Advice needed - how to start proper career of affiliate marketer

First learn who the top affiliates are and learn how they got there. You will find that most if it is in the mind and how you are thinking and doing things.

When you start out it is often difficult to see what a huge question you are asking. Simply because you do not know the answer.


The actual answer to your question would really be a complete training guide to affiliate marketing. Of course this is not what you will get in a forum thread.


However some training is probably your best first step. So take a look around and see what's available.


From my own experience I can give you a few tips/bits of info

1. If you are new then the easiest network to join is ClickBank No vendor approval needed (generally)
2. You Can join Warrior+/WarriorForum/JVZoo for IM stuff but getting approval from vendors can be a challenge fore newbies. Make friends with vendors and try to get approval to promote older products. Trying to get approval just before or at launch time is impossible.
3. Many other networks will take you on but you need to complete the approval forms in the right way and usually have a web site.
4. Decide on how you plan to promote the products. SEO/Social/Paid traffic. If SEO then that will take a lot of time and work and may be near impossible in some competitive niches.
5. Paid traffic is likely to be quicker and more successful if done right. However it does cost money and if you promote some networks you may have up to 60 days before getting paid so cash flow can be an issue.
6. Don't expect to promote any product with paid traffic and make an immediate profit. It almost never happens.
7. Always build a list first and promote products from your list. This is the easiest way to make paid traffic profitable and builds a long term business.
8. Split testing ads/squeeze pages./products etc. can seriously increase your profits (even make profitable).
9. Low cost products may convert better but may not always be the most profitable. Selling a $97 product is generally just as easy as selling 14*$7 products (and after affiliate and PayPal fees probably more profitable).
10. Niches like IM, Weight loss etc. are very competitive and so paid traffic can be expensive. With paid traffic like Facebook ads, Bing ads, Pinterest ads, Youtube ads etc. there is available traffic in every niche you can think of. Some will be very cheap if it is in more obscure niches.

- Build your list.
- Build a website that's ready with everything that you need to make different experiments (wordpress it's good for this).

(or viceversa)

Look for DFY (Done For You) systems. Chris Farrell has one for his membership affiliates. There are others available as well. Make sure to research the people behind it before you decide on one.

Hi Catherine:
Overwhelm and feeling lost is totally natural in the beginning. There is really a lot of information out there. The key is to know that there is clarity waiting for you after this initial phase has passed.

Having technical knowledge is a strength and great advantage (I remember my struggles with this when I started off - haha). Try to build your strategy on this strength, while not attempting to try to do too much of stuff that you don't like (such as copywriting, reviewing and stuff). I have found in one of my online businesses (this is an e-commerce store for physical products as affiliate/reseller) that while a lot of technical knowledge was required to set it up and getting it going, almost no copywriting etc. was needed. You might want to consider this as a possibility.

Building a squeeze/landing page is always helpful and the way to go. When you collect e-mails, some copywriting will be required as you cannot mail your subscribers with a Clickbank affiliate like (just as an example) and asking them to "buy!". The copy will need to lead them into that making a buying decision.
Platforms mentioned in Boris Qs' post are the right ones - fully agree. If you want to go for setting up an own store, you might want to check out Shopify (shopify.com).

All the best. And hope this helps.

I would start by brewing a big pot of coffee and start reading through as many Warrior threads as possible

Seriously though, there is a lot to learn and my best advice would be to just dive in and start SOMEWHERE. Start reading IM forum threads, start familiarizing yourself with free and paid traffic methods ie. Traffic Exchanges, Autroresponders (Get Response) safe-list marketing sites (List Joe) and just keep on going from there.

I tell everyone the same thing. Keep in mind that there is a big world outside the IM / MMO niche.

I heavily promote PPL (pay per lead...lead generation) offers, because there is no credit card / purchase required to complete an offer. All a user has to do is fill out a form to get paid. So conversion rates are typically much higher than offers that require a purchase.

I also promote free sign-ups(dating for example) and free trails +s&h (weight loss, ecig, etc...). While free trials aren't 100% free, the user is typically getting something that would normally have an upfront value of $50-$60+ and only have to pay like $4.99 shipping and handling to receive. So conversion rates are still pretty good.

Lastly, I promote a limited number of offers that are 100% purchase. Theses usually will have some form of financial for something very popular, be something new and unique or novelty or solve a house is on fire type problem.

So mostly what I'm doing is targeting freebie seekers, which most marketers hate, because they are always trying to sell something. Where the bulk of what I promote are free or nearly free offers that have mass appeal and pay well.

Just so you know, I have been doing the above for over 16 years, so there is no question as to does it really work or not. However, you success will come down to your ability to generate cost effective traffic. Which is where most marketers fail.

Hey Cathy,

DIABL0 is correct with this statement: ".....offers, because there is no credit card / purchase required to complete an offer."

that is easy to get started with because of the low entry barrier to get conversions

But your problem is a different one: You first have to decide what niche you want to enter.
go with your passion, whatever that is. i for example was always into traveling the globe.
So naturally my first online biz was a travel site doing bookings for hotels. Great, lasted
about for 15 years, good times, and then i moved on to bigger games.

Look at your hobbies, pick only 1: Then go for it!

There's a tonne of information on this and it's easy to get overwhelmed. Most of the top affiliates concentrate on building their list of subscribers and build trust with their list.

Hi Catherine Baxley,

You can check this article about affiliate marketing here How To Do Affiliate Marketing For Beginners? - Whatever I Know I hope this article will be helpful for you somewhere.

Affiliate marketing programs like ClickBank, JVZoo and others will accept you easily and often in an Automatic way, ...

However, very few CPA Networks accept Newbies who don't have enough experience or who don't know where to get Traffic.

But it seems that you're not interested in CPS offers, so I would recommend you try this CPA Networks, they have great offers and they accept Newbies easily: Adworkmedia, Cpagrip, ReflexCash, Clicxy, etc.

Hope that helps, good luck

Educate yourself to the business, before to start a business

Hi Catherine, get yourself a war room membership, there is a free video course a generous member has posted there, it tells you everything you need to know. Follow one guide and don't get distracted by the 1000 other shiny objects vying for your attention!

The best way to start making money as an affiliate is to use a system where the tools and training are already set up for you. I like using a system called My Lead System Pro,they've been going strong since 2008.

MyLeadSystemPRO - Creating Tomorrow's Leaders Today! | MyLeadSystemPRO™