This is by far the hardest step in any business and it’s the getting started phase. It is never a good idea to jump head first into a thing that you are not prepared for and one would literally spend days researching an idea before you will actually start to implement it.
This is normal, but fortunately for you, I will make this process much faster and making sure you are on the right track. I assume you already know what affiliate marketing is, but if you do not, then let me explain it for you.
What is affiliate marketing?
We have always had the idea that we need out own product to have a business and this is very far from the truth. The internet has grown massively in the last few years which gives it a very big audience. There is also a growing trend where more businesses are making use of the internet to get more reach for potential customers.
This is where we come in. Lots of businesses that have already opened an online store have created an “affiliate” or “referral” program. Online stores such as Amazon, Clickbank, Walmart, Linkshare and other private networks already have an affiliate program.
Each time someone buys a product or service though you website, you will earn a commission. Once you have registered to an affiliate program, they will give you a tracking link of a product page within their website which you can put on your website.
Once a person clicks on the link and buys anything, you will make a commission. Below are 2 ways to start off with your business:
1. Building Niche Websites
This is by far the easiest and best long term method online. The traffic you get is free and is also the most budget friendly approach. Here are a couple of things that you will need in order to get started.
All you need is a domain name which is $12 per year, hosting which can go for $4 per month and time to write articles.
This is the bare minimum that I would recommend if you want to build your own business. Each website will be focused around a niche and you will write articles such as this one which will rank on Google. The more article you have, the more rankings you will get.
This is by far the best long term solution for a passive income.
Pros
- Very cheap to start.
- No limit to how big you want your business to be.
- Very newbie friendly.
- No risk of actually losing a lot money.
- The best long term solution for your business.
- Almost a set and forget business type model.
- Easily scalable on a steady pace
Cons
- Requires a lot of work.
- Takes a while for you to see results.
2. Paid Traffic
I know a lot of people that were able to create for themselves a fulltime income after a couple of months with paid traffic. Traffic sources such as Facebook, Bing and Google ads are the main streams of paid traffic. You also need a website and hosting to create your landing pages but with more tools.
Here are the requirements you need in order to get started with paid traffic:
Need VPS hosting for tracking software which will cost you $30 per month minimum. You also need spy tools which is another $79 – $ 100 per month.
You also need a large budget to test your campaigns.
This method also comes with pros and cons.
Pros
- Results come very fast.
- Can scale your business very big very fast.
- No limit to your earning potential
Cons
- High risk of losing money (if you do not know what you are doing).
- Not newbie friendly.
- Not a real passive income solution because you still need to track and tweak your campaign each day.
- Success rate of 1 out of 10 for every campaign that you test.
- Need a lot of money start with.
- Campaigns also do not last very long, especially with Facebook ads because your audience will develop banner blindness.
As you can see, each method I outlined above has some negative and positive aspects to it, so if you are new to affiliate marketing, then I would strongly recommend starting with niche websites.
My results so far
To give you an example of what I am talking about, I have decided to share only 2 of my websites with you. This will show you what is possible and today I am earning a passive income from both of them.
Website 1) www.InsomniaHacker.com
This website has only 24 articles on it and is making me a passive income of nearly $250 per month. If you take a closer look, you will see that I am promoting matresses online.
Here is some statistics that I can show you of all the visits I am getting each day from people searching online.
And the best part of all is that this was my very first website LOL. The last article I have written was on January 10 2015. The reason why I stopped with this site is because Linkshare (The company I am affiliated with) only pays via checks and here in South Africa you cannot put your faith in the mailman anymore. Luckily PayPal has saved my live 🙂
Website 2) www.SurveyRoyal.com
This was my second website which is earning me another passive income online. Here is a screenshot of some of my earnings.
The last article I wrote on that site was on May 9 2015 and it is also bringing me a passive income online. I did not even show you the other earnings form private survey panels which I also promote on this website.
What is stopping you from starting your own online business?
I have been there a couple of times and I know how it feels. I have failed a lot, but in return I also learned a lot of valuable information when it comes to an online business. Here are a couple of reasons:
1. Fear of failure
You will probably fail more than once in anything that you do and an online business is not an exception. Even though I have some success online I still fail everyday of my life. The real secret of handling failure is to not be afraid to fail because it is inevitable.
You will fail, but one secret that I have learned was to fail small. Some articles that I wrote are considered failures because they bring me no money at all, but my website in whole is not a failure because the majority of my articles are bringing me money each month.
2. Fear of being scammed
I sure know the feeling of buying scam after scam and not getting the results that you paid for. This can really ruin any person’s will or chance to achieve success online, but today I am going to turn the tables around for you.
What do you need to get started?
There are a couple of things that are crucial to your success.
(1) Training and support
This is a must, especially if you are new to this business. You need to have a blueprint which is a step-by-step training guide that will help you to achieve your goals.
When you get stuck, there is nothing more frustrated as not having someone to ask for help.
(2) Your own website
This is the foundation of your business and it does not matter how you start with your business, you cannot get past this one. Even in the paid traffic section you need your own domain (website).
Some people also think that building a website is hard work, but nowadays is one of the easiest things to do. You definitely do not need to have a degree in IT or web design to build a website.
In fact I can help you to get a website up and running in just a couple of minutes.
(3) Your will to succeed
Unfortunately you need to have this set before you can even think about starting a business. You need to have the time and the right mindset to learn a new set of skills. When I first started to play piano, I admired people that could play classical piano pieces composed by Beethoven.
After a couple of month I also started to play those pieces and was very proud of myself. Now it is natural for me to play pieces such as Moonlight sonata and Fur Elize. The fact that I want to point out is that you need to practice until it comes naturally.
Getting started with $0
What if I could tell you that you can start your first business for only $0? you would probably not believe me, but let me explain to you. Firstly, I need you to take your credit card and put it away because you are not going to need it today.
With $0 you can get access to the Starter membership where you can get up to 2 Siterubix websites to practice with free of charge.
hello sir
i want to run or open my own website where companies will advertise on it and give me something,i thought of this two years ago but it was expensive to start.so since i hear you saying it is free how can i do that? so that i can start early as january.what are the cost e.t.c.
and if you are staying here in south africa i would be very happy to meet you maybe face to face will help a lot if is well with you.
regards
simon
Hi Simon
What type of companies do you have in mind to advertise with? I know that a lot of people are using Google Adsense to monetize their site. The reason why I ask this is because you need to be specific on the direction to where you want to go with your website. For instance you cannot create a website about pets and have real estate companies advertise on your website.
The second important aspect is traffic. If you cannot send traffic to your website, then you will not be able to make money off of it. You can start a free Siterubix website here within Wealthy Affiliate which also provides free hosting. If you want to have your own domain name, then it will cost you around $11 per year for the domain.
Wealthy affiliate will give you hosting, training and all the tools that you need in order to build your website. If you can maybe give me more details on the direction that you want to go, then I would be happy to help.
Hi veljoen
I’m Zonke frm SA Durban can I ask u sm few questions abt wealthy affiliate?
Hi Zonke
You are very welcome 🙂
Real cool article, seems like a legit way of making money!
really good ways to earn some coin online there. like like.
I love that quote by Swartzenegger.
hello Viljoen.
I want you to take me step by step on how to make a website online as you said it is very easy to do so. i would also like you to give me the proper guidance on how i can make my business a success.
Hi Mnotho
I would gladly help you out. A website will act like the foundation on which you build your online business. It is very hard to build an online business without one.
First you must get a little bit more familiar with building websites and that is why the 2 free websites that Wealthy Affiliate provides will give you enough room to practice. With the Siterubix platform within WA, you will have your website up with the push of a button. Click the link below to get started.
Join Free starter membership
hye, i have a question regarding opteck is it a good decision to invest in it?
Yes
My name is Mandla from Johannesburg SA. I am also a member at WA, but how do sustain my business on a monthly basis as a newbie when I have to pay $193 monthly when I do not know what is expected from me and when I had never been trained to follow what is needed in order to succeed in this marketing fiasco. I mean I have to pay $47 for premium member monthly, $30 for VPS hosting, $100 for spy tools, $12 for domain name and $4 for hosting and writing articles monthly. To me is like I have to pay all most R3000. 00 on a monthly basis and the fact that I have to learn and understand the whole thing for the first 3 months in order to understand the whole thing before I could earn a cent out of it, it means I have to fork out R9000.00 before I could see dividend out of it. Wealthy Affiliate is not good for the newbie, tell me if I am wrong.
Hi Mandla,
For starters, you only have to pay $47 per month with Wealthy Affiliate and the hosting is also included.
To pay $15 per year for a domain name is almost nothing. Tools that you want to use for spying is optional and not necessary to start an online business.
WA is $50 a month. Take the course, learn a bit, and profit. It is a process: step 1- step 2- step3- etc…
Domain name is peanuts a year… Spy tools?!?!? What type of business website are you intending to do? WA is no scam (as far as I can see). A third party may be attempting to scam you, however.
hi can you teach me how to earn money online? Thank you
Hi Niezl
Take a look at the free starter membership at Wealthy Affiliate where the process will be explained very clearly.
Is this online business available worldwide? I mean i am from asia, can i still join in this? Can i still make money with this? Please answer me
Hi Michelle
It is worldwide and you can do this from almost any country.
Hello sir, am an artist and I have my official website. Is it possible to use it and run wealthy online businesses (affiliate marketing) like you explained.
If yes, pls, kindly advice what type of online businesses considering the type of website I have.
Thanks
Can you maybe show me the link of your website, so I can have an idea to what it is all about?
Hi Viljoen, thanks for that wonderful enlightenment on the online business..
I tried to create an account with wealthy affiliate but was not successful! I am from Nigeria, in quote is the response i got while trying to create an account with WA. “We’re sorry but we are not able to create your account at this time because your country is not supported”. please how do go about it? hanks in anticipation..
Hi Chris.
This is the first time I heard about Wealthy Affiliate not accepting People from Nigeria. If that is the case, you might want to change your Ip address to that of another country.
Viljoen, what do you think of local lead gen websites? They seem to be all the rage right now.
Hi Chris
It really depends on how you get traffic. Lead gen pages work, but only if you have visitors to it.
Viljoen…..you are amazing dude, you are doing a great job, thanks a lot.
Thanks a lot Thembani 🙂
Hello, Viljoen! I am impressed with the quality of content I found on your blog. Thumbs up!
I don’t know if this is the appropriate page to post this comment, but I will do so, nevertheless.
I enjoy earning online a lot. I freelance as a writer and creative designer on Fiverr and Upwork, and I’ve made considerable success meeting financial goals and everything in between.
But much more than I love freelancing (and of course, making money), I love having my money work for me. I hate to see my money sitting in the bank and I’m always like “damn, they should be in the gym working their ass off (for more money)”
I would love something I can do 100% passively while hiring freelancers to work for me. I’m considering affiliate marketing but I don’t know if it’s what I can do without getting involved. I want to create a large number of niche websites.
Will the WA program come in handy for a person like me?
Is affiliate marketing for a person like me? Mind you, I love things online, but the likes of forex trading, bitcoin cloud mining doesn’t attract me.
Besides affiliate marketing, what other things can I consider? I have TeeSpring on my list, and please, don’t mention survey.
I anticipate you reply. I won’t mind receiving an email from you.
Regards,
Philips
Hi Philips
Looking at your background as a writer, I cannot think of a better way to start an online passive earning business as affiliate marketing. I would suggest that you start your online business by writing your own articles in the beginning.
As you get more experience with seo and keyword research, you can always hire more freelancers to work for you. I have several websites that I have built in 2014 which are making money for me on a monthly basis.
If you are new to affiliate marketing, building websites and creating content, then Wealthy Affiliate will be the best option for you.
Hello,i would like to start making money online.THANKS