- Local Marketing Client Case Study
- Local SEO & Marketing Primer
- Local Ranking Blueprint
- Live LOCAL Case Study: From Research to LOCAL rank
Technical stuff:
- Learn How to Use Photoshop
- Adding your HTTPS to Google Webmaster Tools
- Switching from HTTP to HTTPS
- Hello SiteSSL: FREE Encryption For Your Website
Affiliate Marketing for Dummies in 2020
Finally, this tool that you see on the screenshot will be your most used tool on a day-to-day basis.
You will be using Site Builder to build a website
Site Manager to access your website
Site Domains to buy a domain name
Site Content to write a content for your website
Site Comments to get comments on your posts
Site Feedback to get feedback on your site and improve your site
Site Support to get support from the technical team and community.
All of this will significantly improve your online business and your chances to achieve your online goals in affiliate marketing.
I suggest that you create your FREE account and start your awesome online journey like I started a few years ago.
Thanks to this program I’ve been making money consistently for 3 years now and now it is your turn to start.
About the Author: Adam
My name is Adam. I'm the founder of Your Income Advisor. My goal is to help others succeed online, by exposing scams and reviewing top rated products. I can help you start your own business online 
Hi Rufat,
I have read your article and found it very helpful indeed.
I hope you do not mind me asking you for some guidance on affiliate marketing startup, as a newbie blogger i am grateful for all the information i can get.
I am trying to make some good money from blogging as well, but the competition is on rise and it is tough. If i may ask you a relevant question, i would like to know more on affiliate marketing that you have mentioned and even discussed a little. I want to integrate with affiliate marketing too but i have no insight on the matter that which program should i join as starter and why.
Actually i have been doing some of my own research cause obviously i need to find a program for my blog as well, and i did come across some articles that suggest different types of programs mostly the ones that are providing multi niche products data and some theme and hosting programs.
As a multi niche blogger i need a program that is too offering multi niche product data to promote. I also came across this local UK company that is offering all sort of tools that a newbie can use but i need suggestions on it or maybe recommendations related to matter if possible.
Here is the link to their tools that they suggest can be used for wordpress monetizing revglue.com/free-wordpress-plugins can you help me out with it please? They seem to sell data of stores and offer 100% commission with free plugins which is kinda impressive.
Any sort of guidance is awaited and appreciated.
Thank you for the comment. I understand your concern. First, regarding competition, you don’t have to worry much about competition. There is always a room for you if you can deliver value. Here is my post regarding competition. When it comes to programs, there are thousands of them around. It’s a matter of whether you can monetize it or not. My best recommended program is this one. Let me know if you have any questions.
Thank you for emphasizing that Wealthy Affiliate is for hard-workers only because a lot of people that see others’ hefty cheques are under the misconception that those cheques were earned overnight. The reality is that it takes months and sometimes even upto a year to start seeing any financial results.
Those are the same people who call Wealthy Affiliate a scam after 2 months. That’s because they expect a secret formula to making money online where none exist. They just don’t want to give it time and most importantly, don’t want to work.
Thanks for sharing your success as this goes to proving that the training at Wealthy Affiliate is the real deal.
Thank you for the comment Reyhana and thank you for being loyal reader of my blog. That’s true. Unfortunately, many people when they see those checks with $ sign they start to think: it’s great. I will join now and start making money immediately. But they don’t realize that it takes time and effort. You need to first get some education. Without a proper education it’s impossible to see those $ signs in your bank account. It’s like regular job. You do the work and then earn money. I personally made my first buck online after 16 months of joining WA (affiliate marketing program). By the end of my second year I was making money consistently. Now after 3 years I’m making a solid income online and I’m happy with my achievement. Of course, it took me 3 years to reach that point but after all this I can tell it’s worth the time and effort I put into my business. Believe me, it’s worth it.
This is interesting after searching all over the internet for a legit way to become my own boss I always end up running into affiliate marketing.
I know that it takes work to get things moving but I KNOW it’s real. I guess it’s time to pull the trigger and get things moving for myself.
Let’s do this! Thanks for the great information!
It’s because affiliate marketing is one of the best and safest ways to build an online business with minimum amount of money and maximum support. If you join my recommended program I will personally welcome you and support you whenever you need a hand with your business. And it’s really good to know that you understand that affiliate marketing is not about pushing buttons and making money. It involves hard work and patience before you see first results of your online efforts. Because many people still don’t realize what affiliate marketing is about because they have been misled by other low quality programs. Go register with my recommended program and I will be happy to help you get started. It’s free to register an account.
I have always known the potential of affiliate marketing, especially as we continue to move forward in the digital era, at this incredible pace, that is taking place.However, I had always come to the dead end world of only hype with poor intention, from the world of online scamming. This was more so relevant for me who was fairly not tech-savvy, then my miracle happened as I ran across a WA link and hear I am with a website and growing content that is getting ranked, amazing. This has come about as you say, with very little money into this platform, just the heart with a desire to succeed, what an awesome arena, keep up the great post’s and I will see you soon, Jack
I agree. The potential of affiliate marketing is really big and there is a room for everyone in the industry. Every year more and more people join affiliate marketing industry and get amazing results and improve their life quality. Unfortunately, scammers are around us trying to scam naive people. That’s why I believe beginners should join affiliate marketing communities to save themselves from falling to so called internet gurus that make big promises but fail to deliver even a small fraction of they promise. And I agree that WA community is very friendly and if you benefit from it the right way you can achieve success in affiliate marketing in a year or so. I’m glad your site is climbing to the top of Google. Over time it will bring you a lot of traffic and income. Like you said, I recommend WA community to everyone looking for a legit way to start in affiliate marketing. This platform through is not perfect but has almost everything needed for your success online.
Affiliate marketing is probably the best way to make money online. And Wealthy Affiliate is definitely the best place to learn about all that and put it into action. I really like how much training WA has. The community is always giving back and provide support to new members with some tips and advice.
I’m glad you’re a member of WA community and working on your business. It’s definitely a great place to learn affiliate marketing and grow your online business. Support is the strongest aspect of the community and the truth is that any affiliate marketer and especially a beginner needs a ton of support in order to achieve their online goals. I personally can vouch for the quality of this program. Even free members can learn a lot from the program.
Hi there Rufat
So your saying that affiliate marketing is very doable for newbies who have no prior knowledge of this business model.
and how long did it take you to bring in $1000 paydays when you started. I am sure for newbies this could take a solid 6-12 months before they start seeing decent returns?
Yes, of course it’s very doable for anyone without prior experience. There is nothing difficult in affiliate marketing to be honest. The only difficult part in it is that it requires a massive effort, action. If you are willing to do the work and learn new things then you will be successful in affiliate marketing. I did my best to explain everything step-by-step in my article and I do hope people will benefit from it. Regarding your question as to how much money a newbie can make, you are right. Generally speaking it takes 6-12 months to see some solid results. Sometimes it can take less, sometimes longer. There is no an exact answer to this question because it depends on many factors, such as your niche, your ability to learn things and apply them, your willingness to work hard. Niches are different. Some niches are much easier to monetize while others are not. It also depends on the amount of time you dedicate to your business. Too many factors. Self-motivation is a huge factor when it comes to affiliate marketing. Because many people quit very fast because of the lack of self-motivation. The program I recommended within my post can help anyone achieve their online goals and I’m living proof of it. Some hard work, some patience will pay off.