Beginners Affiliate Marketing Guide For Bloggers & YouTubers – 2024 Tutorial

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What is Affiliate Marketing
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In making money online, affiliate marketing is a skill-based approach, anyone could learn that. It is one of those segments of the online world, that doesn’t require any degree or formal education.

Want to understand what is Affiliate marketing?

Keep reading to learn everything about this popular passive income method.

My Journey with affiliate marketing started in 2008 when I accidentally read about it on a discussion forum. I was surprised to know how something so simple and powerful is not taught in college, or very few talk about it.

With this guide, I aim to help you understand affiliate marketing, so you can apply this technique to any field you are in to make money.

But why should you listed to what I’m saying?

Because I have been into affiliate marketing since 2008, and have been passionately practicing it, talking about it, and also making life-changing money.

But, don’t trust me blindly.

Here are the proof’s

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1.2 Million Dollars and counting…

Here is a screenshot of other affiliate programs that I promote:

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The above one took about two years to accomplish.

And here is another one:

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This one was an outcome of 2 and a half years.

However, the real question is:

How did I achieve this result, and can you do it too?

The key here is your zeal to learn and how badly you want to live a free life.

I have accomplished all this by working only 10-12 hours daily on things I’m passionate about. Not even a single day of my online career has felt like pressure or something I did not want to do.

The only thing that creates a differentiator is, I did not cheat my way up. Those 6-8 hours of work were complete dedication, and based on my 14 years of experience, I could say:

Anyone with a decent IQ could start making $1000-3000 within 6-8 months by practicing every day for 2-3 hours.

How to do this?

Well, We will dwell on details and more technicalities of affiliate marketing as we move ahead in this free course, but for now, let’s learn the basics.

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“The Handbook To Affiliate Marketing By Harsh Agrawal is the only resource you will ever need to learn about Affiliate marketing” – James Rowett

Before that…

If this is your first time here at ShoutMeLoud, you should know that…

In the last 13 years, ShoutMeLoud has inspired millions of lives around the globe to help them earn passive income via blogging and affiliate marketing. 

It would not have been possible if I took the risk of living my day job to pursue my passion. When I think about this, I find it amazing as for how my life unfolded when I took the courage to start something of my own. I feel this is something you and other individuals should try once to go beyond our limitations.

The only caveat is, that this is not something you will read in academic books or a point of discussion with friends over drinks. This is one of those skills that you learn yourself by reading a guide like this or watching YouTube videos like this.

With this Affiliate marketing guide, I want to provide you with all the details about:

  • Basics of Affiliate marketing
  • How Affiliate marketing works
  • How to get started with Affiliate marketing
  • Affiliate marketing Terminologies

This is your go-to guide, and you should bookmark this one along with all linked articles to master the art of affiliate marketing. 

If you are someone who likes to read everything in the book format, you can purchase our affiliate marketing handbook from our store as well.

Alright, let’s get started.

What is affiliate marketing, and how does it work?

Affiliate marketing is one of the oldest forms of digital marketing wherein you refer someone to any online product and when that person buys the product based on your recommendation, you receive a commission.

Every big company like Amazon, Apple, and Google have an affiliate program, which is free to join by any individual across the globe. If you didn’t know about this, then pay close attention to the rest of this guide, my friend; you are about to discover one of the most exciting aspects of making money from home.

A company that offers an affiliate marketing program might call it by other names, such as “Referral Program” or “Partners program”.

This commission varies from $1 to $10,000 depending on what product you are promoting.

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Here is how affiliate marketing works in 4 simple steps:

  1. You join an affiliate program (Here is a list to get started)
  2. You pick a product to promote (You will get a unique affiliate link)
  3. You share the link via Social media, Blog, YouTube videos, Facebook ads or any other form
  4. When someone makes a purchase, you earn a handsome affiliate commission.

The below infographic will help you understand the lifecycle of affiliate marketing:

What is Affiliate Marketing
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So, in simple words:

Any company that sells products online, offers an affiliate program, which is free to join. It is as simple as creating an online profile.

You can simply sign up for the program and get your unique tracking link. Now, whenever you are writing about their product, you can simply use this unique tracking affiliate link to recommend the company’s site.  You will get a commission if your readers/traffic buy anything by clicking your affiliate link.

Is it as easy as it sounds?

Yes, and no!

Yes, because of 2 reasons:

  1. Joining an affiliate program
  2. Getting paid

Is super easy. Thanks to advancements in digital marketing, and services like PayPal and Payoneer, this all is automated.

The tough part is, how badly you want this.

To become successful in affiliate marketing, you need to train regularly (Daily). Think of this as learning to play cricket, and the only way you get better is by showing up every day on the ground.

And then there is another part, as we gain more responsibilities in life like (job, kids, parents, spouse, weekend parties), we find it hard to dedicate time for acquiring learning new skills.

This is where the question comes:

How badly do you need this?

If your want or need falls in the “unsure” segment, take a 360 view of life, and ask what is that you have to lose and what are the possible gains.

If dedicating 1-2 hours a day for few months could give you financial freedom for life, it doesnot sound like a bad deal.

Moreover, it is a proven method that works!

Moving on…

Also, see:

How to Start Affiliate marketing for beginners:

You can get started with Affiliate marketing in many ways.

Here are a few that you can pick from:

  • Start a blog in a targeted niche and use it to promote a product. This is the cheapest and easiest way to start an affiliate marketing business. For example: Start a blog about Women’s shoes, Work from home products, and so on.
  • Buy traffic from PPC sites like Google, Facebook, and Quora and drive traffic to affiliate products or services. This is called PPC marketing, and those who have taken a basic course of digital marketing could understand it better. For rest, give it a little time, and you will understand this.
  • Create a YouTube channel and promote products.
  • Create an email list by creating a mini-website. An example if Finshots
  • Start a Podcast and recommend products.

Here are steps to get started with affiliate marketing via your blog:

This is just a rough highlight, as we move ahead in this free course, you will understand everything in greater depth and length to create your own affiliate marketing system.

  1. Start a blog
  2. Select a profitable industry and then pick a niche for your blog
  3. Choose the affiliate products that you can promote
  4. Create content around those products
  5. Drive traffic to your website/affiliate post
  6. Use email-marketing services to capture email of visitors
  7. Create email-sequence to automate the funnel (We will discuss this in details soon)
  8. Focus on driving more traffic and repeating the process.

Blogging is one of the most effective ways to get started with affiliate marketing because it requires minimum investment and you can learn everything around it in no time. From here on, what matters it how much dedication, time, and smart work you put in to grow your affiliate business.

Affiliate marketing terminologies:

Here are some of the common terms associated with affiliate marketing:

  • Affiliates: Publishers like you and me who are using affiliate program links to promote and make sales.
  • Affiliate marketplace: There are many marketplaces like Shareasale, CJ, and Clickbank. These work as central databases for affiliate programs in different niches.
  • Affiliate software: Software used by companies to create an affiliate program for their product.
  • Affiliate link: Special tracking link offered by your affiliate program to track the progress of your affiliate promotion.
  • Affiliate ID: Similar to the affiliate link, but many affiliate programs offer a unique ID which you can add to any page of the product site.
  • Payment mode: Different affiliate programs offer different methods of payment.
    • Example: Cheque, wire transfer, PayPal, and others.
  • Affiliate Manager/OPM: Many companies have dedicated affiliate managers to help publishers earn more by giving them optimization tips.
  • Commission percentage/amount: The amount or percentage you will be receiving in affiliate income from every sale.
  • 2-tier affiliate marketing: This is a great way of making money from an affiliate program. With this method, you recommend that others join affiliate programs, and you receive a commission when a sub-affiliate makes a sale (similar to MLM or multi-level marketing). This income is also known as a sub-affiliate commission.
  • Landing pages: A unique product sales or demo page used for the purpose of increasing sales. Most of the programs that you will be promoting have many landing pages, and you can run A/B testing to see which pages convert best for you.
  • Custom affiliate income/account: Unlike a generic affiliate account, many companies offer custom affiliate income to people making the most affiliate sales for them.
  • Link clocking: Most of the affiliate tracking links are ugly. Using a link clocking technique like URL shorteners, Thirsty Affiliates, etc., you can turn ugly links into links that can be read and understood by your readers.
  • Custom coupons: Many programs allow affiliates to create custom coupons which are also used to track sales. Custom discount coupons help you to increase affiliate sales as well.

For companies offering an affiliate program, this is one of the best ways to receive free promotion, thus saving substantially on advertising.

For example, whenever you see coupons or discount links, most of the time these are affiliate links, and when you make a purchase, webmasters make money.

Every affiliate program has a set TOS.

For example, payout condition, cookie policy and so on.

Let me explain cookie policy as it’s an intermediate-level topic but will give you an idea about the possibilities of affiliate marketing.

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Many of the affiliate products offer a 30-150 days cookie period, which means that if a visitor clicks your affiliate link to land on an affiliate product, now even if they don’t buy anything immediately but re-visit the site in the next 30-150 days, you will earn an affiliate commission.

How to find a new Affiliate Program to join?

Finding a new affiliate program is challenging, and if you do it right, you will increase your chances of earning huge.

Here are a few ways to find new affiliate programs:

  • Affiliate Network and marketing platform: There are affiliate networks and marketplaces that would help you find new affiliate programs.
  • Affiliatizer: This is a chrome addon that would help you find the new affiliate program.
  • Competitor analysis: Analyze the top websites in the niche you are targeting, and make a list of affiliate products they promote. This will help you find high-value and profitable affiliate products.

I have also published a long list of affiliate programs that is worth looking at:

Moving on…

Affiliate Marketing: FAQ

At this point, you should understand what affiliate marketing is and how it works.

Now, let me answer some of the common questions asked by webmasters and marketers about affiliate marketing:

How much money you can make as an affiliate marketer?

“Limitless”.
There are affiliate marketers who are making millions of dollars a month via affiliate marketing. I personally make more than $30000/month from Affiliate marketing. Below you could see a screenshot of my earnings from one such affiliate program:

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The key here is how you are approaching the whole process. Are you using a blog or using PPC to market affiliate products. The one that I have been using from the past 10 years, is via blogging. This has been the most effective one so far.

Is it important to have a blog for affiliate promotion?

Not necessarily, but a blog is really the best promotional tool. With that said, you can always use methods such as PPC or advertising to promote a product.
This is another popular method to grow in affiliate marketing. For me, the best way to make the most out of affiliate marketing opportunities is to have a blog. Learn how to start a blog here.

How much does it cost to join an affiliate program?

There is no charge for joining an affiliate program, however, your total cost depends on what promotion technique you are using. For example, a blog post doesn’t cost a dime, but PPC marketing, email marketing, and advertising come with various price tags.

What qualifications do I need to become an affiliate marketer?

There is literally no qualification required to become an affiliate marketer, though having good copywriting skills and marketing skills will be an added advantage.

Is affiliate marketing harmful or illegal?

No, it is neither harmful nor illegal, as you will simply be using the affiliate link provided to you rather than a direct link to any site.
However, in a certain jurisdictions, you are supposed to disclose that you may be compensated for endorsing the product. Read our guide on Affiliate disclosure to learn more about it.

What are some of the profitable niches for affiliate marketing?
Anything related to money: such as making money online, how to save, how to invest, and making money from home.
Relationships: Business relationships, finding romantic partners, getting along better with spouse
Health: Relieving pain, weight loss, sexual health, fitness, nutrition
Learning new skills: Online courses, coaching, teaching
Cryptocurrencies
Wearables gadgets
Personal Finance
Dog care
Travel
Web-hosting (too high competition)

Not all companies offer an affiliate program, of course, but for those that do offer affiliate programs, you can check their website for related information. When searching, be sure to check the company’s FAQ page if they have one.

Another way to find this information is to do a simple Google search. For example, one could place the following phrase into Google Search:  “(product name) + affiliate program”. (Replace “product name” with the name of the product you are promoting.) There is an interesting chrome addon called Affilitizer is available which makes this process easy.

This should bring you to a landing page. Many companies use an affiliate marketplace like ShareASale, CJ, or Clickbank. These are free to use and you can create a free account.

How do I find new products to promote?

Affiliate marketplaces such as those mentioned above are the best places to start your affiliate marketing research. You can browse your niche and see the top performing affiliate programs.

Alternatively, you can keep an eye on blogs in your niche and see which products they are promoting and what methods they are using.

Affiliate marketing and AdSense: Can we use both?

You can use both as affiliate marketing does not violate any AdSense TOS. In fact, for me, affiliate marketing works better than Adsense, and that is one reason you see fewer AdSense ads here at ShoutMeLoud.

How do I get started with Affiliate marketing?

Here at ShoutMeLoud, I and many guest authors have covered some of the best guides to help you to understand in depth about getting started, and some of the pros and cons.

Read: How to start an Affiliate marketing business

Here is a list from our affiliate marketing archive which will help you to get started:

I would also highly recommend you purchase ShoutMeLoud’s The Affiliate Marketing eBook. This a comprehensive guide on getting started with affiliate marketing.

Update: ShoutUniversity Affiliate video course is live (New). Available at an introductory price of $149 (Regular price $199)

I hope this beginner’s guide to affiliate marketing will help you get started. If you have any additional questions, feel free to ask me in the comments section below.

Be sure to join ShoutMeLoud email newsletter to get more similar tips and updates.

If you find this article informative, do share it with your friends!

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Authored By
A Blogger, Author and a speaker! Harsh Agrawal is recognized as a leader in digital marketing and FinTech space. Fountainhead of ShoutMeLoud, and a Speaker at ASW, Hero Mindmine, Inorbit, IBM, India blockchain summit. Also, an award-winning blogger.

113 thoughts on “Beginners Affiliate Marketing Guide For Bloggers & YouTubers – 2024 Tutorial”

  1. The Best Work From Home Opportunity Hands Down In My Opinion Is Affiliate Marketing

    You Can Make A Full Time Income Part Time

    I tried every online opportunity you can think of!

    The affiliate marketing industry is in my opinion a hidden treasure that will go mainstream in the near future. The flexibility, unlimited earning potential, and freedom provided make it a very attractive option for those who wish to make money online.

    You get to work when you want, where you want, how much you want,and still make great money. (I was in the Bahamas last week on the beach!) Affiliate marketing is truly a work from anywhere opportunity with great income potential for people who work hard at it!

    Once I realized I could Truly work from ANYWHERE I was hooked

    Most people I know STILL don’t know what I do for a living !

    All you need is a laptop, a solid internet connection, and a willingness to work that’s it! You will make money!

    Just Imagine Being Able To:

    Avoid hour long traffic jams

    Not deal with petty Co Workers and gossip

    Annoying managers watching your every move

    Spend more time at home with your loved ones

    Work from anywhere!

    …And that’s just for starters!

    Affiliate Marketing Is Very Beginner Friendly, and Practical

    And Not Only That, But:

    You get to choose what affiliate offers you promote

    Affiliate marketing is proven, real, and has been around for years

    Hundreds of thousands of people are already top earners and making BIG MONEY

    If you get the proper training you will be completely equipped with the knowledge to take action and start earning money ASAP

    I always suggest that if you are skeptical Try it for a couple of months and see if you get results for yourself. If you’re not 100% blown away by the results then try something else. But I urge anyone to just give affiliate marketing a shot.

  2. Brianreview

    Hi Harsh,

    I wanted to know if I can track the list of items sold with my affiliate id? and if is possible the way by which we can achieve it?

    Thanks

    1. @Brian

      1. It depends on the affiliate network that you are using. Amazon, ShareAsale, Commission Junction, or any other popular platform, shows the product that has been sold via your affiliate link. You can find this on your dashboard. The only one that I find challenging is the Clickbank, as the name of the product is not clear.

  3. praveen gosain

    Hello Harsh,

    I am your big fan and read all your blogs. I just want to know one thing from you. Which Affiliate Network you use? Do you use a single Affiliate Network of different affiliates?

    Waiting for your reply.

    Regards,
    Praveen Gosain

  4. Oyekunle Odunayo

    Harsh, pls I want to know if there is a plugin for shareasale on wordpress

  5. AJAY SAHA

    Hi Harsh,
    I have started Clickbank affiliate from 29.01.2019 but there is no initial sales showing yet so I want to know that it takes after 60 working days for showing sales and commissions. Please reply I have just decreased my interest on the Clickbank affiliate products. Can I get your opinion to enter best affiliate marketing program and gain some handsome results? Thanks

  6. Ronald Segura

    A great resource for the beginners, I really loved it.

    I started a blog which I plan to monetize only through affiliate marketing and my own products, no ads. I’ve been working on building an audience for my blog, for about 1 year and a half, many people think is maybe too much time, but I just want to make sure that I build enough trust with my readers before I start to try to make them buy something.

    Finally, I have decided to start monetizing my blog this year since I already have decent amounts of traffic, this type of articles helped me a lot on making sure I’m going towards the right direction.

    Thanks Harsh!

  7. Anshul Sharma

    this is the post through which i am earning money through blogging , before this i dont know what is affiliate marketing and stuff but the way you explain is just amazing keep it up Harsh Sir , i am earning money in great numbers through affiliate money all because of you

  8. Sheikh Sadman

    Affiliate Marketing is good but need to learn about promoting the affiliate offers.I was getting problems with marketing earlier.

  9. Rakesh Roy

    Affiliate marketing is totally a new concept for me but after reading your article its quite clear that how we can publish ads on other websites on our own blog and earn money with affiliate marketing. Need some more updates on those and will read your future posts too. Once again thanks @Harsh for sharing such blog!!

  10. Prabash babu Aryal

    hey, harsh,
    if I sign up for affiliate programs like ShareASale & CJ from country “A” and if some of my reader from country “B” buy some products/service through my affiliate link, in such case, will I have a commission or not?

    as I am new for affiliate and once I saw your video interview where you have mentioned such things ( in case of Amazon)….so same thing apply for cj& ShareASale ??

    1. Harsh Agrawal

      Hey Prabhas,

      It happens in the case of Amazon but not in Shareasale or CJ. For them, you just have one affiliate link and people from anywhere can buy some products and you will get a commission for it.

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