Guide to Affiliate Marketing: Getting Started in 2023
Complete Affiliate marketing guide
Affiliate marketing is a A Complete great way to generate
some additional income. You can become an affiliate marketer and recommend
other brands, or you can start an affiliate program to start promoting your own
existing brand.
This complete guide will walk you through how to become an
affiliate marketer who promotes other brands. We’ll go over how to start making
money in affiliate marketing, online marketing tips to help you succeed, and
tricks to help you earn more money.
Smart entrepreneurs running a thriving business know there’s
always more they can do to make that business grow. One way of taking things to
the next level is by finding an alternate stream of income.
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Table of contents
What is affiliate marketing?
How affiliate marketing works
Types of affiliate marketing
Pros and cons of affiliate marketing
How do affiliate marketers make money?
How to start affiliate marketing
Tips for affiliate marketing success
Affiliate marketing program examples
Start your affiliate marketing business today
Affiliate marketing FAQ
What is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a performance based marketing
strategy where individuals or businesses earn commissions by promoting products
or services of others. Affiliates drive traffic or sales through referral
links, and when a purchase is made, they receive a percentage of the revenue.
Typically, the result is a sale. But some affiliate
marketing programs can reward you for leads, free-trial users, clicks to a
website, or getting downloads for an app.
Most affiliate programs are free to join, so you don’t have
to worry about high startup costs. Done right, an effective affiliate marketing
strategy can go from side hustle to profitable online business idea by netting
you a healthy income.
How affiliate marketing works
Affiliate programs work by allowing individuals (affiliates)
to promote and sell products or services of a company in exchange for a
commission on each sale. The affiliate
earns a commission each time someone makes a purchase through the unique
affiliate link associated with their recommendation.
Here’s how it works at a high level:
An affiliate shows an ad or a link for Store Z on their
website, blog, or social network.
A customer clicks the unique affiliate link.
The customer makes a purchase in Store Z.
The affiliate network records the transaction.
The purchase is confirmed by Store Z.
The affiliate gets paid a monetary commission.
Commission rates for affiliate sales vary depending on the
company and the offer. On the low end, you’ll earn about 5% of the sale, but
with some arrangements, you can earn as much as 50%, usually when promoting a
class or event. Some affiliate marketing programs provide a flat rate per sale
instead of a percentage.
Types of affiliate marketing
Affiliates always carry a bit of mystery—you never know if
the person has ever really used the product or if they are just promoting it for
the money. Both cases still exist today.
It wasn’t until 2009 when renowned affiliate marketer Pat
Flynn broke down the different types of affiliate marketers into three groups.
Understanding these types of affiliate marketing can show you the different
ways people make money online in this space, regardless of your moral compass.
1. Unattached affiliate marketing
The first type of affiliate marketing is referred to as
“unattached,” or when you have no authority in the niche of the product you’re
advertising, i.e., There’s no connection between you and the customer. This
often involves running pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns with the
affiliate link and hoping people will click it, buy the product, and earn a
commission.
Unattached affiliate marketing is attractive because you
don’t need to do any legwork. Affiliate marketing businesses rely on reputation
and trust with a target audience online. Some affiliate marketers don’t have
the time or desire to build those relationships, so this type of marketing is
their best option.
“Unattached affiliate marketing isn’t a genuine business
model, it’s for people who just want to generate income,” explains Elise
Dopson, founder of Sprocker Lovers. “Our focus for Sprocker Lovers is building
community and providing free education around a particular niche first, which
in our case is the sprocker spaniel dog breed, and selling second.”
2. Related affiliate marketing
Related affiliate marketing is the practice of promoting
products and services you don’t use but that are related to your niche. An
affiliate marketer in this case has an audience, whether it’s through blogging,
YouTube, TikTok, or another channel. A related affiliate marketer also has
influence, which makes them a trusted source for recommending products, even if
they’ve never used them before.
While related affiliate marketing can generate more
affiliate income, it comes with the risk of promoting something you’ve never
tried before. It could be the worst product or service ever, and you wouldn’t
even know. It only takes one bad recommendation to lose the trust of your
audience. If you don’t have trust and transparency, it’ll be hard to build a
sustainable affiliate marketing business.
3. Involved affiliate marketing
Involved affiliate marketing refers to only recommending
products and services the affiliate marketer has used and truly believes in.
“Involved affiliate marketing is the way forward,” says Elise. “It’s rooted in
trust and authenticity, which is best for your audience and business.”
In this type of marketing, an affiliate marketer uses his or
her influence to promote products and services that followers may actually
need, instead of paying to get clicks on a banner ad. It takes more time to
build this type of credibility with an audience, but it’s necessary for
building a sustainable business.
Elise explains that the involved approach makes advertising
much easier for affiliate marketing partners: “You don’t have to hide behind
expensive PPC ads and hope for clicks and sales. An organic Instagram Story or
blog post about your experience with a product will go a long way.” Elise
prefers this method because it’s honest and is “the only genuine way to become
a trusted source on any topic.”
Involved affiliate marketing is the only genuine way to
become a trusted source on any topic.
Pros and cons of affiliate marketing
Yes, affiliate marketing is worth it, given its growth in
popularity. Statista estimates the affiliate marketing industry was worth $8.2
billion in 2022, up from $5.4 billion in 2017. It’s also a low- to no-cost
business venture you can profit from immensely. But before diving in, consider
the pros and cons of entering the affiliate marketing world.
Pros
While industry growth is a good indication of success,
entrepreneurs also take this referral marketing route for a few other reasons.
Easy to execute
Your side of the equation involves simply handling the
digital marketing side of building and selling a product. You don’t have to
worry about the harder tasks, like developing, supporting, or fulfilling the
offer.
Low risk
Since there’s no cost to join affiliate programs, you can
start making money with an established affiliate product or service without any
upfront investment. Affiliate marketing can also generate relatively passive
income through commission—the ideal money-making scenario. Though initially
you’ll have to invest time creating traffic sources, your affiliate link can
continue to deliver a steady paycheck.
Easy to scale
Successful affiliate marketing offers the potential to
significantly scale your earnings without hiring extra help. You can introduce
new products to your current audience and build campaigns for additional
products while your existing work continues to generate affiliate revenue in
the background.
Before you get too excited, know that great affiliate
marketing is built on trust. While seemingly there are an endless number of
products or services to promote, it’s best to only highlight those you
personally use or would recommend. Even when a product interests you or fits
within an existing hobby, becoming a great affiliate marketer for that product
takes a lot of work.
Cons
Affiliate marketing also has a few disadvantages compared to
other types of marketing campaigns. Before jumping in, let’s look at a few
challenges you’ll face on your journey to affiliate marketing success.
Requires patience
Affiliate marketing is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It
requires time and patience to grow an audience and gain influence.
You’ll want to test different channels to see which connect
best with your audience. Research the most relevant and credible products to
promote. Spend time blogging, publishing free content on social media, hosting
virtual events, and doing other lead-generating activities on your marketing
channels.
Commission-based
There’s no boss handing you a weekly paycheck as an
affiliate marketer. Affiliate programs work on a commission basis, whether
you’re paid by lead, click, or sale.
Companies use a temporary browser cookie to track people’s
actions from your content. When a desired action is taken by someone, you
receive the payout.
No control over program
Affiliates must obey the rules set by a company for their
program. You need to follow their guidelines for what you say and how you
present their product or service. Competitors must follow the same
recommendations, so you have to get creative to differentiate yourself from the
crowd.
How do affiliate marketers make money?
Affiliate marketing income spans a large spectrum. There are
some affiliate marketers that will make a few hundred bucks per month and
others that make six figures a year. The larger your following, the more money
you can make as an affiliate marketer.
Compensation software company Payscale reports that the
average annual salary of an affiliate marketer is more than $53,000, based on
over 7,000 salary profiles, with many affiliate marketers earning significantly
more.
But how do affiliates actually get paid? When you choose an
affiliate program to promote, you’ll notice there are different payment models.
Companies also call it a price model, payout model, conversion type, or another
variation.
Regardless of the name, the payment model tells you what
goals you will get paid for. If you’re promoting a software product, the action
could be a free trial signup. For an affiliate marketer who promotes physical
products, the goal will likely be a purchase.
Many programs run with last-click attribution, which means
the affiliate who receives the last click before purchase gets 100% credit.
However, this is changing, as programs improve attribution models and
reporting. For example, you could share equal credit for a sale if there were
multiple affiliates in a buyer’s conversion funnel.
Five common ways affiliates get paid include:
Pay per sale, where you earn a commission for each sale you
make. It’s a common payout model for ecommerce offers.
Pay per action, which earns you a commission for a specific
action. Many affiliate programs use this payout model because it’s broad and
can be applied to different offers: a newsletter signup, a click, contact
request, form submission, etc.
Pay per install, where you are paid for every install
generated from your website traffic. The goal of your content would be to
promote mobile apps and software so that people download or install them
Pay per lead, which pays you every time someone signs up for
something. It's a popular payout method because companies use it for
sweepstakes, lead generation, and other types of offers. Cost per lead offers
are common for beginners because it’s easier to generate leads than to sell
products to an audience.
Pay per click, a rare payout system where you earn
commission on every click on your affiliate link. Pay per click programs are
used by big merchants with a goal to build brand awareness. Customers don’t
need to sign up or buy anything, just to visit the merchant’s website.
How much you make depends on your affiliate niche. For
example, research conducted by Shopify in 2021* found that the highest average
commission rate ($70.99) was for business-related programs, while books and
media and clothing categories earned just over $6 per commission. The maximum
average commission we found was around $289.06 per sale.
affiliate marketing commission rate and CTR rate research
Affiliate marketing program commission and conversion rate
by niche
How to start affiliate marketing in 4 steps
Pick your platform and method
Decide your niche and audience
Find your products
Choose your first affiliate program
Just like running your own small business, becoming a
successful affiliate takes dedication and discipline. Use the following
step-by-step guide to start your affiliate marketing business.
Pick your platform and method
The first step is figuring out the platform you want to
build your audience around. Every affiliate marketer has a different approach
and platform. There are many affiliate marketing ideas you can choose from
based on different methods:
Niche topic and review sites. These are sites that review
products for a specific audience or compare a line of products against their
competitors. This method requires you to create content related to the review
space and post regularly to draw in an audience.
Digital content. Digital content creators include bloggers,
YouTubers, and social media influencers. They create niche content that
resonates with a target audience. The goal is to organically introduce niche
products their audience will enjoy. This increases the chances they’ll buy and
you’ll earn an affiliate commission.
Courses, events, workshops. If you’re an educator, you can
integrate affiliate partnership offers into your events.
No matter which route you take, authenticity and audience
building are the two most crucial elements for affiliate marketing. If you
can’t authentically connect with your audience, chances are you won’t have
success in converting them into affiliate sales.
To pick a platform and method, ask yourself:
What platforms do you use the most?
Which platforms do you understand best?
Common platforms affiliate marketers use are:
Blogging
Instagram
TikTok
Facebook
Pinterest
Pay per click (PPC)
YouTube
Starting with a marketing platform you’re comfortable with
helps you create high-quality content. This can result in a stronger, more
engaged audience you can turn into sales.
Decide your niche and audience
When it comes to choosing a niche, aim for something you’re
passionate and knowledgeable about. This helps you come across as authentic and
as a trusted source of information for potential customers. It also helps you
evaluate which products and brands you want to promote.
Say, for example, you started a blog about dogs. You own a
sprocker spaniel and you’re passionate about helping other owners care for
their sprockers.
You create a blog like Sprocker Lovers, and you regularly
post and encourage people to subscribe to an email list and share your content.
Sprocker spaniels are your niche, and you’re going to invest in content
marketing and optimization to grow your audience of owners.
“The niche you choose for your affiliate site guides how
much time or effort you’ll need to put into building it to a point where you
begin to see SEO results,” says Elise.
“SERPs for software, marketing, and health care, for
example, are all dominated by huge blogging sites with even bigger marketing
budgets. The secret is finding untapped areas where competition isn’t as
fierce—and getting in there before other people recognize it.”
As you post more, you can use affiliate marketing tools like
social listening, website analytics, and social media insights to discover who
your audience is and what they like.
It’s important you know your audience so well, that you
understand why they follow you in the first place.
Remember, you’re not paid to post. Affiliate marketing is a
performance-based online business. If you know what your audience likes, you
can then refer the best products to them and earn more affiliate income.
Find your products
To earn revenue as an affiliate marketer, your audience
needs to connect with what you’re saying. The items or services you promote
need to be products they genuinely want. Getting this wrong can hinder your
success and diminish your credibility—as well as your audience.
If you’re curious where to look for products or brands to
work with, don’t worry. There are tons of affiliate marketplaces, including:
Affiliate Future
AvantLink
CJ Affiliate
ClickBank
FlexOffers
LinkConnector
ShareASale
Another option is to visit the websites of the products and
services you use and like to see if they have an affiliate program. Large
companies often have programs they promote on their site, such as Amazon
Associates or the Shopify Affiliate Program.
You also can take a more direct approach. Reach out to the
owner of a great product you come across and see if they offer an affiliate
marketing program. If they don’t, they might be happy to set up an arrangement
with you, such as offering you a special coupon code to share with your
followers.
The best deals often are found when you’re the first to
inquire and have a relevant distribution channel, such as approaching the
seller of a new fitness product if you’re a health and wellness blogger.
Affiliate marketing programs will have terms of service you
need to follow, so read the fine print. For example, your affiliate link
usually will have a cookie with a specified timeframe, and some programs don’t
allow you to purchase pay-per-click ads using the product or company’s name.
Choose your first affiliate program
As you brainstorm products or browse through affiliate
platforms, the most important criteria to keep in mind is that the product
should be aligned with your audience, or the audience you hope to build. Ask
yourself, is it something your target audience would find valuable? Does it fit
with your area of expertise?
A food blogger probably wouldn’t promote beauty products,
for example. A wide range of other products, such as cookware, meal kits,
gourmet ingredients, or even aprons would make more sense.
Also make sure the product or service you’re promoting is a
fit for the platform you’re promoting it on. For example, home décor and
clothing are well suited to image-heavy platforms like Instagram. However, if
you’re promoting more in-depth purchases, like software, your conversion rates
may be higher on longer-form platforms, like a blog or YouTube.
Tips for affiliate marketing success
Talk to a product expert
Create a product tutorial
Build an email list
Find relevant search terms
Consider your angle
Set your distribution strategy
Try offering a bonus
Keep things legal and above board
As we mentioned earlier, affiliate marketing revenue can eventually
become a form of passive income, but you still have to do some heavy lifting
upfront. The success of your program will depend on the quality of your review.
To create a good review, it’s best to get personal. Share
your experience in your blog, social media post, Instagram Story, or YouTube
video. If you’re writing a personal review, give a candid opinion based on your
experience with and knowledge of the product. The more open you are, the more
authentic you will be. People will be more comfortable following your advice if
they feel they can trust you.
Trust is a key factor in your affiliate marketing efforts,
because people need to trust you enough to act on your recommendations. The
level of trust you’ll need to make affiliate sales depends on your industry and
the products you’re recommending—for example, it takes more trust to be an
effective affiliate for a $1,000 course than it does for a $20 t-shirt.
“Beyond just sharing your experiences, you can build trust
by limiting the number of affiliates you promote, or by only becoming an
affiliate for products you personally use and sticking to your area of
expertise,” says Desirae Odjick, founder of Half Banked. “For example, people
trust my recommendations for Canadian financial apps, but that doesn’t mean I’m
going to have much luck as a Sephora affiliate.”
Talk to a product expert
Another option is interviewing others who use the product or
service, or even interviewing the person who makes or sells it. This can give
your review more depth, creating a narrative for the reader.
Create a product tutorial
While your success with affiliate marketing can depend on
the overall size of your following, another way to drive traffic is by
providing a tutorial on the offer.
People often perform “how to” Google searches, such as “how
to save money for college” or “how to decorate a laundry room.” If you offer a
tutorial that solves a searcher’s problem and clearly showcases the value of
the product, your referrals will make more sense in context, and you’ll provide
the customer with a stronger incentive to purchase the product you’re
recommending.
Build an email list
An email list is a list of contacts you’ve gathered who
would like to receive information from you. It’s important to build a contact
list because it’s one of the best ways to connect with people outside of social
media. When it comes to purchases made as a result of receiving a marketing
message, email has the highest conversion rate (66%) compared to social and
other marketing channels.
Gather emails from your content and send a newsletter weekly
or biweekly to subscribers. Affiliate marketers can send many different things
to subscribers on their list:
Free downloads
Reports
New blog posts
A look inside your life or business
Entertaining stories
Reminders and news
Special deals
Use your email list as an opportunity to show value to
subscribers. If they send you an email back, respond. Be consistent with your
newsletter cadence and quality. Then, every once in a while, promote an
affiliate product or two to subscribers.
There’s no hard rule on how many times to send promotional
emails. Just don’t send them every time you have a promo or you’ll come off as
spammy and untrustworthy. If you’re promoting good products once a month,
you’re only providing value to subscribers who need them.
Find relevant search terms
If you’re promoting an offer through a blog post, research
which keywords someone might use in a search engine to find an answer to a
related problem. Google Ads Keyword Planner is a great tool that can help.
(It’s free to use, but you’ll need to create an account.)
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Consider your angle
Depending on your offer, figure out how much energy you
should invest in instructional or tutorial content, which is often a natural
lead-in to someone trying a product for themselves.
For example, you could record a video of yourself using and
getting the most out of a physical product or showing off the benefits of a
digital product, like software. Unboxing posts are popular, so if you receive
the product in the mail, document your experience opening it up.
Set your distribution strategy
Once you’ve written your promotional content, share it on
your website or social media platforms. If you have a subscriber list, you can
create an email marketing campaign. And be sure to have an affiliate marketing
hub on your website with a resources page where you share a quick list of all
of the tools you use and love.
Try offering a bonus
Sometimes marketers promote their affiliate programs by
offering bonuses to anyone who purchases the offer. For example, you could give
a free ebook you wrote to any follower who makes a purchase.
Promotions like this encourage customers to buy by sweetening
the deal. They’re especially persuasive if the bonus you offer is something you
normally sell, because then shoppers can see its actual dollar value right on
your site.
You can find several examples of affiliate bonuses in action
when business coach Marie Forleo opens her popular B-School for entrepreneurs
each year. To encourage sign-ups through her affiliate link, Laura Belgray,
Forleo’s own copywriter, offers a one-on-one copywriting session as a bonus.
Keep things legal and above board
Don’t forget to disclose to followers that your post
contains affiliate links. For one thing, it’s required by the FTC. But
explaining the reason for your affiliation also can help you connect with your
audience.
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“Frugalwoods sometimes publishes affiliate endorsements and
advertisements, which means that if you click on a link and buy something,
Frugalwoods might receive a percentage of the sale, at no extra cost to you. We
only write about and promote products that we believe in. We promise not to
tell you about stuff that’s dumb.”
If you need help figuring out what language to use in a
disclaimer, it’s worth taking time to consult a lawyer.
Affiliate marketing program examples
Looking at some of the companies that participate in
affiliate marketing will provide you with inspiration—as well as proof that
this is a legit and high-paying revenue stream.
Shopify
Shopify's Affiliate Program is a network of entrepreneurs,
educators, influencers, and creators who send referrals to Shopify. It’s free
to sign up for the program, you only need to apply.
Once approved, affiliate partners get a unique affiliate
link to share with their audience. They earn affiliate income each time someone
signs up using their link.
Screenshot of the Shopify Affiliate Program website. Copy
reads "Create new entrepreneurs. Earn more than just commission. Grow your
brand with Shopify, access exclusive opportunities, and earn a commission
through our referral program. Become a Shopify Affiliate. Apply Now."
On average, Shopify Affiliates earn $58 for each referral
who signs up for a paid Shopify plan. Affiliates can earn as much or as little
as they want, it all depends on how much time they spend on their affiliate
marketing strategy.
I have worked with dozens of companies over my 11 years
online, and I have to say that Shopify has been one of the best to work with!
Their affiliate managers and program have made it easy for me to promote their
product, make money, and provide value to my community.”
Ezra Firestone of Smart Marketer
Amazon
One of the most common examples is Amazon’s affiliate
marketing program, known as Amazon Affiliates. In fact, Amazon Affiliates
currently has the biggest market share of affiliate networks (45.81%), followed
by CJ Affiliate (8.14%), and Rakuten Affiliate Network (7.85%).
Amazon Affiliates offers different products across many
different categories. It’s a great way to get into affiliate marketing as a
beginner. Creators, publishers, and bloggers can use an Amazon affiliate link
to direct their audience to product recommendations. From the link referral,
you can earn money on qualifying purchases.
Take Sprocker Lovers, for example. Site owner Elise Dopson
wrote a blog post titled Are Spaniels Good Running Partners? & 6 Tips for
Safe Running. In the article, she recommends a tip about how spaniels should
wear a high-vis dog jacket when running at night.
sprocker spaniels affiliate program
Sprocker Lovers website on-page affiliate program
implementation
If a reader wants to buy a high-vis dog jacket, they can
click the link and head to Amazon to complete the purchase.
Amazon affiliate program example
Amazon affiliate program example from Sprocker Lovers
Healthish
Water bottle retailer Healthish used affiliate marketing to
build a million-dollar brand. Rather than take the traditional affiliate route,
it used Instagram influencers to build awareness for the launch of its keystone
product, the WB-1 bottle.
healthlish affiliate program example
Healthlish affiliate program website
The brand continues to work with influencer accounts,
ranging from those with 100,000 followers and up. It works with around 300
creators per month to create content that markets and sells the bottle at
scale.
Learn more by reading The Pre-Launch Strategies of a
Million-Dollar Brand.
Frankies Bikinis
Swimwear brand Frankies Bikinis refers to its affiliates as
ambassadors, hashtagged #Frankiesgirls. It uses ShareASale, RewardStyle, and
Skimlinks to manage its program. The brand encourages active women with strong
social presences to apply. Commissions are paid in cash, and the brand offers
an updated list of active promos for ambassadors to use.
Juice Beauty
Juice Beauty is a skin care brand based in California that
offers an affiliate program via Rakuten. Affiliates earn 6% commission on all
sales, and have access to special deals and discounts. Juice Beauty doesn’t
charge any application or membership fees to its affiliates.
Urikar
Retailer Urikar offers a high-ticket affiliate program with
average commissions of $1,460, according to data from ShareASale. It sells
fitness and wellness products like massage guns, indoor and outdoor workout
equipment, and accessories.
urikar example
Urikar affiliate program website
Urikar offers a 10% commission on all sales, which can add
up quickly if you are a fitness influencer with a big following. Its most
popular product, an AI-powered muscle massager, retails for $139.99, which
means you’ll earn $13.99 for each sale. Urikar's program also provides your own
dedicated account manager and affiliate dashboard to track conversions and
sales.
Start your affiliate marketing business today
Earning money with affiliate marketing programs can be a
rewarding way to add a new revenue stream for little or no money in upfront
investment. Affiliate marketing takes time, but by putting in the hours to find
the right affiliate network and dial in your strategy, you can build an
affiliate system that generates passive income for years to commision
*Methodology:
Data gathered (program name, industry, average commission,
average conversion rate) from an affiliate network site of 200 affiliate
programs, 20 random programs each from 10 industries. The data comes from a
seven-day measurement period (December 7–14, 2021).
Limitations include:
Data is gathered only from one affiliate network site. Not
all categories could be included because of lack of program availability and
time constraints of data collection.
Affiliate marketing means you earn a monetary commission by
promoting a company’s product or service. An affiliate partner, which is you,
is rewarded a commission for providing a specific result to a merchant or
advertiser, be it sales, leads, downloads, etc. Start your affiliate marketing
with Shopify!
How do I start affiliate marketing?
Decide on a niche.
Choose your platform.
Find relevant affiliate marketing programs.
Create valuable content.
Build an audience.
Follow FTC guidelines.
Is affiliate marketing worth it?
Yes, affiliate marketing is worth it. The affiliate
marketing industry is estimated to grow from $5.4 billion in 2017 to $8.2
billion by 2023, according to Statista. Affiliate marketing is inexpensive to
start and carries low risk compared to other online business models.
What are the top affiliate networks?
Affiliate Future
AvantLink
CJ Affiliate
ClickBank
FlexOffers
LinkConnector
ShareASale
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