If you’re looking for inspiration on how to make money online, then look no further! In this article, we’ll teach you exactly what you need to know to successfully pursue a career in affiliate marketing, which is one of the most lucrative and popular online money making opportunities available today.
Find Your Niche
The first step to making money online is figuring out how you want to approach this new opportunity and becoming really clear on what you know and what you don’t know. Before you can begin to build up a following and attract potential customers, you’ll need to figure out your niche.
Niche is a relatively new word that people are using to describe your specific target audience or group of customers. Essentially, a niche is a “small market or group of people” that you can “fit” your product or service into. For example, “gym wear for women” is a niche if you’re a fitness blogger, “green living” is a niche for an environmental blogger, and “digital marketing” is a niche for a digital marketer.
Once you know the niche, you can determine if this is the right fit for your skill set, personality, and level of expertise. Being able to identify your niche will also help you figure out how to position yourself in the marketplace. For example, if you’re a fashion blogger, you might consider creating a blog around men’s fashion or women’s fashion. Your niche will dictate the type of content you produce and the approach you take.
Build Your Audience
The next step is to build your audience or readers. You’ll need to pick a platform (e.g., YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest). On this platform, you’ll publish content often and create video or visual content that is consistent and builds upon itself. You can use free tools like YouTube’s “Content Explorer” to easily find and capitalize on your greatest asset: content that is already “out there” and is easily shareable.
Sharing content on social media is a great way to get your content in front of your audience. Once you have a big enough audience (1,000, 500, or even 100 followers), you can promote your affiliate products and make a decent amount of money online without too much effort. Unfortunately, building a big audience can take a lot of time, so in the meantime, you can use the time you have to build up a decent size of your own e-mail list.
Position Yourself As An Authority
The next step is to position yourself as an authority in your niche. To do this, you need to build up a large enough audience to where your opinion is valued. Once you’ve gotten to that point, you can begin to promote various affiliate products that are relevant to your niche.
The easiest and most effective way to do this is by publishing relevant and authoritative content that is regularly shared by others in your niche. To find these types of relevant and authoritative articles, you can use tools like Google’s “Research Engine” to search for topically-specific blogs and articles. You can then use this list of blogs and articles to become an authority in your niche.
Why is this technique so effective? Because when someone is searching for information within your niche, they’ll often come to you first for the answers because you’re an authority in your niche. They may not even know that there are other bloggers in their niche; however, after reading your blog posts, they’ll likely believe that you’re the go-to person for information in your niche.
Monetize Your Content
Once you have a decent sized audience, you can begin to monetize your content. There are several different ways to do this. You can use affiliate marketing, which we’ll discuss below, or you can create your own small business around your blog. Once you have a passive income stream, you no longer have to rely on your writing to make money online. You can then use this money to fund further content creation or to pay for web hosting and other expenses associated with establishing your blog.
Avoid Scamming And Never Underestimate The Power Of Honest Ads
Last but not least, we have some general words of advice for those who decide to pursue a career in affiliate marketing:
- Keep your eyes open for affiliate scams
- Avoid buying and selling websites and online brands
- Be realistic about your earnings
- And don’t be afraid to ask for help if you need it
Avoiding these scammers and being able to separate the good from the bad is a lot easier said than done, but with diligence and constant communication, you can ensure that you’re not being scammed or taking on less-than-legitimate affiliates. There are many reputable and honest affiliate marketing corporations out there that can be found with simple Google searches. Just be sure to steer clear of any and all scams and you’ll be able to make a comfortable living online without any trouble.
When you’ve finished reading, be sure to digest everything you’ve just learned and use it to propel you forward in your pursuit of becoming an affiliate marketer. Good luck out there!