Part Time Affiliate Marketing

Many people do part time affiliate marketing while they have a regular day job and make enough to supplement their income.  Some also get to a point where they are able to leave their full time employment.

Their affiliate earnings go towards a car or house payment.  However, some really do make much more that than part time.  This is the best thing about the internet.  It allows you to be able to work from home.

Figuring things out and getting started are the two most hardest parts for any affiliate who is new.  There is a good amount to learn and work that has to be done.  Affiliate commissions will not just fall in your lap overnight, without work and dedication.  Just like anything else in life it also takes time.

But, with the right strategy you really can start part time on a shoe sting budget.  This is how the majority of affiliates start out.

Where to start

When someone becomes interested in affiliate marketing, the go through a process, trying to learn all they can.  Many time these people will spend hundreds of dollars in the process and many of them end up broke.

They also jump from one affiliate opportunity to the next.  Always believing they will find that magic bullet one day.  But, the harsh reality is, it doesn’t happen.

The biggest problem any beginning affiliate has, is lack of treating this as a real business and understanding your time is worth money.

What a newbie needs, is one plan to work from and stop searching for the golden nugget.  Do you think for one minute that, real companies who market online are searching for a silver bullet?

No, they are not.  They are spending time producing content, marketing materials, understanding analytics, working on their search and ppc campaigns, mailing their email list and testing conversions.

Real companies get to work and don’t stop working and are always setting goals and trying to break them.

If you want to succeed, you need to do the same things and take massive action to make your affiliate dreams come true.

So, where do you start?  After all, you could make a website, market on facebook or even use Google adwords.  Plus there are other ways to market online also.

Starting With A Website

Well, one good place to start is a learning service such as wealthy affiliate or affilorama.  These are two decent programs where anyone new to affiliate marketing can start.  Both are very similar services.  They will also guide you with a plan, and help you start a website and begin your part time affiliate business.

Now, this will take some time to learn things and even more time to put any plan into action.  I highly endorse both of these companies because they teach you real strategies for making a website and getting free traffic to it.  After all, if you are broke, free traffic is where you will have to start.  But, never forget your time is money.

At one point I was a member of wealthy affiliate and really enjoyed many of there webinars and training.  After marketing on the internet for 20 years I can tell you, this is where I would tell my own mother to start.

Now, having a website as your business model is not a perfect one.  Especially if you are dependent upon free traffic from Google.  However, later on, you can start other websites and supplement your income.  And, if one website gets taken out of Google, you have others.

Also, what you will be building is authority websites.  These are sites, usually around one topic and end up having a good amount of web pages.  It’s much better to build bigger websites than smaller niche related ones.

And, you can even have smaller niche related sites, after you have built a few authority websites.  But, this will be more of your long term strategy.

Also, if you choose to go with this model of affiliate marketing, be prepared to create or buy a lot of content.  You have to understand, a high traffic website usually has a good amount of pages.

Yes, it can be done with a lower page site with links and things.  But I think, having a few high paged websites is much better.  It’s more of an asset to your business.

The best thing about using websites as your starting model is, you are building an asset and you can also do other things later on.  Warren Buffet does just this in his business.  He uses Geico insurance to fund all of his other projects because, Geico brings in a monthly income, allowing him to do so.

Are there other ways to start?  Yes there are.  However, I suggest building an asset and a business before anything.  I have heard and seen it all after 20 years of online marketing.  I have seen people find a great product and start making $100,000 per a year or more with places like Amazon.  Only to lose it because, their were not diversified.  They had no backup plan.

I even had a friend/client (Sam) from 10 years ago who was selling on Ebay.  My client even had rented an old store (good size) location.  Her had employees who worked with him every single day who posted all of the product on Ebay.

However, around 2007 / 2008 with the economic downturn in the USA, he had to close the store and his Ebay business.  Now, Sam was a smart man and he also had a beverage distrubution business which delivered to the easy and westside of Cleveland, Ohio.  But, I do know after a visit to his office one day he was still longing to have his Ebay business back up and running.

I think he eventually starting posting on Ebay again as the economy got better.  But, his business was never the same.

If Sam would of had a website like I told him to do, he would still be selling product online.  It would of served as a backup until his other companies got rolling again.

So the moral is, if you want to make it in this business, have a foundation and treat it like a real business.

I also have a friend I have known for a longtime, who sold 25 million online, back in 2005.  His company sold Bitcoins.  And you guessed it, he did it all from a website and started part time while working a regular job in IT.

So, yes you can make it without one.  But, I firmly believe in that foundation backup plan.

What If I know Nothing About Getting Started

This is ok.  Not many people know much about anything when they first get started.  You can either consult with my company, try wealthy affiliate or try one of the many other products or services online.

And believe me, there are tons of places online, in the internet marketing niche (who all say they know it all btw), and all are selling something.  Some are good and some are bad.

What you need to do is choose someone who has proof, and can show you they have made money online.  Now, it’s not to say that someone who has been doing this for 2 years hasn’t figured things out and cannot teach you.

Some really have figure this industry out in a short amount of time, and made money in the process, and some lots of it.

But choose as wisely as you can and if something doesn’t work out, give it your best shot and then try something else.  Just beware of the need to become an opportunity seeker.

Put Your Plan Into Action

Fail to plan, then plan on failing.  Or at least I think that’s something like how it goes.  The point is, you have to just start.  You have to execute your plan.

By not taking any action, you will never have anything.

And, you will most likely make mistakes along the way and it may take time to understand things.  And that’s ok if you do.  This is why I recommend you start with a website and one of the two programs above.

They both require monthly fee’s for their training but you will not be wasting thousands of dollars when starting up.  Simply follow their training and eventually you will see some success.

So many people want to start some sort of business but never take massive action and then whatever it is they buy, sits there collecting dust.

Your Content Matters Most

If you decide to take this route, building a website to get into affiliate marketing.  Your content will be the most important thing you produce.

Way too many others, decide to start a website and only think about Google or other search engines because they want to attract them for traffic.  But, if you write more for humans, write lengthy posts and have a personality in your writing, the traffic will come.

Plus we have all been there.  We have done a search on Google clicked on a result and was very unsatisfied with the content of the website.  Then we clicked the back button and were gone forever.

Google and people like a fresh perspective when it comes to content.  No one wants to read the same variations of content for and topic.  You want a different point of view.

So whatever niche you decide to go into and write about, try and make it your own and do not copy anyone else’s content.

Helping Others

One of the biggest mistakes people make when first getting into affiliate marketing is thinking about nothing else but making money.  Often times, new affiliates make mistakes like creating a Facebook page and posting nothing but their sales offer or they do the same to their email list.

Usually after doing things like this, they are often frustrated and get no sales or commissions.

The thing to do when you start out is have the mindset of helping others.  Now, it depends on the niche you are in, but if you think about it, there is most likely a ton of ways you can help others with your website content, on your email list and even on places like Facebook.

So, lets say you are in the gardening niche and you started a website and also have Facebook and Twitter pages.  Well, what you do is post help content about gardening.  Give your subscribers and audience helpful tips and ideas all about gardening.

You could post stories about how you get into gardening and the tools you use and why.  Whatever it is you do, help others first and then try sales second.  So, on social media, you would post many helpful posts and then every 5 or so you could then add your sales message.

Even big companies make this mistake, not being helpful enough.  You’ve seen their emails even in your inbox.  That’s right, nothing but sales messages.  And, what did you do?  You most likely clicked unsubscribe.

People are smart these days, and can tell if they are being sold.  So help them instead and everything else will usually follow.

Other Part Time Success Stories

Iv’e seen many people have success over the years.  They all had the drive to succeed and then put their plan into action.

One guy Iv’e been following, has made a great living creating websites and the monetizing his websites with Google Adsense and with affiliate commissions.  That gentleman is Mike Rodgers.  Mike has a website called affiliatemarketertraining.com.  And he writes about his experiences as an affiliate.

If you check out his website, he tells you in many of his posts, how he got started, how long it took and where he is today.  Mike is a brilliant super affiliate.  Mike is the real deal and a genuine nice guy who made it work for him and now wants to show others how to do the same.

Here is a video of Mike sharing how long it takes to generate website traffic for an affiliate site.  And, this is spot on and very true.

Sharing these success stories, is what really hits home with people and really shows that its possible to make an income on the internet.

Other ways To Make Money

When you have your website built and set as your foundation, then it becomes possible to monetize and make money.  Especially if you built a high traffic website and kept things real for your visitors.

So here, I’ll go over a few other ways you can make money from your website.

Google Adsense

One of the ways I used to always monetize my websites was with Adsense.  I used to really love the idea of creating content and then placing ads on all the pages.  To me this seemed like a great model back in the day.

I used to check the pages all the time and make sure all the ads were relevant.  And you can do the same by signing up for the Google Adsense program.

Now, Adsense is not the revenue power house it was back when Google first started the program but people do still make money from it.

But, you have to think, do you want to use this model because it sends people away from your website.  So, the usually never sign up for your email list and once they are gone, the’re gone for good.  But, it’s easy to test out and see if you can make any money from it.

You have to follow Google’s rules or they will kick you out of the program.  So, always make sure to read their terms of service policy before you add it to your websites.

Other Adsense Alternatives

If you are not approved for Adsense, all is not lost.  Even though Google is pretty much still the best.  You can use other programs.  You may not make as much as you would with Adsense but you could test them out and see.

Some of these places are Clicksor and 7 Search just to name a couple.  Each one of these places has an publishers program you can sign up for and start earning.

Your Email List

One of the things Jeff Johnson of the traffic and leads training academy hammers home is always building a email list for any market you are in.  And, he’s right.  If you build an email list you have an asset that can last your business years.

And if you ever lose search traffic, you can always turn to your list for promotion.  Your email list give you the ability to market to people over and over again and again.  So you should always be building a list.

But, it’s the relationship you have with your list that is the key to success.  Again, you should not just hammer your list with offers over and over.  Help them, tell them stories about your involvement in your niche also.

Give them content they will enjoy over and over.  Then, when you do decide to make an offer, they will be much more inclined to take you up on it because they trust your judgement.

To get started there are many companies to choose from to house your list.  There’s Aweber, Getresponse and MailChimp to name a few of the bigger ones.  I have used all three of these and each one of them has their good points and bad points but I do trust all three.

You may find another you can try and that’s ok.  There are many other email list providers out there.  And, these days it’s a little easier to transfer your email list to other company.  But, just make sure you can do that if needed.  Back when I started, it was almost impossible to do and you were pretty much stuck with whatever company you initially went with.

Other places you can learn about email marketing is from Terry Dean and Neville Medhora.  I have both courses and they are great with lots of content.  You will learn a lot from both.

I do know more about Terry however, and have been following him for years.  Terry has been marketing on the internet since 1996 and he is a stand up guy and the real deal.

So, whatever you do always start an email list.  Because the money really can be in your list.

Affiliate Commissions

Make money from affiliate commissions can be done in several ways.  You can make them with your email list or from your website.  You can even do it with Facebook and Youtube.

Affiliate commission is where you post offers.  Again, it’s best to be helpful for others.  Terry Dean sends out stories to his email list and then posts his website link in the bottom of the email.

If you get on his list you will see he always mails helpful content to others.

You could also post affiliate links to your website.  People will click on these links and if they buy the program you are involved with, you get a commission.  There’s nothing wrong with do this.  Just make sure to always build your email list along with this.

There area a ton of ways to do this.  Including the Amazon affiliate program, AliExpress and more.  You really could make all kinds of different websites in different niche’s once you get going.

You could also post reviews for products on your website with the affiliate links and even have a resources section with all the tools of the trade you use and point the links to your affiliate id.

This is what Pat Flynn does with his website.  Pat was actually let go from his job a few years back and was already selling online.  He then started his blog Smart Passive Income and has done exactly this.

You will also notice Pat has tons of content on his blog and is very real and open with his readers.  He tells it like it is and shares real ways to make money only and even gives you an income break down each and every month.

It’s pretty impressive and inspiring to say the least.  So, I would spend time reading each of these blogs if you are still lost and not sure how to start earning commissions.

Other Ways To Get Traffic

The biggest thing you need is traffic to your website.  And, most of this will be done with an SEO campaign.  But, always remember to try and diversify your traffic.

So, if you are creating your website and not see much traffic, to get it going you could try using the Google Display Network.  This is a part of Google Adwords and it’s the other side of Google Adsense.  You will become a publisher instead of an advertiser.

However, you will need to test things out and you will need a lead capture box on your website to collect leads.  You need to do at least this because you are paying for this traffic.  And, if it works out and you get a good amount of leads, you could always continue to advertise this way of even use the search network of Google Adwords.

Here’s a video from the Koozai marketing agency, about when to use the Google display network.

YouTube Traffic

Another great way for affiliates to get traffic is from Youtube.  Youtube is the 2nd most search engine in the world and there are millions of videos posted.  Youtube can defiantly be a positive addition to your marketing.

It really doesn’t matter either what niche you are in.  All you need is a channel and videos.  You will definitely need a lot of videos to start producing traffic to your site or lead funnel.

But, it can bring in tons of traffic if done right.

Your videos will need links in the video itself and on the page for you to get traffic.  You should also fill out the video description with as much as you can describing your video.

Jeff Johnson also had a great course called Tube Traffic Secrets which I do own and is a good program explaining all you need to do to get traffic and leads from Youtube.

Jon penberthy also has a great presence on Youtube with many helpful videos for marketing on Youtube.

Yes, Youtube is a great channel for marketing and branding your business and website.  Don’t ignore it in your part time affiliate business.

Other Social Media Traffic

Youtube is part of social media but there are also other social media places like Facebook, Twitter and instagram.

For social media to work for any part time affiliate you will want to make accounts for all of the major social media outlets and build up a fan base on all of them.

Once you do this it will be easy to share things to each account and get likes, shares, traffic and people talking about your products and services.

But you need some kind of plan to put this all into place.  One guy I like who I think explains it well is Jay Wessman.  Jay brands his business as the Lazy Ass Stoner.  But don’t let that fool you.  Jay is as wise as they come.  He has a few good videos on YouTube that teach social marketing well.

I would stay away from his link building advice for SEO however.  But, other than that, Jay teaches a huge amount in his Screw 95 course.  Learning social media is the best part.  Jay is currently overhauling his course to make it more up to date.  So, by the time you read this it may be open again.

Once you build up your social media accounts you could use Hootsuite to post out to your accounts.  To be more effective with Facebook however, if you can, I would post to Facebook by it’s self because of their Edge Rank algorithm

You also have to be careful not to get your social accounts banned.  Twitter is notorious for this these days.  In the early days of twitter people used to follow massive amounts of people and then twitter and even Facebook started putting limits on this.

These days, if Twitter think you are spamming, your account will get shutdown without notice.  I have found following a few people a day and the use of twitter ads very effective in building followers.

The Trick Of Social Media Promotion

Many people do start their social accounts and get frustrated when they get very little followers and not much traffic.  The trick to making social promotion work for you is posting viral content.

You have to find things people actually care about and have already shared in your market to make it work.  You will also have to spend a few dollars to be successful with this.

Now, social media may or may not be a huge hit for your business.  But, as Iv’e stated before, it’s great for branding your company.  Some people and companies find huge success with social however.

You will have to spend sometime testing out social media.

A note about SEO:  There is lots of talk about social media and the part it plays as a ranking factor in Google.  Personally,  I think it only plays a small part right now, but that could change.  But, if you don’t have social media tied to your website, that doesn’t look good to search engines like Google either.  So, make sure you use some form of it.

Tools you could use to find viral content are Impactana, SumoMe and Viral Auto Bots, with the last one being the cheapest.  These tools allow you to find content that’s more viral in nature.

Once you start posting more viral things you accounts will start to grow on their own without paid forms of advertising.

A Word About Targeting

I just wanted to go into a little about targeted marketing.  This is where many people make mistakes.  Many times they are targeting the wrong market and or keywords.

You need to make sure in all your promotion, keyword research and any marketing, you are hitting your target market.

Many new part time affiliates make this mistake and then wonder why thy are not producing sales from traffic.

You need to not only do keyword research but you should also go where your market hangouts online.  This could be in any online forum or Facebook group.  You should join the forum or group and search what others are posting about.

This will allow you to see not only if you are in the right place but, get an idea for what they want.  Many times you will see people posting over and over again the same thing which means they are looking to solve a problem.

So, if you are ever getting traffic and not converting anything always look at where you are targeting.

Summary

Affiliate marketing can be a real part time business you can start while working a job.  But, it needs to be treated as a business in order to make it work and actually make money from it.

This has been a massive post with over 4200 words and there is even much more information you can learn and benefit from about affiliate marketing.

But learn and then take massive action!