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Affiliate marketing is by far the most lucrative way to make money online, and it’s actually possible to do it for free. But I’ll be honest: it’s very difficult, especially without paying for training, your own website, etc.
However, I do know of several ways to earn money through affiliate marketing that are both free and easy to get started. Still, it’ll take some work on your part.
First, How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?
Affiliate marketing works like this:
- Find a product online that you’d like to promote (it doesn’t have to be your own product)
- Acquire a unique “affiliate” link to that product
- Post that affiliate link on social media (or your website)
- Someone clicks the affiliate link which takes them to the product you’re promoting
- When they buy the product, you’ll get a cut of the sale. Depending on the product, you may only get 1% of the sale price, or up to 80%.
As you can see, affiliate marketing can be a very lucrative business model. Just remember that it takes a lot of work to make any substantial income (unless you have a huge following on social media).
If you’re still confused about how affiliate marketing works after reading my brief explanation, I suggest you read this post which describes the process in more detail.
Ready to get started? Let me show you a few of my favorite things to promote….
What Products to Promote
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Wealthy Affiliate – This is actually an affiliate marketer training platform, which is 100% free to join. However, there is a premium membership option as well which simply gives you access to everything you could need in order to build an online business. But the cool thing is, you can promote Wealthy Affiliate without upgrading your membership! If someone joins Wealthy Affiliate through your affiliate link and then upgrades to Premium, you can make a pretty penny. Here’s what you can expect to earn:
- $4 for their first month of Premium membership
- $11.75 recurring commission for every month they stay as a Premium member
- $87.50 if they choose to upgrade to the discounted yearly Premium membership
That’s all free money – again, you don’t need to upgrade in order to earn that. Just know that it takes a lot of time and work to get any referrals.
I should also mention, if you do end up going with the Premium membership yourself, those commissions I listed above will double. I know of several people making more than a full-time income just by promoting Wealthy Affiliate!
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Amazon Associates – This is Amazon’s affiliate program. You can promote any product from Amazon.com and earn a small percentage of the sale price when someone buys through your link. On average, you’ll only earn 6% of the final sale price, but the vast number of products available to promote helps to make up for this.
One of the cool features of Amazon’s program is that you’ll earn a commission on any product someone buys for up to 24 hours after they clicked your link. So, if they click your link but don’t end up buying the product, they may come back many hours later and end up purchasing something completely unrelated – yet you’ll still earn the commission for it!
The earning potential may not initially seem all that great here, but nothing could be further from the truth. There are some affiliate marketers making over a million dollars every year by promoting Amazon products. There is some real potential here, but it will take tons of effort for very little return when you first start out.
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eBay Partner Network – As I’m sure you’ve guessed; this is eBay’s affiliate program. It differs from Amazon’s in that the commissions you can earn have a very wide range. On some products, you can earn up to 80% of the sale price!
If you promote high-ticket (expensive) items within the highest commission bracket, all it would take is one sale per day – or every other day – to make a decent income online.
The one major downside to eBay’s affiliate program is that you’ll only earn a commission if someone buys the product you promote. Even if they leave that product page to go browse similar items and then come back to the product you linked to and purchase it, you’ll miss out on the commission. They have to buy the product then and there, without leaving the page you linked to.
Obviously, each affiliate program has its unique features and shortcomings, but the above three are all tried and true. In fact, you can easily make a full-time income with just one of these programs if you put in the work.
Before you get too excited though, you’ll need some proper guidance and training on how to do affiliate marketing the right way. Without first learning from the experts how it’s done, you’ll find yourself spinning your wheels a lot and will likely give up, wondering what went wrong.
That’s why I always suggest that people who are serious about affiliate marketing should get some real training. That way, the chance of becoming a successful affiliate marketer will drastically increase.
Alright, So What’s the Best Affiliate Marketer Training?
Believe it or not, the best training I can find (and I’ve done a LOT of digging – trust me) is Wealthy Affiliate, the program I mentioned above that gives you some pretty sweet commissions.
Wealthy Affiliate has been around for 11 years, and throughout that time it has remained the #1 when it comes to learning how to make money online.
That’s because it has such a robust set of features that no other training platform can even compare:
- Step-by-step training that walks even complete newbies through the process of building a website and monetizing it with affiliate links and ads
- Free website builder for up to 2 websites (up to 50 websites with a Premium membership)
- Industry-leading, super-fast hosting
- 24/7 live support (free for your first 7 days)
- A community of over 1,400,000 online entrepreneurs, always ready to help you out if you get stuck
- And a lot more
So yeah, if you want to get proper training and tons of support in your affiliate marketing journey, my only suggestion would be to join Wealthy Affiliate. And again, it’s completely free to get started, the Premium membership is just an option for those who mean business and want to unlock all the training in order to have the ability to truly succeed.
Final Thoughts
Affiliate marketing is a very lucrative business model, and the fact that you can do it for absolutely no cost is pretty awesome in my opinion.
The three affiliate programs I outlined above – Wealthy Affiliate, Amazon, and eBay – are all great places to begin your affiliate marketing journey. They’ve been tested by time, and they all remain some of the best affiliate programs available.
Let me know in the comments below which one you’d like to try. 🙂
Have you ever done affiliate marketing yourself? How did it go? Feel free to share your experiences below, and if you have any questions, I’d be happy to help out!
Hello here. I like how you explained affiliate marketing. Sometimes people think that it is difficult and tricky to promote products.
Previously when salespeople went from door to door it took long time and effort to sell a product.
Nowadays when the a Internet is on the every corner, affiliate marketing is great option to make living.
It is enough to have computer and Internet connection.
Of course, besides it the strong will is required. Without it we would lose patient and would finish without real beginning.
Your offered options are legit. Which option you prefer as the best way to earn money?
Nemira
Hello Nemira,
You made some great points. Although a computer and an internet connection is all it takes to make money online, having the desire to invest long hours with seemingly no return is also a requirement. That requirement alone is the only reason why not everyone can be a successful affiliate marketer.
I like all three affiliate programs, but my favorites would have to be Wealthy Affiliate and Amazon. Of those two, it’s a close call but the fact that you can “learn and earn” with Wealthy Affiliate, and can get the training necessary to properly utilize Amazon and eBay’s affiliate programs, gives Wealthy Affiliate the edge. So yeah, WA would have to be my top choice here. 🙂
You have explained affiliate marketing so well that even a newbie will understand how affiliate marketing works.
Makin money online from home is quickly becoming more and more a necessity.
As you mention in your post, to succeed in affiliate marketing, one needs the right tools and support and that`s what is missing for most newbies, they get started with no one to support and soon give up because when they get stuck then they are stuck.
I feel to succeed in affiliate marketing, one has to be patient and this is another problem many newbies have, they get started today and already expect to make money next week, forgetting they have to put in the work first before they can make any income.
Really enjoyed your post, thanks for sharing.
Hi Roamy,
I totally agree with everything you’ve laid out here. People who are new the affiliate marketing space oftentimes believe that they can just jump right in and earn a full-time income in just a few months, or even weeks. The reality is, it takes about a year to reach the full-time mark for most people – and that’s a year of hard work, which means adding new content to your site at least every week.
That’s why it’s so incredibly important that they get proper and realistic training if they truly want to see success. Which, is why I recommend Wealthy Affiliate so highly.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. 🙂